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A picture with the designer
Just as JBL fans have their fabled designers, including our current hero, Greg Timbers, the Revel fans swear by the work of Kevin Voecks, who came to Harman and the then new Revel from Canada in the wake of Dr. Floyd Toole. They worked together there at the national lab. (Canadian National Research Council)
Stereophile placed him next to the Ultima2 Salons and wrote this:
Quote:
JA already blogged about the Ultima Salon2 demo we attended yesterday, but I just had to second his praise with an additional rave: These large speakers are incredibly light on their feet. Yes, the bass was impressive, and, yes, they sounded fabulous on vocals, but for me, it was their ability to change rhythmic directions on a tack-head that was most impressive.
So, it seemed appropriate to post a photo of Kevin Voecks waltzing them around the room. Kevin led.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:o...&client=safari
My impressions of the Revel Ultima2 Salons.
The cabinets.
The fit and finish was rather poor, but we were told that it was because these were prototypes. I'd expect that is true since all of the previous Revels have been well constructed. Aesthetically, the original Ultima series was unique looking... I never particularly liked it, but it was acceptable. These have much less character. With the grilles removed the highly polished lumpy bumpy baffle was not particularly attractive, but purposeful. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the engineers who designed them and he told me that one of the design goals was absolute minimum diffraction. With the grilles on the speakers looked rather generic, but I did prefer it to the glossy lumps and bumps.
The cabinets are built of many layers of MDF and seemed to be quite dense and non resonant. The connectors on the back are high end WBT binding posts and were hidden behind a gasketed plastic door that was handled quite elegantly.
The sound.
The room was about the size of a medium sized living room and there were some sound panels up on the walls to reduce first reflections and reflections off the rear walls. The listening sessions were limited to groups of 6 so that everyone had a chance to sit in the sweet spot if desired. The electronics were top flight Mark Levinson. The sole source was a Mark Levinson CD player. We listened to a wide range of music including classical music with strings, harp, and a variety of percussion instruments. We also heard female vocals, acapella singers, rock, and jazz. Immediately it was apparent that they were quite dynamic and had stage depth for days. The imaging and stage depth were really amazing... very solid and well defined. Sitting in the sweet spot brought the stage into focus... the other seats were perfectly pleasant, but far less outstanding. The most remarkable thing about the speakers was the sheer neutrality... I am usually quite sensitive to tweaked frequency response curves... many speaker designers "adjust" the response curve to mask a problem. If the speakers tend to be harsh they tone down the upper mids... if they are lifeless they may jack up this region... if the bass is boomy they may tone it down or mask it with an upper bass peak and so on. These speakers with these electronics in this room were remarkably free of any peaks or dips. The detail resolution was also very good without any sense of hardness or edginess. When turned up the sound character didn't get aggressive or unpleasant. (Even the much touted LSRs will drive me from the room at much lower levels than we were listening to during the let's crank it up portion.) Even though these speakers use rather tiny 8" woofers the three of them did an excellent job of recreating music... in an HT situation or if you are a serious bass head, you may want to augment them with a sub. That said, they did not sound thin or lacking bass in any way.
Despite my not being excited by their visual appeal like I am with the DD66000, I would be thrilled to own a pair of these speakers. At $22K a pair, I really doubt that I ever will, but for anyone looking for a pair of speakers at this level of performance, you really must give them a whirl. I'd imagine they are superior to the DD66000 in imaging and tonal neutrality, but come up short in the dynamics and maximum SPL department... I didn't find either of these two areas really lacking though... the speakers got loud and had punch.
Widget
Loudspeaker design (Thiel, Aerial, Revel)
In this article, Keven Voecks, Jim Thiel, and Mike Kelly give some insight into their work.
Voecks and the folks at Revel are not subjectivists. ;) One can see how this trickled down into the Ultima2 redesign and why Revel is so comfortable with a completely new speaker line to replace its top series.
http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/14329.html
some more links to pictures
Here's a good look at the Performa and Concerta lines from Revel, as well as a fine shot of the Ultima2 poster and the Ultima2 Studio.
http://www.audiofederation.com/hifii...2/IMG_2428.jpg
Will you still respect them in the morning ?
Bloody gorgeous cabinets and drivers !!! Wow !
What old ad was that where the guy is sitting on the bed with the speaker ?
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The Revel Ultima2 Salon Room
The room was Spartan, to say the least: not a single treatment on the front wall or at the first reflection point on the sidewalls. There's a nice, big, hard table for the Ultima2 Voice to reflect off of. The reflective screen on the TV just adds to the room's harsh feel.
Salon2s on East Coast (Florida):
http://ebayitem.com/220505543593
Poor grammar is not mine:
Quote:
Revel Ultima Salon2 (No Reserve)
If Your Looking Here, You know What these are About, Highest Rated Speakers Period! Buy these at an Insane price with No Reserve and Free shipping! Bid With confidence, Check my feedback and other auctions.This auction is for one pair of Salon2 speakers, Trade in from original owner, His loss your gain.He had moved to a apartment and needed to scale down. If you do not bid you can't win. This is a once in a lifetime deal!!!! These Speakers sell for $22,00.00 Plus tax New! Specification Value Sensitivity (4π anechoic with 2.83V at 1m), mean of 100Hz to 20kHz 86.4dB Impedance 6Ω (Nominal), 3.7Ω (Minimum) Crossover Frequencies 150Hz, 575Hz and 2.3kHz Frequency Range 23Hz and 45kHz In-room Response Relative to Target Response 29Hz to 18kHz ±0.5dB Listening Window Response 26Hz to 20kHz ±1.0dB Low Frequency Extension -3dB at 23Hz, -6dB at 20Hz and -10dB at 17Hz Height (With Base) 53.25" (1353mm) Height (Without Base) 50" (1270mm) Width (With Base) 14" (356mm) Width (Without Base) 11" (279mm) Depth (With Base) 23" (584mm) Depth (Without Base) 18.8" (477mm) Baffle Thickness 2.5" (64mm) Baffle Width 9.6" (244mm) Shipping Weight 178lbs (80.7kg) Notes The Salon2’s base cannot be removed
