Sonus Faber Venere 1.5

Art K.

The Voodoo You Do!
My home office has seen some wonderful standmount speakers rotate in and out of it. Time has come for another well reviewed "product of the year" type of speaker. The Sonus Faber Venere 1.5. Designed in Italy and built in China they have garnered numerous positive reviews. Not quite as many as the venerable KEF LS50 but no speaker in recent times has. Just a partial list of speakers that have come and gone in this tiny 9x10x8 space:

Magnepan MMG & MG 12
Paradigm Studio 20 and Atom Monitors
Infinity Beta 20 & Primus 152
Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, 10.1, Evo 2-10 and 80th Anniversary Denton
Quad 11L Classic
Dynaudio Excite X12
B&W 610i and 685 S2
Epos M12i and ELS3
Harbeth P3ESR
KEF LS50
Rega RS1

..and so on. The best of these in this room have been the KEF, Harbeth and Dynaudio speakers.

Now for a new challenger. The Venere 1.5 in basic black with custom stands. Let the games begin.
 
My home office has seen some wonderful standmount speakers rotate in and out of it. Time has come for another well reviewed "product of the year" type of speaker. The Sonus Faber Venere 1.5. Designed in Italy and built in China they have garnered numerous positive reviews. Not quite as many as the venerable KEF LS50 but no speaker in recent times has. Just a partial list of speakers that have come and gone in this tiny 9x10x8 space:

Magnepan MMG & MG 12
Paradigm Studio 20 and Atom Monitors
Infinity Beta 20 & Primus 152
Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, 10.1, Evo 2-10 and 80th Anniversary Denton
Quad 11L Classic
Dynaudio Excite X12
B&W 610i and 685 S2
Epos M12i and ELS3
Harbeth P3ESR
KEF LS50
Rega RS1

..and so on. The best of these in this room have been the KEF, Harbeth and Dynaudio speakers.

Now for a new challenger. The Venere 1.5 in basic black with custom stands. Let the games begin.

I have a feeling that at the end of the day you will not like them. I auditioned the 2.5's last year, they have a full bodied lush sound. Their presentation did not sound anything like the LS50's or Dynaudios to me, but then again it was a short audition. If those speakers were to your liking in your room I'm guessing the SF's will be a bit rich for your tastes.
 
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I'm hoping they don't sound anything like the LS50's or the Dyn's. Rich is exactly what I am looking for...especially after the thread bare performance of the Rega RS1.

Best way to know is for a lengthy home audition. Cheers!
 
To be more specific, what I am looking for is a tonally rich speaker that is not at all fatiguing.
 
I have listened to the Nola's and they were OK. Way too much speaker for my home office. Also a little chesty sounding to my ears...not bad though.
 
Art

I don't hear the Nola's as chesty, but to me that would describe SF's. It sounds like one of the earlier Reynaud's from the "Twin" series would be in that place you are looking for. Tonally rich like Spendor or Harbeth, but a tad more accurate. I have my fourth pair of Reynauds' here now and fatiguing is something they are not. I have used Reynaud speakers with amps from the ASL Waves to the Odyssey Kismet amps with different tube and SS amps in between. Some were better than others, but the Reynauds played nice with all of them. When the small front ported monitors show up for sale they don't last long. I rotate my Twin Signatures with the Boxers in my office powered by a Kora hybrid integrated.
 
That would describe which SF's or are you just generalizing? They had a monitor, forget the name, that I would have described that way. I doubt that these will be. As far as the Nola's I know what I hear and I heard them with my amp and source. I reported on it here at AK at the time. I still enjoyed them and considered them a good buy but they sure wouldn't be a good fit in my little room.
 
This is how I heard the Nola's a couple of years back when I auditioned them along with some ProAc's, PMC's and Spendor's. My reference at the time was my Harbeth P3's.

"On Michel Camilo’s fabulous “Just Now” the piano and percussion were not quite as clear and open as I would like. Piano is a percussive instrument and it is very difficult to get the leading edge right and follow with the soft sound that often lies in the wake of the attack. The Nola’s didn’t get either quite right. Also timbre wasn’t as good as what I’m used to with Harbeth. On John Williams “The Baroque Album” the Classical guitar was not fully convincing. The lower midrange was full bodied and punchy if a bit less detailed and well controlled as with the others. Also cymbals, muted trumpet and so on were pushed from their natural register down to a place in the midrange which wasn’t quite convincing to me, and in fact this presented the biggest issue for me with the Nola. The upper mids were not particularly natural. The biggest strength of this speaker is convincing you that you are listening to a whole lot more speaker than you actually are. This is one effortless sounding speaker…just keep turning it up and it just keeps right on going. Over and over I found myself marveling at just how big and rich this speaker sounded. Overall I liked the speaker and think it is a screaming bargain. For my personal tastes I could not live with the shortcomings after living with Harbeth."
 
Art

Sorry I interjected into your thread and I know what I hear too. Good luck with your continuing search. We all hear things different and not always the way you do. And yes I have heard multiple SF mid-line monitors over the years and that is my description of all of them. Designed to be non-offensive. The higher end floorstanders they are known for are different animals. Again hope you find something eventually you can live with for a while.
 
With the office setup it's about the fun of different sounds more than finding the one.

I've heard a couple of the SF monitors that were a bit muffled sounding. Also heard others that excelled. The description given the Venere 1.5 by reviewers I am familiar with, lead me to believe that they could be quite good. You say you have heard a number of SF mid level monitors...would that include these?
 
No I haven't heard those as we haven't had a dealer for SF anywhere close in a while. Vintagear calls them "lush" and I call them chesty (mid-range dominant) and non-offensive, I think we are talking about the same thing. Some people think the Spendors and Harbeths are "too much of a good thing" and the mid-line SF's are even more of that. Again that is to my ears and if you think think Nola is that way you could find the SF even more so. A smaller front ported speaker may be better suited to that room. Or maybe consider one of the Goldenear monitors like the Aon 3. I think there is a pair on BT for a good price. The Triton 5's with the right amplification sound great in my family room. Another option that would fit the bill if you could find a pair would be the Soliloquy 5.0.
 
To be more specific, what I am looking for is a tonally rich speaker that is not at all fatiguing.


Hi Art!

Hope you enjoy them. I've had mine since the week they came out. I LOVE them and what you're looking for is exactly how I'd describe them. So many more expensive loudspeakers have come and gone, but these have a special place in my rotation. Solid state is good, but man, they love tubes! I feel like they do everything well, but excel with modern types of music. Never shouty, musical yet detailed and the bass can move some serious air when properly located. Best of luck. They're definitely my favorite bookshelf.

Roy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
No I haven't heard those as we haven't had a dealer for SF anywhere close in a while. Vintagear calls them "lush" and I call them chesty (mid-range dominant) and non-offensive, I think we are talking about the same thing. Some people think the Spendors and Harbeths are "too much of a good thing" and the mid-line SF's are even more of that. Again that is to my ears and if you think think Nola is that way you could find the SF even more so. A smaller front ported speaker may be better suited to that room. Or maybe consider one of the Goldenear monitors like the Aon 3. I think there is a pair on BT for a good price. The Triton 5's with the right amplification sound great in my family room. Another option that would fit the bill if you could find a pair would be the Soliloquy 5.0.

I'm not sure why you would characterize the sound of speaker you have never heard. That's OK, I will hear them shortly and compare them to speakers I have heard (as opposed to haven't heard). Not a fan of the Soliloquy speakers but the GoldenEar speakers are interesting. Again, not looking for "the one" just enjoying different sounds. Looking forward hearing the 1.5's and comparing to my notes from other notable speakers...never know, they might be chesty!
 
Hi Art!

Hope you enjoy them. I've had mine since the week they came out. I LOVE them and what you're looking for is exactly how I'd describe them. So many more expensive loudspeakers have come and gone, but these have a special place in my rotation. Solid state is good, but man, they love tubes! I feel like they do everything well, but excel with modern types of music. Never shouty, musical yet detailed and the bass can move some serious air when properly located. Best of luck. They're definitely my favorite bookshelf.

Roy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you, Roy. Looking forward to their arrival. Much fun to be had.
 
Ill be interested in your findings. These were a leading contender for me before I got my KEF's. A terrible dealer experience ruined any chance of a decent audition though.
Love the look with the dedicated stands.
 
Definitely watching this thread with interest. I am considering replacing my stand mount monitors ( LSA-1 Signatures) with the floor standing SF Venere 2.5s. I have listened to them the 2.0s, and the 1.5s plenty at the Magnolia Design Center and they are quite impressive each in their own respect.

I find what I like about them is that they are so easy to listen to. Not really doing anything wrong. Such a musical and enjoyable speaker to spend time with. Build quality is phenomenal, truly beautiful aesthetics. Everything I have read says they very strictly watch their quality control for all the manufacturing that is done outside of Italy.

My dilemma at the moment and only thing holding me back is that my current monitors accomplish all of this already. I am not sure how much I am really gaining by moving from stand mount monitors to actual towers. Quality and sound wise they are similar as well as on a spec sheet. Doesn't make it easy in that beautiful walnut finish they offer.

-Josh
 
I've had a pair of these for about a year now and have rotated them thru different rooms and gear. I like them a lot in a smaller room; in my living room they didn't put out enough energy to fill it properly even with a sub.

The highs are soft and almost recessed but on the flip side you can listen to them all day and not get irritated. They play pretty low and sound like a bigger speaker than they are plus they are easy on the eyes. Hope you enjoy them.
 
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Strange ...though we all hear differently. I recall demoing then alone side some bw cm5 and the bw were down right piercing. Anyway, glad to see that some other folks are getting interested. Hardly ever see mention of the Venere line round here.
 
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I bought a set of the 1.5 store demo with stands. At $800 for the whole kit they sound wonderful for the price.
 
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