Intro:

First off, let me say that I’m no audio expert and do not have much experience at all with high end audio products.  The Aperion Verus Forte Bookshelves were my first “real” speakers that I’ve had in my home, and the first “real” speakers that I have spent more than ten minutes listening to.  I’ve had these speakers for about a month now and have spent quite a bit of time with them listening to both music and movies.  With that being said, I’ll get on with my review.

Setup and Room:

Currently, I’m running a pair of these speakers as my main left and right speakers in my living room.  I have them paired with a HSU VTF-15H subwoofer for the low end (crossed over at 80hz) and these are mated to a Marantz 6005 receiver.  My listening area is about 13ft by 13ft, but the room is about 21 feet long by 13 feet wide.  The VFB is not quite large enough to really “fill” the room with sound, but for its size it does a really good job!  I’m planning to exchange for a larger Aperion Bookshelf speaker soon, but I wanted to see how the VFB performed in a room about my size first.

A quick note on “filling” the room with sound:

I’d just like to clarify that when I say that the VFBs can’t properly “fill” my room with sound, I’m not saying that they can’t get loud enough, but rather that they don’t sound “big” in my room.  I can easily get these speakers loud enough to be easily heard throughout the whole house.  But in my living room, these speakers still sound just a bit “small” instead of providing a nice “large” sound. 

Build Quality and Aesthetics:

Again, I’m no expert.  These speakers are heavy for their and they look great!  The cabinet is solid, beautifully designed, and oozes quality.

First Impressions:

Upon hooking the speakers up for the first time, and before they had any time to break in, I could immediately tell that there was a significant leap in sound quality, imaging, detail, and clarity over most other speakers I have heard before.

Thoughts on Music Listening:

Everything is clear, detailed, and imaging is great!  Vocals sound very natural, instruments sound great, you can hear all the little nuances in a piece of music, and all of the space between the left and right speaker is filled with music!  For being Aperion’s smallest Verus line speaker, this thing sure sounds good!   It handled all the music I could throw at it well, except perhaps for very heavy rock music.  When playing that kind of music, things sounded just a little congested to me.  This may not be the speaker, it may be the receiver not being able to deliver enough power to the speaker, or me having to turn it up too loud in order to compensate for the VFB’s non-room filling size.  But aside from that, I’ve been rewarded with amazing sound for the last month!

Thoughts on Movies:

The imaging of these speakers really helps out with movies.  Despite only running a 2.1 configuration, the dialogue always sounded like it was coming from the center of the screen.  The VFBs made voices sound natural, provided great detail on every scene (whether it was a calm scene or action packed), and overall sounded very good and provided a very decent movie experience.  The speakers never completely “disappeared” with any of the content I listened to, but they came close.  Movies were definitely more immersive than I’m used to.

Shortcomings:

Really, there are only two shortcomings of the VFBs in my opinion.  Firstly, as mentioned before, they can’t “fill” a large room well.  But again, they weren’t designed to.  If you have a small listening area or don’t mind if your whole room is filled with sound then the VFBs would be a great choice for you.  Secondly, the VFBs don’t have great bass extension.  This isn’t a huge issue for me because I’m running a sub with them, but if you don’t have a sub or like to listen to 2 channel music without one, you’ll be missing a lot of low end.

Conclusion:

Aside from these speakers sounding a little congested on some heavy rock music, not being able to fill my room super well, and lacking in the bass department, there’s really nothing not to like about these speakers.  They provide very clear and detailed sound, they image very well, and they sound very natural.  Female and male voices sound great, and instrumental music is a treat!  I really enjoy these speakers, and I’m sure you would too!