Listening Impressions of the Venuette vs Orion.
First let me say that Danny ask me to tell it just like I hear it, no sugar coating for his sake. He said he would be happy just knowing his Venuette was even close to the Orion. With that said I have never heard any speakers that strike me like my Orion's, and I mean nothing for me has even been close, until now.
Well it is close indeed, let me start with the hair splitting differences, ie small differences then we will move onto the bigger differences and the problems they are causing me.
The small things are: the highs on the Orions are a tinny bit smoother, the midrange on the Venuette is more detailed, and the bass on the Orion offers more detail. These differences are small enough it would be hard to tell it if they were not side by side.
Now for the big things: the soundstage depth, the Venuette gives a closer to the performer presentation. The front of the stage is just in front of the speaker and extends to the depth the recording captured, the Orion's stage starts just behind the speaker with the same depth field. This is giving the impression of sitting closer to the performers with the Venuette. Is this a good thing? You would need to judge it for yourself.
Keep in mind the Venuette is a dipole from the bass up to the mid-tweet xover point, from their up it is not dipole as there are no highs radiating from the rear of the Venuette. The Orion on the other hand has a rear tweeter making a dipole from the bottom to the top. For me this rear tweeter is a very good thing adding better definition of instrument placement in stage depth. Now for side to side placement that is were things become perplexing for me. The Venuette has a much stronger center stage image enough so that I am in need of doing something with my Orion's to try to create that with them. The left to right sound stage with the Venuette is so real it is freaky at first. Even non audio people hear it right out of the gate. Now at the extreme sides of the stage, hard left and hard right, the Orion might have the edge.
The Venuette's left to right imaging is so good it really draws you into the performance and makes listening a blast. This speaker is also more dynamic than the Orion which also gives a sense of live music.
Hearing the Venuette is now making me play with placement of my Orion's to try to capture that same imaging. Can it be done, only time will tell.
So which is the winner? Well it depends on what you value most. If I had never heard the Orion I could live happy with the Venuette, but for me there is just enough to the Orion to make me stay with them, and of course I have a lot of time and money invested in them. Now I really want to hear the V1 in my room, talk about dynamics in spades!!!!!
