Karl S

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I have not used the Verity Parsifal product but listened to it in a good demo room. As I have been listening to so many speakers around the world, it is relatively easy to position this speaker against others. It is a very musical speaker that is playing without any strain nor effort. It is very smooth with no particular emphasis on any frequency. It does demonstrate a recessed medium due to the nature of the technical engineering choices, which gives it a slightly light character. However it does not appear thin, simply because the bass is quite present and the treble is not emphasized. However for those that do like very solid and dense music reproduction, that is not the speaker to look at. It does sound similar to a good electrostat in terms of medium transparency however with more bass and a little more body in the medium. The bass is underdamped and relatively soft. That plays out to the overall easy and relaxed quality of the music flowing from this speaker, but on heavy bass music, the bass will have a tendancy to boom and you can hear the port in action. The overall presentation is soft, somehow unfocused and easy as there is an inversion of phase happening due to the 3rd order crossover used for going from the medium to treeble. You can always try to invert the polarity via the cabling, even though it is not the way the designer has intended this speaker to work. That will in effect make the sound more direct and immediate and will reinforce the transiants. The speaker is indeed transparent and produces a very refined and elegant sound which is very musical and addictive. Transparency is very similar to the Vandersteen or a very good electrostat but with less emphasis on details. The music presents itself more as a whole with less continuity and less details. So all the contrary of a Thiel or a BW. Sometimes I felt like it was a little too melted together and I would have prefered a more distinct separation of instruments. Also, the polypropylene cones, used in this speaker in particular, have a very identifiable set of sonic characters. They produce a smooth sound and one that is polite. This character is quite similar to the Spendor (even though the Spendor would have more body and presence). No matter how hard you push them, they will remain polite and you never get a sense of being attracted into the music. It is a speaker that definitely lets you seat and listen to the music but will not grab you by its intensity. Orchestral music is enjoyable, though you would never feel the power behind it. That is typically due to transiants being smoothed. The Spendor have that same quality. Even though details are more fleshed out, and there is strong bass, big drum attacks never really get in your face the way BW does. The good aspect of it, is that you can get a lot of satisfaction listening at low levels. It produces a fairly similar and coherent sound at all levels. So for those that like listening at night and have difficult neighbours, that is an excellent choice. The speaker is quite dynamic in a natural and unforced manner. The music will just flow without you noticing it, yet as noted above the sheer gusta and power of recordings will never show as transiants lack sharpness and substance. There is though an excellent consistency and the sound does seem cut in the same cloth; so it is very consistent and crossover are never really heard. The soundtage is quite good. It will not compete with a Magnepan in that aspect, or other large speakers such as the Legacy Whisper or even the BW800, but for the size of the speaker, it does project a fairly large image in all directions. I did not get the sense that the image would extend beyond the speaker right and left sides, but I do not have enough listening to be certain of this. The fact though that fdetails are not fleshed out, will not highlight the soundstage depth and really that becomes much less of an issue with this speaker. The soundtage and separation of instruments is not an important character for that speaker. In addition the medium being somehwo recessed will make voice less present and wil give them a ghostly (light) quality compared to what you can get with more bodied speakers such as Proac. That is part of the grace and charm of the speaker. No speaker is perfect, it is just a matter of personal preferences and how you listen to music.

Strengths:
That is a speaker that is extremely enjoyable to listen to. It is not made to listen and analyse details in the recording. Grace, transparency, a certain lightness which participates to the sense of elegance. Easy to set up, will not require a lot of power to feed and quality of the finish is exceptional. The speaker is very small, so it will not disturb people with small rooms or ones that have a lot of furniture. My advice though is to associate these speakers with copper based cables to add a little body in the medium (I have been listening with silver cables - JPS - which reinforced the lightness). I would also use with an amp that can provide strong control on the bass to minimize the boominess.

Weaknesses:
The price for the sound. If one includes the quality of the finish as a strong criteria then the speaker is definitely worth its price. It is a beautifully made speaker, small in size, easy to place in any small or medium sized room and plays music effortless. However if the pure musical performance is the criteria, then you can get speakers that have similar characteristics for much less money. For example the Spendor 9 is an extremely good value for those that like their music to be polite. It is not as beautiful as the Verity, but it will provide more body, more details and also a better controled bass, yet with good sounstaging and keeping the music polite and well away from your face. For those looking at a similarly priced and finished speaker, the Kharma 3.2 would be a better choice in my opinion. It shares the same effortless character with a much better medium and significantly more detail and precision than the Verity. And for those that like a more dynamic presentation and more density, the Wilson WP7 is another very good choice, assuming you can leave with the emphasized upper medium and lower treble, and the price.

Similar Products Used:
Thiel 6/7.2, BW 802/802D/801/800, Vandersteen 3, Ascendo, Magnepan, Legacy Whisper, Audio Physics, Triangle, JM Lab, Sonus Faber Amati/Stradivari, Proac D38/D80, ACT100, Kharma, Dynaudio C2/C4/Temptation, Wilson Watt/Puppy 7/MAXX 2, Spendor 8/9, Martin Logan, and others

Pantophil

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $8800.00 from used

Summary:
This review is on the Encore version. I bought my Parsifals on Audiogon and it is easily the best purchase of my life (even better than my M3 :-). These speakers brought me so much closer to music and the emotional message they convey is stronger than any other audio component I heard, including Avantgarde Duo's and the big Wilsons. When you first listen to them what you notice right away is their transparent, natural midrange and very holographic presentation. The soundstage they cast is simply phenomenal! Human voices are so real, lifelike and pure, it's scary! You will be hard pressed to find a speaker at any price that reproduces voices and acoustic instruments in a more lifelike manner than the Parsifals. These speakers are not big but the bass they put out belies their size: it's very, very deep, with great control "kick". It may not have exactly the same dynamic impact as the bigger Wilsons (although I think it is almost as good as the Watt/Puppies 7's), but it is really amazing. The Scaaning Audio Technology woofer really kicks ass! The top end has great resolution but at the same time always remains silky smooth.

Strengths:
Transparent, lifelike midrange, humonguous soundstage, smooth yet detailed treble and great bass. Setup flexibility, will work fine even is smaller rooms. Bullet proof packaging (ATA flight cases!)

Similar Products Used:
In the past I owned Sonus Faber Extremas (muddy lower midrange, acoustic instruments and human vocals lacked the magic of the Parsifals, soundstaging a few classes below) and later Watt/Puppies 6's. The Wilsons offered slightly better dynamics, but again they didn't have the magic in the midrange and soundstage seemed shrunk compared to the Verities. Where they were really inferior was the treble - excessively bright and sometimes aggressive compared to the beguiling smoothness of the Parsifals. The new WP 7's are much better in this regard. I'm plannig to arrange an audition side by side with the Verities, this could be an interesting comparison.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I am new in the audiophile world, but did already do some research and I must say that these speakers are the best I ever heard. Dynamics, air, 3D, depth, clarity,... you name it. This rather small loudspeaker seems to fill the whole room. I heard these speakers with the Jeff Rowland 3O2 amp, Teac CD-player and Belcanto DAC and it was magnificant. Even if they are rather forward sounding, they are not making you nervous nor are they fatiguing you, you swallow an enormous amount of musicality but never want to run away because it is too much. I now understand also that you can really see/hear the positioning of the artists at the recording venue (Especially during the Missa Creola CD with Jose Carreras it was marvellous to see Jose upfront, the Choir in the back and the instruments placed accordingly) Another set-up that came close (but was not as good in soundstage, clarity,...) was Mark Levinson pre with Classé CAM 350 mono's and B&W 800. One obstacle for me not to buy them ...As one of the former reviewers said... I will have to sell my house and wife etc... I can tell that I really have been thinking about it (best way to get rid of the WAF ):-))) They are so damn good !

Strengths:
Everything

Weaknesses:
Hmmmm. I will have to hurt my brains to find a weakness. I can however imagine that Rock and pop is less good on these speakers, but then it is for sure the recording that sucks

Similar Products Used:
B&W, Jamo,...

Price Paid:  $5350.00

Summary:
I SEARCHED LONG AND HARD FOR GOOD SPEAKERS. THESE WERE THE ONLY SPEAKERS THAT GAVE ME THAT RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. EVERYTHING ELSE TRULY PALES IN COMPARISON.

SIMPLY THE BEST DAMN SPEAKERS I HAVE EVER HEARD.

ENUF SAID. GO HEAR FOR YOURSELF.

Strengths:
WILL MAKE YOU CRY

Weaknesses:
NONE

Summary:
These are beautifully made speakers and perhaps the smallest reference audiophile speakers around. They sound wonderful on all music I have tested them on including jazz, classical, pop, rock and funk (they have great bass extension) and convey the human voice as if the person is singing to you in the room.

I intially heard this speaker with the VAC 70/70; the best Conrad-Johnson pre-amp and the top Transparent cables and interconnects. This combo sounded very nice but was not as good and was much more expensive than what I bought which are the TACT Milleneum Mark II; TACT RCS 2.0 (Room Correction System) and JPS labs NC speaker cables. The combination is superb. You can't go wrong with these speakers.

Strengths:
Soundstage, resolution of spatial information, beautiful midrange, bass extension, dynamic balance, and sounds as close as I have heard to live music

Weaknesses:
Very few

Similar Products Used:
Listened several times to following: Proac Future One (beautiful soundstage but only fair bass); Revel Studio (great, but sound and looks seemed like they would be fatiguing); Meadowlark Blue Heron (disappointing); Audio Physic Virgo (soundstage and imaging are great but lacks dynamic range and saturation and texture of music); Dali Grand (great for the price); Aerial 10T (just OK); Acoustic Reproduction Technology (New Scottish Company)(unreal sound, the best of this group excepting the Verity's but only got to hear them once while in London); Sonus Faber Complete line (great speakers and finish but limited bass).