It started with a pair of Thiel 1.2's, with a Denon Reciever (preamp) with a Rotel Amp and a Denon DVD player as a source. I upgraded to Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors, B&K Preamp Audioquest cables. Since then, I have tried out the Usher BE-718's which had great highs, bassy lows, but did not have the midrange of detail I was looking for. Living in a condo has limited me to book shelf speakers. Through countless hours of attempting to find the "right" speaker for me, I found myself drawn to the Verity Audio Parsifal. The Parsifal's allow me to seemlessly upgrade to a full range speaker if(when) I move to a house, which is a great attainable upgrade.
For the longest time I was using a Classe CA-201 with a Cary Audio Design CDP-1. Both of these items were fantastic upgrade, but did not provide the detail I needed to match the rest of the equipment (Parsifal's and Golden Reference).
My current system now consists of some of my favorite equiptment I've ever heard. For a source, I am utilizing an Apple TV connected to my MF TV 21 through TosLink. This then runs to the Pass Lab preamp, then to a Nagra PSA and comes alive through the Parsifal's. All connections are with Cardas Golden Reference.
The sweet spot consists of a comfy la-z-boy love seat to allow my beautiful wife to sit and enjoy with me. She is unbelievably understanding and actually was very excited about the aquisition of the Nagra PSA.
I would like to thank my good friend Burt for the insight and assistance in achieving this type of system. I am very fortunate. -Damien.
Damienlov, May I know how long you have been using the Nagra PSA? How is reliability so far? I am contemplating on getting one but was concerned on support especially replacement parts that may need to be shipped directly from Switzerland. Thanks in advance.
Damien, I thought I would pass on a discovery. I purchased a pair of Parsifal's recently and it has led to many a sleepless night worring about "upgrade-itis". I have always wanted a pair of Verity Audio Parsifals but the price was just out of my league. When a mint pair of the last Encores came available with only a few hundred hours I pounced and spent my budget for the next few years. But I needed a new amp and was distraught over the $15,0000-$30,000 amps some people were running with the parsifals. I do think the speaker can warrant this, I was just overwhelmed by the potential cost of getting the best out of my Parsifals. A few days ago I was thinking to myself that I wished I never jumped on this wagon and was still in happy bliss with either my Dynaudio C1 or Special 25's. Oh how I wished I had a simple two way monitor again. Then it dawned on me, (I am a little slow), that I did have a two way monitor in the Parsifal Monitor. Not expecting much I hooked it up and was amazed. It offered 99% of the whole Parsifal Encore and on some acoustic music and chamber pieces I almost think it sounded better. The top half of the Verity Parsifal is such a wonderful speaker all by itself, as you must know. Well, I did hook up the bottom half again but now I look at my speakers as world class 2 way monitors with a really really nice sub woofer that doesn't dredge the depths. Oh, and I will be spending some time with the Nagra PSA next week. We'll see how it goes.
Verity speakers put ALL others (Magico, Wilson, B&W, and on and on) to shame. They are the best kept secret and we should kind of keep it that way. Let "those" other guys spend twice as much on Wilsons to get only half of the passion from the music.
Congrats! I reviewed the Parsifal Monitor and the Ovations package last year for www.positive-feedback.com. I purchased the Parsifal Ovations and use them as my beloved reference.
They are wonderful monitors. I used to be a "stand mount" only guy - I much preferred to spend $2500 on a wonderful monitor instead of a $2500 marginal floor stander in a room that begs for a monitor.
If I could have 10 years ago, I would have purchased the VA Parsifal monitors, but they were not even an option. What a plan: Get them, enjoy them for years, when money and space permits - Get the bass cabinets! As I am sure I spent well over $8K between the all the monitors, and subsequent upgrades to the next great monitor, I have used over the years.
They take at LEAST 500 hours...my speakers went through plateaus, were they would sound good and I would think they were fully run in and then 2 weeks later they would jump a an even better level of sound.
Good luck, be confident that you made a great and smart purchase with those monitors.
