  We investigate the overlap operator with a UV filtered Wilson kernel. The
filtering leads to a better localization of the operator even on coarse
lattices and with the untuned choice $\rho=1$. Furthermore, the axial-vector
renormalization constant $Z_A$ is much closer to 1, reducing the mismatch with
perturbation theory. We show that all these features persist over a wide range
of couplings and that the details of filtering prove immaterial. We investigate
the properties of the kernel spectrum and find that the kernel non-normality is
reduced. As a side effect we observe that for certain applications of the
filtered overlap a speed-up factor of 2-4 can be achieved.
