Revel Concerta2 M16 Black

Product Information

As we also could put our hands on some other integrateds at the time of this review, we decided to plug the Revel standmounts into them too to see what happened. High frequency response is supported by 1 inch aluminium dome tweeters that were derived from Revel’s Performa3 series. Low/Mid range frequency response is supported by 6.5” Aluminium cone woofers featuring low-distortion motor-structures for greater clarity and accuracy with improved sensitivity and output capability. With the C205, I believe there's plenty of mids and mid-bass tones in there to not actually be a thin sounding speaker. I've heard thin-sounds speakers before, and THIS isn't one of them. The Revel is not an easy product to photograph - not least because like most piano finish products, it is both enormously reflective and capable of retaining fingerprint smears seemingly forever. It is however a member of the notorious category of ‘things that look better in the flesh.’ You’ll have to take my work for this but sat on a stand in most rooms, this is a handsome and appealing speaker. It does without some of the fussiness that can affect some American designs and the result is a pleasantly understated object that should work well in a variety of spaces. As I have circled, the Harman measurements seems to be some evaluation version? Perhaps there has been changes since? Regardless, the rest of the measurement matches mine quite well so confidence is high in the data you see here.

Listen further to material like this and the ‘fingerprint’ of the Revel’s aluminium drivers does make itself felt in some aspects of the tonality. Compared to my resident Acoustic Energy AE1 Classics that really do have a ‘metal’ signature to their performance, it is benign but it is there nonetheless. Listening to the Revel side by side with the Spendor A1 - still one of the most affordable speakers to offer a genuinely ‘Monitor’ performance from 100Hz and up - and the Revel can’t match the effortlessly ‘right’ sense of tonal realism that the Spendor can. How much this is going to bother you is somewhat subjective - I could happily live with it and I suspect that most people could too. Perhaps the M16 performance’s most enthralling aspect is the fullness and cohesiveness of its soundstage and image presentation. The M16 doesn’t paint small sonic landscapes. Revel’s state-of-the-art multichannel systems make this manufacturer no stranger to creating immersive sonics, and clearly much of that expertise has rubbed off on its two-channel efforts. Indeed, the sense of three-dimensionality and “widescreen” scale were two of the M16’s most distinctive characteristics.

Currently I have a nice pair of Dali Zensor 1 connected to my amp without Sub (and I don't want one). Time to do the jump. Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws: So, trying them out with our Musical Fidelity M6si and the YBA IA3A loaner we were rewarded with even more enthusiasm. The M6si can be a bit on the edgy side, but the Concerta2 M16 seemed to keep this aspect of the amp under control. Even with the potent dynamics provided by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, the crescendos came through dynamically without harshness. Then there’s the authority of the presentation, helped by the Revel’s ability to dig deeply in the bass. These speakers may just be 37cm tall, but close your eyes and you’d swear you were listening to decently sized floorstanders.

The resulting ceramic/metal/ceramic sandwich provides constrained layer damping that pushes cone break-up modes outside the passband, so the driver can deliver ideal pistonic motion throughout its operating range. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Revel bringing to the table to make their bookshelf speakers noteworthy? Read on to find out... Appearance At first blush it seems that the response is not flat but if you ignore the hump at 100 Hz and roll off above 10 kHz, the rest is actually pretty close to flat. So tonality should be neutral but with some boosted bass. The high frequency roll off was puzzling as it doesn't match Harman's measurement:

Revel Concerta2 M16

Although the unusual shape of the Revel Performa3 M105 has many acoustic advantages, it does have the disadvantage that it decreases the volume of the cabinet over a standard rectangular cabinet of the same width and depth, which in turn limits the low-frequency extension of the driver Revel is using, so that this same driver, in a cabinet of larger volume, would have more bass extension. Also at the rear are three digital input terminals – one optical and two SPDIF – leading to the amp’s 32bit Sabre ESS9016K2M DAC. Sensibly, we started with the SA10 and CDS50 hooked up to the Revel Concerta2 M16 speakers via a set of Jorma Design speaker cables. We also called in the service of the VPI Prime turntable to test the phono section. Dynamics and timing are where we feel the need to shout “your entry-level is showing!” Throwing anything complex at the SA10 could either leave you somewhat satisfied or quite confused with no middle ground in our experience. We felt that this was most apparent via the phono stage. Where we expected grand, mountainous dynamics we found hills. OK, that might be unfair. Let's say, slightly less impressive mountains.