I've tried the Venustas in several systems, and what I connect with in particular is a seductive, warm midrange. The first time I heard our system with them, I fell asleep, the music was that soothing. And after having tried some 20+ IC's, I was then sold on the Purist approach. That said, the Venustas is not as fully extended or as pure sounding as the Aqueous Anniversary, IMO. We use the Aqueous between the CDP and preamp, and the Venustas between the amp and preamp. In the CDP/preamp position, the Venustas sounds great, but the music has less bite and immediacy to it. Because it is slightly rolled off on the top, the Venustas seems to allow more bass to come through, but I would say that the bass is not as defined as with the Aqueous. In a word, the Venustas sounds 'tuned', while the Aqueous sounds transparent. We also have horn speakers, and I believe the Aqueous Anniversary is complimentary to the energetic delivery of the horns, while the Venustas will have more of an effect of taming them, albeit only marginally.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.