Verity Audio speakers

Seems like the 1/3 rule depends a lot on design:

Eggleston and Montana, I believe, say to start tuning placement 18" out. Audionote loadsw in corners, and the bass in Northcreek's near wall designs optimizes at 9" or less.

John

John, it also depends on the room’s size. It is not always practical to have the speakers placed 1/3 into the room. Some manufacture realize this and offer starting distances at a multiple of 1/3 i.e. 1/6 or 1/12.

As you have noted, some speakers are designed to utilize room boundaries to their advantage, most notable, corner loaded horns. Verity’s represent a typical bass reflex design, which is one of the most common designs.

You can take what the speaker’s marketing department says about room placement and easily substantiate their claim with a few easy measurements.

I've owned P/Es for over 10 years. A few observations, FWIW:

IMHO, this is a very fine speaker, but there is a noticeable hump in the octave below 100hz (exactly where is room dependent) and gently falling FR thru the mids and treble region - with the exception of a "plateau" thru the presence region that probably contributes to the speaker's striking dynamic impact. I suspect that the overall falling FR is why some say "dark" while others say "musical". For any given listener, that distinction might well end up being source, room, and system dependent.

Close to wall placement may further emphasize the bloom in the bass, so I'd personally suggest that you get 'em away from the boundaries. Also, warmer sounding tube amps can be problematic, per several posts above. I agree that ARC works well, as does quality solid state amplification.

This is a moderately tough load, so low output SETs and OTLs need not apply. I'd also note that there's limited bottom octave output with any amp, so real bass freaks can probably do better for the $.

If you get all the other stuff (room, system, etc) right, and you don't need the pipe organ / HT option, IME the P/E sounds really, really good with a broader range of source material than most other speakers that I know.

Marty

Interesting, Brf. I'm betting 1/12 is a good starting point in my room, for speakers that are not obviously disqualified from near wall, like OBs

John

I also owned the P/E's for 6-7 years. I think Marty's observations are spot on. It's interesting that someone mentioned running Art Jota's on Fidelio's. I tried them on Parsifal's, and it was a no go. Not even close to enough power. I owned two amps at the same with P/E's. I had the Accuphase A-50V, and CJ Premier 8's. As Marty mentioned, warmer sounding tube amps can be problematic. The 8's were warm, and did not have a detailed, articulate bass. The bass (on P/E's)could be rather undefined, and a bit boomy. The Accuphase, on the other hand, really grabbed hold of those woofers, and was much better in the low frequencies. That said, it was the CJ that stayed over the A50V, just because of what only tubes (IME)can do. I think a more linear, neutral tube amp is the way to go for P/E's. If you have a small room, I could argue the case to go with the Fidelio's. Pair them with a good solid 30 or so watt tube amp, and you could be set. I know someone who runs them with a sub, and is quite content.