Holy Brightness Batman!


I recently bought some Energy Veritas 2.2i stand mount speakers, with matching stands, and I was really impressed with them until today.  All of a sudden, they seem overly bright.  I find it interesting, that at first I loved all the detail and clarity and how open they sound, but after a two weeks they are just too much now.

I also found it interesting, that even though I loved the way they sounded during the honeymoon period, I wasn’t listening to music very much.  The first day that I got my Dynaudio Xeo 6’s, I listened to them for 12 hours straight.  I’ve listened to my Tyler Acoustics for long periods of time as well.  The Veritas though, 15-30 minutes into a listening session, I’d be falling asleep, even at 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon.  I wondered if it was because my brain was processing more information because the Veritas were revealing so much more information to me.  Anyhow, this is / was not a good thing.

So, I’m wondering if any of you have had similar experiences with “overly” detailed speakers, or speakers that are borderline too bright.  I feel like if I were demo’ing these speakers next to my Tylers, I’d pick the Veritas for sure, but I’d be wrong.  I’ve always been a fan of detailed, slightly bright, speakers, but now I wonder if I would have been better off with more musical, laid back speakers that draw me into the sound and keep my attention until late into the night.

So take note, when you are trying to make a decision on which speakers to purchase, the ones that grab your attention first may not be the best choice.  
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Showing 6 responses by b_limo

@helomech  Its strange that I was so convinced that the veritas sounded better imo.  They have clear mids so I wasn’t thinking that the lows and highs were accentuated but I guess I was wrong!  

I had put the Tylers back in 2 days ago and pulled them right back out...  I just put them back in and it took 10-15 mins to acclimate to what I was perceiving as rolled off highs, and now these sound better... wtf? I’ve been listening to these for 3 hours now with zero fatigue.  
The Veritas imaged really well in that the center soundstage and separation side to side was all there but the Tylers have a deeper soundstage and are more holographic.

I wonder if my preference is for silk / fabric tweeters?  I’ve loved the seas excel, vifa radiator ring, soliloquys’(?), atc, and this morel are all great.  
I’m also wondering if these laid back sounding tweeters (they still provide great detail, just not in your face) are also more musical.  How much of the midrange is covered by the tweeter?  
The Veritas are from 2002 time frame... I would believe they have been played for 200 hours...  My room is heavily treated, more on the “dead” sounding side.  I’m also meticulous with speaker set-up and toe in / toe out.  I was using the supplied veritas stands, which I filled with sand.  I always snug up any bolts on my speakers, along with applying contact conditioner (deoxit gold).

I wouldn’t say the Veritas were shrill but definitely open, clear, detailed and exciting. I was actually getting great bass extension in my room but the bass sounded slightly delayed (rear port, bouncing off the back wall?) and that was something else that I thought might be causing fatigue as my brain was constantly pointing out that the bass was lagging behind the music, not pushing it forward.  Which bring me to my next point.  The Veritas sounded great; I mean, they make delicate, airy, crisp noises but I don’t think they really make “music”.  I would imagine that 7 out of 10 would pick the Veritas in a 20 minute listening session.  I really wonder how many speakers grab a potential buyers attention in a short demo (key, b&w, paradigm), only to give them issues later on that they try to fix through dull sounding cables or amps.

Anyhow, I listened to the Tylers all night and am up first thing again today listening; I have the Tylers up for sale but am reconsidering even selling them now.




@sbayne , Thanks for that!  I think I needed to hear that.  I put sale pending on my ad and will more than likely pull the ad and keep the speakers until I can upgrade (which I’m guessing will be some stand mounts in the $1500-$2000 range).  I totally agree with the emotional connection factor that you pointed out so well 👍

@mlsstl , I agree with you as well regarding how to properly asses a speakers performance... do the instruments sound real?  They may sound wicked good, super detailed, great attack, but if the sound is lacking the underlying harmonics and doesn’t reproduce music, so what?  

@jtcf , Why do you think that is?  That “they” (hyper detailed?) speakers miss the emotional, musical factor?

@arctikdeth Thats good advice, and something I would do if the Veritas weren’t leaving asap!

Still listening to the Tylers today with no desire to move them out.  I started to think that I may be over metal tweeters, maybe even ribbons, for awhile.  With that in mind, in order to improve on my current Tyler's, I’ll have to get something with some Seas Excel or Scan Speak revelators, or equivalent.   Perhaps some Salks on my way to some Pulsars (its good to have long term goals 😀)
@twoleftears 👍 scan speak!  Forgot about those.  Satori as well? Hiquphon?  Sb Acoustics? ...
@jamesclarke I heard nola boxers with rel subs, can’t recall if it was 1 or 2 subs, in the Synergistic Research's room at RMAF years ago.  It was too this day, one of the best sounding standmount set-ups I’ve heard.

@akgwhiz I had some Paradigms with Beryllium tweeters and loved them.  I also liked the Revel and Focal BE tweeters as well.  Just about all the BE tweeters I’ve heard, I like 👍 
I had someone coming tonight to potentially buy the Veritas (he didn’t show) so I put them back in my system... pulled them out after 5 minutes.  I didn’t even want to listen to them while I was waiting for the buyer to show up.  I was playing Corey Hart “sunglasses at night” and there was so much sibilance that it was awful.  Every “s” sounded extremely exaggerated and ssssspity.  Terribly annoying,  I wonder why so many people love these Veritas 🤨.

Im still on the fence about selling the Tylers...