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I came across the Veritas design late in 2001 when researching a good DIY speakers to build to help solve some special problems that my listening room had. The room when viewed from overhead would look like the rectange shape of a shoe box, with the upper right quarter wall removed (which is open to the dining room). The room has vaulted ceilings and 2 couches, neither of which face the end of the room, instead, they are along the side walls, facing one another. This makes for a difficult room for speakers to image well in.
I needed a set of speakers that would throw a wide and deep soundstage, and met my overall requirements for sonic quality, namely a smooth and relatively flat responce over the entire audio spectrum. The plans for the Veritas appeared to be my perfect answer. |
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I had built speakers in the past, so I had some expirence with the various skills needed to build your own speakers. For me, the absolute most difficult part was the carpentry. I am no carpenter, lack a complete set of saws/tools. When I build a box...it looks like a box I built! It works fine, but it does not look “professional”.
So, in order to get a pair of Wayne J's Veritas that looked professional, I would have to consider paying someone to contruct my enclosures. I could see from the plans, that the cabinet for the Veritas would require very good wood working skills, ability to follow plans carefully and attention to details. Then there is also the need for a wood shop that has all the necessary tools at hand. I was wanting a pair of quality speakers that would last me for decades and look nice too. Since I knew I could not properly execute the enclosure design for the Veritas myself, I started thinking about finding a carpenter. I came acoss Scott of Stein Audio in an Ebay ad he had runing for a set of his bookshelf sized enclosures he had made. I emailed Scott, and he indicated he did custom work. So, many emails (and a deposit) later, I was finally, on my way to Veritas ownership (this was four years after 1st seeing the Veritas design). |
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| During the construction of the cabinets, I received progress photos from Scott at steinaudio.com. I asked Scott not to 'rush anything' and to please be sure follow the enclosure instructions exactly as specified in Wayne J's plans. Scott was doing a fantastic job on the Verita cabinets as can be seen in his progress photo here. |
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| While Scott built the cabinetry, I stayed busy building the crossovers. I followed Wayne J's instructions for the crossovers. It was decided from the start that I would build with the Vifa XT25 tweeters rather than the originally specified HiVi ribbon tweeters. I wanted the wider disperson of the XT25's and I wanted a tweeter that would last for decades. My past expirence with ribbon tweeters had taught me that while ribbons sound great, they have a rather fragile build, and are prone to break down after being used for a few years. Thankfully, Wayne J published an 'official guide' for the use of alternate tweeters for the Veritas. I built using the specified crossover as shown in his guide the Vifa XT25's. |
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| I was very pleased with the Veritas cabinets when they arrived from Stein Audio. I was pleased with Scott's work, and with my decesion to have the cabinets made for me. They were superior in workmanship to what my carpentry skills would have allowed. These will look as great, let's hope they will sound great too, in my acoustically challegened living room. I primed with an inexpensive spray primer in flat white bought at the local K-Mart. Nine primer coats each speaker, with light sanding with #220 sand paper between coats. The first 3 or 4 coats of primer are soaked up handily by the 3/4" MDF. So one must be prepared for a lot of primer coats before you are ready for a final finish. |
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For the final finish, I have a confession to make: I tried to execute a gloss black finish and failed miserably! The 'botched black' would have to be sanded off. This caused a big delay since I had gotten the Veritas cabinets at the very tail end of fall, I had wait out winter since my work area is minimally heated. Once Spring arrived, I was successful in getting the black sanded off and it was time to pick another finish.
I chose a very flat paint, that also had a bit of a textured finish. I figured the flat finish and the textured finish would hide any blemishes in my sanding job. Shown here is the texture of the paint, it's Ralph Lauren 'River Rock' base, and available at any Ace Hardware stores, I used a 4 inch wide roller to apply the final paint, three coats with an overnight dry between coats. |
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The first thing I noticed was that the Velodyne Subwoofer I had been using with smaller speakers was not needed. The Veritas deliver a larger, cleaner / tighter bass note. Dual 10" woofers deliver deep and powerful yet controlled bass, thanks to the sealed (Acoustic Suspension) design. These speakers also couple themselves to the floor, aiding in the wide and engaging sound stage. The two inch dome mids deliver wonderful sonics. The crossover components for the mids are of the finest quality available. It's important not to skimp on the midrange crossover parts, as this is a critical range in the overall audio spectrum. The Dual concentric Vifa tweeters are really execelent too. Agsin, the absolute finest metal and film (Audio Theta) capacitor was employed in the crossover for the XT 25's. They are "dryer" than anything else I had ever expirenced. They are very revealing, open and clean. Execelent recordings will really sparkle.
A very large soundstage, and natural sound. After they were broken in properly (count on around 20 hours of play at moderate volume) I can honestly say they beat commercial speakers several times the DIY cost. I recently visited the local high-end stereo shop to audition an expensive turntable and they fired up the table on a Macintosh Amplifier, and a set of expensive B&W speakers. The B&W's were marked at $1250.00 each. I listened for about 40 minutes to a varitey of musical styles, and I can honestly say that the B&W's really were inferior in sound quality to the Veritas. They were no where near as engaging as the Veritas. The Veritas draw you in. The B&W's were like a Hi-Def movie clip of sitting in a rain forrest after a shower. Good! The Veritas are like REALLY BEING THERE in the rain forrest. You feel the lushness of the foilage, you feel the humidity on your skin. The Veritas sound absolutely superb. I take little credit for these wonderful speakers. I did gather the components, and hire the carpenter and built accoring to Wayne J's design. I am very glad I did! Thank you Wayne J for a wonderful design and thank you Scott Stein for a superb pair of cabinets!!! Wayne J's superb design: The Veritas' Stein Audio - Custom Speaker Cabinets Comments and Questions - email me... |
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April 2007, we have installed Hard Wood Flooring in the listening area! Acostics were greatly enhanced! Veritas' Sound better than EVER!!!!
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April 2007, Yep! Believe it or not, one of the Vifa XT-25 tweeters blew!! This was a surprise, because the XT-25's were said to be 'Extremely Heavy Duty'!!!.
I replaced both tweeters with the newer Vifa DX-25TG05-04's. These are similar to the XT25's electrically and sonically. The DX25's were not available at the time that the XT-25's were chosen for my Veritas. They are a little 'hotter' at 93.5 SPL versus the XT-25's 91.5 SPL rating. I am pleased with the extra 2db's in response from the DX-25's. As with ALL Vifa speakers, do not judge them until they have been burned in for at least 40 to 80 hours...!!! I was listening to Vinyl and between records, I had removed the headshell to clean the stylus with a piece of that "Magic Eraser" stuff. When I plugged the headshell back in, it will sometimes make a sharp sound for a brief split second. So, I assume this sound is what killed the XT25, as on the next record, I knew something was off balance in the sound. I first thought it was a bad connection between the headshell and table arm. Further investigation revealed what happened. I was very happy that the crossover was okay!!! That would have been way more difficult/disasterous to solve. While I waited on the DX25's I used a D27TG05-06 and I thought it sounded really great (liked it better than the XT25 on the other side). So, if I had it to do over again, I might have gone for the D27TG05-06. They are $19.95 ea and you can buy diaphrams if they ever blow and repair them yourself for $12.00!! Neither the XT25's or the DX25's have user replaceable diaphrams'.... Wayne specified a crossover for the D27TG05-06 in case you decide to use these: Wayne even comments on these: "The Vifa D27TG05 tweeter is excellent, costing less than $20, with excellent detail, imaging, and reasonably good transparency. Of all the tweeters I recommend for use with the Veritas, this is perhaps the smoothest sounding tweeter" |
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Added 12/31/08: My friend, Roger, in Indianna builds the Veritas:
Roger's comments: The completed Veritas, 3 years in the making. 1.25 inch MDF was used and ten inches added to the height to get the woofers off the floor. Special wire was used in the crossover as well. To keep the Internal dimensions held to the designers original specs, a partition was added below the woofers and sand was inserted. They are finished in a fine cherry veneer. About $1500 invested with a wonderful return of glorious sound after a lengthly break-in. |