Based in Quebec, Canada since 1995, speaker manufacturer Verity Audio added a string to its bow in 2017 by offering an attractive range of electronics. These are designed as a natural extension to a line of speakers which has gradually established itself among music lovers looking for a sound favoring expressiveness in a domestic environment.
Just before the new Florestan model and its 2-inch ribbon tweeter presented in May 2023 at the High-End Show in Munich, the Quebecer launched the Arindal, whose name evokes the prince in love with a fairy in the opera of Wagner The fairies.
In the majority, the range of Verity Audio speakers favors a three-way configuration in two physically distinct volumes – i.e. a mid-high head placed on a subwoofer – with the aim of achieving an efficiency never lower than 91 dB, up to reaching the record figure of 99 dB on the flagship Monsalvat.
With its 150 mm midrange in doped polypropylene combined with a short 50 mm coil, itself relayed in the treble by a soft dome tweeter and 25 mm neodymium magnet, the efficiency of the Arindal stands at 93 dB/W/m. The medium head load is decompressed at the rear by means of a vertically slotted grille.
A 24 cm woofer with a multi-layer paper and carbon membrane fitted with a short 76 mm voice coil details the bass with a tone convincing enough to blend into the 93 dB obtained overall. This loudspeaker is mounted in an independent volume loaded with bass-reflex and looks back. Verity Audio defends this principle by indicating that “this arrangement reduces bass distortion by better management of dispersion in the room, while offering greater bass extension than a conventional device”, i.e. the loudspeaker speaker broadcasting towards the front.
Understand that the speaker relies on reflections from adjacent walls to extend its bass response. A response which, in total, covers a wide spectrum between 20 Hz and 50 kHz at ±3.0 dB.
What else? To stop vibrations, the two boxes are isolated by a solid aluminum platform equipped with special elastomers. While the subwoofer rests on a MASIS base (Mechanical & Airborne Sound Isolation System) made of different materials absorbing energy that can be transmitted to the ground. The connectors are taken from the Furutech catalog. Finally, each column measures 120 cm in height and weighs 75 kg.
Such models are difficult to move, so the listening took place one morning at the Acoustic Gallery auditorium (Paris 17th). For the occasion, the system consisted of an Aurender N20 network player followed by a Playback Design MPS-8 DAC/CD/SACD player, a CH Precision A1.5 power unit of 2×150 W at 8 Ω, Shunyata Research cabling.
The combination of high output decompressed in the midrange and controlled dispersion bass generates a cocktail as surprising as it is tasty. The energy is very present everywhere, with a pronounced articulation in the medium which works wonders on recordings of small groups such as the Blattwerk Quintett in transcriptions of My Mother Goose by Ravel (Schweizer Fonogramm), or with a voice like that of soprano Lise Davidsen accompanied on the piano by Leif Ove Andsnes (melodies by Edvard Grieg, Decca).
The Arindals favor expressiveness but also know how to hold their own if called upon in the bass. On Nemeton for Solo Percussion by Matthias Pintscher (Ensemble Intercontemporain, Alpha Classics), in the absence of ample and underlying bass, it appears reactive, even explosive, and even enveloping. Between roundness and tone, the Arindals primarily take the second route. The prince’s act in short.
