Energy Veritas V-6.3 Set-Up & Listening Tests

Careful experimentation with location to determine just where the best spots are located within your listening space is pretty much essential if maxing the performance of your system is a priority. Walk the room while speaking and have an accomplice (seated in the main listening position) listen. Usually the preferred locations, known as “zones of neutrality” will reveal themselves quickly. These zones, represent  carefully chosen compromises that best support the speaker by acoustically interfering with it the least. Once the zones are located, fine tuning their location can further focus the acoustical image generated by the speakers. For this review, the V-6.3s ended up being located 8’ apart, 3’ in from the back wall and 2.5’ in from the side wall.  They were auditioned both toed in (focused at the main listening position with a laser pointer) and pointed directly at the back wall

All listening tests were conducted both with & without a subwoofer in two-channel configuration with the V-6.3s set to “large” or “small” as appropriate in the A/V receiver’s (Denon AVR-3806) bass management.  Other gear used included a Toshiba HD-A35 DVD/H-DVD player, a Hafler DH-500 stereo power amplifier, a pair of custom built subs and the AVR/V-6.3s connection was handled by some ordinary 10-ga speaker cable.

CD: John Serrie – And The Stars Go With You

So what have we got here? Sequencers, string synths and soaring comet-tail reverb galore. And a series of masterful compositions by John Serrie, working out his grief over the Challenger disaster. His connection with that moment in history? NASA had commissioned Serrie to write music for the “Teacher in Space”  program back in 1985. Hmmm… From this difficult time came “And the Stars Go With You”, a milestone in the “Space Music” genre.

The V-6.3s displayed remarkable clarity and clean character of their sound that was immediately apparent during the earlier recreational listening sessions. The V-6.3s play very, very clean. “Balance” is another word that comes to mind when describing the 6.3s. For example, with detail, too little and everything tends towards the muddled; too much and everything tends towards the gritty or glarey. The 6.3s have a very obvious talent for sitting midway between the two extremes. As one listener commented who just happened to walk in while I was listening to some well recorded baroque music: you can almost see the strings”! A very apt description.

Tonally speaking, location and orientation (in relation to the listening position) play a key role in how the 6.3s will sound. Toe them in and experience a gentle upward slope of the systems response, starting around 3 kHz or so. Point them directly at the back wall and the previously audible upward sloping response presents a flatter acoustical picture.

With the Serrie CD, the 6.3s opened up a huge sound stage that made the CD ever more engaging. I suppose if you’re composing tracks dealing with outer space you need a big soundstage, too. Anyway, with the V-6.3s, said soundstage easily extended beyond the boundaries defined by the left & right location of the speakers. If you’re in the mood for Space Music, “And the Stars Go With You” is a CD worth listening to. The bass response, as good as it is within its range, has its limits.  If you’re a devotee of acoustical instrument recordings the V-6.3s will provide for a very satisfying, involving  listening experience. But beyond that, such as, say, new-agey space music with lots of bass synth content and a sub (or two if you like), is a must.

CD: Trilok Gurtu - The Trilok Gurtu Collection

Ever hear of Trilok Gurtu? I hadn’t either when I picked up this CD. As a matter of fact, I was looking for something else that particular day, but when I read the cast of characters responsible for this album, I bought it: Nana Vasconcelos, David Gilmore, Pat Metheny, Don Cherry, Joe Zawinul and so forth each contributed their individual talents to this album.

The music is complex, very percussive, well recorded & produced and a veritable sonic obstacle course that will put any loudspeaker through its paces. On a side note, if you are a Metheny fan you’d probably want this CD in your collection.

The V-6.3s were able to present a very stable, well focused soundstage, while maintaining the integrity of the percussive aspects of the compositions throughout. For example, the toms are often arrayed across the soundstage, clearly enough you can point to where they’re located in space, each played with a very clean snap that never got lost in the musical currents of whatever instruments shared the stage. The V-6.3s often revealed much about the placement of instruments and mics in ways that you’d expect from high-end studio monitors. Much of this I would attribute to the low-distortion capabilities of the drivers.

The V-6.3s also excelled in how well they consistently revealed all the low-level detail in the tracks that, frankly, a lesser speaker would have missed. This is one of those albums so rich in detail that you really need to be seated in front of a quality playback system to fully enjoy it. I hadn’t listened to this album in years, so it was a treat to relisten, played back through the V-6.3s. I enjoyed listening to the musical complexity of this album so much I found myself pushing the gain to realistic playback levels. The V-6.3s reproduced the percussive dynamics of each track surprisingly well; they didn’t seem to mind being played loud at all  Nice!