@lak , thank you for the update. Can you please share details on speaker cables: construction, plugs, stiffness and of course the sound.
Veritas Cables a new brand that I found
Always been a big fan of smaller cable makers. I've had great luck in my system with brands like Audio Art, Cabledyne (RIP), Audio Sensibility, and Triode Wire Labs. These and others I'm surely forgetting seem to offer so much bang for the buck compared to the more mainstream brands. Not exactly cheap but usually a great value for what you get. It's noteworthy that most of these are most easily found by cruising Audiogon, US Audio Mart, Audiocircle, etc and if you only ever read Stereophile/TAS you'll probably never be exposed to all these great options.
As with most people around here I've also had my fair share of Audioquest, Kimber, Shunyata, Cardas, Wireworld, MIT, and the rest of the big names. Some of those were very enjoyable but I have a hard time when I think about how big their marketing budgets are. And when my local dealer will always give me a deal for a very substantial discount, it makes me realize how inflated the regular pricing is. Not to mention I notice that many of these don't really get good until you move fairly high up the line, with their entry and mid priced options often being pretty uninspiring.
A few weeks ago I was browsing the various classifieds as I often do and stumbled across a name that was new to me. Turns out that's because they are new, period. Veritas Cables calls themselves a boutique hifi cable company specializing in small batch creations. That sounds reminiscent of early Black Cat Cable which they actually reference as an inspiration. This immediately caught my attention as I used to work with Chris Sommovigo at one point and loved his approach to building cables. The company had 3 items listed at the time: RCA interconnects, a power cable, and an ethernet cable. I liked what I saw but was actually in the market for an XLR interconnect, so I checked out their website (still under construction) which indicated more cables were coming soon. I figured it was worth an email inquiry to see what the time frame might be.
I got a quick response stating that they had just completed a batch of XLR cables and while most were spoken for via local word of mouth sales, they did have one extra set they could sell me. The price was well within my target and actually much more affordable than the others I had been looking at (Audio Art Copper Cryo, Morrow Audio MA6, Silnote Anniversary being the main contenders). So I took a chance on it, although with their in home trial terms it wasn't a huge gamble. They sent over an invoice with paypal and due to Veritas being in California like me the cable arrived very quickly.
When the company told me they don't use any fancy packaging, they weren't kidding. It was more like buying a second hand cable off a forum with no original packaging. But I've never cared about any of that stuff and would rather have that money go towards the actual product. In that sense I was not disappointed. Veritas calls this their Magnus cable and it shares design cues with the rest of their line I had seen listed on USAmart and the Veritas website. Specifically that means the use of a metallic silver braided jacket instead of the usual plastic or fabric sleeving most other cables have. This is the same approach used by Ed Bowman with his Cabledyne brand which I miss dearly. Back in the day my entire system was Cabledyne Reference Silver, then upgraded to their Vanguard line and was happy with that for quite a while. So I am very pleased to reintroduce a similar looking cable. That said the Veritas Magnus is somewhat thicker yet more flexible than the Cabledyne models which makes it easier to deal with.
Veritas doesn't come right out and list exactly what the internal composition is on their designs. When I asked directly they were happy to answer so it's not a complete secret, but I guess more of a marketing choice. Discussing this with them also reminded me of chatting with Ed Bowman, where there is clearly a lot of knowledge but also a desire to simplify things for a dumb end user like me. I tend to agree with their philosophy that says silver doesn't always have to sound bright and copper isn't always warm. Designers can do a lot based on geometry and purity and shielding and a dozen other factors to where a silver cable might actually be warmer and smoother than a copper cable. Or a copper cable might be more focused on speed and treble extension. Honestly I don't care as much about the specifics as I do about the end result, just give me an excellent performing cable no matter what it's made of.
In any case to my eyes the Veritas Magnus looks every bit as well made as the other options I had been considering. Those range from $630 for the Audio Art, to $1250 for the Morrow, to $1500 for the Silnote, all for 1.5m XLR versions just to give you a general idea. Meanwhile the Magnus was $389 which is almost what I would call entry level territory with the price of cables being what it is these days.
So far I've been using the Magnus to connect my Eversolo DMP-A8 to a variety of tube and SS headphone amplifiers in the $2-5k range, then feeding the amazing Raal Requisite CA-1a ribbon headphones via the Raal transformer box. It's a pretty simple system and this is the only interconnect involved, making it easier to spot the contributions versus a system with separate transport, DAC, preamp, and amplifier and of course cables running between each of them.
The sound I heard was shockingly open, clean, detailed, and smooth. Huge staging with impressive depth and even height on the right recordings. Very convincing tone on violins, guitars, and vocals both male and female. The Raal headphones are pretty ruthless and reveal all sorts of upstream shortcomings, but I got the feeling I was bouncing up against the limits of the DMP-A8 D/A conversion rather than the cable/amp/headphones. I'll test this out soon when I switch to my bigger system with a better/more expensive DAC, and I'll report my findings when I have some thoughts on that.
Checking my cable collection for things with a vaguely similar price as the Magnus. I rounded up a Harmonic Tech Truth Link, Analysis Plus Copper Micro, Anticables 3.1, and Moon Audio Black Dragon, all of which sold for somewhere in the sub $500 space (I think) at some point in the last decade. It was no contest, the Veritas Magnus outclassed them all by a significant margin. These are all decent cables with something to offer which is why I keep them around in my stash, but compared to the Veritas they all sounded either dull, thin, slow, compressed, or some combination of those traits. I also note that each of them looks and feels like more of a budget product (which I guess they are) where the Veritas Magnus seems like it belongs in an entirely higher class despite the price not reflecting that.
My next goal is to compare it to some others in my arsenal priced around the $1K range. So far, from memory I would say it feels very competitive even in that class, but I want to be more specific about it so no comments for now. The crazy thing is that Veritas told me they have another XLR option (didn't catch the name or other specifics) positioned higher than the Magnus, for what is likely still a pretty reasonable price considering their approach to the market. All of those were spoken for at the time but did ask to be notified when the next batch is ready so we can discuss that. I had been considering the Infigo Audio Sparkle or maybe even Sparkle Signature XLR down the road but I might detour to the Veritas instead, just for the sake of adventure. But that depends on the pricing and specifics they give me, if and when we have that discussion. I'm also curious about their power cables or maybe a USB down the line. Sometimes when cable companies try to do everything, they bite off more than they can chew, or seem to excel with digital rather than analog or vice versa. So it would be interesting to see if Veritas can do the full line of cables to this same high caliber.
In closing I'll say (and it's probably obvious) that I'm extremely impressed with this product so far. It's the most dramatic result I've had from a cable in quite some time, and I appreciate that it didn't involve spending thousands of dollars. The folks at Veritas really seem to be on the right track in terms of quality and value. Which is not to be confused with being very good at marketing a product, which honestly they don't really seem to be, nor do they seem to even care all that much at the moment. They definitely have some improvement to do when it comes to optimizing their operation, but they told me their focus is on organic growth and quality over quantity. That seems like a noble approach so I can't fault them for it. Their website also could really use more specifics but at least they answer emails quickly and are easy to deal with that way.
I'll be back in the next week or so with additional updates. Maybe some downsides will present themselves. But so far it's been a totally positive experience. Next up is my bigger system with more expensive components and cables, we'll see how the Magnus holds up in that context.
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@mbolek Putting the Science behind the Production of a Wire Type to the side. My experiences are limited of using a large range of Cables using a very similar/same wire, or very similar/same Cable Construction. I do have a reasonable amount of Cable Comparison experiences which is not limited to one system only. My experiences of a Wire Type or Cable Type used in a System, will have a outcome that is producing sound that is able to be detected as being audible and in most cases, able to create a change for a end sound being produced. Note: Change detected as being audible, does not always mean the change detected is being assessed as being an improvement, it is merely just a detected change. Additional to this, as many Cables share a Identical or very similar Wire Type, and differences to end sound produced are still able to be detected between Cable Types when being exchanged. It does seem that the overall construction method for the Cable Matters, as well as the Interface to be created between umbilical and audio device. During a recent experience had, using a selection of SAEC SL 5000 Cables. Which is a Cable through its Signal Wire Type has an attraction to myself. Using the Cost Price as a guideline, I am assuming many who look at Cables by Cost Value only, would consider the SL 5000 to be a Cable of Interest. Demo's were carried out using Two Identical Schematic Design / Topology Phonostages, where one difference was to be found, which was the Chassis Mounted RCA's. One Phon' had typical quality Pure Copper RCA's the other Phon' had Pure Copper Low Eddy Design RCA's. The DL 5000's Cables were used with one pair having the Factory Spec' RCA Termination and another Cable Pair was changed to be using a RCA Termination using Pure Copper Low Eddy Design RCA's. To not get too wordy, the outcome was one that was very hard to deny, no matter what configuration for Phon' > Cable was put in place, the RCA Low Eddy marriage of Low Eddy Phon' > Low Eddy Cable proved this coupling to be extremely noticeable and notable for the impression able to be made for the end sound being produced. I have felt confident for a long time in my assessment that Cables interfacing within different audio devices in different systems, are creating end sounds that are not for the Cable being used able to be suggested as being ubiquitous as the result. The experiencing the SL 5000's in a system, with a couple of small changes in place to a audio device and used Cable, totally underpinned my confidence in my assessment . My experiencing the SL 5000, showed a new to myself info, that served to underpin held thoughts about a ubiquitous outcome. In general no one is using systems where all things are equal, prior to starting off on an investigation of the use of a Cable. The parameters for the test, is already different to the tests that may be looked at, that are done by others to share conclusions. In relation to the Phon's and SL 5000, to the unknowing all Parameters for the Test would appear as equal, but in reality where a Signal Transfer is the Fundamental. The signal path electricity has been met with very different designs for the management of the electricity flow. One design proved (using subjective assessment of a produced end sound as evidence) that a very that a Very Good Cable as a standard design when used was very capable at either interface created. The same Cable when tweaked as a Design and offered a Interface that has been recognised to be beneficial to the tweak done to the Cable. Proved (using subjective assessment of a produced end sound as evidence), that the tweaked design was far more attractive that the alternative that was readily available, there was no wanting to experience the already experienced interfaces that had been created, on the day the ultimate and most indelible for the quality on offer was discovered. Each individuals experience of a Cable added to their system, using the end sound produced in their unique layout for a listening environment. Where the end sound being created, is produced through their own choice for Speakers. If the assessment made, is based on 'one individual', listening to sound being produced as the evidence. The individual will most likely/ definitely won't be sharing info about their experience had, that is able to classed as a ubiquitous experience for all who carry out the same in their unique listening spaces on an audio system that will have differences in the designs for the audio devices used.
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