Upgrading the Source.

WOW! Tom, you are the first for that musical review of the Revels: "no way a musical transducer?" Man, we must have been listening to different Revels. Never met a Revel I didn't like/love. Live and learn...

Warrenh:

Add me to that list...The Revels(the M20s anyway) are technologically impressive, and have many virtues to them, but they were clinical, to my ears. Again, its all a matter of preference and not about whether or not one is absolutely better than the other.

You state that they are "technologically impressive." Would you care to elaborate? You, also, said they "have many virtures". The operative words are many and virtues. Care to elaborate? I'm just wondering where you get the "clinical" from? I'm wondering a lot from this thread. You are right about preference, not which is better. The Revels are very unforgiving, because they are that good. Great speakers, I find, are not forgiving, and will show up the inherent weaknesses in one's system. Hey, we all have different ears. MY ears, for two, like I said, haven't heard a Polk that tittilates my tympanies. No big deal. Just thoughts from a resident audiophool. Trust your ears and go with whatca love. I do. peace,warren

Warrenh:

Some things in life defie explanation...taste being one of those things. The Revels are great speakers, and are perfect for people who demand their sound. Great detail, great imaging, very revealing...

Obviously there is a lot of technology going into them. Floyd Toole, head of research at Revel is considered by many people one of the greatest researchers in speaker building. He was head of Canada's NRC, and those people have produced more technical, VALIDATED data about speakers than anybody else...Anyway Revel designs its own drivers, crossovers, etc...

After all is said and done, they don't appeal to me. I respect them and I think they are great speakers, just not my cup of tea...and I certainly don't think that all those virtues make them automatically better than something like The Amphion Argons2, the Von Schweikert VR-1, or the Polk LSi9s...nor the fact that I like those speakers more than the Revels, make them better. They are different.

I'll give you a car analogy...

Mercedes Benz, fine cars, great technology, great engineering...for whatever reason, they don't move me, and that's that. I respect them and I appreciate what they offer, I can see why people love them so much, but they are still not my cup of tea.

Having said all that, I stand by what I said, if you haven't heard the Polk LSi9s then you can't really judge them, because they are not like Polk speakers of the past...

In fact you should listen to them, without any Polk prejudice and WITH a good choice of electronics.

I'm sorry about the delayed and so general response, but work's been kicking my in the rear end all day...

I like the M.B. reference. I have test driven a number of the smaller cars over the years and nothing has ever got my juices going. However, I don't think I've ever driven a VW that wasn't just plain enjoyable and for whatever reason I really enjoy the new Saab 9.3 Aero and Lexus IS300 SportDesign (have never found any excitement in any other Lexus). Also love the new Mazda RX8. I just love a good manual gearbox and a willing car to go with it.

Anyway, I think there are basically two types of us audiophile people - Krell or Cary, Revel or Spendor (or ProAc or Harbeth, etc.). I fall into the ProAc camp and absolutely love my Resonse 2.5s driven by my AirTight 300B amp. I have had this combo for three years and have no intention of checking anything else out. I use an REL sub to augment and this system is so good it just calls out my name anytime I'm home. I spend my money now primarily on CDs and am listening every night until my wife forces me to bed.

By the way, I think Audio Research belongs in the Krell/Revel camp which is not a bad thing, just the other side of the coin for me. This has nothing to do with so-called accuracy, neutrality, etc. Just has to do with enjoyment of music.