Your favorite musical non fatiguing speakers?

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.

Wow - just replaced the XLR with Purist Audio Musaues's RCA's. Major tonal difference. Tonal balance is now perfect with high's still as detailed but beautiful sounding with much more authority and control overall. Mids are even better.

Even with the existing equipment - I can already tell these are the type of permanent fixture speakers that over time you upgrade just by feeding better and better electronics.

Not just classical, even electronic music sounds great. Listening to Shpongles new "Museum of Consciousness" album and Infected Mushroom's "Friends on Mushrooms". Wonderful!

I know I'm wearing out my welcome but here's another big update. I became increasingly dissatisfied with the sound as things burned in rather than more as I'd expect. I suspected the speaker wire itself might have been damaged in the power surge.

After replacing my revered Purist Audio wire with cheaper Audioquest 33's there was no doubt about it. The PA's were significantly damaged.

The sound now was as close to live as I've ever heard in an audio system. That feeling that the vocalist was in the room with you even surpassed high end Maggies for me. Such coherence, lack of veil, soundstage, detail.

Listening to Dianne Krall actually felt like being 5 rows back in a jazz club. Miles Davis "Man with a Horn" ditto. I know this is beyond cliche for half the high end audio reviews ever printed - but I've never heard a speaker that achieved this to this extent.

If the goal is the sound of live music - the Parsifals are for you. In fact I'm seriously questioning the need to upgrade my existing equipment after hearing them with functioning speaker wire (even if cheap and not yet burned in).

The only two nit picks I have are:

1) To get absolutely genuinely live sound, the volume has to be appropriately loud. It's not terribly loud, but louder than say reading background music. Since I live in a townhouse this isn't always practical - especially night and mornings.

2) These definitely have a sweetspot. The sweetspot if fairly big (entire sofa) but stand up or to the side and things flatten out. Oddly the volume is higher in the sweetspot so turning up the volume helps with off axis listening.

Since I'm used to the home theater Cary Audio speakers which excelled at off axis listening, this takes some getting used to. But I'm pretty sure to get the kind of precision and realism the Parcifals are capable of a sweet spot would be mandatory.

The good news is that by taking out the faulty speaker wire - I'm understanding what the raves (and high sticker price) are all about. These are true reference speakers.

Larrybou, did they make Diana able to keep time? LOL