Veritas Cables a new brand that I found

I prefer the Argentum R and X over the Fidelis interconnects. The Fidelis interconnects are good, the Argentum are silver and in my systems sounded more realistic for my taste. The speaker cables did take longer in order to reach maturity for whatever reason. As I have said before these Veritas Cables are very well built and very sexy in appearance. Now I'm not saying there are not better sounding cables out the in audiophile land some place but for the Veritas Cable pricing they are fantastic. I just received two more pair of the Argentum R interconnects yesterday (USPS must be doing something correct because they arrived one day earlier also) and currently have them on my cable cooker.

@lak 👍👍👍

Bass suddenly comes to life at hr 12. It's crazy. From -70% bass to proper bass. Wonderful extension for mids and highs. Female vocals are wonderful and airy.

The negatives, borderline bright, actually it's pretty bright, lots of treble glare. Female vocals a bit sibilant on a few tracks. Sibilance is something my system never had. Separation is still not good especially on pop songs, treble glare. 

Keep in mind these are all early impressions of burn-in and prone to change. Bass is great. I'm terrible at describing bass. All the usual words apply, fast, punchy, textured, nuanced. 

Bass in terms of quantity is more than all my other cables. It’s not a bassy cable, I think the word is unrestrained.

I've had 1 bassy cables before. Loaned from a friend. Very thin solid core cables. Made my floorstanders at the time sounded like they were subwoofers 🤣😂🤣

Glad you like your cables. Also, they don't sound any different than any other cheap OFC wire. It's all in your head. 

@squared80 YAWN. 

@tkrtrb125 He's right you know. It's all in ny head. Afterall, that's where the sound go.

After 13 hours, much of the problem has subsided. I really like whatI'm hearing but I hope it gets smoother.

Hr 14. It’s sounding amazing. Almost all negatives have disappeared. Tone and timbre are exceptional. The sound has this sweetness and delicacy in instruments and female voices. Veritas described the sound as "exposed". I believe it sounds somewhere between pure and unrestrained. It’s not bright but the highs are fully "exposed" and it is splendid.

Turning up the volume to 90db, the sound remains fully composed. Not a hint of harshness and stridency.

I tried to find songs where it would be unforgiving. Couldn’t find many. Songs like "Kiss My (uh oh) - Anne-Marie" during the chorus are where it can be fatiguing after a bit.

I don’t get the sense that Argentum and Aperta together are track dependant, they feel more like system dependent. Something like a Bright focal is probably not a good match. A warm or neutral system needing more details and clarity, these are probably it.

Good lord these 2 cables are blowing my mind. The first 12 hours I highly doubted myself. Asking what have I done with $1,100.

Now they are extremely detailed and balanced sounding. Mids and highs I can only describe as ethereal and seductive. Expressive, highly detailed, greatly nuanced. These are the best $1,100 I’ve ever spent. Even a better purchase than the Isoacoustic Gaia which I love.

Slapping myself in disbelief.

27 hours on the pair of cables. Some more updates. These cables have excellent dynamic range for the mids and treble, lots of layering and details. Soft notes and vocal can be exquisitively soft and vice versa.

The combination of these 2 cables also result in quite a forgiving sound. Mids and highs do not sound boosted in the slightest. It is also nicely smooth. I listened to many very poorly recorded tracks on soundcloud to reach this conclusion. They are not dark or sit to the warm side, so if these criterias are required for a forgiving sound, these are not it.

I'm enjoying your updates. Fun times with new gear, always an adventure.

@v-fi Thanks!! These cables have had wild changes since hr 1. Wild improvements to be more accurate. I’m curious to hear what’s in store at hr 50.

@lak thanks for the PM earlier today. I couldn't directly reply.

To the guys that break-in their cables by music listening, have you noticed the cables shift from sounding a little dull to perfectly right and then back and forth?

"Good lord these 2 cables are blowing my mind."

yeah, “mind” could be the biggest variable.

@westcoastaudiophile really? Not the speakers or the eardrums?

@samureyex ..in your cable break-in experiment :-) assuming you didn’t change eardrums + and speakers!

cables are degrading performance with time, resistance increases, electrical length (derivative of phase velocity) increases, leakage increases, shielding isolation decreases. In some cases, listeners like worse performance cables over better ones, some amp manufacturers have damping factor degradation dial, and some ppl like it! 

I've been meaning to get back to this thread but haven't found time until now. Still very impressed with the Veritas Connexa network cable which I run from the wall jack to my Innuos Zenith mark III. It is so much better than the Wireworld Starlight 8 I used to have. I also tried Audioquest Diamond and Cardas Clear, the Connexa is better than both of those by a noticeable margin. The Audioquest Vodka was a tough challenge, I prefer it over the more expensive Diamond. The Veritas Connexa beats Vodka by just a touch, better imaging and feels more open. Close competition in sound but the Connexa is more affordable so that helps.

I also grabbed a Veritas Praesto power cable when they had them in stock. It replaced an ASI Liveline cable that I've owned for quite some time. I liked the Liveline well enough to keep it around for many years so it must have done something right. I want to say it cost around $1100 when I purchased it back then. Connected to my Luxman MQ-88uC amplifier the Veritas Praesto makes my system sound a little bigger and bolder than the Liveline. I hear what feels like better midrange articulation, like notes have slightly more weight to them. I am not great at describing what I hear so I will stop there. 

I'm impressed the Praesto beats the ASI cable that sold for double the price. The rest of my system uses a mixture of old Cardas power cables and very old Stealth M7 power cables from back when Stealth didn't cost a fortune. I've always been happy with them but now I'm probably going to swap them all for Veritas Praesto once those are available again. 

@tubeguy80 

Thanks for the update.

I have been following this thread with great interest and purchased both the Argentum X (XLR ICs) and the Mirus ethernet cable.

I bought the Mirus cable first and found that I really liked it a lot better than my Via Blue and TWL Freedom ethernet cables, so I bought the Argentum X’s.

I agree with the description of these cables posted above by the OP @v-fi, @lak and @samureyex and certainly heard greater micro-detail, a sharper leading edge, no to much less  glare, better musicality (instrument cohesion) and better air – more detail, less glare, sharper leading edge and less fatiguing -- go figure!   This is after about 35 hours of continuous playing.

So far, so good. While my prior Vogue Audio Silver Strand Ultra XLRs were good, the Veritas cables are a better match for my system.  

The Company is cool as well.  When I contacted them about replacing the Mirus with the Connexa they recommended because of the cable mess behind my system and the need for better shielding, that I stick with the Mirus which provides better shielding and was designed to be run in close proximity to power cables.  Honest advice – good stuff!

@tump350 nice! I have virtually the same hours as you. 1 thing I’m really surprised is how un-ruthless the Argentum and Aperta combo is. It doesn’t pull out the nasties of poorly recorded tracks.

I wonder how well their power cables perform.

I have the Praesto power cord and its excellent especially based upon price, quality of build, and it competes with other cables that are in the $1000 to $2000 range. If you like what you have from the company it would be worth trying at least one of their power cords, they are very flexible.

Agree about their Praesto power cable. It is extremely nice. I will be getting more when they have them in stock.

I asked them why it didn't match the rest of the lineup (silver metallic look) and they said Praesto was their first creation, from before they settled on the silver metal theme. They liked it so much they didn't want to change it. They did mention working on another power cable which should be ready soon. A more affordable version. It looks like they want to have two levels of most cables. A quality mainstream model and then a top level model. That makes more sense to me compared to a lot of brands that have like 7 different models for each type of cable. 

45 hours of listening time on the Veritas cables. Not confident enough to say what kind of change had happened since my last update around 28 hours.

Overall, I find these cables to have unusually good depth. Exceptional clarity but also forgiven. No sign of harshness. Fantastic musicality as well.

What I mean by "musicality" is the smoothness and the sweetness of vocals and instruments that stems from the very clear and open upper midrange - treble range.

I'm not good at describing bass but I can say it's not lean and sufficient in depth and quantity.

@samureyex Thank you again for updates, I have to agree about the "musicality" for lack of a better word. It's a great balance between resolution and listenability that not many cables can manage. 

@tump350 They told me the same thing when I asked about getting a 2nd Connexa network cable. I am thinking about going Ethernet out from my Innuos Zenith to a separate integrated streaming player (possibly Matrix Element X2 but still undecided) for driving headphones. I want it somewhat isolated from the rest of my gear. But there are already cables everywhere on the rack. They said Mirus would work better in that environment which saves me a couple hundred dollars. I appreciate that. 

     "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."  (Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872) 

     "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon,"  (Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873)

      "The super computer is technologically impossible.  It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." (Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University)                        

      "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."  (Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923)

      "Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." (Dr. Lee DeForest, Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television)

      "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible!" (Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895) 

      "The bomb will never go off.  I speak as an expert in explosives."  (Admiral William Leahy, re: US Atomic Bomb Project) 

       "Glad you like your cables.  Also, they don't sound any different than any other cheap OFC wire.  It's all in your head."    ( squared80, Denyin'tology zealot)

       "Good lord these 2 cables are blowing my mind."     "yeah, “mind” could be the biggest variable."  and so on, ad nauseam.   (westcoastaudiophile,  Dunning-Kruger exemplar)

      When the steam locomotive came on the scene; the best (scientific) minds proclaimed, "The human body cannot survive speeds in excess of 35MPH."

      Until recently (21st Century); and the advent of the relatively new science of Fluid Dynamics, the best (scientific) minds involved in Aerodynamics, could not fathom how a bumblebee stays aloft. 

      Often; Science has to catch up with the facts/phenomena of Nature and/or, "reality" (our universe). 

       I haven't been in school since the 60's, but- at Case Institute of Technology; the Physics Prof always emphasized what we were studying was, "Electrical THEORY."  He strongly made a point of the fact that no one had yet actually observed electrons (how they behave on the quantum level) and that only some things can really be called, "LAWS." (ie: Ohm, Kirchoff, Faraday)   

                         PERHAPS: that's changed in recent years and I missed it?

I just picked up another Praesto power cable. Going to slowly replace my ancient power cables one at a time. I would have loved to just do the whole lot at once but holiday deals have got the best of me, I better slow down. 

@tubeguy80 holidays got the best of me too 

Lak (Larry) I remember you liking your Lavricaes a lot. And veritas cables are better on your reviews Knowing and trusting you made me desire one interconnect Argentina.

@jayctoy well worth trying the Argentina Interconnects. Give them some break-in time. I don't see how anyone can go wrong with a 30 day trial period.

Thanks Lak ..

dear lak, cable, unlike SS / tube circuit, tubes, does not break-in, they age. aged cable performance is always worse than new. there is some interconnect performance improvement after tightening connections, mostly due to contact area increase and higher contact pressure.

@westcoastaudiophile thank you for your opinion, I respectfully disagree, as ofter happens with audiophiles.

@lak I respectfully would love to offer you challenge to prove your opinion.. take brand new and brake-in pre your method cables, and try to identify the difference.. if you are in PDX area, I would love to assist you! 

@westcoastaudiophile So many of your post history is just you bickering with people about cables. Doesn't that get old? Please recognize that we are already the weird ones in this hobby. Most other people think we are all crazy for spending more than $50 on a bluetooth speaker. We're crazy for liking "inferior" vinyl, crazy for using tube gear, crazy for caring about lossless music, etc. And you know what, maybe we are a bit crazy, but we enjoy it so why not let us have that? You seem to have embraced most of these crazy concept but disagree about cables, which is fine. But please let other people have their fun. 

Take a new Veritas speaker cable and the Argentum X and put them in the system, you will have no bass for 12 hours. It’s a very clear indication of cable break in.

But let’s ignore the bass for a second. Throughout my experience with new cables, almost all of them exhibit this etchy, echoey sound in the vocals.

A small update. 53 hours on the Veritas cables. Not much to report since the last update. Nothing I'd reliably report anyway.

54 hrs on the Veritas combo reporting in.

My overall impression of these cables: They are intensively detailed, transparent, and musical (sweet and smooth). Sounds very balanced, treble and vocals are highly expressive and open.

Best way to describe the sound is multiple veils of treble has been removed. This gives the impression of the treble being boosted but it’s not. Not in my system. The soundstage depth is also quite good, I believe this is due to the overly open treble and mids.

Oh and the bass is juicy and bold (I’m so terrible at describing bass). Forget your past experience with silver and anemic bass.

54 hrs is still early in the overall break-in phase. I’d like to hear more dynamics and transparency, 2 things that could always be improved. I also wish for instruments to separate and be defined even better.

System: Martin Logan Summit X speakers. BMC Ultradac, BMC CS3 amplifier.

To further elaborate on why I say these highly detailed cables are not bright, I use a few tracks that are mastered hot.

Rockabye by Anne Marie. Just smooth, and airy. And balanced.

My heart will go on remix by Laback. Same, smooth and airy.

Faded by Alan walker. This is the one track that always make me run for the door in most system, especially at the 1:00 mark. Here it is airy and smooth, still quite hot in the treble but enjoyable and not glaring.

These cables make my system sounds very hi-fi without any of the drawbacks, which is something I've always chased after.

@tubeguy80 it seems we share a lot of "audio craziness” in common than disagreements, incl. enjoying vinyl/tubes/lossless/cables/jazz/etc.. :-) - thanks! 

Hour 67.

Vocal is the star of the show but man... The dynamic range is absolutely incredible as well. From the mids to the highs, the shift can be quite stunning.

I hope the cables can sound 5-10% smoother. That'd be perfection.

I'd also like the cables to have better note decay. My system is capable of presenting previous notes cleanly. It can prevent new notes from overpowering/washing out the old ones. The cables are not performing at a high level in this regard. I hope it can improve as the burn-in progresses. Fingers crossed.

@samureyex

Did you compare veritas with anny other brands? When I got the Argentum x interconnects, after 100 hours of burning, they exhibited all attributes that you are describing in your posts. But when I compared them with my Snake river audio signatures ($1650 retail), I noticed that Argentums have less bass, backgrounds are not as black as with snake rivers and as result overall sound is not as organic and relaxed as with snake rivers in place. With aregentums in place my all,solid state system sounded more solid state than with snake rivers. So to me and in my system the Argentums were great for the price, but not the giant killers I hoped for, and unfortunately I had to return them.

@denon1 

I don't have a lot of cables. Still saving money for a streamer such as the Hifi Rose 130. Only compared it to a $80 silver plated cable, and a $200 Chinese "sterling silver" cable. 

I hear you on your descriptions. The background is not pitch black (I've always contributed this to the very unrestrained treble). Doesn't sound super relaxed either which again I contribute to the treble. I believe these traits are also why the cable needs improvement on notes decay and note to note distinction. 

I'll keep on reporting back as I clock more hours with burn-in. I have to say lately I find the cables (Veritas Argentum + Veritas Aperta speaker cable) to be highly transparent. It can sound highly smooth and relaxed with some tracks, bass monster and super energetic on other tracks. Its superb vocal rendition, along with the soundstage depth and dynamic range make each tracks sound unique and different.

The sterling silver cable is a special one. A bit on the thinner side. Very relaxed, very smooth. Black background. Separation of every note and detail is at a level that defies belief. Thanks to the immense separation, everything else gets to shine. More micro/macro details, more micro/macro dynamics. Ease and effortless is the sound signature. A "less is more" kind of cable.

It will keep these traits from tracks to tracks, which is its strength and also its weakness. But it also makes poorly mastered tracks a joy to listen to.

Here is my 2 cents. I run an Iris 12th DDC feeding either an Audio Mirror Troubadour III SE DAC via i2s or a Luxman D-05U SACD player via Coax. The AM DAC is R2R the Lux uses Wolfson chips. Both feed a Luxman 595 class A integrated via XLR. Qobuz content. The Argentum x XLR and Aperta Speaker cables are the most revealing cables I have had in my system. And how well anything works is completely system and room dependent. In my system and very well treated room, these cables are wonderful, when the III SE is driving. However, the D-05U not quit as great. It can be a little too in-your-face. And I can hear everything on the recording, the amps in the studio and mics. And this leads to a perception of a less black background. Not that the cables are noisy IMHO, I don't think they are, but they are extremely revealing. Our electronics are exposed with these cables. The background information is there as well with III SE DAC, but it is not as obvious and more in place with the content, which is a benefit for me. The R2R DAC with the class A amp is very near perfection with the Argentum x and Aperta. And if I use my Audio Envy O'nestian XLR from the D-05U, it helps remove much of the in-your-face presentation and it tames the background sounds. So I will stick with Audio Envy XLR with the D-05U. If you feel you are getting too much a good thing, try mixing up one of your cables. However, no interconnect can completely diminish the full band articulation, layering and air that the Aperta speaker cables present. And I only have about 25 hours on these cables. For me, I can see great synergy with class A amps or tube push/pulls. Thanks @v-fi for starting this thread and for all of the great contributors who helped push me to give these a try.

@nwres They are certainly quite revealing and highly transparent.

Did you notice the complete lack of bass the first 12 hours as I did?

@samureyex  No, the bass might have been a little light at first but it has been there all along. And I can hear more details and textures as well.

Another note. I am doing some early morning low level listening and these cable have a marked improvement in clarity, dynamics and resolution in the 55 DB range.

@nwres I am hearing the same things you describe. The Argentum R in particular is blowing me away with low level listening. It's very detailed and so clean but also musical, not sterile like some other pure silver cables I own. The Magnus XLR cables feel smoother and more forgiving which is how Veritas explained it to me, I think they are spot on with that description. I could see Magnus actually working better on certain systems, and as you scale up to better gear the Argentum becomes a better match.

Funny you mention your Luxman D-05U, I used to have the D-06U which is really similar. And at the time I did notice that I preferred different cables with that player than any of the other sources I had. Lovely tonality but it never matched up with my other gear quite as well as I wanted, which I why I eventually sold it. I thought mine had the TI / Burr Brown chips in it though, not Wolfson. Maybe that's the difference between the 5 and the 6?

@v-fi Your D-06u and my D-05u may be more alike than my previous post would imply.  After checking, the D-05u also uses a BB chip, the PCM1795. A notable different sound signature compared to my R2R DAC. I must have been thinking of a previous player when I mentioned Wolfson.

I agree with your description of low level listening. Clean, detailed and musical. I am listening now to an internet radio program, not hi res. At about 56 db average, it is so clean and articulate with great extension up and down the bandwidth. Very enjoyable and I not not missing the higher resolution. 

I have asked Veritas to build a few ethernet cables. A 1M from the wall to my switch, a short run from the switch to my ethernet optical Isolation filter, and another short run from the filter to my streamer. I have a mix of cat6 and cat7 now. Nothing too special. Interested in seeing if I can hear a difference.

I agree Argentum is great for low level listening. Thanks to being highly detailed and very dynamic.

“Argentum is great for low level listening” meaning darker background? 

signal cables must be properly shielded, shielding isolation of 80dB + is very good for “low level” tunes! Typical cheap cables have shielding isolation below 60dB, thus any outside noise can affect performance of Tx+Rx circuitry, and definitely will show some weird sound affects.

on top of shielding isolation, cables must be optimized for phase/group delay time, vs frequency (flatter is better), and output circuitry loading.