Revel Concerta2 M16 Black

Product Information

The Focal are very nice, warm with a rich sound which offer great characters. The Revel offer the same but with a bit more bass. However I'm not sure in the high frequencies if the Revel are as good as the focal. from the listening looks like but not sure.

The M16s are excellent speakers and convey the sounds incredibly accurately, though the low end is really where the magic happens for stand mount speakers. You will get an accurate representation of the high end, but it won’t have that magic ‘sparkle’. 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.

A better look at the M16 tweeter's acoustic lens and waveguide (shown in High Gloss White) Small but mighty

Also at the rear are three digital input terminals – one optical and two SPDIF – leading to the amp’s 32bit Sabre ESS9016K2M DAC. 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. Listen to a demanding piece of music such as Tchaikovsky’s Marché Slave Op.31and the M16s will render an impressively expansive stereo image and populate it with precisely focused sounds. It’s all nicely layered and remains stable when the music gets busy. Speaker phase and impedance shows one resonance which shows up in other measurements including our spinorama shown above: Listening to Lady Gaga's recordings in preparation for attending her recent concert at New York's Madison Square Garden (footnote 3), I noted that with both ArtPop (CD, Streamline 0019295-02) and Born This Way (CD, Streamline B0015373), I was able to analyze the layering of each electronic and acoustic instrument quite easily with the Revel. The speaker revealed that the level of engineering sophistication on these recordings rivals the best work of Kraftwerk and Björk.My type of music is very much classical music such as Brahms, Strauss, Vivaldi, Wagner, Mozart……… and more rhythm with Daft Punk, Jean Michel Jarre, Electric Light Orchestra, the Alan Parson Projet, Muse, and Electro. Very large variety of music as you can see. Again, the Arcam amplifier supplied the Revels with plenty of warmth and tonal realism. However, the SA20 added a bit more musicality into the mix. As soon as we pressed play on the Classic Yoyo album we dropped into the CDS50 we were delighted with the combination’s natural and well-detailed presentation. The cello’s lower register is smooth and warm while piano keys, in particular, are articulate.

Changing things up with Raidohead’s Hail To The Theif and, even at the most confusing points, the teamwork of the CDS50, SA20 and Revel Concerta2 M16 proved to deliver an engaging performance. The original Celestion branded Cliff Stone Foundation stands (from the late 1980s and my SL600s). Spikes slightly higher at the front to project better into the room 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.I suspect the larger woofer in the Revel is more to permit a dB or so more sensitivity rather than absolute extension, with the manufacturers quoting a -6dB roll off point of 50Hz for Revel and 47Hz for the KEF. Of course these data are notoriously difficult to compare between makers. 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: If you want to have a taste of what all of Harman research and engineering is about, get a pair of M16s and listen. They are delightful "bookshelf" speakers showing what can be done when you combine serious research with a decent budget for pats and manufacturing.