After less than 2 months with them in my room and a member invitation, I finally decided to reorder my notes to share here my thoughts about the Verity Audio Otello Loudspeakers. They replaced my beloved (and wonderful appearing) Sonus faber Olympica Nova III.
I decided to keep them since the very beginning once installed in my system, even though the dealer gave me till the end of the year to make tests and comparisons, it was late October! I immediately felt in love with these speakers, period!
Why?
Because they sound nice, of course (Al could stop here reading!)
Let me elaborate more. My old Sonus faber were not enough for me? Absolutely not. At least until the Otello entered my life and brought me a new level of happiness and pleasure. I never thought the Sf could have been considered the weakest link in my chain at all, I was wrong. My son, who has a fine music hearing and plays guitar (night and day, day and night), when listened to the Otello for the first time suddenly said “it seems that our previous speakers sounded like a portable radio at a pic-nic”! You know, young teens love colorful expressions! Do I agree with him? Certainly not. But I understand what he was thinking.
AUTHORITY
Compared to the Sf, the Otello speakers have a greater presence, strength and ability to fill the room. They superbly pressurize the air in the environment, filling every molecule in a gently way, allowing the music to flow freely and efficiently. Fullness and richness around the entire spectrum are immediately apparent and surprisingly easy, controlled and relaxed. A sort of wow effect without artificial light or tricks, just the power of simplicity, harmony and body.
DELICACY
If the bass are usually associated with what I wrote above, this time the most powerful thing I immediately felt was the general cohesiveness between mid and high frequencies. The sound is smooth, detailed and textured. Music appears so sweet and silky, with plenty of informations provided by a balanced delicacy, never exposed or distorted, simply there where they should be to sound real, natural, pleasant to listen to with a plain satisfaction.
MUSICALITY
Oh I know, the same old terms! Put it in another way: I can hear instruments presence more than ever. The sound of instruments is more realistic and more in conjunction with each other. What Sf had were the best mids I ever heard, at the expense of a general equilibrium. The Otello on the contrary can better represent the whole and the specificity of the single parts. The ensemble so to speak, as the sum of each piece. Live, acoustic, vocal jazz are the genres where this quality makes more sense. It’s not only the separation and the correct positioning of instruments that makes the music so engaging, it’s also the harmonic interaction between them.
CONCLUSIONS
I was skeptical when I saw the rear firing woofers design of the Otello, due to my small and acoustically treated room that made me think bass could have been problematic. It turned out that the initial set up has been very easy to find, on the contrary (while the fine tuning took more time, as usual). I still prefer using my 2 REL subs, that I’m keeping at less than 30 Hz, just to better depict a sense of depth I like more.
The realism is superb, voices are clean and focused but with a breath around that seems so natural, rendering the character of the singer and the size of the venue in a such easy way. Strings plucked sound fantastic, so vibrant and vivid. Micro details arrive to my ears easily but without distractions.
Welcome home, Otello!
| OLYMPICA | OTELLO | |
|---|---|---|
| White noise/Hum | 8 | 8 |
| Background | 9 | 9 |
| Naturalness | 8 | 9 |
| Image precision | 8 | 9 |
| Soundstage depth | 8 | 8 |
| Soundstage width | 8 | 9 |
| Separation | 8 | 9 |
| Voice | 9 | 10 |
| Hights | 7 | 9 |
| Bass | 7 | 9 |
| Presence | 8 | 9 |
| Transient | 8 | 9 |
| Clarity | 8 | 8 |
| Airy | 7 | 9 |
| Detail | 8 | 9 |
| Unveil | 8 | 8 |
| Realism | 8 | 9 |
| Calm | 7 | 9 |
| Control | 7 | 10 |
| Engagement | 8 | 9 |
| 7,9 | 8,9 |
