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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 4 responses by caphill

caphill
678 posts
 
You have couple serious major issues. First is your electronics and second is your untreated living room.

I wouldn’t run these Sonus Faber Veneer S speakers off a cheap mediocre Marantz SR6012 AV receiver or any AV receivers if I were you. You will not get a full potential of your Sonus Faber speakers by running them off this cheap Marantz SR6012 AV receiver. You will need to upgrade to good quality AV separates. For a budget five-channel power amp I would highly recommend the Rotel RMB-1585 retails for $3k new. This is a five-channel class AB amp. It’s a great sounding and is a high performance amp. It’s a very good amp especially for the money. Another great five-channel amp will be the Parasound Halo A51 retails for $4500 new and IMO it is better than the Rotel RMB-1585.

For an affordable AV pre pro (preamp surround processor) I recommend the Marantz AV8802 or AV8805 or the Anthem AVM60. The Anthem has superior room correction (ARC2) than the Marantz’s Audyssey. The step up in sound quality and audio performance than these Marantz or the Anthem AVM60 will be the Classe Sigma SSP, Krell Foundation series or an older Krell 1200U (long discontinued), Classe SSP 800 (discontinued), NAD M17, Cary Cinema 12. But the Cary Cinema 12 has been well known for their failing HDMI board/switching it sounds really good for both stereo music & surround movies but constantly has been having issues. Seemed like almost every single unit fails after couple yrs of use. HDMI board failure.

The combination of a good quality AV pre pro and a great five-channel amp such as the Rotel RMB-1585 amp will drastically elevate the performance of your system setup to a whole new different level of sonic performance from your Marantz SR6012 av receiver.

Lastly, you will need room treatments for your living room and try to tweak around with speaker placements / positioning. A well treated room coupled with proper speaker placements will make big difference.
caphill
678 posts
 
@tice34 

First let me ask you this : are you only doing stereo setup for listening to music only or surrounds for both HT and stereo music? Cause you are using the Marantz SR6012 av receiver so I automatically assumed that you have a surround system setup. 

If you're only doing stereo and use your setup to only listen to stereo music I wouldn't get AV separates, I would recommend getting a good quality stereo integrated amp or good quality stereo preamp + stereo power amp. 
Stereo gears will sound better than multi-channel gears. 
caphill
678 posts
 
@tice34

You should upgrade your electronic. Your Marantz SR6012 AV receiver is holding back the performance of your system. It is far from ideal pairing with your SB Veneer S speakers. You should make efforts upgrading from your Marantz SR6012 av receiver.

Since you’re doing both stereo for music and surround sound movies I would recommend getting AV separates.
What’s your setup? 5.1/5.2 or 7.1/7.2 or 9.1/9.2? Marantz makes really good AV preamp surround processor (pre pro) and you should seriously consider the new Marantz AV8805 pre pro or a used recently discontinued AV8802/AV8802A pre pro. Other great sounding pre pros that I highly recommend would be the Classe Sigma SSP (optimized for stereo music playbacks), a used Classe SSP 800 (discontinued), NAD M17, Krell Foundation, a used Krell 1200U (long discontinued), Anthem AVM60, Cary Cinema 12. But the Cary Cinema 12 consistently has had HDMI board issues. Their HDMI boards start failing after couple yrs of use. Seemed like most or all units have failing HDMI boards.

As for a multi-channel power amp I would highly recommend either the Rotel RMB-1585 five-channel amp or the Parasound Halo A51 five-channel amp.

These AV separates will elevate the performance of your system to a whole new level than what you currently have (Marantz SR6012 av receiver).
caphill
678 posts
 
Your Marantz SR6012 receiver has no XLR pre-outs. You can use a pair of RCA cables to connect to your Krell stereo power amp. But still for your stereo music playbacks you will need to get a separate dedicated stereo preamp with HT bypass. And connect your front end source components(s) for your stereo music directly to a stereo preamp. So when listening to stereo music materials you don't even have to turn on your Marantz SR6012 receiver at all. 
The Marantz receiver's preamp section isn't good at all for stereo music playbacks. 
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