Sonus faber Venere Wall and Venere Center — Review

Overview

The Venere Wall and Venere Center are the home theater supporting cast in Sonus faber’s Venere range, the line that marked a real change of direction for the Italian maker. The Absolute Sound called Venere a game-changer for the company, and Sound & Vision was struck that the sleek, lacquer-finished, curvaceous design carried a price tag that “shouts China” rather than Italy. The Center handles dialogue and front-stage effects, and the Wall is a flexible on-wall speaker, usable as a surround, a rear, or a wall-mounted center. Both are voiced to match the Venere bookshelf and floorstanding models.

A sourcing note: I found much more coverage of the Venere system as a whole (the 1.5, 2.5, and 3.0 models) than of the Wall and Center individually, so for these two I rely on the system reviews’ comments about them, supplemented by retailer documentation and owner feedback.

Build & Design

Both speakers share the range’s non-boxy styling. The Center’s cabinet is a horizontal teardrop shape, which Sonus faber says mimics a lute, and the curved cabinet also helps with standing-wave breakup and strength. Home Cinema Choice found everything from the binding posts to the Center’s stand foot and the magnetic grilles to be of high quality, even if the Venere range uses less expensive materials than Sonus faber’s pricier lines.

The Center is a three-driver design with a pair of woofers flanking a 1-inch silk dome tweeter. Sources disagree on the woofer size: Sound & Vision and HomeTheaterHifi describe 6-inch units (HomeTheaterHifi gives a crossover at 1.8kHz), while a dealer listing says 5.25-inch, so check the spec sheet for your unit. The dealer listing gives 6-ohm impedance, 89dB sensitivity, 60Hz-25kHz response, and roughly 20 x 9 x 12 inches, and the Center comes with a wooden base to adjust its tilt.

The Wall carries a 1-1/8-inch silk dome tweeter and is built with non-parallel internal sides to reduce standing-wave distortion. It ships with a bracket for mounting either vertically or horizontally, and a magnetic grille. I couldn’t confirm its woofer configuration from the sources I found.

Performance

For the Center, the most specific verdict came from Home Cinema Choice’s full Venere 5.0 system test. They found movie dialogue clear and easy to follow, but said the Center is merely pretty good next to the astonishingly competent 2.5 floorstanders, lacking some of the weight and presence the fronts and even the compact rear speakers deliver with such ease. HomeTheaterHifi’s reviewer, who used the Venere Walls as rears in a 5.1 setup, described the overall system’s impression as vivid realism and enjoyed every minute of his time with it. He did note that during calibration the Center’s white noise sounded noticeably brighter than the mains’, which he initially worried would cause a mismatch.

For the Wall, performance evidence is thinner. A single Crutchfield customer, who rated it four out of five, bought one specifically as a wall-mounted center because the standard Venere Center can’t be wall-mounted. Crutchfield’s own take stresses its flexibility, as either a center with a wall-hung TV or in multiples for surround duty.

Practical Notes

Both reviewers who used the Center flagged its size: it’s wide, and HomeTheaterHifi’s reviewer found it a little too wide for the shelf under his screen, so he had to invert the shelving, which put the speaker about three inches lower than he normally keeps his center. Home Cinema Choice found the Center happy on a semi-enclosed rack shelf. Sonus faber doesn’t make subwoofers, so all reviewers paired the system with a REL sub, and as Kahl Audio noted, a sub takes much of the low-level bass load off the Center anyway.

Value

At launch the Center was $798 in the US and £550 in the UK, while the Wall sat below the Center’s price. For people building a matched Venere system, both are reasonable ways to extend it. Home Cinema Choice’s Highs and Lows summary for the whole Venere 5.0 package noted an exceptionally open, detailed, refined sound and beautiful build, but also that the Center is slightly less capable than the rest and that the system is rather big.

Verdict

Pros: Distinctive, high-quality Italian styling and finish; clear, easy-to-follow dialogue from the Center; Wall can mount vertically or horizontally and double as a center, surround, or rear; magnetic grilles and good-quality hardware; voice-matched to the rest of the Venere range.

Cons: Center lacks some of the weight and presence of the Venere floorstanders according to Home Cinema Choice, and one reviewer found it brighter than his mains at first; the Center is wide and can be awkward on shelves; limited independent coverage of the Wall specifically; no matching Sonus faber subwoofer, so you’ll need to source one.

Bottom line: The Center and Wall are attractive, well-built supporting players for a Venere home theater, good for clear dialogue and flexible placement. They are less accomplished than the floorstanders they accompany, so they suit people who value the matched look and voicing.