Revel Ultima Salon 2


How good are the  Revel Ultima Salon 2 Some reveiws say there better than the IRS Betas
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Well they have been out on the market for about ten years and have had countless reviews and demo notes if you look around. 
When I heard a dealer demo they did sound good and very detailed if a little dry. Also bring a big a** amp with lots of current to the party. 
I have listened to them on several occasions. I agree with mofojo. They are very good. Best when paired with a great amp with large transformer, high current and slightly to the warm side of neutral. Think CODA, SimAudio, Pass Labs, Audio Research, Mark Levinson.
I have had them for about 6 years.  Have not felt the need to listen to many others or replace.
[1] Very natural and transparent sound - good "balance" base to treble
[2] a tad (very tad) reticent in the upper mid register of the human voice, but its not a big deal and its a bit room dependent; not a boom box speaker - the bass is musical and goes down to the floor - but it doesn't shake the house either.  It maintains pitch and PRAT which is what I was looking for.
[3] Takes up power - but I am driving it three different amps at times - they all work and sound great (but a tad different) - for large power top to bottom, have some DAC Ultra Cherry Mono (its a 800W PWM amp) - amp is good not great.  Have a Wells Audio Immorata which is a great SS amp (great is not hyperbole - check out Jeff Wells amp!) - this is as good a sound I've heard from traditional speakers using SS without spending the next level up in both amp and speaker $.  But - it really sounds the best with my PrimaLuna Dialogue HP amplifier (very nice tube amp using KT150s to generate around 96W ) for a lot of music outside of very complex and dynamic music.  
[4] Easy to use speakers in that you can walk around the room or house without only sitting in the sweet spot of the room, and still get a reasonable fine and balanced stage, resolution, and tonal balance
[5] Look great
[6] Not really super-duper expensive, but probably gets you 80-90% of the ultra-speakers (at $100,000+) at about 15% of the price...
[7] If you really miss "in your face sound" then go buy some tickets to a live concert with the savings otherwise, for most good sources and very good equipment chain (you probably have to spend $20,000-$30,000 source to amp and cables to equal the speaker).
[8] Not the last word in sound stage, not the last word in macrodynamics, not the last word in very fine resolution - but you probably have to spend more or warp your taste in other areas to do much better in an all arounder sense of the word
[9] If I lost these speakers somehow, I'd still put them on my list to test and predict 50/50 I'd still buy them over the competition at the same level or $ or slightly higher.