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Why are my SF Venere S Speakers not sounding as warm?

I have a beautiful pair of Walnut Sonus Faber Venere S speakers and I use them for everyday surround sound/music listening in our living room.  The issue is I fell in love with these speakers in the showroom, and when I set them up in my living room they sounded almost piercingly bright and not nearly as balanced and pleasant.  I have bi amped them with my Marantz SR 6012 Surround Receiver, ran the room EQ set up as well as tried to manually EQ the system.  I was able to take some of the brightness out and get them to a more balanced sound.  I am VERY happy at the un-hindered sound quality they produce.  However there is not near as much bass as there seemed to be in the showroom (I had them disconnect the separate sub).  Now I understand my room is not treated and that of course makes a difference.  I added a Definitive Technology SuperCube 2000 and that has helped, surprising amount of bass for such a small discreet sub.  What are your suggestions?  What am I missing on the set up of these speakers to get the full range from them?

We have a tile floor and a raised ceiling that is at an angle from approx 9' up to 15'.  We have a large fabric couch with an area rug and wooden coffee table.  The dimensions of the room are approximately 14' deep and 19' wide.

tice34

Showing 2 responses by mzkmxcv

mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
1) Don’t let anyone tell you the Marantz isn’t good enough, it is more than good enough. 
 
2) SF’s Venere line is not warm, I’d say they are even a tad bright. 
 
3) Did you try with no toe-in? Listening at 30° off axis (assuming you are in an equilateral triangle) will for sure make them sound more warm, and they image well so no issues with doing that. 
 
4) That DefTech sub in actuality is pretty lacking, despite what you said, $500 for a 7.5” subwoofer is a rip off unless you cannot fit a bigger sub. A Rythmik L12 is around the same price and is much better. 
 
5) adding a tube preamp won’t change the sound one bit if you still run Audyssey, and if you don’t, it will make the speaker bright again, most likely more than the warmth added from the tube preamp. 
 
6) If no toe-in srill isn’t warm enough, try extreme toe-in, having the speakers angled 15° past you (intersecting a foot or two in front of you). 
 
7) Play with placement from the front wall as well as the sidewalls. 
 
8) Adjust your seating distance from the rear wall.
mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
@tice34  
  
For Audyssey, use all 8 microphone positions. The first one should be dead centered where you sit, all other 7 should be where your head could be if you are slouching, leaning forwards, they should not be more than 3ft from the 1st position. Also, try to avoid placing it right up against any headrests.
 
Have Dynamic Volume (a dynamic compressor) off.
 
Have Dynamic EQ on. However, it’s default is for the typical mastering of movies, change the Reference Offset based on the type of content you listen to. 5dB for classical, 10dB for tv/pop/hip-hop, 15dB for heavily dynamically compressed music (a lot of metal/rock). I watch a lot of movies and tv and play a lot of hip-hop, so I go in the middle and choose 5dB, as the movie default results in way too much bass for music. 
 
What Dynamic EQ does is use the Equal Loudness Contours to adjust the frequency response based on playback levels, so that it always sounds neutral. However, you have probably noticed that if you play a movie on your system and then switch a pop/hip-hop song, you lower be volume, so that throws the Dynamic EQ off because they are mastered to different levels, so that’s why the offset is available. 
 
If you feel you can’t get Dynamic EQ to work with your tastes, then it off. 
 
If you feel you can’t get Audyssey right, use the L/R bypass, so it only corrects the subwoofer.
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