Has anyone listened to or auditioned Verity's new Arindale speaker ?

Interesting company. Their Monsalvant is a very sophisticated speaker. Unfortunately their products qualify as "Luxury" audio and are severely overpriced. the Arindals are around $40,000. The Monsalvants are $675,000. Although they are cool loudspeakers you can do even better for much less. If point source is your thing look at Sonus Faber. Much better value. If you want to spend megabucks on loudspeakers I would go with Magico. They make the best dynamic loudspeakers I have ever heard.  Of note, the enclosure construction of the Verity speakers is suspect. Instead of clever joinery they are using wrap around veneers. This is a very thin wood veneer on a cloth backing treated to make it flexible so it can wrap around corners. They can get away with it because modern polyester coatings are very tough. It is a very inexpensive way of doing things. I would expect better from a speaker in that price range.

@mijostyn 

Veneers are pretty flexible; why would they need a cloth backing? Also, what does veneer have to do with the type of joinery used in the cabinet? Almost all speakers use veneer if they don't have painted finishes, and that has nothing to do with the design of the cabinet.

@mijostyn Verity makes some of the best speakers I’ve ever heard and make plenty of models that do not have “luxury” prices and are very competitive with other more well-known brands.  That they’re easy to drive and tube friendly adds even more to their value relative to most other high-end speakers.  Calling Verity speakers “severely overpriced” only tells me only that you haven’t heard them. 

A timely question. I’m curious about the Arindal, too. Very little on the web about this speaker. The Otello, with its more manageable price, is also on my radar. Never heard either one, unfortunately. But their beauty, reputation for sound, and tube-friendliness have me interested.

....thanks SOIX and regret that members feel a need to answer posts such I have  here and do NOT answer the one and only question that I had asked. However, but I expect that now and expensive relative to what ???....did you take a look at Magico's pricing lately ? I am not a fan of the Magico sound nor speakers that are made of concrete, aluminum etc. I digress and now I am off my own path and not true on the construction of the Verity WOOD enclosures. 

Thank you wrm57 as I am looking into them as well or the models below as I have  listened  to the Amadis S and with a 60 watt Class A  Accuphase amp the A-75 it would seem on paper to be a good match. They were one of the more musical speakers I have heard.        .  

OP …have not heard the model you speak of…but every time i have heard Verity they established an intimate emotional connection to music… Best to you on your quest !

Jim

.....thank you lalitk but after researching and listening to many speaker brands I really like Verity for what then can offer me.   

@garebear My dealer spoke with the Verity distributor today. Apparently, the Arindal is so new that it is not fully in production yet. And Verity is apparently very slow these days in churning out models that are already in production. No idea why. So it might be a while until anyone can give a report.

I pivoted in an entirely different direction and ordered the Perlisten S7t in natural walnut. Sound unheard! Wish me luck! :)

@lalitk - we have a older pair of Horning speakers in our Listening Room now.  With the 1 watt power amp we built, the mid-range was amazing.  We may have had placed them too far into the room for bass response, so they did not shine in that area nor at a friend who also has them.  But who knows, many factors and not enough time to play around lately.

Happy Listening. 

@roxy54 , Thicker veneers will snap if you try to bend them across the grain. In order to make them pliable enough they have to make the veneer tissue thin and laminate it to something with more tensile strength. In most cases this is a cheese cloth type fabric. It even comes with pressure sensitive adhesive applied to the fabric side The best wood construction for speaker enclosures uses properly mitered cabinet grade plywood which already has a thick veneer applied. You can order plywood with just about any wood veneer you care to think of. If you look at my system page you will see me make a cabinet in walnut plywood. Plywood is stiffer and more durable than MDF. Used properly it makes a much better enclosure. The problem for manufacturers is that plywood is more than three times as expensive as MDF and you have to be very accurate with your joinery or it will look awful. Wood is actually very difficult to work with. Many of the top manufacturers have shied away from it using anything from composites (Wilson) to Aluminum (Magico) 

In my world the only application for an enclosure is for subwoofers. The ones I am currently building are made of 1.5" plywood. Each one has ten sides and each side is only 5" wide on the outer face. Because my system doubles for theater duty they will be finished in satin black polyester.  The frame of ESLs can be made of just about anything. The sides of my Soundlabs are shou sugi ban solid white ash. 

When you see a veneer wrap you can bet that there is MDF below and relatively crude joinery. It is just the same as wrapping a cabinet in carpet. It is easy to hide the workmanship.  

@soix , $675,000 is overpriced. I prefer Sonus Faber just based on construction quality. You get more for your money. If you like Verity loudspeakers by all means get yourself a pair.

@mijostyn You’re basing your perception of the whole brand on one model.  Have you heard any or the <$20k Verity versus Sonus Faber?  If not I suggest you do so rather than make blind and ignorant statements.  I’ve heard both Verity and SF speakers in the same price range.  They’re both very good, but I’d take Verity any day over SF.  

migostyn,

magico are definitely not the best speakers out there, that beryllium Tweeter is bright and edgy to monitor audio platinum ll are much better, that MPD Tweeter is much more three-dimensional natural and open and the Magico are way overpriced, I compared the A3 and the A5 to the monitor audio platinum 200 ll and 300 ll and the monitor audio were much better, all using the same equipment in the same room.

@garebear 

I would love to hear the Verity speakers to see how they compare to my Rockport Avior ii. Have you auditioned the Rockports and Verity’s ? If so which one did you like better? Happy listening !

Ron

@havocman , I have only listened to S and Q series speakers so I can not comment about A series.

Build quality is easy to determine. You can see it, even in a photograph to an extent. Sonic quality is another issue. You can not rely on what anyone tells you and that goes for my opinion also. I can't listen to the speaker in your room. When you say "too bright", that is an amplitude issue. Amplitude response can change just by moving the speaker a foot! What does "too bright" mean. Is the treble too loud or is the midrange too soft? Maybe the listener is used to listening to a system that is too dull. Trying to say any type of driver sounds like such and such is incorrect. There are too many ways to change amplitude from the room, to the crossover, to the type of amp being used, to the listener. Beryllium tweeters can be constructed to play extremely loud with very low distortion for a dynamic driver.

Lastly, with high resolution digital EQ capability, resolution in 1 Hz increments I can make any speaker sound like anything. With a modern digital processor amplitude response is completely plastic and can be tuned in the environment the speaker is going to live in.

I can not make any loudspeaker image correctly. There are very few systems that can. Most of use have never heard a system that does. That includes all those fanboys with the flowery descriptions of "wide and deep" soundstages. The sound stage depends on the recording. For the first 17 years of my audiophile life I had never heard a system that imaged a the state of the art. When I did my jaw must have dropped three feet and that moment is burned into my head forever. Next was creating a system for myself that could do the same thing. That took another 15 years or so, another $150,000 and hours and hours of screwing around and learning what it was that made a system perform at that level. On the bright side you do not have to spend a million dollars to get there. Excluding the room and at current prices you can probably get reasonably close for $100,000 and all the way there for $200,000. Anything more than that I consider to be "luxury" audio just for bragging rights. 

mijostyn,

I have done it for a lot less my system is worth $70,000 and it sounds incredible very three-dimensional wide deep sound stage you can hear everything even way in the background very black silent background, so when you choose the right stuff 70 to 100,000 will do it. no need to go to 200,000.

There must be some extremely wealthy people in this group to even consider buying such expensive speakers.  They do look incredible.  They must sound incredible.  The cabinets look really high quality.  Wish I could afford them.

“so when you choose the right stuff 70 to 100,000 will do it.”
+1, @havocman 

There is a deep learning curve in one’s pursuit of audio nirvana. One can achieve it at a reasonable cost as long as you know how to put together a system. Synergy between components not to mention room acoustics (often an afterthought) is of utmost importance. Spending big dollars doesn’t always yields to a great sounding system. 

lalitk,

I totally agree with you, system synergy is very important and I'm very happy with my system I'll tell you what it is, Sim audio p8 preamp, Sim audio w8 amp, esoteric P10 transport, Wyred4Sound 10th anniversary DAC, monarchy audio up sampler speaker wire is Neotech Sahara rectangular copper OCC wire, interconnects are Neotech Sahara rectangular copper and silver OCC wire, the rectangular OCC wire is even better sounding than the round OCC wire, the best wire on the market for audio now, far superior to anything ofc and my power cords are Neotech The Grand rectangular OCC copper. My system is worth about 70,000.

@larry5729 if I had money to buy them, I'd probably pay off my mortgage, buy a 10K speaker from my wish list and be happy as a mutt. (I'd have some money left for paying off student loans)

So after all of the above; it would appear to safe to say that nobody who has for their personal reasons answered my thread, have listened to the Arindale's ? Thank you all .....

lalitk, forgot to mention that my speakers are the monitor audio platinum 200 ll

@garebear you expected us to stay on-topic? :)

@garebear 

Call Paul Manos at High Fidelity Services in Hingham, Ma who is the US distributor and see if he has even sold one in the US himself or sent one to a dealer. My only experience with Verity is owning the Otello for over four years. 

........yes @grislybutter  I did. You have been on this site for what ; a little over a year and I have been year almost 23 years. There was a time that members did try and '' stay on topic '' as you wrote and not try and convince me to buy Magico speakers as they are the best and that Verity is ''over priced '' or try and sell me ; Horning Speakers ( ? ) I asked one simple question and it seems anymore and the usual Locust Threads come out here and answer any new thread with their views which were not even asked for try and or try and sell you something that you never even asked or cared about. That's what Face Book and Twitter are for......it's gets old after a while. Thank you just the same and enjoy the music.

Ohhh I also find it amusing that the Typical Locust never really follow up on these posts as they have moved on to another one or watch You Tube and tell you that they have listened to a $1,000,000 system ......funny .       

@garebear I see your point, it's a hit or miss. I was lucky, most of my questions generated very useful responses. 

half of the discussions here are pretty lame, I am here for the other half...

op,

Could it be that not many, say less than a hundred people have heard them with their own systems? And of those hundred, 99 don’t peruse these hallowed halls? Not to mention many of these purchases do not have audiophilia as their reason for buying. So the off topic begins...can be rewarding.

Thank you jpwarren58 for your response and I see your point but if you have not heard them why answer ? Some have gone on to explain what they currently have in their systems and how much. My question was very simple and to the point. I am also not sure what you mean by ; '' do not have audiophilia as their reason for buying ''....... that may pertain to you but not all others. So staying on topic can be rewarding.      

I ended up purchasing the Verity Audio Aridale's in walnut from Paul Manos at High Fidelity Services and should have them shortly. Thank you all for your help and for  those who stayed on topic. I will follow up on my post in the future on how they sound in my home and with my equipment. Stay safe and well and let's have a memorable 2023 and pray for peace to happen.    

@garebear Congratulations! A great way to start the new year!  Let us know how you like them and with your associated equipment.

Congratulations garebare on purchase Paul Manos one of the rare good guys in audio.

.....just a follow up on my post since I took possession of the Aridale's on 01/12/23. This speaker takes about 600 hours for full break in and I only have about 120 hours on them now. They are finally starting to open up a little bit and I am beginning to  '' hear '' the musical potential of these speakers. I sold my Sonus Faber Amati Homage speakers which I really enjoyed to buy these. The SFAH's just swept me away at times and these are starting to do just that but with a little more transparency into the music which was what I was looking for. I have had a few audiophiles tell me to just leave them on and play music to burn them in but just playing music and logging the hours down has given me the experience and pleasure of just hearing their sonic character change. They are a really good speaker to audition in this price range and the fact that they come in 4 pieces was a deal breaker for me as I do not care to '' lug '' around 200+ pound speakers anymore. Stay well all and enjoy the music........also Paul Manos was great to work with.                  

@garebear any updates on the Arindale’s? I love the Verity line and sometimes would find them polite and wishing for a bit more excitement from them. What gear are you using now that you likely have lots more hours on them?

Interested to hear an update as well. I have listened to the Arindal in a very well- sorted (and big money) system, sounded nice but reserved / polite. Didn’t find them super engaging but would love to hear them in my room and gear (not possible unfortunately).

As you probably know by now, Verity Audio announced in April 2024 that they had closed down.  They in fact ceased operating in late Dec 2023.  This is very sad news after a 30+ year run of making many outstanding speakers that were musical, engaging, and not fatiguing.

Verity Audio was a small Canadian speaker manufacturer based in Quebec City with only 5 to 8 employees in addition to it's two principals - Julien Pelchat and Bruno Bouchard.

As a long time owner of Verity Audio Parsifal Ovations I always dreamed of owning a pair of Verity Audio speakers higher up in their food chain.  When I heard rumours of their demise, I sought out a pair of Verity Audio Arindal speakers.

The Arindal was announced in 2022, and only about 70 pairs were made before VA closed down at the end of 2023.

I took delivery of a pair of Arindal in late April 2024, just over 2 months ago.  They are significantly bigger than the Parsifal but more sensitive at 93dB.  At first they were "reserved and polite" (to quote @metaldetektor above), but over time they have opened up and the bass is finally starting to bloom.  They still sound more restrained and bass shy than my well broken in 14 year old Parsifal Ovation, but it is my understanding that they will need several hundred hours to break in.

The Arindal is very musical and becoming more engaging as they break in.  They are detailed and revealing - allowing one to hear new details in familiar recordings that come more alive in a realistic soundstage as the music envelops you.

We should all be grateful for the legacy of fine speakers that Verity Audio created under Julien Pelchat and Bruno Bouchard.  Merci mes amis!

@toranto416

Agree completely. I very much enjoy my recently new to me Parsifal Ovations.

Congrats - the Verity Audio Parsifal Ovation is a wonderful speaker.  It is the third of four versions of the Parsifal - the speaker that launched Verity Audio and cemented their reputation.  The Parsifal Ovation is Verity Audio at it's very best - Enjoy!

$675,000 is overpriced.

And yet again, 3 or 4 drivers in a box are priced almost 10 times the price of my Tesla Model S, getting up there with the price of a house, etc.

Elon Musk (i’m sure he can afford it) will throw the sales guy, drivers and the box in the Tesla parking lot when he hears the price of the box.

Who knew it is soo complicated to come up with a diddly driver and box??? Must be more complex than a fusion reactor...

…..Tesla like Verity are worthless on the open market . However , Tesla is still making cars for now and Verity is gone.