REVEL-ations of high-end loudspeaker design

[Colin]

Interview at http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_2/feature-interview-kevin-voecks-4-2004.html

Kevin Voecks, Director of Technology, Harman Specialty Group Kevin Voecks, Director of Technology, Harman Specialty Group (Revel, Mark Levinson, Lexicon) (Revel, Mark Levinson, Lexicon)

For instance, the audibility of resonances is dependent upon the kind of music. Resonances can actually be louder than the average music level for things like female pop vocals before we first hear them. Whereas for classical music recordings they can be at a much, much lower level, well below the average level of the music and you still hear them. The most sensitive listening test for resonances is pink noise, and so thats our standard. We want to make sure that the resonances in Revel loudspeakers are inaudible even with the most demanding possible test: pink noise.

Timbre is the overwhelming aspect. Based on our blind listening tests timbre is the thing that differentiates between good and bad loudspeakers, but also between good and great loudspeakers. So timbre is kind of a broad term. It incorporates balance, frequency balance, or it can be thought of very roughly as frequency response So we literally design for all of those areas: the direct sound, the first reflection sound, and the reverberant field, because we know that all those three things are huge contributors to the timbre, to our perception of the speakers timbre Listening rooms are our biggest problem, clearly, and its the combination of the way that the loudspeakers interact with the room and the room characteristics overall. Low frequencies are the hardest thing to deal with. Theyre kind of the most mechanically related thing Weve done really quite definitive research on that, and we found the optimum number of subwoofers is four, and you get a huge improvement in most rooms going from one to two subwoofers. You know where the boundary is which is one huge advantage with in-walls , because theyre in this plane. Weve learned that we can outperform most free-standing loudspeakers in a double blind listening test.

Revel Ultima Studio loudspeaker

Kalman Rubinson, December, 2000

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_2/feature-interview-kevin-voecks-4-2004.html

Revel Salon loudspeaker

Larry Greenhill, March, 1999

http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/96/index.html

Any body heard these?

[kenratboy]

I have yet to hear anyone talk smack about Revel speakers - they are supposed to be amazing. Harman has some of the best engineers and facilities in the world (if not the best), so they should be able to make the best speakers in the world and price them cheaper than the boutique companies.

[Curmudgeon]

A friend of mine has two pairs of the big Revels: Studio's and Salon's along with Levinson gear driving them. The Salon's are definitely nice speakers with the appropriate front end, but they are rather large and tend to look like the robot maid from The Jetsons. They are a very neutral sounding speaker and can reproduce a tom or kick drum whack better than anything else I have heard. Somewhat on the pricy side but a very good sounding speaker if you can deal with the styling. If I didn't already have Khorns and a Linn HT system I would strongly consider the Salons. I've seen the speakers gutted - Revel uses top-notch drivers, crossovers, and cabinets.

I do happen to own a pair of Revel's but they're the smaller ones: M20 speakers and stands paired up with Nakamichi separates in my computer room. I used to have floorstanders in there but couldn't tame the boomy bass, the M20's do much better in this size room. Like their bigger brethren, they don't seem to have a sound of their own and come across as neutral with great mids and upper bass response. You would need a sub for the last degree of bass but they respond within 1 dB at 46 Hz, -3 dB @ 44 Hz, -6 dB @ 38 Hz, and -10 dB @ 33 Hz which does well for most music. They aren't very efficient (87 dB) so they like lots of power to sound best - the Nak PA-7 amp drives them with no problem.