Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Listening through a long break-in period
The Verdandes sounded pretty good just as they were set up by the Ø Audio guys, but I could tell they were green and stiff. The bass sounded like the amplifier was working hard to allow the woofers to give it their all. For many days, when my wife and I took the dog for a walk, I left the stereo cranked up with my Bass Test playlist on Qobuz (footnote 4). Slowly, the woofers got looser and quicker.

In December, I had my audio buddies—Father Time (Dave, an old dude who's a drummer), Mike, and Farrukh—over for a listening session. They all preferred the Verdandes to most other large speakers I've had in for review. We listened to a variety of music, including selections from my Imaging Test playlist (footnote 5). Father Time and I especially liked how the Verdandes played "Kiko and the Lavender Moon" from Kiko by Los Lobos (16/44.1 FLAC, Rhino-Warner Brothers/Qobuz): the separation of instrument, the fast clickity-clack of the percussion, and the clear delineation of the two singers in the center. We liked the same precision detail in Natalie Merchant's "The Peppery Man" from Leave Your Sleep (24/96 FLAC, Nonesuch/Qobuz).

On the minus side, the bass was sounding really heavy. I put two of the five foam plugs in each speaker. Instant improvement. After we listened to a few more songs, Farrukh suggested putting in another plug. That was even better, especially at higher listening volumes. I took that as a sign that the woofers were getting nearer their full potential.

By the time Mike returned in January with another audio buddy, Dean, the bass needed further taming. A fourth plug in each speaker leveled it out nicely. On that day we were playing records. My Hana SL MK II cartridge is not shy at all in the low end, but four plugs in also sounded better with most digital content, discs, and streaming. Dean is an avid vinyl collector, and he brought some impressive platters. I wasn't familiar with most of the music, but it sure sounded good.

I estimate it took more than 100 hours of playing music at comfortably loud levels to unlock the woofers. Once they swung free, though, they were impressively quick and punchy. However, they didn't go as deep as my B&W 808s. To be sure this was so, I listened to a track from my Bass Test playlist, "Limit to Your Love" by James Blake (16/44.1 stream), which features synth-bass notes F1, F#1, and C2 (respectively 43.65, 46.25, and 65.41Hz). Each note was audible, but the lowest frequencies weren't as loud, meaning that in my room there was a sharp cutoff in bass energy somewhere between 60 and 40Hz. With my B&Ws, those low notes are equally loud and floor-shaking.

With the kinds of music I typically enjoy and listen to, that lack of the very lowest bottom end didn't matter. The Verdandes could still rock'n'roll as loud as I wanted, and that crisp clarity benefitted more delicate music, especially when it was recorded well. Never, with any kind of music, at any listening volume, did the horns sound harsh, nasal, or screamy. If anything, they were a few degrees too polite. I found I needed to keep my head up and facing forward, with my ears in a tight zone of optimum tweeter focus, for optimal results—though if I played the speakers while I was in the kitchen, music sounded great for background listening. I took that to mean that the Verdandes were projecting a balanced mix of bass, midrange, and treble into the room.

On the records
My time with the Verdandes coincided with a renewed enthusiasm for vinyl. I've recently added many wonderful records to the collection, and I'm happy with how the vinyl playback system in my living room sounds. I spent a lot of time listening to the modern mono remasters I detail elsewhere in this issue, with special highlights being the first LP from Johnny Cash (and Sun Records), Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!, just reissued by Intervention Records, and Rhino's six-LP box set John Coltrane: 1960–1964 Mono. On these records, expertly cut by Kevin Gray from true mono sources, the performers appeared sharply between the speakers, not spread out, and the Man in Black seemed like a living holograph, beautiful—and scary. I also spun the deluxe reissue box sets of Black and Blue by the Rolling Stones and Wish You Were Here 50 by Pink Floyd. The Verdandes presented full-scale rock'n'roll, especially the six-sided Stones concert at Earl's Court, London.

Other albums of note in heavy rotation:

Devo, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, Rhino High Fidelity RHF1 3239, sounded very punchy and appropriately robotic but with a strong feeling of quirky humans making good music, with typically engaging Brian Eno production "treatments" right, left, and center.

Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Junior Mance, Buddy and the Juniors, Verve/Acoustic Sounds 602475812999. Given the Acoustic Sounds treatment, the sound of this loose blues jam leaned hi-fi, but the playing was gutbucket fun.

David Bowie, Station to Station, Parlophone DBSTS 50. It says it right on the cover: "This record was cut ... from 192kHz restored masters of the original Hit Factory master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer"—in other words, no mastering in the traditional sense. It sounded like an unmastered mixdown tape—somewhat dull, lacking the magic sparkle of great Mastering—yet it still ran laps around my circa 1980s RCA LP.

Velvet Underground, Loaded, Rhino High Fidelity RHF1 9034. This Kevin Gray AAA cut is the best version I've heard. On Lou Reed's vocals on "Sweet Jane," many digital versions—and vinyl cuts from digital sources—have a strange sound quality, as if they'd been processed through a guitar flanging pedal. This version sounded like Reed was moving his head side to side as he sang, with more of a Doppler effect than flanging. The sound quality was natural, inviting me to turn it up loud. I didn't pay a price with annoying surface noise because the record was plated and pressed well.

Colleagues' choices, and delivered from nowhere
While I had the Ø Audio speakers in the house, Stereophile's annual Records to Live For (R2L4) list was published. I spent part of an afternoon reading through it and collecting all of my colleagues' favorites that stream on Qobuz into a playlist. I set it for Shuffle mode as I built it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mashups of classical, jazz, rock, folk, metal, and other genres.

Given that this playlist contains 545 tracks and runs a whopping 45 hours, 10 minutes, and 54 seconds, it's going to take me months of shuffle-mode sessions to enjoy it all. Two early highlights for me were Scala & Kolacny Brothers' cover of Radiohead's "Creep" (16/44.1 FLAC, Atco/Qobuz) and Queen's album Innuendo (2011 remaster, 16/44.1 FLAC, Hollywood Records/Qobuz).

The Radiohead song is, well, creepy—especially when performed by a female chorus. The Verdandes filled my living room with the singing ladies. Young me really dug Queen at the time of News of the World and Jazz, and then I lost interest. My attention perked up briefly after the group's performance at Live Aid and their single with David Bowie, "Under Pressure." By the time Innuendo came out in 1991, it wasn't on my radar. And then, a short time later, Freddie Mercury died (RIP). So, when I played the Qobuz stream, that was my first time hearing the album. Wowzer, it's a good rocker! My attention captured, I stopped creating the playlist, turned off shuffle mode, cranked up the volume, and became acquainted with Freddie's last work. To the end, he gave it his all.

One night, my wife and I watched Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, last year's biopic about the creation of the album Nebraska and The Boss's wrestling match with the demons of depression. The movie inspired us to listen to the album, from the eight-CD box The Album Collection Vol.1. That version of Nebraska was remastered by Bob Ludwig from the 30ips master tape run through the Plangent Process. It is stunningly intimate, with only the sound effects of an Echoplex tape echo machine and the distortion and hiss from the primitive TEAC/Tascam Model 144 Portastudio four-track cassette recorder it was made on (footnote 6). At times the distortions and tape hiss add to the dark mood of the songs—for instance the hiss behind "State Trooper" brings alive the opening lyric: "New Jersey Turnpike ridin' on a wet night." We sat between the Verdandes, attention fully invested in the tales of hard times, desperate acts, and, at the end, reasons to believe. I've listened to that album dozens of times since I bought the first-pressing LP, and I can't say I've ever enjoyed it more.

Bottom-line decisions
The Ø Audio Verdandes are large, heavy, and cost $45,000 a pair. For most people, that's a huge investment in music listening, not to be taken lightly. I recommend auditioning them with a well-known system and familiar music. Make sure the audition pair is broken in and properly set up. If at all possible—this is a big ask for big speakers—audition them in your own listening space and test placement in the room and toe-in angles until you find the best sound at your seat. They are built and finished like fine furniture or a fancy piano, which will likely make them blend with many decors despite their bulk.

The Verdandes gave me many hours of enjoyable listening. They played as loud and large as I wanted for any kind of music, from full-size symphonic to down-and-dirty rock and blues. Although they don't go down to the lowest floor-thumping bass, they provide plenty of beat, bump, and bassline. They produced a wide, high, deep, hyperdetailed stereo image. With mono music that was well mastered, they presented the music narrow-focused in the center, allowing the life forces of the performers to emerge. With some records, the effect was startling.

The Verdandes took a long time to fully break in, but in the end, they rewarded my patience. They make a dramatic statement in both looks and sound. If you're in the market for room-filling, full-scale speakers and have a budget in the Verdande's range, check them out.

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Footnote 4: Hear my Bass Test playlist at open.qobuz.com/playlist/21395182.

Footnote 5: Hear my Imaging Test playlist at open.qobuz.com/playlist/22204090.

Footnote 6: See tascam.com/us/learn/detail/93165.