Fritz Audio Rev 5 speakers
Equipment - going downstream:
Dedicated 10G 20A AC line
Bolder AC cable
PS Audio PPP AC regenerator
Zu Birth AC cable
Sony SCD-XA777ES
Denon DP-72L turn table
Custom BC62 AC cable
2012 audio optimized Mac Mini with SSD playing Pure Music
FireWire SeaGate HDD for music library (what's left of it:(
WireWorld Starlight USB cable
EE Minimax DAC Plus - all DEXA op-amps
All line level and speaker cables are Groneberg Reference
Zu Birth AC cable
Odyssey Tempest preamp
Zu Birth AC cable
Odyssey Stratos Plus Stereo amp
Silver High Breed 6 awg AC cable
REL R-205 sub on a custom platform which sits on top of an Auralex SubDudeHD platform.
Pangea Audio DS300 stands filled and sitting on Herbie's Audio Lab Giant Fat Gliders
Room mods: a bunch of bass traps and a custom room coupler.
Fritz REV 5 :
5 1/2 inch Scan Speak 15W/8530K-00 5" Revelator Woofer
ScanSpeak Classic D2905/9500 1" Tweeter Textile Dome
Acoustic Reality Series crossover: 1st order @ 2200 Hz - no capacitors or resistors in the circuit with the tweeter.
I was planning on writing this review a couple of months ago, but after a freak set of events where I lost much of my reference music, it has been difficult to deal with anything audio. But it's time to dust myself off and review these tiny beasts.
After spending several months auditioning every new and used speaker in the $2-5k range that I could find around Los Angeles, I finally called Fritz from fritzspeakers.com. Without hesitation he agreed to haul over several of his speakers to my home. Fritz is one of the nicest and most patient people in the industry that I have ever met.
Coming from full range floor standers (Legacy Classics) and spending a lot of time listening to Maggies, B&Ws, Thiels, some custom horns, Focals, Gallo Reference 3.1s, etc, I did not think that I could find any monitors that would do the trick.
Fritz brought in Carbon 7 floor standers, Carbon 7 monitors, Rev 5 monitors, and another pair of monitors with some sharp tipped tweeters. Not having any stands at the time, he used his own monitors as stands.
Learning that my taste ranges from Classical to Death Metal to Folk, and a lot of genres in between, but being most picky when it comes to Classical music, Fritz suggested that we start with the Carbon 7 monitors.
Man those babies rocked! Very live. Tons of energy and slam - which is saying a lot after comparing them to my previous beasts with of 2 carbon fiber 6.5" and 4 10" drivers. Amazing soundstage and accuracy. They went low enough not to need a sub. Not having negotiated prices, I was failing to conceal my massive grin. The only minor weakens that I could find with them was that the highs were slightly rolled off, and they did not have the speed of horns and full ribbons - but they were still a crazy bargain. Ok I found my new babies. Let's run quickly through the rest of the speakers so that I can call some friends over and celebrate.
The floor standing Carbon 7s were just as good but with a bit more low end and tad smaller sound stage. For the price, I was still settled on Carbon 7 monitors.
I can't remember the sound of the other monitors with the sharp tweeters, but I still preferred the Carbon 7s. I was pretty much done. Let's give a quick listen to the Rev 5s with their puny 5.5" woofers so that we can talk about finish options of Carbon 7s.
Plugged in the Rev 5s, and before I even got back to the listening seat, I was floored. Wow! Extremely accurate, fast and light - outperformed even the full ribbons that I've ever heard. Lots of clean timbre. Wide open, pitch black sound stage. Bass? Lets just say that we had to make sure the sub was switched off - a few times(!). Good impact. Without doubt, put every speaker I had auditions up to now to shame. The only slight edge that Carbon 7s had over these was that they had more slam. If I was primarily listening to rock and R&B, maybe I would think twice, but especially when it comes to acoustic music, the Rev 5s are unmatched.
After breaking them in, setting them on top of the Pangea DS300 stands, they now have even more slam. I don't have the Carbon 7s for a direct comparison, but there is absolutely no lack of slam.
It took me a long time to find a sub that could keep up with the amazing speed of these speakers. After an extensive search found a REL R-205 which is the only one that managed a tight, accurate, musical, seamless disappearing act. But still the sub is set close to it's lowest crossover and volume settings, so realistically I can't say that I really needed it for much of my music.
Don't tell Fritz but, if I had the money, I would have gladly paid $5k for Rev 5s and been just as happy.
PS
One note on the Pangea DS300s: they are very good sturdy stands but the top plate size is 6"x8.5" not 7.5"x7.5" as advertised.
