⊚ WORLD PREMIERE ⊚

⌈ VERICTUM is a Polish company specializing in filtering the supply voltage and passive EMI / RFI filters. Starting with the first product, the X Bulk mass filter, which we tested in 2015, it presents refined products, different from any other available on the market. Its name consists of two Latin words VERI + ICTUM, meaning 'real influence'. Currently, its lineup also includes power cables, speaker cables and interconnects. ⌋

got to know VERICTUM in 2015, when its then bosses - PAWEŁ CZUBRYT, research and development director and Mr. MAREK STAJNDOR, development director - brought to me the X BULK ground filter (HF January 16, 2015 ⸜ № 134, test HERE). Today no one is surprised by this type of products, one could even say that it is surprising if they are not used, but then for many it was sort of a "black magic" and to present it to the public took a lot ot of courage.

Behind the courage, however, there was a solid engineering knowledge and hours spent on testing and listening to subsequent prototypes. So it was a calculated risk. In the long run, knowledge and experience turn out to be invaluable capital on which one can build something more than ephemera. Subsequent products of this company, run for a long time (successfully, let's add) by Mr. Czubryt himself, confirmed the assumptions made at that time and showed that the techniques used by the company are valuable, scalable and that can be used in various products.

And although after the X Bulk artificial ground the company presented company presented passive EMI / RFI X BLOCK filters, and later X FUSE fuses and the COGITARI power strip, they were still operating within the framework of this first, initial product. The power strip in question was, in fact, a signal that the Verictum offer is opening up to new products. It was a natural move, because a manufacturer needs a fairly wide range in order to develop. In addition, the previously used solutions can also be used in other types of products - audio cables.

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| A few simple words…

PAWEŁ CZUBRYT
Owner, designer

WHILE WORKING ON THE DEMIURG SP, we measured the parameters we were interested in, but the most important thing for us was assessing results through thorough listening sessions to each of the tuning concepts and development stages (emphasis - ed.).

Our reference system features a complete Verictum power supply and filtering system, and the listening room has been professionally acoustically adapted. The system is refined and optimally tuned to be a perfect tool for our work and listening to music. It allows us to verify the sound quality quite precisely. The system shows even the smallest changes in the sound, all simplifications and deficiencies in the construction of the soundstage, body, micro-sounds, timbre, shading, etc. in the entire frequency range.

⸜ Verictum’s reference system and Mr. PAWEŁ CZUBRYT

The phase of designing and meticulously tuning new products requires a lot of work and resources for prototyping and countless hours of listening sessions.

How does it work (in short)? In the case of Demiurg SP, we had to build several complete cables according to different assumptions. The individual prototypes were built on the basis of our unique silver conductor, gold-plated with 24k gold. Each of the prototypes was made of conductors of a different geometry (ribbon, square, round cross-section), differed in design, insulators, cross-sections of individual wires, etc. Each of them was tuned to the maximum level of its capabilities. After tedious listening sessions, the best concept was selected, which was further developed until the final, fully satisfactory product was created.

Naturally, we also verify the final product in different listening conditions and audio systems. Our friend audiophiles (whose ears we trust) verify its sonic features in their sets, and at the same time in relation to the cables they have. Finally, we get feedback from them as to whether their systems have progressed as much as our reference system had.

⸜ The final stage of cable’s production

In the Demiurg SP cable we have used a number of proprietary solutions and technologies for EMI / RFI interference suppression and anti-vibration, which also affect the sound quality. Each component of the cable is an important part of tuning, e.g. splitters made of oiled merbau wood (instead of aluminum or other metal) or Furutech spades that have been deprived of elements introducing micro-vibrations. Instead of being fixed with screw, as they usually are, they are clamped onto the cable ends with just the right amount of pressure.

The design of the Demiurg SP is completely subordinated to the sound qualities. The cable is made by hand starting from the conductor to the final product. Its production is laborious and requires constant control at every stage of the process, therefore it takes several days to assemble one pair of cables. ♦

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▌ DEMIURG SP

The AC DEMIURG POWER CABLE was developed relatively early, because we were the first to test it in 2016 (HF | № 141, test HERE). A characteristic feature of this, not cheap, cable was that it was designed and made entirely in Poland, and the only imported elements were the Japanese rhodium-plated Furutech FI-E50 (R) and FI-50 ( R) PIEZO CERAMIC plugs. What's more, its design did not use ready-made conductors - Verictum designed its own conductor made of laboratory-purity-class silver, gold-plated with 24-carat gold.

Also in Demiurg SP, the conductors are made of silver produced upon the company's specifications, which in a complicated process is properly recrystallized and tempered, and then covered with 24-carat gold of an appropriate thickness. The type of silver and its treatment are selected for a given product and worked out through auditions. The gold-plated silver is then cryogenized at company-determined intervals. As we read in the press materials, the selection of the time intervals between freezing and thawing is extremely important to obtain the optimal quality of the conductor. The whole process is controlled by a computer, keeping a stable freezing temperature.

The cables in the version that we received for testing were terminated with spades. It is the top model from the gold-plated series by the Japanese Furutech company, the FT 211G. The cable is directional, the arrows are placed under the logo on the splitters. Oh yeah - the splitters. These are extremely important elements in the construction of the cable. Please take a look at the meticulousness with which Siltech, for example, carries them out. They play several roles in the electrical and mechanical design of a cable. They are, for example, an element that matches the mechanical flexibility of the entire cable to its thinner leads. They also have a role to play in shaping the electrical parameters. And they are also decorative elements.

In the Demiurg SP cable these are nice, wooden "cans". They are oiled, not varnished - varnished wood behaves differently - and the large, round package contains oil that can refresh their surface. The cables are quite stiff, but not as stiff as the Siltechs they were compared to.

▌ SOUND

⸤ HOW WE LISTENED The Verictum Demiurg SP loudspeaker cable was tested in the "High Fidelity" reference system and compared to the SILTECH TRIPLE CROWN cables costing EUR 42,500 (for a 2-meter stereo pair).

Cables of this class are usually cryogenically treated which helps to "organize the structure" of a metal at the crystalline level. Additional process helping in achieving this gaol is playing music with the cable, the so-called breaking-in process. Unfortunately, every movement of the cable changes this situation to some extent and the cable has to be "re-arranged" - these are the basics of physics.

Mr. Paweł Czubryt, the head of Verictum, put it this way in an e-mail to me:

You should connecting the cable to the reference system and play some music overnight before starting the actual listening session - I think that the cable deserves the time needed for relaxation and „setting up”, including this important "electromagnetic arrangement" due to its structure. The solutions used in the cable simply need time to stabilize the parameters so that the cable sounds to the best of its ability.

Taking this problem seriously, a reviewer has a serious problem - A / B / A comparison requires switching cables to listen to selected tracks, every track or at least every several tracks. Longer gaps mean the comparison is flawed. So I had to choose between the optimal parameters of the tested cable and the listening methodology. I chose the latter because the reference cable was also moved during the test, so both cables sounded slightly below their capabilities. Before critical listening session, however, the Verictum cable was connected to the system for two days.

Recordings used in the test | a selection

⸜ A Day at Jazz Spot 'Basie'. Selected by Shoji "Swifty" Sugawara, Stereo Sound Reference Record SSRR6-7, 2 x SACD/CD (2011).
⸜ DIANA KRALL, This Dream Of You, Verve Records UCCV-1181, SHM-CD (2020).
⸜ JASKUŁKE SEXTET, Komeda Recomposed, Sea Label 378715009, CD (2018).
⸜ LED ZEPPELIN, Led Zeppelin (I), Atlantic/Warner Music 8122796439, „Super Deluxe Box Set”, 2 x CD + 2 x LP (1961/2014).
⸜ PINK FLOYD, The Dark Side Of The Moon, Harvest SHVL 804, 1E 064 o 05249/Analogue Productions CAPP 81033 SA, SACD/CD (1973/2021).
⸜ WES MONTGOMERY & WYNTON KELLY TRIO, Smokin’ At The Half Note, Verve/Analogue Productions CVRJ 8633 SA, SACD/CD (1965/2013).
⸜ JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, Cities In Concert Houston Lyon, Sony Music, Disques Dreyfus, BMG 88843024722, CD (1987/2014).

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JEAN-MICHEL JARRE's album from his concerts in Houston and Lyon from 1987, was recorded on the 32-track Otari DTR 900 digital reel-to-reel tape recorder and mixed in analog domain to an analog master tape. Recordings of this type, if they are not properly prepared, may sound a bit bright and often lack bass mass. On the other hand, the best examples are amazingly dynamic and have excellent sound definition (Otari DTR 900 was the counterpart of the Mitsubishi X-850; more about this technique HERE).

The version I listened to this time was the 2014 remaster, which was produced by Dave Deadwater. This is not a particularly well-liked audio engineer as he compresses the signal strongly and brightens it. But in this particular case, he did quite a good job. And it was with this recording that I heard many of the advantages that the new Verictum speaker cable brings to the sound. I received an open, sonorous sound image with a good tonal balance. It was a hair darker than the Siltech cables it was comparable to, but the difference was not that big. It was not about lowering the treble, but about sweetening it.

It is a cable that shows a world composed of a large amount of information, but also an orderly world. It is not as resolving as the reference cables, and yet the difference - let’s emphasize it again - was not decisive. Yes, it was there, the sound featured a bit less „plankton” information, it was not so perfectly unambiguous in its character and values at any given time. But that was what I expected and any other result would be something of a revolution. There was no revolution, but there was a relaxed, nice, good sound.

Therefore, DIANA KRALL's vocal from the But Beautiful track from the This Dream Of You album had an interesting timbre, character and good focus. Its timbre was unchanged, but it was shown a bit further away than with the Siltechs. I've heard it before, with J.M. Jarre, where the reverbs, i.e. what is "behind" the sound and what defines the dimensions of the space, were shown more strongly, but with Diana Krall it turned out even better. Her vocal was recorded with a microphone placed close to her, so it is large and "forward". It lacks some finesse and "body" - these are the costs of a close-up position - but the compromise between "presence" and clarity is really good.

The Polish cable did something as if the pianist was sitting further away from the microphone, and thus had more freedom in singing; in fact, Krall usually records a vocal track when playing the piano, but hopefully you know I mean. In this "version", that is with the tested cable, the compressor's work was less audible - and the compressor in the recordings is indispensable, if used consciously. The timbre of her voice was not changed, but the vocal was shown further away than with the Siltech cables.

I heard it in a similar way with the WES MONTGOMERY’s Smokin’ At The Half Note with material recorded both in the Half Note club and in the studio. This is an unusual live album, because the material recorded in the club - the first two tracks - was accompanied by three more, recorded four months later in the Rudy Van Gelder studio. Interestingly, the remaining recordings of the concerts that took place at Half Note at the time, were released in 1968 on the posthumous album Willow Weep for Me, with added strings. Their original versions were released on the re-edition of the Smokin’ At The Half Note in the "Verve Master Edition" series (more about the album and this series HERE).

Anyway, the difference between live and studio recordings is not very big. It is mainly based on the fact that you can hear the reverb added in the studio stronger. The Verictum cable showed these differences in a convincing way, but did not emphasize them - after all, the goal of the mastering engineer, that is Van Gelder, was – as I assume – shaping the space and timbre in such a way that both parts "agree" with each other emotionally. The Demiurg also showed well that in the studio the instruments on the axis, i.e. the piano and the double bass - also played with a bow – have a better definition than from the recordings in Half Note, which is a good proof of the potential of this cable in terms of differentiation.

The most important thing to me, however, is that the tested cable simply “sounds nice”. All that I was talking about, and I would add a good bass extension with a natural softness, is important, and even very important. But even more important to me is the overall view proposed by Verictum. It is not a cable that would break the limits in terms of dynamics, and yet it differentiates it well. It also has a very nice timbre - a bit sweet, but never overdrawn or exaggerated. It also offers a very good insight into the recording, and yet it does without "bring out" the dirt.

I have already mentioned Krall, so let me add one more example. ANDRZEJ PONIATOWSKI sent me two JANUSZ KOMAN albums a few days ago, he worked on for GAD Records. As he wrote, he is at the stage of being infatuated with Isotope's software and he is experimenting with it. I received the material on gold Master CD-R discs in the "flat" version, i.e. straight from files ripped from the "master" tape and after processing.

The former sound a bit "heavy", as if they had a not fully precisely positioned Dolby module in an analog tape deck, or as if the original mastering engineer went crazy with compression. With the Polish cable, the sound of one of these with a never-before-released studio material from 1982 was pleasant and simply nice. I heard a thickening of the lower midrange that closed its opening and choked up some of the information in the treble, and yet it was enjoyable as a whole. The foreground was put behind the line connecting the speakers, the panorama was reproduced in a wide way - as for Polish recordings - and the timbre was surprisingly nice.

The Polish cable is, I think it’s the key to this test, a sort of an interface that does not try to change anything, and yet "embraces" everything in a way that I would call "sensitive" - that’s a reference to Tokarczuk's speech during the Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Stockholm. The point is that it is focused on neutral presentation, but is not completely neutral, and yet the corrections it introduces work with the music, not against it.

This was also the case with the latest version of the PINK FLOYD album entitled The Dark Side Of The Moon, released (finally!) by the American Analogue Productions label on SACD. It seems that the material for it is identical to the "anniversary" version of the album from 2003, but this time the album was pressed in Japan. Anyway, I got a nice pulse at the beginning, the rising noise of the tape was also well-scaled, and the bass had a nice foundation. The presentation was smooth, fluid, fantastically pleasant - just like with all previous albums with which the Verictum cable was listened to.

▌ SUMMARY

IT IS POSSIBLE THAT it is the most important feature of this cable - the ability, rare in audio, to introduce the listener to the music world of a given album in a smooth, but also sure way. The cable is a bit "sweet", it also tends to smooth the attack of the sound, but it does it not "against" the music, but "with” it. Compared to the reference cable, which is many times more expensive, it did not show any major differences, neither in tonality nor dynamics, which puts it in a very good light.

It is simply a high-class, high-end cable offering a great design, excellent workmanship and performance, that allows you to listen to music for long hours without fatigue or a trace of irritation. And it is also very well made. A cable with a similar design and sound, but from a large, recognized manufacturer, would cost twice as much. ■