Years ago when I first heard of Revel was at Flip's when they were still open, I heard a pair on demo with a retail of $10k, I was under whelmed, not liking them much at all so I wrote the brand off. Fast forward to last year when I was looking for speakers, and, have heard about everything in our area, I crossed paths with Dave at Home Theatre Designs who took me around to hear some of his brands he had installed in people's home. He mentioned he had Revel and I sort of blew it off. So down the road he was going to bring over a pair of Canton I liked for a listen in my system and some how a pair of Revel's F52's ended up in his van as well. Hey, they're hear too I guess we can lug them in. All I can say once they were hooked up is, wow! I ended up being blown away. Canton makes a good speaker, quite different sound than Revel, but the Canton got a quick hook up and rotated back out so I could hook the F52's back up. Needless to say Dave made a sale. I'm driving mine with Conrad Johnson which has very good synergy with the Revel, the depth of the sound stage seemingly has no end.
Last night Dave had a small get together and we heard the Salon, retail $22k driven by the new Mark Levinson 532H (some where around $8k), I think the preamp was a 436. I know the tune of over $40k in gear isn't modest by no means but the sound I heard was stunning, and actually, compared to other ultra high end gear I've heard, made the system a value. The combination of air, transparency and impact made the system one of the closest I remember hearing to being able to convince me I was hearing a live show. A recent favorite track of mine is Patricia Barber's, Company, when playing it through this system it sounded live, the drum reproduction had everything to convince me, not only an image but the dynamics and feel. The trumpet cut through the air beautifully, effortless, the tone, the excitement. I mean all reviews are full of adjectives this is something to be experienced though.
Talking about eating crow, I went from having no interest what so ever in Revel to a fan boy
As a side note Revel is coming out this year, 2012, with a new Performa series and in addition to the "H" series amps Levinson is offering digital sources again.
