initial reactions...

(re-printed with permission)

Washington, D.C.

The following comments were from Dave Littel's reaction to a listening session held in the Washington DC area on Sunday, July 13, 2003. Dave was among the first group of individuals to hear the Veracity after its completion in late June. Dave's comments:

The clear winner in my humble opinion was Jim Salk's G2/W18 (Veracity HT1). This was a phenomenal pair of speakers...

...The G2/W18 (Veracity HT1) combo was the best overall speaker to my ears. They had the great high end of the G2 and the extremely well-controlled, detailed bass and midrange of the W18. The drivers were integrated beautifully without any of the graininess or harshness sometimes attributed to the excel magnesium drivers. It was a gorgeous sound.

Indianapolis DIY

The following comments were from attendees of the Indianapolis DIY event held on Saturday, August 30, 2003.

Jeff Bagby's ("Jeff B") comments:

Finally, the last speaker I heard before leaving was Jim Salk's vented two-way with Seas Excel W18EX and Arum Cantus 2 tweeters, called "Veracity". I believe the crossovers were designed and voiced by Dennis Murphy. Jim had only finished these speakers the night before coming to Indy, and they had no real break-in time. I had never heard these ribbons before and was really looking forward to checking them out, so I weaseled my way into the center seat for these babies as fast as I could. Jim stood over to the side and Phil was on my right. My first comment to Phil was that I wasn't sure about the intergration between Jim's speakers and the subwoofers. That's when Phil informed me that the subs were not hooked up! What! All that low end was coming from that little woofer? That was the second impressive thing about these speakers (the first was Jim's cabinet work - what can I say? They were exquisite. I know who I will hire for my next set of cabinets, that's for sure). The third really impressive thing about these speakers was how they imaged - as good as anything I have ever heard, and that's really saying something for me, because I am an image nut. The fact that these had 4th order L-R crossovers seemed to dispell the thought that lower phase rotation (ie; lower order crossovers) netted better imaging. I don't know if it was the wide dispersion of the ribbon or what, but these killed with their image. I think everyone heard this too and agreed about this quality from these speakers. I would also like to say that Dennis's crossover was voiced very nice. Good job Denis and Jim. This is my favorite small two-way that I have ever heard. That's saying something too.

Ben Shaffer ("WOLF") comments:

Jim Salk's wood-working is phenominal(sp), and the imaging was wonderful from the (ES)G2 ribbon/W18 combo he brought along. Soundstage was sweet, and wonderfully detailed. A pleasant all-around experience. He even tried the "Blue-Man-Group" cd THE COMPLEX that I brought along, and held up with flair.

Thanks, all, for the kind words...
- Jim