Sonus Faber Venere 1.5

[mustvid]

The Veneres are in place and I'm listening to them for the first time. Using Batman Begins because of the dynamic range of the score. Good bass, mids and highs. My initial first impression is very positive. Good bass weight and attack, good instrument separation and excellent imaging. I now think they can displays the LS50s and I wasn't sure that was going to be possible. These are brand new speakers (Thanks Music Direct for outstanding customer service) so they have no listening hours them unlike the demos I sent back. Currently the speakers are toed in with the left speaker pointing to me left ear and the right speaker to my right ear. I'm using the owners manual for the initial setup.

Art ... are yours toed in? Are you using the factory jumpers?

 

[Art K.]

Slight toe in...although I do not sit in a sweet spot (ever, pretty much) and "yes" using the factory jumpers with cable in the lower binding posts as shown in the manual.

 

[mustvid]

Two hours of listening and I'm really liking them. Can't wait to hear them fully broken in.

 

[Art K.]

They definitely improve when broken in. Mine keep getting better and better. They are winners for sure.

 

[cheehpogi]

What amp. are you guys using? I'm using a dynaco st-70, does it need a more powerful amp? if it does do I need a 300 wpc or a 120- 250 be sufficient enough?

 

[prighello]

That depends on the room, music, and how loud you like it. In my office they do fine with my nad d3020 which isn't powerful at all.

 

[sonci]

Art, I'm glad you're enjoying the Venere..
How do they compare to B&W 685s2? I know they are in different league, but considering you favored the B&W to the Kef Ls50,
also the 685s2 are made in China and seem to have poor finish, so probably the money should have gone on the drivers and crossovers..

 

[cheehpogi]

Agree.

They are very well voiced speakers. I will never get rid of my pair

 

[Samac]

Yes, a Venere 1.5 and 685 S2 comparison would be interesting.

 

[Art K.]

I didn't prefer the 685's to the LS50's, I preferred some parts of the presentation. I also would not say that the 685 S2 has a poor finish. It's a rather well done vinyl finish. Bettter fit and finish than some with real wood veneers. I did have my wife's 685 S2's out recently for a comparison...more later.

 

[cube-tube]

Art... I hope you're feeling better these days, after the surgery and all.

For the past couple of months, I've been using my old mint AV123 X-Statik's again. And after all these years, I finally decided to do full component upgrades to the crossovers, all new Sonicap capacitors and Mills resistors throughout. Nearly $500 worth including two sheets of No-Rez damping material to replace the stock felt padding. A remarkable improvement in sound from top to bottom.

With that said, I've been thinking about bookshelf speakers lately as it's been years and years since I've owned any. So browsing around, decided on a pair of white 1.5's with stands after reading the usual professional reviews. I just ordered them a couple nights ago off of the "Gon". They should be here this coming Friday. Break-in won't be much of an issue as I leave my system running 24/7, so I'll have several hundred hours on them within a few weeks.

From everything I've read, I should be very happy with these speakers. We'll see.

 

[Art K.]

Thank you. Getting better...suffering some occipital neuralgia symptoms. Another 4 wks before I return to work.

I think you will enjoy the 1.5's. Splendid little speaker.

 

[cube-tube]

You're welcome. Hopefully for you, it'll be a quick four weeks.

As for the speakers, the X-Statik's sound excellent. Zero colorations of any kind, open, dynamic, natural sounding speakers, but as with any tower speakers I try in these darn apartments, I can not get any proper sound stage width or depth, and definitely no disappearing act of any kind.

With bookshelves, especially decent quality ones like the 1.5's, I should be able to achieve that with no problem. They'll be playing fullrange, but I also have a pair of Polk PSW505 subs running in stereo, which with some good quality gear in front of them actually sound pretty good. They're quick, musical, detailed and integrate perfectly with the X-Statik's. As long as I can get them to integrate as well with the 1.5's, I'll be happy. Eventually however, I'll upgrade to a pair of either JL's or REL's.

 

[mustvid]

It's been a week since I've been able to listen to the 1.5's. They probably have about 25 hours on them at the moment. I'm really enjoying the organic sound they produce. I'm very impressed. I plan to listen for another two weeks and then place LS50's back in system and see how I feel about the 1.5's before deciding on the pair to keep.

 

[cube-tube]

Well I got in my Venere 1.5's yesterday afternoon at work My brothers (all three of them) came and picked them up from work, pitched in unpacking them, assembling them and connecting them to my system while I was at work. To make a long story short, I'm extremely impressed with these little gems. Even after reading all of the reviews beforehand, I'm completely surprised at the sound of these speakers, and the amount or "size" of the sound they produce. Half of the time, I'm checking to see if I left my subs on, which I haven't. And this is only with a little over 24 hours on them!

 

[mustvid]

Nice setup. I'm not missing the LS50s so far. I will put them back in the system in a week and see if I miss the 1.5's and make my final decision on which to keep.

 

[avanti1960]

Well I got in my Venere 1.5's yesterday afternoon at work My brothers (all three of them) came and picked them up from work, pitched in unpacking them, assembling them and connecting them to my system while I was at work. To make a long story short, I'm extremely impressed with these little gems. Even after reading all of the reviews beforehand, I'm completely surprised at the sound of these speakers, and the amount or "size" of the sound they produce. Half of the time, I'm checking to see if I left my subs on, which I haven't. And this is only with a little over 24 hours on them!

nice system. what subs are those?

 

[cube-tube]

Thanks guys. The subs are old Polk PSW505's. With typical HT receivers, they never sounded good, especially with music. But now with the McIntosh preamp and quality Wireworld cabling, they sound pretty darn good.

 

[Polarbear]

Of course. However one look at the 1.5's response plot tells you they were voiced with an agenda in mind. Bass boost, midrange / fletchur munson dip for smoothness and a high end treble boost. You will most definitely hear the way they were voiced when you listen.
As opposed to other acclaimed speakers that have straight line frequency response plots who also have an agenda with their voicing strategy, possibly to become critically acclaimed!

I'm sure most peoples listening rooms measure far worse so who really cares about audio gear measuring flat?

 

[Art K.]

Well I got in my Venere 1.5's yesterday afternoon at work My brothers (all three of them) came and picked them up from work, pitched in unpacking them, assembling them and connecting them to my system while I was at work. To make a long story short, I'm extremely impressed with these little gems. Even after reading all of the reviews beforehand, I'm completely surprised at the sound of these speakers, and the amount or "size" of the sound they produce. Half of the time, I'm checking to see if I left my subs on, which I haven't. And this is only with a little over 24 hours on them!

Nice!