Your favorite musical non fatiguing speakers?

Larrybou, did you get the speakers? I've been checking the thread every few days.

Bjesian, I haven't received them yet but are expecting them tomorrow (Tuesday) sometime. I'll definitely report back once I've had some time with them.

Hope you enjoy them. Also non fatiguing but very detailed are Magico. I think in a few years there will be a good Rockport, Verity and Magico shootout. They all have extreme lines. They all have mid-fi speakers. They are my favorites.

Just received the Parcifal Ovations yesterday. First of all I was VERY impressed with the heavy duty shipping cases they came with. So well padded and heavy duty they almost seemed UPS proof. And the fact that Verity kept the shipping weight to just shy of the 150 limit for UPS parcels kept the shipping prices down to $165 each for each 149lb speaker instead of over $900 for both if they exceeded 150 lbs. Obviously this makes them very Audiogon friendly speakers and is a huge bonus should you ever decide to sell them anywhere but locally.

The speakers themselves are also cleverly designed in 2 pieces so they're very easy to setup, maneuver etc. They're also unobtrusive, wife friendly yet still have a distinctly high end look if slightly understated. The high finish piano black looks more elegant than I thought. I'm a natural wood kind of guy usually, but this is what was available on Audiogon so I figured I could live with them. Truth is, again they're quite elegant looking and I'm more than pleased with the way they look.

Icing on the cake was the seller Skinzy took meticulous care of them and it's very difficult to tell they're not brand new. Thanks Scott!

Overall out of the travel cases I have nothing but admiration for the the forethought, engineering, ingenuity and workmanship that went into these speakers.

How do they sound? Since my equipment is in transition right now, the electronics I'm using are clearly not up to speakers of this class. But there were some tentative generalities I've been able to gather even at this stage.

First of all I'm using a Cary Cinema 5 250 WPC solid state amplifier. Lots of people sneer at these for 2 channel use because of their home theater origins but I actually think they're quite good. But things go a bit downhill from there. I have a Cary SLP 98L that's brand new that I haven't tried yet since it hasn't even begun breaking.

Instead I'm using a Cary Cinema 11 preamp/processor which is fantastic for home theater but nowhere close to high end for 2 channel audio. The only DAC I have in my system is the OPPO HA-1 headphone amp. Not bad for the price but these baby's deserve better. I'm looking to add the Chord Hugo in the near future. On top of that I'm using XLR cable between the amp and preamp that also hasn't burned in yet.

So though I'm withholding judgement on the ultimate character and even sound of the speakers until the final equipment is present, burned in etc - there are some things that jump out even after listening for a few hours.

First, everything they say about an amazingly articulate bass is true. After living with B&W's and many other speakers that I thought could get the bass right, these are wonderful. Articulate bass used to mean "lean" to me - but not so with these.

Dynamic-ness - These are extremely dynamic speakers which I'll admit I wasn't expecting. Not as in aggressiveness, but in terms of extracting the ebb and flow of emotion and uniqueness of each performance. Removing prettiness and flatness in favor of a very lifelike dimensional sound.

Listening to Jacobs recording of "Marriage of Figaro" which I'm maybe overly familiar with felt more like the full chaotic experience of being at the opera. One vocalist was now clearly over to the side singing with less volume reflecting her distance and and acting activities than the key character who breaks in with a very rich and emotional front and center Aria. I never heard that before.

Coherence - since these speakers are actually two joined together "modules" of a monitor speaker and bass cabinet, you might expect to hear the two distinctly. Instead it's a very coherent sound top to bottom which is one of the keys to realism instead of hifi sounding for me.

Detail - no question these speakers love detail and knows what to do with them.

Soundstaging - another strength of these speakers surpassing anything I've had heard in the past. The stage isn't in your face - you're clearly a few rows back in the audience.

Any negative surprises? Not sure. Given the comments I've heard on the Parcifals, I was expecting a warm lush sound. Not so far. In fact in my admittedly subpar system they tend to the more revealing than lush. Thankfully it's not fatiguing or strident, but lets just say more treble energy than I was expecting. As someone always willing to trade detail for lushness, this is to be expected as I move up the food chain.

And I have a feeling a fully burned in Cary SLP98 tube preamp will be the perfect antidote (not to mention the Chord Hugo DAC). So the tonal character is something I shouldn't even mention at this point - but in the spirit of holding nothing back..

Overall the sound is alive, coherent and engaging. Needless to say I haven't heard anything in the under $10K new price range (which is all i auditioned) that could come anywhere close. I'll report back once I get my more permanent electronics in place.