I have owned Virgo IIs for a few years, purchased them new with the optional mahogany finish, beautiful. After trying many different speakers these coupled with Aleph 2 mono amps were the perfect match. These were the most realistic speakers I heard for the type of music I listen to (Jazz & Acoustic). I have the room to set these up with the speakers very close to the Audio Physic recommendations. About 6 months ago after going to CES I made the plunge and purchased Kharma 3.1s coupled with Joule Electra Heavens gate amps. The Virgos were removed and stored in a spare room while the Kharmas broke in. They took a very very long time to break in, only over the last month or two have they started to show their stuff. Now I am about to swap out the Kharmas with the Virgos to decide which system I like best. What I have concluded so far is the Kharmas are much more revealing, ultra detailed, and the soundstage is even better than the Virgos. The Virgos seem to layer the instruments better across the soundstage which is still very good and has more warmth. The bass on the two are about the same with the slight edge going to the Virgos. The built quality on the Kharmas is superb. Both speakers do not have a real deep bottom but for jazz its fine. Both are not fatiguing. In summary so far the Kharmas are great but not significantly better than the Virgos, both are very good but they sound different, not better or worse just different, if you want warmth keep the Virgos, if you want uncolored detail across a huge soundstage get the Kharmas. It would be interesting to try the Watt/Puppys for comparison.
