Quote:
Originally Posted by Bghead8che 
Anyone own the Verus speakers? I am wondering about the treble and midrange. Would you consider them forward, bright or laid back? I am very sensitive to brightness (often get a headache listening to bright speakers). I'm curious as to how they sound.
Anyone done an AB comparision to other brands?
Thanks.
Anyone own the Verus speakers? I am wondering about the treble and midrange. Would you consider them forward, bright or laid back? I am very sensitive to brightness (often get a headache listening to bright speakers). I'm curious as to how they sound.
Anyone done an AB comparision to other brands?
Thanks.
I've not done any AB vs other brands, but the new verus line treble is improved over the Aperion Intimus class...brightness turned down a notch.
Of course what is neutral/bright/dark to one is not to another. Depends on your benchmark/what you're accoustomed to.
Here's some outakes from some published reviews ...most I tend to agree with. They will reward when paired with good componants. I can listen for hours with zero fatigue/headaches.
Forte Towers:
1. Clean, articulate Highs, Transparent, warm midrange
2. The Verus Forte towers' high frequency response is distinguished, detailed and sounds just slightly forward in the mix... articulate, punctuated attack that we'd describe as clear and transparent. Though the high frequencies were just a bit forward in the mix, they were always realistic and well controlled with plenty of air around instruments, particularly stringed instrumentation. At extremely high volumes, the highs maintained their integrity and avoided becoming shrill or harsh.
3. The speaker's mid-range response ran a close second to the treble region for our favorite sonic aspect of this speaker. Perhaps it is due to the low crossover point between the tweeter and midrange driver, but we felt the midrange region shared the clear, transparent attributes of the speaker's highs whilst also producing plenty of body and richness... the midrange region seemed most affected by the different equipment we used. the vocals took center stage and came across with warmth and a close presence. The Verus Forte doesn't have the big round sound of a speaker twice its size with big 6.5 drivers but, listening to our test cuts, we never felt like we missed anything. The sonic character of the Forte tower is remarkably big for a speaker of any size, let alone one as small as this.
4. The soundstage and imaging properties of the speakers are both pleasing. The Forte towers have the sort of pinpoint center imaging that will get you out of your chair to see if the center channel is on when it shouldn't be. Even when not toed in the speakers had a way of placing vocals in the very center of the room. The soundstage exhibited a fair amount of depth, but the sound didn't seem to stretch out beyond the edge of the speakers as much as we'd expected. Still, every inch between them was filled out with some portion of our recording's presentation. This pair of speakers didn't really disappear into the room- they do call some attention to themselves, but in an engaging sort of check me out fashion that hits your ears with lots of nuances and texture.
Grand Towers:
1. The speakers seemed to caress the room with sound. They sounded smoothly balanced and tonally full, though falling just short of being downright laid-back. Thank goodness. They sounded effortless, and tracks such as Krall's cover of The Boy from Ipanema were silky yet clear in the midrange. Here the Aperion reproduced the natural warmth of Krall's voice, with enough detail and texture in the midrange to make it sound realistic and, again, with a good underpinning of bass that gave me a hint of the acoustic space in which her performance was captured.
2. At the top of the audioband, Aperion's Axially Stabilized Radiator tweeter produced detail and extension that could hang with some pricier speakers that I've heard, particularly those from the likes of Dynaudio and EgglestonWorks. Although the Aperions didn't produced the amount of air that I could hear from the diamond tweeter in the B&W 803 Diamond, or the beryllium unit from Scan-Speak that PBN Audio uses in their Montana Sammy ($30,000/pair), the differences weren't so great as to hit me over the head. In fact, I had to do some quick A/B comparisons before I could conclude, to my satisfaction, that the B&W's tweeter was producing more detailed highs at all.
3. Aperion's tweeter is cut from the same cloth as the Dynaudio tweeters I've heard through the years, in that it produced the meat of the highs really nicely, as well as most of the ultra-high frequencies. It just seemed balanced more to toward the mid-treble than the upper treble. The good thing was that it didn't sound bleached or thin. I never tired of listening to the Verus Grands, even in exceptionally long listening sessions.
4. Speaking of the midrange, the vocals were sublime, though a touch relaxed, possessing a sound indicative of tubes at times. The midrange as a whole was clearly the Verus' strong suit for it sounded natural in its scale, weight and detail, though it seemed a touch overpronounced in comparison to the Verus' top end performance. The Verus' high frequency response was smooth, non fatiguing and largely grain free, though it lacked that last ounce of weight and extension beyond the front baffles creating a somewhat laid back presentation overall, which bodes well for a wide range of musical tastes, especially those which may encompass low resolution audio files or downloads.
5. Dido's vocals sat within the Verus' butter zone in terms of its relationship between the speaker's midrange and high frequency performance, possessing beautiful warmth and weight accentuated by surprising air and extension that made every verse feel intimate and nuanced.
The Aperion site has links to the full articles.
