Custom-crafted, high-performance audio

Veracity of the month...

— every so often this page will highlight a truly unique
"Special Edition" Veracity project...

April # 1

The Story (in three acts)

ACT ONE

My wife worked for a short time at a high-end contemporary furniture store. Curious, I asked her what the hottest new trends in woods were. She indicated that wenge, a rich, chocolate-brown wood that generally has a fine grain and usually not much figuring, was becoming extremely popular. A few months later, I came across a batch of some particularly nice wenge. It had a very fine grain that looked almost like fine golden threads running through a chocolate background. While I had never had a request for wenge speakers, I bought the batch.

The wenge sat on the shelf for about six months. Since it didn't have the dramatic grain structure or figuring patterns of many of the woods we typically use, I didn't know quite what to do with it.

I didn't know how much demand there would be for a wood such as this. But I eventually decided I would build a pair of HT3 cabinets using it. I figured that if they didn't sell, I would at least have some very nice chocolate brown speakers that would work well in my home theater. So we started to build a pair...

ACT TWO

We brought two pairs of speakers to this year's AKFest - a pair of V3's we built for Frank VanAlstine and my current personal pair of HT3's done in Pal Dao. Frank was going to take the V3's home after the show. But when he saw the Pal Dao pair, it was love at first sight. Even though he already had one pair of HT3's, he just had to have this one.

Of course, that meant I had no HT3's after the show since Frank took my pair.

Nick and his friend John attended the show and stopped by our room for a listen. Nick had heard about the HT3's and was interested in hearing them in person. John had never heard them or heard of them.

Both Nick and John were very impressed with what they heard. So much so, in fact, that Nick emailed me later that day to ask if he could come and listen to the HT3's again, in a better listening environment. I explained to him that Frank had purchased the Pal Dao HT3's and that I would have to finish a new pair so he could have a listen.

ACT THREE

Since the wenge cabinets were close to being completed, the following week we pulled out all the stops to finish this pair so Nick and John could stop by for another listening session. We finished the speakers on Thursday, brought them home on Friday and Saturday (the day before Easter) the two of them stopped by with CD's, amps and a CD player to put the HT3's through their paces.

I won't tell you what Nick thought of the speakers (I'll let him post his own impressions), but he emailed the next day (Easter Sunday) saying he just had to have the wenge HT3's.

So the HT3's I brought home, to replace the pair that Frank purchased, lasted just one day before they were sold as well.

PROLOGUE

This coming week I will have to start work on a new pair of HT3's for myself. But this time, I think I will build two pairs, just so I can hang on to at least one of them for a while.

While I don't have a personal pair of HT3's at the moment, it is comforting to know that the wenge pair found a great home with Nick and his lovely Nicole.

Happy listening, Nick & Nicole!

What's next?

HT3's bubinga home theater. Stay tuned...

archives

Here are links to past Veracity of the Month projects: