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Former Revel Salon Owners: What Did You Switch To?

I have had Revel Salons for about eight years, and am toying with the idea of retiring them in favor of something new or different. I am curious to know what others replaced their Salons with, and how happy they have been with their Salon replacements. I am especially interested in choices where the replacement speaker was roughly equivalent or even less than the price of the Salons. Did you consider it an improvement, or just a lateral move, or a step back? What did you learn about the quality of the Salon by virtue of your experiences with a new speaker?

Please share your post-Salon experiences.
jeff_arrington

Showing 1 response by raquel

raquel
841 posts
 
I sold my Salons when I moved back to the U.S. from Brazil in 2005, mostly because I did not want the hassle and expense of schlepping them back. I had Vienna Acoustic Mahlers here in the States, which I stuck with. The Mahlers were half the price, but in some ways more satisfying than the Salons. Overall, however, the Mahlers were less refined than the Salons (which is to be expected given the discrepancy in price).

I sold the Mahlers to purchase a pair of Ultimate Monitors, which are best described, if I may be so obnoxious, as an insider's speaker. They served me very well until we moved last December and they failed to gel with my new listening room. I purchased a pair of Escalante Design Fremonts, which I have been greatly enjoying (they do measure poorly in-room, but my ears don't care). They play big and deep like the Salons, but are more engaging and are much more efficient, which leads me to my main knock on the Salons ...

They are only 86 db. efficient, which means they need to be run with high-powered amps. Given that most high-powered amps sound bad, you are really, really limited as to amp choices.

I am not certain that I will stick with the Escalantes, as I have a willy for a pair of Evolution Acoustics. Time will tell.
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