The Venere 3.0 and the Olympica III do similar things; the Olympica simply does them all a little better.
How much better? It’s difficult to quantify the kind of improvement that spending an additional $9502 for a pair of Olympica IIIs will buy -- what sounds “20% better” to me might sound 80% better to someone else. That said, I’ll say this:
to my ears, the Olympica III seemed 25% to 30% better in most respects. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it does indicate that
improvement in performance decreases in proportion to the increase in price -- which is par for the hi-fi course, where returns rapidly diminish for speakers costing more than a few thousand bucks per pair. The Venere 3.0, while not as good as the Olympica III, can actually be considered a steal when you juxtapose the great difference in price with the comparatively small difference in performance. Were I shopping in the Venere’s price range, I’d definitely consider buying a pair -- and if I had a lot more money, I’d just as seriously consider the Olympica III: its combination of build, styling, and sound seems fabulous.
http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index...-3-0-and-olympica-iii-and-some-naked-italians
