I was going to use the Verity in DAC mode and connect it to the Pass Labs XP-32 preamplifier that I reviewed in March. However, as its postrepair measured performance in DAC mode was not as good as it had been prerepair (see the Measurements sidebar), I couldn't put that knowledge to one side while listening. I decided, therefore, to audition the DAC/PRE in Preamp mode, connecting it directly to a pair of Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks and adjusting volume with the Apple remote control. (Depending on the music and loudspeakers, the volume control was set between –23.0dB and –13.0dB.)
I encountered one operational glitch: When I was using the Roon app on my Mac mini to select and play music, pressing the central button on the Apple remote control to unmute the Verity sometimes paused playback in Roon.
Listening
With two of the D/A processors that I have reviewed in recent issues, the Weiss DAC502 and Okto dac8 Stereo, there was an immediate impression of recorded detail yet without that detail being unnaturally emphasized. The Verity DAC/PRE was different. While recorded detail wasn't immediately apparent, as I continued listening to familiar recordings I realized that nothing was missing. Low-level detail was present in the correct proportion to high-level information.
One of the first multitrack digital recordings I made was Rendezvous (16/44.1 ALAC files, Stereophile STPH013-2, footnote 2) in 1998, which featured a jazz quartet led by bass player Jerome Harris. Although Chad Kassem's Blue Heaven Studio, where I recorded the album, has a beautifully warm reverberation signature, I close-miked the instruments to give me the maximum flexibility in the eventual mixdown. Nevertheless, with the Monsalvat DAC/PRE decoding the bits, enough of the erstwhile church's subtle ambience was audible. For example, it could be heard around and behind the solidly defined image of Billy Drummond's drums and cymbals in his solo in "Followthrough," especially when he drives the beat along with rimshots just before the final restatement of the melody. Similarly, the studio's acoustic could be heard reinforcing the sound of Harris's Taylor acoustic bass guitar in his solo introduction to "Hand By Hand."
I went from a very familiar recording to one I hadn't played in years. Richie Havens's Richard P. Havens, 1983 had been in constant rotation when the LP was first released at the end of 1968. The track "For Haven's Sake" features what back then was a mind-blowing stereo effect. The track starts with Richie's voice and acoustic guitars centered, with a mono piano, then an organ, entering at far right. A reverb-drenched piano appears at the far left of the soundstage in the second verse, with bass guitar in the center, mono drums joining the piano at the far right, and a shaker joining the piano at the far left. This is all normal-if-primitive stereo mixing, but at 4:35 it gets weird. Richie stays centered, but the instruments start circling him, shedding reverberation as they chase each other from left to right in front of him, with the reverb increasing as they pass behind him in the other direction. Playing this track on the 1990 CD reissue (Polydor/Verve 835 212-2), and sending the PCM stream to the DAC/PRE's AES/EBU input, the soundstage depth as reproduced by the Verity was impressive, as were the unambiguously defined paths painted by the circling instruments.
The final tracks on Richard P. Havens, 1983 were recorded live in concert in Santa Monica, and again there was some soundstage weirdness, clearly revealed by the Verity DAC/PRE. With the first live track, "The Parable of Ramon," you're in the audience, facing the band on stage, as expected, this clearly delineated by the Verity. As Havens sings louder, you can clearly hear the sound of his voice lighting up the hall acoustic. Toward the end of the track, Richie wanders offstage, still singing and strumming furiously before returning to center stage for a subdued guitar solo. But with the next track, an ad hoc performance of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends," it starts to get weird again. The image of Havens's guitar moves to far right and the sound of the hall, the reverb on the guitar, Havens's voice, and the audience's laughter and applause now stretch from the left loudspeaker across the stereo image. However, the second guitarist is still onstage in front, at the far left. There are now two soundstages for the DAC/PRE to decode—you are simultaneously standing at one side of the hall, with the stage and performers on your right, and in the center of the audience with the stage in front of you. With the Verity's unambiguous resolution of the recorded information, the conflicting soundstage presentations do not lead to perceptual conflict.
That differentiation of detail also applied at low frequencies. The bass guitar and kickdrum on "Mother (Ultimate mix)" from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection (24/192 FLAC, Apple/Qobuz) occupy similar frequency ranges, yet the Verity kept them separate. The kickdrum had a little more bite on "Mother (Take 61)," a difference readily revealed by the Verity, as it did on "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) (Ultimate mix)." The DAC/PRE played this track with an excellent sense of what the late Art Dudley used to call "force," as it did "Won't Get Fooled Again" from Richie Havens's final album, Nobody Left to Crown, from 2008 (16/44.1 ALAC file, from Verve Forecast 001163102).
Comparisons
Those Okto and Weiss processors had long since left my system. However, I still had the Roon Ready version of MBL's N31 DAC/CD player on hand ($16,420), which uses the same ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chip as the Verity DAC/PRE. I connected both to my Roon Nucleus+, the Verity via USB and the MBL via Ethernet. Using the 1kHz warble tone from my Editor's Choice CD (STPH016-2), I matched levels to within 0.23dB—the closest possible with the Verity's 0.5dB volume-control steps and the MBL's 1dB steps in Roon. Both processors were connected to an AudioQuest 1000 power conditioner with AudioQuest Dragon AC cables. My measurements indicated that the MBL's Fast Rolloff reconstruction filter is very similar to the Verity's, so I further leveled the playing field by using that filter for the initial comparisons.
I cued up what is fast becoming my favorite performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1, with Vladimir Ashkenazy accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti (24/48 MQA FLAC file, unfolded to 24/96 by Roon, Decca/Tidal). Listening first to Verity, the orchestral sound was rich and warm, though with somewhat limited soundstage depth, which I assume is characteristic of the mid-1970s recording. The image of Ashkenazy's piano was fairly wide, and its sound was a touch forward in the upper midrange. Changing to the MBL, the image of the orchestra acquired a little more depth, while the piano moved slightly forward and offered a little more spatial definition. The sound lost some of its warmth, however.
In A/B comparisons, there is always a tendency to prefer the second presentation, so I changed back to the DAC/PRE. When Ashkenazy pounds the keyboard at the start of his cadenza in the Concerto's first movement, the instrument moved slightly farther back in the soundstage than it had been with the N31. The orchestra's lower-midrange warmth also returned, though the overall presentation was less filigreed than it had been with the MBL.
For the next comparison, I played the Jerome Harris Quartet's performance of Duke Ellington's "The Mooche" from Editor's Choice, with levels again matched to within 0.23dB. I listened first with the MBL, then with the Verity. The differences were more difficult to identify than they had been with the Beethoven concerto. But after repeating the comparison, though the stereo imaging of both D/A processors was equally well-defined, the MBL sounded a touch more transparent, with slightly more soundstage depth. The DAC/PRE again sounded warmer in the lower midrange than the N31, though repeating the comparison with the MBL's Min reconstruction filter reduced this difference.
Was this slight preference for the MBL due to my using the Verity's USB input? With some other processors, I have found that USB does not sound as transparent as an AES/EBU connection. I therefore loaded the Editor's Choice CD into the N31's disc slot and connected its AES/EBU output to the DAC/PRE's AES/EBU input. Playing "The Mooche" again, if there was a difference between the Verity's USB and AES/EBU inputs, I couldn't hear it.
Conclusion
It is fair to note that the manufacturing issues that JVS and I found would have been specific to this sample. Other than the dCS Vivaldi DAC ($35,999), which I haven't listened to for a few years, at $25,000 the Verity DAC/PRE is the most expensive D/A processor I have used in my system. At this price level—and speaking personally—while I appreciated the DAC/PRE having a volume control, I would have also liked Ethernet connectivity and full integration with Roon. And while I respect Maxime Julien's reason for not offering a choice of reconstruction filters, I have found that different filters can be optimal for different kinds of music. Those minor quibbles aside, both the Verity's sound quality and its performance on the test bench are up there with the best I have experienced.
Footnote 2: The Rendezvous CD is long out of print, though one track, "The Mooche," is included on the Editor's Choice CD (Stereophile STPH016-2), which is still available. However, Rendezvous can be downloaded or streamed from jeromeharris.bandcamp.com/album/rendezvous.
With two of the D/A processors that I have reviewed in recent issues, the Weiss DAC502 and Okto dac8 Stereo, there was an immediate impression of recorded detail yet without that detail being unnaturally emphasized. The Verity DAC/PRE was different. While recorded detail wasn't immediately apparent, as I continued listening to familiar recordings I realized that nothing was missing. Low-level detail was present in the correct proportion to high-level information.
One of the first multitrack digital recordings I made was Rendezvous (16/44.1 ALAC files, Stereophile STPH013-2, footnote 2) in 1998, which featured a jazz quartet led by bass player Jerome Harris. Although Chad Kassem's Blue Heaven Studio, where I recorded the album, has a beautifully warm reverberation signature, I close-miked the instruments to give me the maximum flexibility in the eventual mixdown. Nevertheless, with the Monsalvat DAC/PRE decoding the bits, enough of the erstwhile church's subtle ambience was audible. For example, it could be heard around and behind the solidly defined image of Billy Drummond's drums and cymbals in his solo in "Followthrough," especially when he drives the beat along with rimshots just before the final restatement of the melody. Similarly, the studio's acoustic could be heard reinforcing the sound of Harris's Taylor acoustic bass guitar in his solo introduction to "Hand By Hand."
I went from a very familiar recording to one I hadn't played in years. Richie Havens's Richard P. Havens, 1983 had been in constant rotation when the LP was first released at the end of 1968. The track "For Haven's Sake" features what back then was a mind-blowing stereo effect. The track starts with Richie's voice and acoustic guitars centered, with a mono piano, then an organ, entering at far right. A reverb-drenched piano appears at the far left of the soundstage in the second verse, with bass guitar in the center, mono drums joining the piano at the far right, and a shaker joining the piano at the far left. This is all normal-if-primitive stereo mixing, but at 4:35 it gets weird. Richie stays centered, but the instruments start circling him, shedding reverberation as they chase each other from left to right in front of him, with the reverb increasing as they pass behind him in the other direction. Playing this track on the 1990 CD reissue (Polydor/Verve 835 212-2), and sending the PCM stream to the DAC/PRE's AES/EBU input, the soundstage depth as reproduced by the Verity was impressive, as were the unambiguously defined paths painted by the circling instruments.
The final tracks on Richard P. Havens, 1983 were recorded live in concert in Santa Monica, and again there was some soundstage weirdness, clearly revealed by the Verity DAC/PRE. With the first live track, "The Parable of Ramon," you're in the audience, facing the band on stage, as expected, this clearly delineated by the Verity. As Havens sings louder, you can clearly hear the sound of his voice lighting up the hall acoustic. Toward the end of the track, Richie wanders offstage, still singing and strumming furiously before returning to center stage for a subdued guitar solo. But with the next track, an ad hoc performance of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends," it starts to get weird again. The image of Havens's guitar moves to far right and the sound of the hall, the reverb on the guitar, Havens's voice, and the audience's laughter and applause now stretch from the left loudspeaker across the stereo image. However, the second guitarist is still onstage in front, at the far left. There are now two soundstages for the DAC/PRE to decode—you are simultaneously standing at one side of the hall, with the stage and performers on your right, and in the center of the audience with the stage in front of you. With the Verity's unambiguous resolution of the recorded information, the conflicting soundstage presentations do not lead to perceptual conflict.
That differentiation of detail also applied at low frequencies. The bass guitar and kickdrum on "Mother (Ultimate mix)" from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection (24/192 FLAC, Apple/Qobuz) occupy similar frequency ranges, yet the Verity kept them separate. The kickdrum had a little more bite on "Mother (Take 61)," a difference readily revealed by the Verity, as it did on "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) (Ultimate mix)." The DAC/PRE played this track with an excellent sense of what the late Art Dudley used to call "force," as it did "Won't Get Fooled Again" from Richie Havens's final album, Nobody Left to Crown, from 2008 (16/44.1 ALAC file, from Verve Forecast 001163102).
ComparisonsThose Okto and Weiss processors had long since left my system. However, I still had the Roon Ready version of MBL's N31 DAC/CD player on hand ($16,420), which uses the same ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chip as the Verity DAC/PRE. I connected both to my Roon Nucleus+, the Verity via USB and the MBL via Ethernet. Using the 1kHz warble tone from my Editor's Choice CD (STPH016-2), I matched levels to within 0.23dB—the closest possible with the Verity's 0.5dB volume-control steps and the MBL's 1dB steps in Roon. Both processors were connected to an AudioQuest 1000 power conditioner with AudioQuest Dragon AC cables. My measurements indicated that the MBL's Fast Rolloff reconstruction filter is very similar to the Verity's, so I further leveled the playing field by using that filter for the initial comparisons.
I cued up what is fast becoming my favorite performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1, with Vladimir Ashkenazy accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti (24/48 MQA FLAC file, unfolded to 24/96 by Roon, Decca/Tidal). Listening first to Verity, the orchestral sound was rich and warm, though with somewhat limited soundstage depth, which I assume is characteristic of the mid-1970s recording. The image of Ashkenazy's piano was fairly wide, and its sound was a touch forward in the upper midrange. Changing to the MBL, the image of the orchestra acquired a little more depth, while the piano moved slightly forward and offered a little more spatial definition. The sound lost some of its warmth, however.
For the next comparison, I played the Jerome Harris Quartet's performance of Duke Ellington's "The Mooche" from Editor's Choice, with levels again matched to within 0.23dB. I listened first with the MBL, then with the Verity. The differences were more difficult to identify than they had been with the Beethoven concerto. But after repeating the comparison, though the stereo imaging of both D/A processors was equally well-defined, the MBL sounded a touch more transparent, with slightly more soundstage depth. The DAC/PRE again sounded warmer in the lower midrange than the N31, though repeating the comparison with the MBL's Min reconstruction filter reduced this difference.
Was this slight preference for the MBL due to my using the Verity's USB input? With some other processors, I have found that USB does not sound as transparent as an AES/EBU connection. I therefore loaded the Editor's Choice CD into the N31's disc slot and connected its AES/EBU output to the DAC/PRE's AES/EBU input. Playing "The Mooche" again, if there was a difference between the Verity's USB and AES/EBU inputs, I couldn't hear it.
ConclusionIt is fair to note that the manufacturing issues that JVS and I found would have been specific to this sample. Other than the dCS Vivaldi DAC ($35,999), which I haven't listened to for a few years, at $25,000 the Verity DAC/PRE is the most expensive D/A processor I have used in my system. At this price level—and speaking personally—while I appreciated the DAC/PRE having a volume control, I would have also liked Ethernet connectivity and full integration with Roon. And while I respect Maxime Julien's reason for not offering a choice of reconstruction filters, I have found that different filters can be optimal for different kinds of music. Those minor quibbles aside, both the Verity's sound quality and its performance on the test bench are up there with the best I have experienced.
Footnote 2: The Rendezvous CD is long out of print, though one track, "The Mooche," is included on the Editor's Choice CD (Stereophile STPH016-2), which is still available. However, Rendezvous can be downloaded or streamed from jeromeharris.bandcamp.com/album/rendezvous.
