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 8 responses by tice34

Caphill,
I am using this system as Stereo and as Surround for my families everyday use as well as my sweet spot on the couch stereo playback.
Wow, THANK YOU everyone for the insight and education I very much appreciate it and is exactly what I was looking for.  I definitely know I need to do some treatment to my room but I was really wondering about needing better amps and such and you all gave great advice.  I will start doing some research, I am also going to return to the show room to see what I missed.  I know they used McIntosh equipment with the Venere S setup they had I just don't know what else they had or how much power they actually had running to these.  This will be a work in progress as I am sure most of you have your own audio projects ongoing.  But this gives me a good direction
OK, I just ordered the Krell 2250 Amplifier and will be using (for now) my Mrantz as the pre amp for the Sonus Fabers.  I know there is a matching pre amp that is recommeded the Krell 280p I believe it is, and I am considering this but also have read A LOT that a tube pre with this Amp is very ideal.
Caphill - Thank you very much for all your input, you made me do a lot of research.  I decided to go with the stereo amp because it seems to provide a better tone and power for just musical playback and if I can match it with a tube pre I may be right where I want to be.  Once I have the Krell in line and get to listen to it for a while and build back up my Audio Budget, I will be on the hunt for the pre.
I will also be using the  "MASTER SET" SPEAKER POSITIONING once everything is hooked up and I will be looking at different room treatment options that can blend with our living room.

Thank you all so much and I will update this when the Amp comes in and I get a few hours out of it!
Mtrot,
Which ones do you recommend?  Are you using RCA to XLR then?  What type of ends on the RCA should I be looking for?
The power amp I ordered has both XLR and RCA, but with everything I have read I need to send it a balanced signal so I need to find a cable that I can plug RCA into the Mrantz and XLR to the amp.  So same setup you have looks like.  But I don't have a cable budget any where near that high.
mzkmxcv,
Thank you I am going to play with the placement when I get the new amp in and up and running.  I will definitely be planning a chunk of time for that.  I can see what you are telling me about the Audyssey, so far I am not a fan of that system.  Or at least I have not figured out how to use it to my advantage yet.  And the sub was purchased out of necessity regarding the size right now, it fills the room decent enough, but tucks away out of sight which is what I needed to keep the Mrs. happy ;)

Mzk,
Wow, thank you very much!  I will re run Audyssey when the amp is hooked into the system and follow these suggestions!