Hello,
I have also heard the Venere 1.5 and the 2.0.
For the Price of the Venere 1.5 you can get the Sierra-1 with the NrT tweeter..
But, to the point of the Venere, I did like them overall! And they are very good in soundstage and imaging. Just a little more laid back (warm sounding) than I would like, but still very good.
In contrast, the Sierra-1 NrT which are the only ones I owned before upgrading them to Sierra-2, are not warm, but neutral...and overall a more pleasing sound... nothing is exaggerated or accentuated. I would have been very happy with the NrT if it wasn't because I fell in love with good ribbon tweeter (not just Ascends) and know that is what I wanted... back to the point.. the NrT are more at home with others like the Revel Performa M106, which are better than the Venere 1.5 and 2.0... The Veneres just have that Sonus Faber warm sound to them, that if that is what you like...great.. The Veneres do have a cool look to them though.
The Sierra-2 are just better than those period. They are less than $1500, but if they followed the typical business model of other companies, they would be way above $2000. Don't even ask about how much the Towers with RAAL would be