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.
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.
