Amp suggestions for Revel Salons?

I owned Salons for three years, and a close friend of mine owned his for four.

The most important thing to bear in mind with the Salons is that they are a very high-end speaker -- just because they can now be had used for $8,000 or less does not change that fact. Thus, you have to use them with very good electronics and cabling.

Cutting to the chase, the original Classe Omega and the Pass 600's work very well with Salons. I ran them for awhile with Jeff Rowland Model 6 monobocks with the battery power supplies, and got superb sound out of them (my dealer, who did not sell Rowland, said that he would run them with vintage Rowland if he could). I got best results with VAC Renaissance 140/140 tube monoblocks, but they are very expensive amps. Speaking of tube amps, there are only a small handful of tube amps that are able to control the woofers on Salons, all of which are extremely expensive.

The Salon owners I know did not like Levinson (Madrigal) amps with Salons, despite the speaker being voiced with them -- they found there to be a lifeless, overly languid sound to them when run with Madrigal electronics (I did, too, at one of my dealers).

My friend ran his for quite a while with the darTZeel amp, but it is very expensive.

If you need a great deal of power, then the big Classe Omega is hard to beat (and to lift -- 250 lbs.). If you do not need maximum decibels, then I suggest the Rowland -- Model 6, 8 or 9 are all fine, but the 6 sounds the best of the group assuming you don't need outrageous sound levels. This vintage of Roland amps plays to the Salons' strength of accurate timbre, resolution and musicality.

I run mine with Pass X250,5.More than enough power for them.My advice: get rid of the stock spikes (or floor protectors) and get Audio Points from Star sound Technologies and you won't believe the change.I still kick myself for listening for 2 years with original spikes.
http://www.starsoundtechnologies.com/audiopoints.html

Thank you for the fine suggestions and advice. Should I look for the Rowland battery 6's or is this gilding the lily. I am on a budget.Cabling was mentioned as anoher critical component any suggestions on what the Salons like.

The Model 6's sound better with the batteries. Without going into great detail about why, they output fewer watts with the batteries, but will drive a speaker to louder levels cleanly with the batteries because A/C line noise becomes audible as the volume goes up, and none of that crap is there with the batteries. If you read Stereophile's review of the Model 2 (same amp, but the stereo version), there is a follow-up section about the batteries.

While not strictly necessary for excellent sound, the Model 6's also sound better when run balanced.

When run balanced and with batteries, I would put the Model 6's up against any solid-state other than the darTZeel. In fact, darTZeel's U.S. distributor has been known the recommend Model 6's -- or the Rowland Model 8 or 9's -- for those who cannot afford darTZeel. They retailed for almost $17k when introduced ten years ago for a reason.

Speaker cables: I had excellent results with Kimber Select KS 3033 (all-copper) and KS-3038 (all-silver) with the Salons -- the 3033's were the best value. A close friend had great success with Jena Symphony.

Raquel thank you for your continued input. The Salons require bi wiring do they not? So you must have plenty tied up in speaker wire. Is there something less than the price of a Pickup truck you could suggest?

Kimber 3033 is not horrifically expensive (8 ft. runs used for $700-$800, and new is +/- $1,500). Kimber Bi-Focal is also good and costs a bit less (but spend a few more bucks and get 3033).

Like any very high-performance speaker, you need to be careful about the high-end components you use with Salons. If you are budget-conscious, you have to be extremely careful. They really require first-class front-end componentry, and arguably shouldn't be used unless they are in a large, dimension-friendly room with extensive room treatment (or a RIVES spec'd-type purpose-built room) and extensive A/C line treatment, etc. They were a $20k speaker that performed in most respects like an $80k speaker.

Yes, Salons require bi-wired cables.

Rowland 501s.

Dave

Thanks guys ( Raquel hats off!!). I am absorbing all of this. Please keep it coming if you have an opinion.

I want to jump in again for a moment. With all due respect to Dcstep, you absolutely do not want to run Salons with an ICe powered amp like the Rowland 501's or any other digital / Class D amp. The midrange and tweeters in the Salons are highly transparent, and will provide a crystal clear window into the upper-frequency problems inherent in digital amps.

Salons need to be paired with very high-end analog amps (or if you can afford it, the tiny handful of tube amps that will properly drive them).

Ok I'm in!!

The Salons are in the front of the room.Hernia surgery will have to wait until you guys tell me how to set them up.

Brass points are on the way.

They are in a very large room 40x22x12 . The only practical listening position is on the 22 ft side about 7-8 feet in from the back wall/fireplace.

Observation -The tweaters seem very high from my level listening position. Is this by design?

Lots of nobs on the back . I have read the manual but I am sure you can point me in the best direction.

Thank you so much for the input I hope I am not wearing out the welcome mat. Maybe for top post I can send fine wine through the post!!

If you don't have bi-wire speaker cables, attach the cables to the mids/highs posts, with the jumpers running to the woofer posts. The supplied plate-style jumpers are crap -- if you don't have real jumpers, an okay temporary solution is heavy-gauge Monster Cable from a Circuit City-type place ($1/ft).

Set the controls to flat (zero), but make sure the rear tweeter is on. Position the speakers to taste. That said, the experience my friend and I had with ours is that they sound best in the near-field, roughly 9-10 ft. from the ears (closer does not permit proper driver integration), and spaced roughly 7 ft. apart, measured from the tweeter centers. We both ended up with them toed in almost all the way, with the inside panel of each speaker barely visible from the listening position (thus, the right speaker is pointing directly at your right ear, the left speaker at your left ear, as opposed to complete toe-in, when both speakers are pointing at your nose).

Listen for a few days with the controls set to "0" to allow your ears to become very accustomed to the sound, and then start fooling around with the settings.

Yes, the tweeter rides high on the Salon -- as long as your ears are roughly 36" above the ground from a nearfield position, you're fine