Joining the Revel family

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
In a number of threads I've posted my intent on purchasing a pair of Revel speakers. Thanks to the sale of my Zu Soul Superflys (which were really cool -- I mean, they had a candy apple green paint job, for crying out loud -- but ultimately were not right for me) and some time saving a few bucks here and there, I am finally ready to purchase.

On Monday I called my dealer and ordered a pair of Revel M105s with the matching speaker stands, which will hopefully arrive by this weekend. I chose the walnut finish and black stands. They will be paired with a Schiit Bifrost DAC and NAD C320BEE integrated amp. They will be placed into service in our great room, which is roughly 20' x 24' by 9', with odd-shaped walls and an open hallway off one corner. Acoustically it is a better space than it would seem, at least when the refrigerator's pump isn't actively running.

I chose the M105s because I wanted a truly neutral speaker that got out of the way of the music, and that is what I found with the M105s. In my auditioning, I felt that they did nothing to draw attention to themselves, either negatively (as in distortion, frequency response deviations, etc. that makes you pay attention to the gear instead of the music) or positively (as in distortion, etc. that is pleasing or exciting, but ultimately distracting). I did consider the M106s as well, however, since I intend to add a subwoofer later, I felt that the M105s, with their 5.25 midrange driver, were ultimately the better choice due to their slightly better tweeter/midrange integration. I did also audition the F206s and F208s. The F208s would have overpowered my room. The F206s would have worked, however my space really requires subwoofer reinforcement for good bass, and the extra cost of floorstanders felt unnecessary given my intent to add a sub. I also like that the bookshelves aren't as physically imposing in the space.

I do intend on adding a sub when I'm able (most likely a Revel B110), as well as upgrading the NAD integrated, either to a better integrated or to separates, but that decision is still a few years off.

Once the speakers are here and set up, I'll be sure to add a picture or two.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
Well, welcome to the family! :) I remember the first time I heard the M105. My jaw dropped. They use the new advanced waveguide design that despite using a much lower cost tweeter, rivals much higher end older line in Revel family. They sound exactly as you mention and your strategy of pairing them with the subs is great. We used its low frequency optimization software to blend them perfectly with our KEF LS 50.

[all posted with extreme bias due to my affiliation with the company]

And yes, love to see the pictures.
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
A good choice. If they'd just make an active M105 with the built-in DSP from the LSR-series pro monitors, the temptation would be too great; I'd be upgrading in spite of myself. It would look a lot like this:

LSR4326Ppak-large.jpg

Maybe I just need to find a gently used pair somewhere.

Tim
 

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
I took a long, hard look at the JBL Pro lineup. Ultimately, the aesthetics of the JBL lineup made me dismiss it as an option. If my listening room were in a basement, it may have been different, but the speakers are in our main living space, and as a result, the physical appearance does matter.

That same aesthetic standard is also going to make amp shopping so much more difficult. It's sad how gaudy many of the electronics brands are.
 

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
Well, welcome to the family! :)

This has little to do with the topic at hand, but I just made my hotel reservation for RMAF this year, and I hope you will be attending. I'd love to meet the guy who causes so much consternation on this forum by simply relaying the results of good-quality research.
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
This has little to do with the topic at hand, but I just made my hotel reservation for RMAF this year, and I hope you will be attending. I'd love to meet the guy who causes so much consternation on this forum by simply relaying the results of good-quality research.

Me too
:D
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
This has little to do with the topic at hand, but I just made my hotel reservation for RMAF this year, and I hope you will be attending. I'd love to meet the guy who causes so much consternation on this forum by simply relaying the results of good-quality research.
It would be my pleasure to meet you. You too Frantz. And unless I get hit by a lightning, I plan to be there. :)
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
I took a long, hard look at the JBL Pro lineup. Ultimately, the aesthetics of the JBL lineup made me dismiss it as an option. If my listening room were in a basement, it may have been different, but the speakers are in our main living space, and as a result, the physical appearance does matter.

That same aesthetic standard is also going to make amp shopping so much more difficult. It's sad how gaudy many of the electronics brands are.

Yeah, JBL pro monitors are not pretty.

Tim
 

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
7,002
508
1,740
Snohomish, WA
www.pugetsoundstudios.com
In a number of threads I've posted my intent on purchasing a pair of Revel speakers. Thanks to the sale of my Zu Soul Superflys (which were really cool -- I mean, they had a candy apple green paint job, for crying out loud -- but ultimately were not right for me) and some time saving a few bucks here and there, I am finally ready to purchase.

On Monday I called my dealer and ordered a pair of Revel M105s with the matching speaker stands, which will hopefully arrive by this weekend. I chose the walnut finish and black stands. They will be paired with a Schiit Bifrost DAC and NAD C320BEE integrated amp. They will be placed into service in our great room, which is roughly 20' x 24' by 9', with odd-shaped walls and an open hallway off one corner. Acoustically it is a better space than it would seem, at least when the refrigerator's pump isn't actively running..

Congrats on the Revels. I love mine and are one of the best measuring speakers available!
 

Hi-FiGuy

Member Sponsor
Feb 23, 2015
2,233
752
385
This has little to do with the topic at hand, but I just made my hotel reservation for RMAF this year, and I hope you will be attending. I'd love to meet the guy who causes so much consternation on this forum by simply relaying the results of good-quality research.

Which one? :p
 

KeithR

VIP/Donor
May 7, 2010
5,137
2,793
1,898
Encino, CA
cool- good luck with the new speaks Milkman.

I believe you won those Zu Superfly speakers (lucky!) - curious what were your overall thoughts about them over the past few years?
 

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
cool- good luck with the new speaks Milkman.

I believe you won those Zu Superfly speakers (lucky!) - curious what were your overall thoughts about them over the past few years?

I did win them, back at RMAF 2010. I actually won the Schiit Bifrost as well, at RMAF 2014. I've gone three times, and won new gear twice. I'm hoping somebody is raffling off a nice tubed integrated or something this year.

As for my time with the Superflys, I have to divide it up based on where I was living.

When I got the speakers, I was living in a first floor apartment. The space I had to work with was crowded by furniture and was a relatively 'dead' sounding room (not uncomfortably so, just very full of furniture). The Zus shined in that space. I had excellent bass quality, although it didn't extend as deep as I would have liked, and lower midrange was great. Listening to men's vocals (I listen to a lot of blues) was great. Small-scale classical works, like quartets and quintets, were great. The soundstage was generally compressed, but I think that was a function of my somewhat overdamped room.

One of the major complaints about the Superflys is that they are "shouty," and I do agree with that criticism, however, with apartment living I was never really able to push the volume enough for that to be an issue.

Two years ago, however, I moved into my townhouse, and since then the speakers have been a relative disaster when compared to my old apartment. I have not been able to find a placement that would offer decent bass response together with a decent soundstage and imaging, while being in a spot that my family can move around. It didn't help that my wife was babysitting out of our home for the first year and a half, but even after she quit I just couldn't get them to work.

In addition, now that I'm in a livelier room, some of the speaker's shortcomings have become more apparent. The big one is that I'm getting an upper-midrange suckout in the room that I didn't before. I believe that this is due to the Superfly's fairly poor off-axis response, mixed with a more reflective room. The bass response has been spiky thanks to the placement issues, and even if I were to keep the Zus, I would be looking at a sub and DSP.

So basically, due to a move, my speakers went from something I would sit down in front of and just have fun (and they are a fun speaker) to something that would frustrate me every time I listened to it, which was unfortunate. If I didn't have a family, I may have been able to make it work, but I do, so a change was due.

I also want to say that my complaints about the Superflys in my room in no way lower my opinion of Zu, or of your Definitions. I ended up with a space where a more traditional design is required. In terms of the Zu designs, more than anything I just really don't care for the tweeter that the Superflys use. The Radian 850, though, is excellent. Based on the times I've heard them at shows, etc., I have found the Druids to be shouty, though much less so than the less expensive models, but the Definition, with the dual drivers, doesn't seem to have that same problem. Unfortunately, spending $12k on a speaker is far outside of my current financial abilities.

Based on the budget I've had to work with and the room constraints that I have, I really think I ultimately made the right decision.
 

KeithR

VIP/Donor
May 7, 2010
5,137
2,793
1,898
Encino, CA
Cool, thanks for the detailed response Milkman. I hope your new speakers work better in your room. I really haven't spent much time with the Superflys. I have heard the Soul Supremes (w/ Radian) sound superb at Newport however. When I upgraded from Def 2 to Def 4 w/ Radian, I was able to toe out the speakers more - expanding the soundstage and likely with improved off-axis response. That said, no full range driver is going to excel at off-axis response like a Vivid or something - you pick your poison.
 

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
Got the call yesterday morning saying that the speakers were in. Left work an hour early to go pick them up, thinking I could avoid rush hour traffic. No such luck - a livestock trailer had overturned on the highway, and it was closed while they cleared the animals -- both dead and alive.

I still managed to make it down before they closed, but the delay severely limited the amount of time I had to get things set up last night.

When I did finally manage to get home, I got straight to the unboxing. The packaging is clearly well-designed and easily reusable.

Assembling the speaker stands was simple, but was very slow because my 8-year-old daughter wanted to help. Like any good parent, I let her. I waited patiently while she slowly tightened all of the bolts (16 total) and screwed in the spikes. I handled mounting the speakers, though, which was a simple task of screwing in 3 short bolts for each speaker. I really appreciate bookshelf speakers that are designed to bolt to their stands. Even though my kids are older, things still get bumped on occasion, and it's nice to know that a slight bump won't turn into an accidental disaster.

Physically, the speakers are gorgeous. I got the walnut finish, which my dealer did not have on display. I had looked at pictures of it online, but the pictures really did not do it justice. It's a darker finish than I expected, and the high-gloss finish really catches your eye. The speakers aren't physically imposing, which was one of the reasons I wanted to switch to bookshelf speakers. Yes, the footprint really isn't much smaller than it was with the Zus I had before, but the room feels more open now.

By the time I was home and had everything assembled, I didn't have enough time for any sort of careful setup. Instead, the speakers got put roughly where the Zus had been, then hooked up and played. My initial impressions are therefore limited by the haphazard placement.

For a first track, I pulled up Fanfare for the Common Man from Copland: The Music of America, performed by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, directed by Erich Kunzel (Telarc CD-80339). It's not my favorite performance of the piece, but the recording and mastering are superb.

Those of you familiar with the piece know that it opens with a rather forceful set of timpani strikes. These came through with a striking amount of force for a bookshelf speaker with a 5 1/4" midrange driver, and were immediately followed by a very clean, pure sounding presentation of the opening trumpets. I was missing defined imaging and had no soundstage to speak of, but given that I quite literally just slapped the speakers into a spot and started playing, this is understandable.

For a second track, I moved to the end of the Copland disc and played Appalachian Spring. Whereas I think Kunzel's Fanfare rendition is only good, his interpretation of Appalachian Spring is superb, and easily my favorite recording of the work. I like the piece sonically because it is written for a smaller orchestra, and as such the textures of the individual instruments come through much more clearly than they do with a large-scale piece (although that doesn't mean I don't love large-scale pieces!). I felt the Revels did a marvelous job of presenting the different textures, even during the climatic passages where most of the instruments are playing simultaneously. It was clear which instruments were playing which parts -- an effect that can be lost on some speakers. Again, I had poor imaging and almost no soundstage, but that should be corrected after some setup time.

Unfortunately, that's all the time I had to listen for myself, because then my daughter asked if we could listen to "Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak," which was a Cartoon Network special that aired back in 1999 or 2000. I only have a 128 bitrate MP3 of the disc, and it sounded bad, so I left the room. She seemed to love it.
 
Last edited:

Robh3606

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2010
1,469
459
1,155
Destiny
Yes the finish is really nice on them I have a pair of walnut 206's and they are gorgeous

Rob:)
 

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
Had some more time to mess around with placement today. First, my TV stand (it's actually a coffee table) was 4-5 inches off center relative to where our couch is placed, so that got moved. Then the speakers got placed slightly less haphazardly. The imaging issue was quickly resolved once both of them were the same distance from me / the back wall.

So far I've found a placement spot that is overall pretty good. The speakers are roughly 8' apart, but only 20" from the back wall (measured from the front of the speaker). I sit about 10' away. I would like to pull them farther out, but it's just not possible. Imaging is superb. The soundstage suffers a bit. The soundstage actually gets substantially better if I sit at about 7', but again, that furniture placement just isn't possible. My wife and I were contemplating replacing our love seat with two chairs. I think that once we do that I will set up the speakers based on moving one of the chairs in front of the couch when I listen late at night. Base on my initial trial this would work best.

With the speakers that close to the front wall, I am getting some bass muddiness and bloom. I tried using the port plugs that come with the speakers, and while it did solve the muddiness, it threw the overall balance off too much for my tastes. Since I intend to add a subwoofer and DSP, this issue will eventually be solved. For now, I'll probably stick with muddy bass. It's not terrible; it's just not great. When I do have a subwoofer to work with, the ports will probably be plugged.

Even with the type of frustrations that all of us face when we don't have a dedicated room to work with (placement around being able to move in the space, not being able to shift furniture, etc.), I am overall very happy with the sound. The sound is very, very clean. Low-level detail is phenomenal, as is timbre. I imagine it will be a long time before I contemplate replacing these.

Just need to get the bass issues settled.

Oh, and I desperately want a volume control that isn't so front-loaded. That will actually be one of the primary considerations when I'm ready to upgrade the electronics.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
Thanks for the update. I think in general without DSP and/or subs, you just have to accept some amount of bass boominess. I would optimize for everything else and leave bass optimization to when you get set up with DSP/Subs.
 

TheMadMilkman

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2010
125
0
91
Ya, the more I play with placement the more that becomes obvious. The bass boominess with my current positioning isn't too bad, and is really only bothersome with recordings that are already pretty bass intensive. And everything above that sounds really, really good, so I can deal with it for now. Especially since I know that it will be corrected in the future.
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing