Напольная акустика — Venture Audio Ultimate Reference

The Ultimate Reference is a large passive three-way tower from the Ultimate Series of Venture Audio, placed in the range between the Grand Ultimate and the Xtreme. Venture Audio operates from Singapore and from Brasschaat in Belgium, and every one of its loudspeakers, passive or active, is built around its own drive units. Its underhung midrange is shared with the Xtreme, and Venture also fitted it to the Grand Ultimate when that model was upgraded.

Key specs that matter

Venture fits a 2 inch AGC full-range dynamic unit used as the tweeter, one 7 inch underhung midrange and four 9 inch woofers. The crossover points are 400 Hz and 3,000 Hz. Venture quotes a frequency response of 20 Hz to 60,000 Hz, a sensitivity of 92 dB and a nominal impedance of 6 ohm. According to the maker the speaker handles up to 400 W of amplifier power without clipping. It stands 148 cm tall, 40 cm wide and 60 cm deep and weighs 120 kg. Finishes are Ebony or Elm Burl, both in high gloss lacquer. Venture specifies at least 200 hours of playing time before the drivers are fully run in, twice the figure Venture gives for the Xtreme.

Engineering and use context

The filter is a first-order design at 6 dB per octave, the slope Venture uses on every loudspeaker it makes. Because such gentle slopes let neighbouring drivers overlap across a wide band, Venture began producing its own drivers in 2001, when the founder Didi decided that bought-in units could not be matched closely enough to these filters. The midrange and woofer cones are carbon fibre graphite composites, with long carbon strands set in a fixed pattern within the graphite so that the cone stays rigid under drive. Internal wiring is Venture's own, made of high-purity copper with silver plating and derived from microwave cable technology with bandwidths of up to 18 GHz. Cabinet walls combine several laminates of solid hardwood with high-density fiberboard, a constrained layer method that Venture traces back to aerospace structures, and inside the enclosure vertical and horizontal braces divide it into compartments.

Pairing

With its high sensitivity and moderate impedance the Ultimate Reference is a comparatively easy load, so amplifiers of moderate power can run it, while the high power limit leaves space for large solid-state designs. Venture offers the V200A+ amplifier and the VP 200DT preamplifier with DAC in its own catalogue.

Alternatives

The Venture Audio Grand Ultimate MKII is a slightly smaller Ultimate Series tower with four 7 inch woofers, a 4 ohm load and a 140 cm cabinet weighing 80 kg.