Like most sensible audiophiles, we love searching for the holy grail; affordable, well-built, feature rich, components at a bargain price that you can’t believe. Vera-Fi Audio is a new company created by audio professionals with decades in the industry, and that happens to be their goal as well. The first products we reviewed included the Vanguard Scouts, a solid two-way bookshelf speaker built to the highest standards at a very affordable price.
Their follow-up companion product, the Vanguard Caldera – 10” Active Subwoofer pumps strong and musical bass in an unexpected way, especially at it’s price point.
I've been putting the Caldera through some paces. First I played the great Neil Young embraced compilation, “The Bridge Concerts”, which are live recordings made to benefit The Bridge School, which serves special needs students. It's a great disc, HDCD, and includes everyone from Patti Smith, Simon and Garfunkel, and even David Bowie. Then I switched to some tracks off the excellent PS Audio Octave Recording, “The Loudspeaker”, it's an SACD, with setup tracks, plus music, and it's very demanding. Then I followed up with a variety of 2L The Norwegian Sound recordings including “Yule” and “Fred over jordan”, and finally the newly remixed Atmos and stereo version Blu-ray of Van Morrison’s “Moondance”. I also played lots of tracks from Qobuz for good measure through an iFi NEO Stream.
I played with the settings on the sub, which worked well having them enhance but not overwhelm the Scouts. I did notice a rattle, and wondering was there something wrong with the Caldera, so I checked it, and it was fine. I soon discovered that the glass in our fireplace was rattling! I set the crossover to quite low, volume around medium, so that the sub only emphasized the bass required to extend the range of the Scouts. Not a hint of muddiness.
In all cases, it really improved the bottom and punch of the Scouts, which in a large room could use some help, which the Caldera provided. Visually it's lovely, with a utilitarian but cool directionally patterned vinyl wrap. I'll probably have to use it with the grill off, as we have two cats, who love fancy scratching posts like speaker grills. I keep asking Mark Schifter to have optional cat grills, but I think a dog is swaying his judgement. The Caldera is capable of shaking the room, but also gently supporting nuanced and rich audio for acoustic instruments.
The last tracks on the PS Audio disc are bass heavy, and the final track of a Jazz ensemble playing “Caravan”, just swings and kicks ass. It swung with just the Scouts, but with the Caldera, that bass drum just kicks you in the gut, precisely how it's supposed to do. The track is incredibly well recorded, the band rocks, and using the Scouts with the Caldera really reveals the capability of the system and performance.
As for equipment, the source is an Oppo BD player, the preamp is the LSA HyperDrive 2, and the amp, which I'm reviewing is the tiny Fosi Audio V3 Stereo Amplifier, which is easily the smallest component in the rack. In fact the V3 is so small and light, I have to use clamps to keep the AudioQuest Rocket speaker cables from pulling it off the shelf. It's a nice step up from the older Fosi amp, the V3 has a larger power supply, and there was no clipping, distortion, or thermal shutdown like the older Fosi TB10D amp, which when drove hard, resulted in thermal protection kicking in.
For cable fans, the system has a combination of interconnects from Audience, AudioQuest, Cardas, and Kimber Kable. So, not a slouch in the bunch. An AudioQuest PowerQuest 505 power conditioner was used to clean up the AC. Yes, I know, some of you think that I should only have one brand of cable, but remember this is all being powered by a $110 Class D Fosi amp, which I still find amazing. Can't wait to A/B it against Vera-Fi’s new Class A amplifier, the Series One A40. Then I’ll try to standardize on one cable manufacturer, assuming I have enough cables. I do have some really great amps to work with, but for now, I'm loving this tiny, no maintenance, no hassle Fosi amp. Plus with Class D, I still have this Gee Whiz! response. The same response when I hold a one terabyte SD card... unimaginable to my 14 year old me.
What’s amazing is how musical this small system sounds. The speakers are under $300, the Sub is $200, the Fosi V3 is $110, and the LSA HyperDrive 2 Preamp/Headphone amp is really handy here, so I can use the three different sources, the Oppo, a BluMi Pro BT DAC, and the iFi NEO iDSD for streaming. All of it with absolute silence from the LSA HyperDrive 2 pre-amp.
But, if you are assembling a simple system, you can just source direct into the Fosi V3 amp, and to the Caldera subwoofer. I've been hammering on the Scouts, and every day they seem a bit more open, warmer, and musical. Amazing, really. Same with the Caldera, a bit of burn-in and they seemed more open and tight.
We did have a few hiccups with the Caldera. We had a bit of hum, solved by using a non-grounded plug adapter. And during testing of the new Onkyo TX RZ-30 AVR, I had problems calibrating with Dirac Live, as the subwoofer wasn’t kicking during the LFE sweeps. The solution was to switch the Power Mode switch to “On” instead of “Auto” on the Power Mode option. What I think is happening is that the subwoofer wasn’t detecting the LFE signal so it wasn’t turning on when using the power saving mode, so turning it on all the time solves that problem, just remember to power it down when not in use. The Caldera is full-featured with High Level inputs, Line Level inputs, Volume and crossover frequency on fully adjustable pots, and phase adjustment. It’s rated at 200 watts into 4 ohms. Remember, this is only $200 bucks folks.
If black vinyl isn’t your bag, and you have a bit more money, they recently introduced the Vanguard Caldera 12” Active Subwoofer, with a larger woofer, 500 watts of power, and a real Rosewood veneer to match the Scouts gorgeous finish. One is being shipped to us for testing, and we’ll post a review once we have lived with it. Our colleague Tom Gibbs, wrote a through review of it here: https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/vera-fi-audio-vanguard-caldera-12-subwoofer/
This is what I love about audio as an industry, sure you can mortgage your house for a pair of Nordost cables, a Mcintosh Amp, and a $50K Lampizator, and that's not counting the speakers, but the point is, the Vera-Fi Scouts and Caldera are proof that you don't have to. Unlike many industries, where there aren't entry level options that are really good, audio, high-quality audio is now incredibly affordable, and high performing. Importantly, it's an industry where a small company can create wonderful products, and can be fast on their feet.
I mean, $300 for speakers, $200 for a powerful and clean sub, what's not to love! The Vera-Fi Scouts and Vanguard Caldera – 10” Active Subwoofer come highly recommended. A Mac Edition Radio Holiday Pick!
For more information on the Vera-Fi Vanguard Caldera – 10” Active Subwoofer visit:https://verafiaudiollc.com/products/vanguard-caldera-10-active-subwoofer
For more information on the Fosi Audio V3 Stereo Amplifier visit: https://fosiaudio.com/pages/2-channel-amplifier-v3
Harris Fogel and Nancy Burlan, posted 12/10/2024
