As furniture, these Verity Fidelio Encore speakers beat all others I've auditioned hands-down. And they sound excellent as well. But they don't quite sound as excellent as they look. I auditioned these courtesy of Pitch Perfect Audio, an appointment-only retailer here in SF (the photo is not from my audition -- I forgot to take one -- but rather one I found online -- viva fair use!).
The Fidelios are made in Canada, and they sell for $13,000/pair (there has been serious price inflation on these, which retailed for $10k just a couple years ago -- ah the slide of the dollar). When you see them, you know instantly that a significant portion of the price has gone into the incredible real wood finish on the cabinets. Gorgeous. More generally, these are beautifully proportioned (small, graceful design) and would be a striking addition to any decor.
Musically, they were excellent. Much better than the JM Lab Utopia Micro Be, but not nearly a match for the $30k Magico Mini II. They did a lovely job reproducing space in recordings like Bach's BMV 21 cantata. In contrast to the Utopia Micros, the Fidelio had excellent bottom-end weight, filling out Burial's "Archangel" nicely. No question that the rear-firing woofer helps on that score.
But there was one nagging detail with the Fidelios: they left a hint of boxiness on some female vocals. This prevented Tori Amos' voice from inhabiting the recording space on "Famous Blue Raincoat." This wasn't evident on all recordings -- Cassandra Wilson's "Can't Stand the Rain" sounded great. But the wrinkle reappeared again on Laura Veirs' "Fire Snakes." Given my penchant for female vocalists, and the fact that my Quad 988 speakers excel in this area, this is a serious shortcoming for a $13k speaker. (Verity's $20k Parsifal speaker might fix this, but I didn't have a chance to audition those.)
Anyhow, I could go on, but in light of the next speaker I auditioned, the Dynaudio Confidence C1, there isn't much point -- that speaker was superior to the Verity across the board (if not as pretty), and for far less money.
