Introduction of Vera Audio Coherence 12 - a high quality speaker many can afford

[Bjorn]

If anyone are interested in hearing the Vera Audio Coherence 12 speakers, it's open now for demo. 25 minutes drive from Bergen city in Norway. Feel free to contact me to set a time.

I had the first demo for two Norwegian gentlement on Saturday who drove 8-9 hours to listen to the speakers. Here's a translation of their feedback:

After some self-selected well-known music tracks, the conclusion was clear: This was something else! A purity and incredible dynamics in instruments, natural sound in voices/instruments, a detailed and precise sound image, a bass reproduction so crisp, precise and controlled, this was really good.
Congratulations Bjørn on a thoroughly and really good speaker!
The demo set was reserved on the spot.

 

[Bjorn]

Not many have heard the Coherence 12 so far, but those who has been here for a demo have given great feedback.

I believe one strength of the speaker is the vertical directivity. It's very uniform up to 1.5 KHz and narrower than traditional speakers. Above 1.5 KHz it get's even narrower and gradually more so the higher in frequencies. The drawback of this is that the treble is limited when you stand close to the speaker. But my IMO, this is really a benefit when listening it the seating position.

How do I know this? Well, we used much wider top drivers (many were tested) in the beginning and did a lot of AB tests. And it was evident that less reflections from floor and ceiling was a great benefit. Particular in a room with slanted ceiling, but also with a normal flat ceiling height of 240 cm.

I know you want to see polar plots, and I hope to present these in June or July at latest.

 

[Bjorn]

We want to send a pair to Erin for measurements at one point. Probably not before late fall/winter time. If someone in USA are open for their speakers to be measured there first, free shipping will be given and there's quite a lot to save from that considering the size of the speakers. If so, please contact me.

I assure that the Coherence 12 is an amazing speaker that is extremely unlikey to dissapoint. I know because we have compared to the best horn speakers and the awesome CBT design. It's more different than of lower quality really.

 

[Bjorn]

@sigbergaudio wrote what's in the paragraph below in another thread.

You are using thinly veiled tricks to try to imply that your own design is perfect and the highest quality of all speakers out there, while talking down everything else.
Another example, where you list all the features of your own speakers as a mandatory list of high-end, implying everything that doesn't fit the bill isn't high-end, which of course is not true at all:

What do expensive speakers sound like?

Take a stack of $100 bills, at least 585 of them, and fan them next to your preferred ear. That sound is the 'light, airy lilt' that you'll get from 'expensive speakers'. Or just send me that stack of the 585 bills. I will immediately report back. From Bali.

www.audiosciencereview.com

You are free to carry on of course, but I suggest this is not a great look.

Obviously we have different opinions about speaker designs and approaches and that's fine.

So I thought I would ask him him if he's willing to have two different reviewers to AB test the Coherence 12 against his Saranna. The Saranna costs more than three time as much as the Coherence 12 with internal amps or a less if external electronics is used with the Coherence 12. But I don't see that as road block and my goal has always been to provide something with very high quality for lower prices

I would provide external electronics for such comparisons. Using one. Norwegian revidere/magazine would make sense but I would also ask for a second reviewer and someone with a more objective view than traditional magazines.

 

[sigbergaudio]

@sigbergaudio wrote what's in the paragraph below in another thread.



Obviously we have different opinions about speaker designs and approaches and that's fine.

So I thought I would ask him him if he's willing to have two different reviewers to AB test the Coherence 12 against his Saranna. The Saranna costs more than three time as much as the Coherence 12 with internal amps or a less if external electronics is used with the Coherence 12. But I don't see that as road block and my goal has always been to provide something with very high quality for lower prices

I would provide external electronics for such comparisons. Using one. Norwegian revidere/magazine would make sense but I would also ask for a second reviewer and someone with a more objective view than traditional magazines.

I am happy you are confident in your speaker design, but this is what I'm talking about. This isn't a competition.

Why can't we coexist and talk nicely about other manufacturers with good designs - promoting decent, engineering based speaker designs so that more people become aware of how that is superior to the audiophile / snakeoil department?

Bigger cake instead of fighting over it?

 

[Bjorn]

I am happy you are confident in your speaker design, but this is what I'm talking about. This isn't a competition.

Since you clearly was stating I was wrong, I thought you could be given the opportinuty to prove that with an AB test. Not surprised by your rejection.

Why can't we coexist and talk nicely about other manufacturers with good designs - promoting decent, engineering based speaker designs so that more people become aware of how that is superior to the audiophile / snakeoil department?

Bigger cake instead of fighting over it?

You're the one attacking with straw man arguments, not the other way around FIY.

You are using thinly veiled tricks to try to imply that your own design is perfect and the highest quality of all speakers out there, while talking down everything else.
Another example, where you list all the features of your own speakers as a mandatory list of high-end, implying everything that doesn't fit the bill isn't high-end, which of course is not true at all:

 

[sigbergaudio]

Since you clearly was stating I was wrong, I thought you could be given the opportinuty to prove that with an AB test. Not surprised by your rejection.

I challenged your approach, and how you implicitly or explicitly talk down alternative approaches that isn't like your own. This is not the first time.

No, I don't think anyone should be surprised by the rejection, anyone thinking about this proposal for more than two seconds understands it would be stupid to accept. However such a test goes, you're the one who has something to gain.

A) I win = You can say "Sure, but they're three times the price after all, and it was pretty close!", while I haven't gained much. Our speakers sounded better than something 1/3 the price. Not much to write home about.

B) I lose = You are obviously very happy, while I'm not.

Either scenario results in not much to gain for me, but lots to gain for you. Zero incentive for me to do this. And again, a "duel" between two manufacturers to determine the best speakers? It's not the middle ages. So I guess I should challenge Dutch&Dutch to a duel to figure who has the best cardioid speakers then. I prefer to be happy that there are other good manufacturers out there, and try to talk about them in a positive way. Any manufacturer that builds good stuff helps build respect and trust for the entire industry.

You're the one attacking with straw man arguments, not the other way around FIY.

I don't think I've done that, but in that case my apologies, it was not my intention.

 

[Thomas Savage]

The customers do the duel , I'd focus on manufacturing the products that reflect ones design priorities.

I'd mention , customers can also make a judgement based partly on how folks represent themselves on public forums like these. Denigrating other designers/manufacturers never reflects well nor dose it serve ' our side of the street ' .

You both seem to strive for performance while respecting ' audio science ' , a greater harmony will help promote those ideals and grow the market as a whole . Win win ...

 

[sigbergaudio]

@Bjorn Anyway, this isn't going anywhere good. I regret speaking up, I'm not sure what I expected to happen. You do you, and I'll get out of your hair.

 

[TimVG]

Not many have heard the Coherence 12 so far, but those who has been here for a demo have given great feedback.

I believe one strength of the speaker is the vertical directivity. It's very uniform up to 1.5 KHz and narrower than traditional speakers. Above 1.5 KHz it get's even narrower and gradually more so the higher in frequencies. The drawback of this is that the treble is limited when you stand close to the speaker. But my IMO, this is really a benefit when listening it the seating position.

How do I know this? Well, we used much wider top drivers (many were tested) in the beginning and did a lot of AB tests. And it was evident that less reflections from floor and ceiling was a great benefit. Particular in a room with slanted ceiling, but also with a normal flat ceiling height of 240 cm.

I know you want to see polar plots, and I hope to present these in June or July at latest.

This looks like a very sensible design. I think I recognize the planar.. Funny coincidence, I was thinking a while ago of how to solve (well, work around..) the issue of a dedicated center channel which I can only fit beneath my screen (slanted sealing), which simply does not work well psychoacoustically. One idea I had was using this (at least I think it is) planar driver above the screen in a custom fitting, and using a woofer directly below the screen. Of course, it's still not ideal, and not identical to this design - but you get the idea.

Hope to hear these one day.

 

[unmutual]

New owner of the Vera Audio Coherence 12 here. When I found out that Bjorn was located in my area, I auditioned the Coherence 12 and eventually decided to purchase the prototype set.

I have to give Bjorn tremendous kudos for his level of knowledge and service level. He spent a good amount of time setting up the speakers and DSP settings in my room, patiently answering a lot of newbie questions from me.

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to check out Bjorn's speakers. They seem like true no compromise designs, without audio jewellery accoutrements or marketing buzzwords applied.

 

[MKR]

New owner of the Vera Audio Coherence 12 here. When I found out that Bjorn was located in my area, I auditioned the Coherence 12 and eventually decided to purchase the prototype set.

I have to give Bjorn tremendous kudos for his level of knowledge and service level. He spent a good amount of time setting up the speakers and DSP settings in my room, patiently answering a lot of newbie questions from me.

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to check out Bjorn's speakers. They seem like true no compromise designs, without audio jewellery accoutrements or marketing buzzwords applied.

Congrats! I am a big fan of the planar (not sure if Bjorn is using the Radian or GRS version?). Very surprised more speaker makers not using the planar. The clarity and resolution is superb. Though one negative is that driver is not forgiving of poor recordings. I find some recordings that were fine on a coax version of speakers I have now when swapped with planar are unlistenable (I have prototype speaker now where I can interchange tweet/midrange heads between coax and planar). But that’s ok for me as I ultimately prefer the transparency of the planar.

 

[Matt_Holland]

Congrats! I am a big fan of the planar (not sure if Bjorn is using the Radian or GRS version?). Very surprised more speaker makers not using the planar. The clarity and resolution is superb. Though one negative is that driver is not forgiving of poor recordings. I find some recordings that were fine on a coax version of speakers I have now when swapped with planar are unlistenable (I have prototype speaker now where I can interchange tweet/midrange heads between coax and planar). But that’s ok for me as I ultimately prefer the transparency of the planar.

If a driver genuinely has superb clarity and resolution, by which I presume you mean flat on-axis, well behaved off-axis and low distortion, why do you think it makes poor recordings unlistenable? In my experience the more accurate a speaker is the more listenable all recordings are, good and bad. Unlistenable usually results from poor linearity from a speaker compounding with similar errors in a recording and/or audible distortion.

 

[MKR]

If a driver genuinely has superb clarity and resolution, by which I presume you mean flat on-axis, well behaved off-axis and low distortion, why do you think it makes poor recordings unlistenable? In my experience the more accurate a speaker is the more listenable all recordings are, good and bad. Unlistenable usually results from poor linearity from a speaker compounding with similar errors in a recording and/or audible distortion.

Not sure I am following… you are telling me there are no bad recordings? And further that a good measuring design makes all recordings sound good? That does not mirror my experience at all

 

[Matt_Holland]

Not sure I am following… you are telling me there are no bad recordings? And further that a good measuring design makes all recordings sound good? That does not mirror my experience at all

There are bad recordings, but I don’t find that good speakers make them unlistenable, just not as good a better recordings. Only bad speakers can make some recordings sound unlistenable in my experience.

 

[MKR]

There are bad recordings, but I don’t find that good speakers make them unlistenable, just not as good a better recordings. Only bad speakers can make some recordings sound unlistenable in my experience.

Definitely not my experience, I guess we agree to disagree

Sorry @Bjorn for going off topic

 

[Bjorn]

The GRS planars have clear weaknesses and are not very good IMO. Needless to say, I'm not using any GRS planars. I have measured them of course.

I find the Coherence 12 to combine high resolution and being none fatiguing. It works well with poor recordings, something I personally listen to a lot. However, as always, the response one ends with in the room and the acoustics matters greatly.

 

[MKR]

The GRS planars have clear weaknesses and are not very good IMO. Needless to say, I'm not using any GRS planars. I have measured them of course.

I find the Coherence 12 to combine high resolution and being none fatiguing. It works well with poor recordings, something I personally listen to a lot. However, as always, the response one ends with in the room and the acoustics matters greatly.

Thanks for the comments. What specifically are the weaknesses of the GRS? Can you please share your measurements?

And do you have off-axis FR of the Coherence?

Thanks!

 

[Bjorn]

Thanks for the comments. What specifically are the weaknesses of the GRS? Can you please share your measurements?

And do you have off-axis FR of the Coherence?

Thanks!

Linearity will often be a problem with those drivers, but depends on how it's used. Then there's distortion which would be an issue the way the driver is used in Coherence 12. And there also some other weaknesses, but not something I want to get into here.

Polar plots will be shared.

 

[Bjorn]

This is a earlier prototype of the Coherence 12. Top driver was removable and many different ones were tested.

Especially with a smaller top driver or a coax, this is a speaker that would yield better directivity measurements than today's final Coherence 12 and perhaps get more praise from the community here.

However, the final Coherece 12 has taken an untraditonal approach where the result is a more even response when the speaker is placed in an actual room, and it sounds better in several areas despite that the directivity may not look as good as the former prototype. The latter depends on how a directivity plot is interpreted of course but with Spinorama and the traditional way of looking at the dispersion that is the case.