Rockport Mira VS Verity Parsifal Ovation

Last year, I did a speaker hunt too with Rockport Verity(aquila & sarastro 2)being prime candidates. Both great speakers with different design approaches. If you want to run tubes, Verity would open you to more choices. My general observation is that Rockport ( at its best) is more dynamic in the bass. They also measure better by stereophile measurements with a more heroic cabinet and better dispersion.

Verity is more transparent in midrange and up (may be with first order crossover & ribbon tweeter). They both use different variants of audiotech. midrange. The Rockport was significantly less impressive when bass drivers firing inward. My concern would be bass cancellations. Bass may vary depending on stereo/mono content of the bass. It is true that bass frequencies is omnidirection. However, woofer direction changes phase of bass frequencies + modal excitiation of the room. My room is narrow so easy for me.

The bass quality has much more to do with the room, room/speaker coupling than just the speaker alone. You would have to pick the speaker with bass alignment (sealed, ported, firing direction) that matches the room (less modal exicitation). Before treating my room, bass was ponderous and fuzzy. Treating the room yield tight impactful bass. This goes for any speaker including the rockports. If you don't treat the room, you maybe better off with sealed port design like Magico or Avalon (bottom ported).

Other good choices are Evolution acoustics, Vandersteen, YG acoustcs, Tidal. These let you customize bass alignment via electrical adjustment or mechanical adjustment.

Ankaa is significantly better than Mira and probably best deal in the line up.

Changster,

which city are you in? Singapore or HK

Agree of most of the points made here except optimal driver integration distance. Verity is actually very good for near field and does not require any more distance betw listening even compare to minimonitor. Rationale is the midrange covers down to 60-70Hz and integration to the tweeter is seamless. It is almost like a minimonitor with (woofer/sub). I have measured this with ETF and no problems even at 7'10".

Rockport is also great design and has large amount of bass output and the bigger models does not need wall reinforcement in bass. I would guess the crossover is a little higher at 100Hz or slightly higher ( the three driver models). ( I could be wrong on this ). Because the side firing woofer handle frequencies into the lower midrange upper bass, this actually may take a little more distance to integrate. The four driver model Altair has three drivers at the front baffle which probably allow the crossover to the side woofer to be set much lower. I suspect this why Andy Pryor said this is the nearfield integration champion of th line. I also feel the dynamics of Rockport is largely due to very even off axis dispersion (power response). Verity's off axis dispersion cannot match the rockports in evenness. The midrange covers 60Hz to 3000-5000Hz depending on the model. The midrange cover a broad frequency range which makes for very coherent sound but a price is paid with restricted dispersion at 3000 to 5000Hz. Depending on the room and what school of thoughts you are in, there are advantages or disadvantage to this.

Bottomline is to understand the difference in design ( advantages and disadvantages) and find one that works for your priorities and the "fengshui" of the room .