Welcome to Vertex AQ

Vertex AQ is a high-end hi-fi manufacturing company based in the heart of Wales, Great Britain. The company was established in 1999, when it first launched its Jaya shunt mains filter, and has steadily grown into a world leader in hi-fi systems-architecture thinking. There are 2 main parts to the Vertex AQ portfolio - the Vertex AQ system infrastructure products, with a wide range of analogue cables, digital cables, mains leads and mains conditioners, and the Aletheia electronics components. And Vertex AQ is also a strategic partner with Kaiser Acoustics of Germany, with both companies owning 50% of a new company called Leading Edge. This new brand is producing an exciting range of support platforms, racks and room acoustics treatments based on the combined technologies of Vertex and Kaiser.

The basis of the Vertex AQ infrastructure strategy is the system-wide reduction of radio frequency interference (RFI), and microphony; serious problems in almost every hi-fi. By removing such debilitating effects you remove very significant limitations - and the sound quality improvements are incredible. And all the time you disregard these issues you just cannot get past major performance limitations, regardless of the electronics and speakers you use. Often the more complex and powerful a system is, the more crippling these limitations become. To achieve this we use technology largely brought in from the aerospace industry. To deal with microphony we use the thinking behind ultrasonic transmission principles (as used for wing-spar ultrasound techniques). And to deal with RFI we use various noise filtering and passive absorption processes, including some of the techniques used in aircraft radar absorbent coatings.

The design of the Aletheia products is based around three fundamental principles: the application of our systematic thinking for RFI and microphony reduction down to all the sub-systems within the component, the use of the cleanest, fastest and most stable power supplies possible, and the use of the simplest processing and amplification topologies possible.

Another essential aspect of our approach is that we don't design our products as stand-alone items. Instead, our strategy is firmly focussed on the system as a whole. And so in a way, the most important thing of all with Vertex AQ and Aletheia products is the very extensive and detailed strategy we have developed that deals with how a system interacts with itself and its environment, what RFI and microphony are doing, and how to use all our products to correctly control these issues. We call this the 'Systematic Approach'.

So, whatever you are thinking of upgrading with your system, please do it in a structured way. Don't think of hi-fi cables as a separate entity, an afterthought, that good mains conditioners aren't necessary, or that decent hi-fi racks and room treatment are just optional. It's these things that set the working environment for your system. And also when upgrading electronics, consider how that component was designed, and with what engineering criteria in mind. In our view, the systematic approach applied inside the box is a total game-changer - the results are truly staggering.