About Veracity

Welcome to Veracity Audio.  We want to fulfill and share with you the ultimate purpose of music: to inspire, restore, banish the mundane. That is the mission for our audio- to lift you into a spell binding listening experience. Our audio has heart: in the engineering, materials and design, all to serve the music. To read in detail about the engineering click here 

 

Veracity is a family run business making audio products with difference. We do it all here, in the Heart of England, with our own resources and help from local artisan businesses. The project started as Gregor Szymczyk's passion to create audio which could challenge the status quo in excellence for music reproduction.

Gregor Szymczyk

Born in 1966  `behind the iron curtain` (as it was) in Poland.
I was one of those kids fascinated with what is inside things and how they work. Dismantling everything that I could and constantly having 'projects' is the thing I remember. Initially it didn`t really matter what, it mattered how. I grew up in a fairly middle class family, or it would have been, but for the `iron curtain` reality. My father played saxophone, clarinet, piano and few other instruments that I can`t recall, my mother could sing quite well. Both were performing as `semi-pro` at small venues, yet earning money from being accountants, sic! Saying that music was present in my home from as long as I remember would be the right thing to say. I wasn`t a `genius` kid by any means, but I could read aged 5 and eagerly practiced this new skill, this, together with the `how the things work` part of the story led me to magazines such as `Young technician`, `Radio-amateur magazine` eventually. Around age 12, I was able to solder things from ready recipes, including radios, basic amplifiers and such. From the plethora of `flashing lights`, `robot-turtle` and such projects only the ones which reproduced sound/music were interesting to me. Be it a radio, sound keyboard and anything of the sort. Some said then that I had an above average perception and memory for music. Few years later a tragedy struck my family and things went `thin` financially. I learned to thrive in scarcity to continue my hobby. In my city was a shop called Bomis with the surplus parts from a Grundig/Unitra factory available. I was making Grundig`s TK141, TK241, C260 tape recorders in my bedroom from parts and sell or exchange them for many things :) with my mates and as I see now, their parents too. I made also a number of record players. Poland through 1980`s wasn`t exactly the place you would strive to be in. Marantz or A&R Cambridge audio gear could only be seen on the photo in `Radioelectronic` magazine when one queued up to buy one. Some fairly interesting audio which I made got left behind during life turbulences and change from communist republic to democratic republic. I managed well through electrical college and studied electro-technologies. My first employment was ironically at the cast-iron factory (not at the `central lab of audio excellence`). Not much later, `magnetically pulled`, I worked for Philharmonic Hall for few years where I learned much for my constant audio projects. Recording live performances on eight tracks Fostex was a great learning curve in understanding about home sound reproduction. I was striving as to how the realism, emotion of live venue could be brought home? It can`t really, but we can get close, so close that our hearing and imagination may grant us similar sheer pleasure. To read more see `why the dac obsession` and `why does it have valves` at Why+FAQ page.
Over last 25 years I committed thousands of hours to designing and building D/A converters. 
In this process there are many ways and choices. Basically- everything matters, every part, every application has almost endless variability when remarkable sound reproduction is the goal. I made very real sounding DAC`s before, also available to buy. But this `time around` I wanted to create something which would leave me and my friends convinced that this is `as far as it can go` for a sound source, for them and me. It took over a year of working everyday on design and application and many trial and error moments. Dismissing advice to: `put it on sale`- I endured and continued and it was worth it.
Finally, I came up with honed and accomplished design to the degree that I don`t want to change anything in case the magic would disappear. We tested this DAC in 9 very revealing and musical systems during 12 months. My friends, clients and even I could no longer tell that the sound was sourced from the DAC component in whichever system we tried. Time came to share with you.  
 

Footnote from Jacqueline (summary): As an engineer, Gregor has spent most of his working life in audio: designing, building and researching or experiencing live orchestral performances as when working at the Philharmonic Hall in Poland long ago. In 2012, he was able to pick a challenge: to build a DAC that would fulfill his passion for natural, unveiled sound.  Now owner and director of Veracity, he designs and builds each product with love, passion and an engineer's dedication.  His tenacity and commitment to perfection mean your product has 100% reliability. His sonic analysis of the new DAC has taken over a year. 

 

Jacqueline Read-Szymczyk


Co- Director and owner of Veracity with Gregor and co writer of the web site. Jacqueline is a writer, artist and teacher. A keen observer of life and people, she is collecting her experiences in the audio world for a new book. She paints, often in response to music and loves the work of Wassily Kandinsky.   She is also a graphic artist and a keen swimmer.

Veracity business details

Veracity Audio Ltd
Highfields, 17 Ashby Road, 
Welton, NN11 2JS
Northamptonshire
United Kingdom
Email: info@valvead.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1604 922704
Web: http://veracityaudio.com
Company number: 08298028

 

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