Revel Ultima Salon 2's vs B&W 802d's

I'll update you guys in a bit.

My problem is that I haven't had time for extended listening to both in an A/B test (I had one night and need a couple of others now that I know what types of music I want to compare). The only way I can make this happen is to have my wife out of the house for an extended period of time, but that's hard to make happen (unless I offer her a trip to New York).

The way I'm doing it is hooking the same equipment up to the speakers and changing out the leads to the speakers - so I'm not biased by upstream equipment. An initial impression: I was really surprised by the Revels. The only place where I thought I might prefer the B&W's was on vocals (pretty sweet here). The soundstage and imaging on the Revels is really something. There is detail in the Revel's that I didn't hear in the 802d's. Now I want to confirm that initial impression before making a decision.

Variation in the placement of the speakers is limited though and I think this would have an effect on the sound (i.e. putting the BW's in a different room setup from the Revels will change the impression of the sound). I'm still wondering if my Bryston 4bSST is better suited to one or the other speaker (and/or the same question with my CR 2500a). I'm thinking about biamping, but these amps do not really match well (impedance of 29 on one and 27 on the other).

The wife likes the less "alien" look of the Revels, but not the size.

Thanks for the input guys. I quit checking 'cause I thought no one was really interested in this topic.

Revel is a no brainer.

The 802d is one of the most unnatural sounding speakers I've heard.

No finanicial interest in either line.

To Audiofeil. 802D unnatural sounding??? You obviously have a hearing impairment.

I think Audoifeil has a point, I liked the 802diamond but I could not bring myself to buy them. I have a love/hate relationship with them. On one hand I think they are very engaging (bass punch and the vocals grab you) but on the other they always sound unnatural to me. The mids are peaky and the highs while VERY good stand out to me.

As a side note I think Revels (in general) throw vocals much like my Thiels. They spread the vocals very wide across the whole front stage. Where the 802diamonds are much more focused. The focus of the vocals maybe what is drawing you into the B&Ws (or it could be the 4k peak). For a point of reference the Sopha 3 runs a center line between the 802diamond and Revels having good spread and focus at the same time.

I did compare the Sophia 3 and 802diamond in the same room and system... I am sure someones head will explode when I say this but I liked the B&Ws better. They were more detailed in the mids, and highs. The bass of B&Ws also had a more defined initial whack of the bass drum. But I could not get over the oddness of the sound stage of the 802diamonds. The mids were nice but as Audiofeil points out they just sounded unnatural and produced.

This is an odd hobby though, and everyone likes what they like. Just because one speaker is better it does NOT mean you will like it better. With that said there is no doubt that the Revels are the better (better=accurate) speaker and IMO is one of the best buys in audio right now.

Nab2,

How much toe in are you using with the Revels? You may get more focus in the vocal range if you toe them in pretty far, of course the soundstage will get smaller.

First of all I must apologize to Audiofeil for my remark. I was caught alittle by surprise that he referred the 802D as sounding (overall) unnatural. Afterall, this is a forum for civil discussion,not verbal attack. You said the mids sounded alittle peaky. The 4K peak you mentioned is only about 3db from a graph I have seen. Yes vocals are important to me, but what I noticed about the 802D is its lack of edge and sibilance in this regard. The vocals sound very natural to me. I'm a bit confused about the oddness of the soundstage you mentioned. The soundstage is upfront but still having width and depth. The placement of instruments and vocals on the soundstage seem very stable and natural to me. Many speakers have a deep soundstage at the expense of sounding distant and lacking dynamics. The lower priced Vandersteens come to mind in this regard. I also like many other aspects of the B&W's. They have a very natural lower midrange timbre that I think does justice to percussion. Piano comes to mind.

I do agree everyone likes what they like, that's why there are so many different brands and types of speakers out there to choose from. Although people can get the wrong impression of a product if proper matching of components is ignored or an otherwise great sounding system is put into a poor acoustically treated room. I believe these are the most common reasons for a person either liking or dis-liking a given product. And sometimes a person will dismiss
a product simply because it sounds merely "different" to what they're use to.

As I said before, I have listened to The older Revel Salons,but I prefer the B&W's. Just my personal preference.