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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
tice34 OP
9 posts
 
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.
caphill
674 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).
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Try some throw rugs on that tile floor.
mtrot
804 posts
 
A link to a pic of your room would help a lot to improve and facilitate good recommendations for you.
tice34 OP
9 posts
 
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!
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