Elinor- "The Dynas are not nearly as detailed" "They will also distort as you increase volume" I don't know what the heck you are talking about, and I wonder if you do. The Confidence 5s that I own are driven by Classe' CAM-350s and they don't distort anything. At points in the load curve the Classe is driving 500+ watts to each speaker. I wonder if you didn't just hear them driven by amps that lack the current to make these relatively inefficient speakers (86db?) shine. If you heard them with relatively low power tube amps, the distortion you heard was almost certainly generated by an overdriven amp trying to produce high volumes from a speaker it can't drive. The 5s are especially finicky about amps due to their compound woofer. The Esotar tweeter contained in both the C5 and C3 is widely recognized as possibly the best in existence by both audiophiles and speaker manufacturers. When comparing the Dynaudio to the Revel Ultima high found the Revel "harsh" some people may consider this "detailed".The idea that a $10,000 Dynaudio speaker is " built to please regardless of what may be the weakest link in your audio chain" is something I wish were true, because it would have saved me a lot of money on source and cabling. I am glad you like your Revels. I listened to the Revel Ultima and I liked it a lot. I like the Confidence 5s better.
Dynaudio v Revel
I have been auditioning a number of speakers in the $7000 to $10,000 range and due to a significant price break am leaning to the dyns. Never the less I have been impressed with the Revel Studios. It is just that right now the potential price differential is about $3500. I am using tube amps, pre and cd. Any thoughts out there? Thanks!