Anyone own or heard the Atalante 7s?

@ddrfraser1 - in my experience, that 'wall of sound' has more to do with what is fed into the speakers than the speakers themselves. Most recently, with everything in my system the same except for a tube change in the preamp, the sound went from a flat, one-dimensional 'wall of sound' with no depth (and I was ready to return the preamp), to 3D, holographic, each instrument and vocal separated, and wide, deep, tall soundstage. 

Hello Drew,

Well, I definitely have the best answers I can give you on this, because I came across your thread here, and I happen to own the Revival Audio Atalante 7 Evo's and the Advance Paris APEX 12.

So here's what I can tell you about these Speakers. They are absolutely some of the best Speakers you can find out there with insane levels of refinement and warmth, and a type of very Clear, Controlled and Rich Bass that even is difficult to find in Subwoofers.

The Imaging is absolutely dazzling and intense, the treble drivers on them are also very forward, and the Sound Stage is very large. The speaker has good dynamics, and I would say that if you happen to like Klipsch speakers at all, you will definitely love these, even as they are not Horn Loaded, but they have almost the same kind of energetic dynamism that Klipsch has.

The Bass IS mostly very tight, not as tight as for example Klipsch Cornwalls and others in its class, but for a 15" driver with how low it goes, it is definitely much tighter than most other 15" units you would find. I want to explain a lot more on the Bass side as well, the thing is this Woofer is a very special one with the Basalt Sandwich Construction they use, and so the whole design of it is well thought out and that after the break-in period, you will hear much Lower Levels of the Bass finally come out, along with other Bass Detail that are almost missing on about any other 15" Speaker I've owned or listened too. In fact, it's so well controlled and with low distortion, that there have been times I did not hear the Bass or thought I wasn't only to realize my whole room away from the Speaker was saturated in the Bass, that is how clean it comes out from the Speaker to where there is no "boominess" that hides the frequencies.

I will say that the break-in period of these is LONG, if you listen to Music for about 8-12 hours per day, expect about a couple of months break-in for the Woofers, because while they will sound fine at first, they will sound a little bit dry and not very whole on the much lower notes, but do not let it make you nervous. Once they get past a certain period of movement, they will fully open up and will extend down very deep, even below 20Hz, you will get all of the Infrabass you can ever want from these Speakers, even though they only list about 23Hz at the bottom, truthfully I have gotten them down to 15Hz with ease and not much of a difference from the 23Hz, before the rolloff is more noticeable.

In terms of whether they are Forward and Laid-Back, I would have to say they are BALANCED in both regards, because as much as they can be Forward, it is a refined level of it, and not fatiguing or in any way harsh, and at the same time it is an extremely laid back Speaker. It just seems to know how to bring out the energy in the room no matter what type of Music you play on them. You will not find the forwardness fatiguing. They are rather similar to Spendor Speakers in a lot of ways although Spendor does a lot with Sealed Cabinets, and whereas Spendor is on an even much more relaxed side and even less forward with less dynamics than Revival Audio. However, the Spendor Speakers that even dig down to 20-25 Hz, often also have a quicker Bass rolloff compared to the Atalante 7's, so that's something you may want to keep in mind, because with the Atalante 7's you will get much more Deep Bass and Performance at low volumes where the Bass still comes through well, which is a hard feature to find on many speakers.

For the price point, they are DEFINITELY worth it, however I have seen at least in the US Market that the price has just went up at a lot of Retailers for New Stock to about $12995.00.

The Speakers are highly in demand and difficult to find many Retailers for them, and I also think there may either be an effect from Tariffs unless the price has also been raised by the Manufacturer.

They are also BEAUTIFUL Speakers, and you will be amazed how well the design of them are once you get them, and how perfect the packaging is done to make sure that they arrive intact.

One thing that never seems to do any justice, is that all the people online like YouTube that do Demos of the Revival Audio 5's and 7's, never play actual "Real" Music that is worth listening to, that will make you really decide you want these Speakers. They pick some of the worst choices of random percussion sounds or god-awful songs or singers, that do not make the Real sound of these Speakers demonstrate how good they sound.

I definitely believe the Advance Paris APEX is a miracle match for these Speakers, because these type of Speakers will definitely sound much better on a Tube system of any kind.

If you have any specific questions you would like to know, feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to answer them for you.

@ctlesq 

Hello,

Just doing a follow-up response to  Craig, I had received your message but have to give you the reply through here, so I hope you will come across my response.

To answer your questions, I would say if the DAC is really important to you or different Remote Control style, then you may want to consider the APEX Range, otherwise the biggest changes to it are the Aesthetic with the VU Meters and Black/White lighting theme rather than Black/Blue with the Classic Unit. Most of the Menus and Options are the same.

But outside of the DAC, I will say that if my choice were to be between the A10 APEX versus the A12 Classic, I would go with the A12 Classic Hands Down. Because there is more breathing room in the chassis for one, and true stereo separation and where the unit emulates Mono Blocks as if they were put into an "Integrated" unit, and much more power headroom and linearity with the 2 Transformers, along with much better clarity.

Also, the Tube Replacement which I have not done yet, is a little bit more difficult from what it appears on the A10 unit because the unit is slightly smaller and more cramped but an additional cable gets in the way of the Tube section area whereas it’s wired out of the way on the A12 Unit.

You can see for yourself on YouTube videos and some websites that show the Interior differences between the A10 and the A12, as there is a cartridge that needs be removed over the Tube Socket area and this is a very important consideration to look at and decide on before deciding to purchase units for when it comes time to replace the Tubes.

I am mostly an Analog Listener, and do not use Digital functions much, but I would have to say sonically I don’t think there is much if any difference between the Classic and APEX Series, but the unit is supposed to be more reliable and built with higher standard components and capacitors than the APEX. I definitely noticed the difference with the Connections on the back, but the Knob quality on the front is pretty much the same as the Classic.

The Knobs don’t bother me "too much", I use the Remote more often anyway, though it would be nice if they made standard heavy duty knobs.

Otherwise, they are really excellent all-around units and well thought out with everything that you could almost possibly dream of having for connections and features in an Integrated Amplifier, but based on what I do know about the A10 units, I would not even look at them even if you don’t need the extra power, because all things considered, the A12 is a much upgraded unit overall.