Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

For a comparison with the Energy Veritas v2.8 speakers, I had earlier set up in my listening room the pair of Snell B minors recently reviewed by Larry Greenhill (April '94, p.167) and sent to Santa Fe for measurement. The $3599/pair Snells are similar in size to the Veritases, but look much less conventional. I set up the Snells on the room's short dimension, a third of the way out into the room. In this position, with a closely positioned listener, they performed strikingly well, and much as LG described: midbass was a bit full, but not excessively so; bass extension was good, with little or nothing obviously missing, but somewhat outpointed at the very bottom by the best subwoofers and a very few full-range loudspeakers; the midrange was very clean and uncolored; and the top end was notably smooth yet detailed.

The Veritases, again with a rather different setup but in the same room, had an airier, more expansive sound. I'm certain that most listeners will be impressed by the sheer weight (in the best sense of the term) that the Veritases bring to "power music." While the Veritas went louder more gracefully and handled demanding program material with more aplomb, the Snells were hardly lacking in this respect.—Thomas J. Norton