acoustic zen reference or venustas

I've owned AZ Ref, PAD Venustas and PAD Proteus Provectus. The AZ Ref was cleaner than the Venustas but the Venustas was plain more musical, although on the darker side of the spectrum. However the Proteus Provectus was the clear winner, made the Venustas sound veiled and truncated at both ends of the spectrum. Once heard I could not go back to the Venustas plain and simple.