The Absolute Sound ULTIMATE REFERENCE

Venture Ultimate
Reference Loudspeaker
Robert Harley
Venture is a Belgian company that has been
making loudspeakers since 1986. The company’s
founder, Njoo Hoo Kong, a native of Indonesia, holds
a Master’s degree in physics. He thinks
of loudspeaker design as more of a physics
challenge than one of electrical engineering.
In his quest to create super-top-end loudspeakers,
Njoo Hoo Kong has applied his physics
background to develop all his own drivers
in-house. These drivers feature proprietary
cone materials that, according to Venture, are key
to the loudspeakers’ performance.
122 July/August 2012 the absolute sound
the absolute sound July/August 2012 123
The model under review here is the Ultimate Reference.
Despite that lofty name and the speaker’s equally lofty price of
$139,500, the Ultimate Reference is actually the penultimate
product in the line, eclipsed by the $199,000 Xtreme. The
Ultimate Reference is a nearly-five-foot-tall floorstanding threeway design employing four 9" woofers, a 7" midrange, and an
unusual 2" tweeter. Forgoing the usual stretched-fabric grille,
the Ultimate Reference’s drivers are covered by individual metal
grilles, giving the speaker a business-like, yet elegant appearance
from the front. But your attention is unlikely to be drawn toward
the drivers and their grilles. Instead, you’ll probably focus on
what is among the most beautiful cabinetry ever lavished on
a loudspeaker. The gorgeous ebony wood and layer after layer
of buffed polyester lacquer combine to make the Ultimate
Reference’s enclosure a work of art in its own right.
The Ultimate Reference’s design is somewhat unorthodox.
The crossover slopes are first-order, a design approach employed
by very few manufacturers (Vandersteen and Thiel chief among
them). First-order crossovers produce very gentle roll-offs (6dB
per octave) in the frequency bands sent to each driver. First-order
crossovers are the only type to achieve perfect phase coherence,
but they require drivers that are well behaved far outside their
passbands. Consider the Ultimate Reference’s midrange driver,
crossed over at 400Hz; at 200Hz the signal driving it is attenuated
by only 6dB, at 100Hz by just 12dB, and at 50Hz by 18dB. This
wideband signal puts additional stress on the drivers, often reducing
the speaker’s ability to play loudly without strain. Nonetheless,
these tradeoffs are, as noted, balanced by perfect time and phase
performance. So long as the drivers are well behaved, loudspeakers
with first-order crossovers have a coherence and purity that are
unmistakable. It’s also worth noting that the Ultimate Reference’s
midrange driver is a 7" unit rather than the typical 5", giving it
greater ability to play lower in frequency. The crossover points
of 400Hz and 3kHz mean that most of the music is reproduced
by this 7" underhung midrange driver, with no driver-to-driver
transitions in the most critical frequency bands. Note also that the
signal driving the 7" midrange is down by 6dB at 6kHz and 12dB
at 12kHz, requiring that the midrange’s out-of-band behavior be
exemplary. Incidentally, the crossovers are built with point-topoint wiring rather than with components mounted on a circuit
board. Internal wiring is of Venture’s own design.
The frequency response is stated in the literature as 20Hz–60kHz,
although no tolerance is given, rendering the spec meaningless.
Venture clarified the low-frequency extension spec by saying
that the combination of the woofer’s resonant frequency (17Hz)
and the port tuning of 18Hz result in a response that is down
by 6dB at 18Hz. Sensitivity is a highish 92dB, and the impedance
is 6 ohms. The impedance magnitude is quite flat over the audio
band, and there are no severe swings in phase angle, suggesting
that the Ultimate Reference is fairly easy to drive. Input is via a
single pair of Furutech binding posts or a Speakon connector.
This was my first encounter with the Furutech posts, and they
are exemplary. In addition to being easy to tighten by hand and
offering a solid connection, they have a torque-limiting feature that
124 July/August 2012 the absolute sound
prevents over-tightening. The input connectors are mounted on a
removable metal panel to which handles are attached for accessing
the crossover.
The enclosure is made from alternating layers of high-density
fiberboard and solid hardwood. Two large ports at the top rear
provide reflex-loading of the four 9" woofers. The cabinet’s
thickness isn’t specified, but Venture says that the enclosure is
heavily braced. The side panels converge toward a front baffle
that is narrower than the rear panel. This “C” shape makes the
enclosure more rigid, minimizes the front baffle area, and gives the
speaker an apparently smaller footprint when seen from the front.
A hard polyester mirror coat finishes the enclosure. My review
samples were finished Makassar Ebony. Other finishes include
Rosewood, Elm Burl, Piano Black, and Pearl White. Custom
finishes are available upon request.
This Venture-developed
cone material reportedly nearly
eliminates cone resonances
that would introduce distortion and smear
micro-dynamic detail.
The drivers are unusual in their shape and cone composition.
The four 9" woofers and the single 7" midrange driver are based
on a cone material developed by Venture called CFGC, or Carbon
Fibre Graphite Composite. Tiny graphite particles are uniformly
mixed with a resin to form a graphite composite that in cured in
a mold at high temperature. In addition, long carbon fibers are
embedded in the graphite composite in a proprietary pattern to
increase stiffness while keeping the cone mass low. Note that the
cone is not built up from woven cloth, nor is the graphite a coating
on the cone. Rather, the graphite is an integral part of the cone.
This Venture-developed cone material reportedly nearly eliminates
cone resonances that would introduce distortion and smear microdynamic detail. It’s also very light and stiff. Graphite composite
matrices were first developed for absorbing vibration in ship hulls.
In addition to being made from this custom material, the cones
are also unusual for their shallow, perfectly concave profile (no
dust cap). This cone profile was developed for “a wave launch
that results in optimum matching of amplitude and phase in the
soundfield.”
As with the woofers and midrange drivers, the Ultimate
Reference’s tweeter is also custom-designed by Venture. It is a 2"
device that looks like a tiny cone midrange driver with a whizzer
cone in the center. I’ve never seen a tweeter that looks anything
like this, either in its size (most tweeters are 1"), cone-shape (most
tweeters are domes or inverted domes), or the secondary whizzer
cone in the center. In addition, the cone material is another custom
Venture creation, called AGC, or Abaca Graphite Composite. This
material similar to the CFGC in the woofers and midrange drivers
except that the cone is composed of a pulp and long fibers from
The most beautiful cabinetry ever
lavished on a speaker.
the absolute sound July/August 2012 125
the stems of the abaca tree. Tiny graphite particles are uniformly
mixed with the abaca pulp to form a graphite composite. The long
abaca fibers, embedded in the abaca pulp in a defined pattern,
increase the cone’s stiffness. The combined material is cured in a
mold at high temperature. Abaca, which is related to the banana
tree, is used in making rope, teabags, bank notes, carpet, and
specialized paper products. Venture claims that this AGC tweeter,
crossed over at 3kHz, has a bandwidth of 100Hz–60kHz, an
astounding specification.
All this technology comes together in a loudspeaker that while
large, doesn’t dominate a room the way some loudspeakers can.
The stunning cabinetry no doubt draws your attention away from
the technological nature of the product, giving it a natural and
organic feel.
Listening
There are a number of rules to follow in setting up a pair of
Venture speakers that simplify the installation. The first is that the
optimum distance between them is narrower than that of most
other loudspeakers, and absolutely crucial to the performance. The
second is that the ideal amount of toe-in is exactly six degrees,
no more and no less. Venture’s US distributor, Mike Slaminski
of Precision Audio and Video, used a protractor and 3'-long
metal ruler to dial in the toe-in. I would have thought that the
optimum toe-in would be a function of the listening distance, but
six degrees seemed to work perfectly for my 12' listening distance.
The loudspeaker spacing was realized by moving the loudspeakers
along a line marked with
masking tape on the floor at the
speakers’ front edges, and then
listening to every incremental
change. As we zero’d in on
the optimum placement,
movements of a quarter inch
became significant. This effort
in finding just the right distance
apart, and using the protractor
to set the toe-in, pays off
when the sound unmistakably
“locks in,” with the soundstage
suddenly existing independently of the loudspeakers. You can
get close to the ideal placement and think that the sound is quite
good, but finding just the right spot resulted in a “step function”
in which the sound takes a leap in quality.
That sense of knowing with certainty when the Ultimate
References were in the right location was the result of a tremendous
coherence in which the soundstage truly floated with no apparent
attachment to the two large boxes in front of me. When that
happened, everything else naturally fell into place.
I’ll start with the Ultimate Reference’s soundstaging, this
loudspeaker’s most compelling attribute. Despite the somewhat
narrower distance between the Ventures compared with all
other speakers I’ve had in my room, the Ultimate Reference
threw a spectacularly wide soundstage that extended beyond the
loudspeakers. The spatial presentation was extremely enveloping
in that the soundstage seemed to wrap around to the sides of the
listening room rather than appearing as a square window in front
of me. On the stunning new 45rpm reissue of Muddy Waters’ Folk
126 July/August 2012 the absolute sound
Singer, the snare drum at the soundstage’s far left has an enormous
“pop” that “lights up” the acoustic and gives dimension to the
recording space. The Ventures presented this ambient information
as fully surrounding the far-left drum placement rather than
truncating the edge beyond the loudspeaker boundary. By getting
this little detail right, the Ultimate Reference created a more
compelling impression of being present at the original musical
event. This quality of the loudspeaker was particularly rewarding
with orchestral music; the Ultimate Reference was magical in its
ability to disappear into an enormous and transparent soundstage
bounded by the recording venue’s walls rather than by a limitation
of the loudspeaker placement or listening room. I must stress that
the Venture’s soundstaging wasn’t a hi-fi trick but rather a quality
that made the spatial presentation more realistic and the music
more engaging.
The Venture combined this enormous sense of size with precise
image placement and the ability to sound small and focused
when appropriate. The beautiful SACD Jazz in the Key of Blue by
SPECS & PRICING
Configuration: Three-way, sixdriver loudspeaker
Loading: Reflex
Driver complement: Four 9"
woofers, one 7" midrange, one
2" tweeter
Sensitivity: 92dB
Impedance: 6 ohms
Crossover: First order
Dimensions: 15.7" x 58.2" x
23.6"
Weight: 264 lbs. each
Finishes: Makassar ebony,
rosewood, elm burl, piano
black, pearl white
Price: $139,500 per pair
Precision Audio and
Video (U.S. Distributor)
12277 Arbor Hill Street
Moorpark, CA 93021
(805) 523-3005
[email protected]
precisionav.com
Associated Components
Hegel P30 preamplifier;
Hegel H30, Lamm ML2.2,
and Jeff Rowland Design
Group 725 amplifiers; Corus
preamplifier and Aeris DAC;
dCS Puccini/U-Clock and
Berkeley Alpha DAC Series
2; iMac server with Berkeley
Audio Design Alpha USB
interface; Basis Inspiration
turntable with Basis Vector
4 tonearm, Air Tight PC-1
Supreme cartridge; Aesthetix
Rhea Signature phonostage;
BSG Technologies QOL;
Shunyata Triton and Talos
AC conditioners, Audience
aR6TS power conditioner;
Shunyata CX-series and Zitron
Anaconda AC cords; Audience
Au24 and PowerChord AC
cords; Shunyata Anaconda
interconnects and loudspeaker
cables; AudioQuest Diamond
USB digital cable; AudioQuest
WEL Signature, and
Transparent XL Reference
interconnects; Transparent
XL Reference loudspeaker
cables; FMS Cable Nexus 3
loudspeaker cables; Billy Bags
equipment racks, Stillpoints
equipment racks, Stillpoints
Ultra SS isolation, ASC 16"
Full-Round Tube Traps. VPI
16.5 record-cleaning machine;
Mobile Fidelity record brush,
cleaning fluid, stylus cleaner
Comment on this article on the Forum at avguide.com
Jimmy Cobb [Chesky] was recorded with a single Soundfield
microphone, with trumpeter Roy Hargrove in the middle flanked
by Cobb on drums on the right and guitarist Russell Malone on
the left. Hargrove doesn’t stay in one place during the set, a fact
revealed with great precision by the Ultimate Reference. By the
way, this is the most realistic recording of a trumpet I’ve heard,
and Hargrove’s playing is exquisite.
The Ultimate Reference had a coherence that combined
with the imaging precision to create a vivid, up-front portrayal
of instrumental images and their timbres. The palpability of
images—the impression of the instrument hanging in space in
front of the listening seat—was phenomenal. The coherence
was partially attributable to the seamless integration of the
drivers—it is perhaps no coincidence that the drivers feature
similar construction and design, and are crossed over with firstorder slopes.
Despite the first-order crossovers, the Ultimate Reference
had wide dynamic contrasts and could reproduce even the
most challenging music. I never heard the Venture approach its
bottom-end dynamic limitations on high-res orchestral music
or power rock. In this regard, the Ultimate Reference was
sensational. Although the Ultimate Reference played loudly
and had considerable “jump factor” on transients, I thought
that the soundstage became temporarily less well defined and
timbres hardened during the loudest and most demanding
passages.
The Ultimate Reference’s bass was well extended and
weighty, but didn’t plum the depths of the lowermost octave
(at least in my room). The organ pedal points on Rutter’s
Requiem, that old reliable reference for bass extension, were
somewhat audible but didn’t pressurize the room the way it
does with a select few reference-quality loudspeakers. Despite
a roll-off at about 30Hz in my room, the bass had a terrific
combination of weight, authority, and power on one hand,
and pitch definition, articulation, and precision on the other.
The Ultimate Reference seemed to combine the best attributes
of reflex-loading (weight, impact, power) with the qualities
associated with infinite-baffle loading (definition, resolution,
transient fidelity). The superbly recorded acoustic bass on
Joe Morello’s Morello Standard Time [DMP] had a musically
compelling combination of body and articulation. The bass
was also finely textured, with great color and a sense of
a resonant, three-dimensional wooden body. I noticed
this quality on quite a number of recordings; the
Ultimate Reference’s bass is superb. Still, the Ultimate
Reference didn’t quite match the visceral, full-body
experience of the Rockport Altair, which remains for
me the reference standard in this regard.
The Ultimate Reference had a tonal balance I’ll call
“lively.” The top end was very open and extended, with a terrific
sense of air riding above the music. This upper-midrange/treble
character contributed to the sense of palpability as well as to the
soundstage openness and transparency, but also to an overall
balance that favored upper-midrange resolution and detail over
timbral warmth, body, and saturation of tone colors. Instruments
rich in upper harmonics—saxophone, for example—tended
to sound lighter in color and thinner in body. The brass and
woodwinds of Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band on its new
the absolute sound July/August 2012 127