Honest opinions on my two picks of loudspeakers


So I wanted to see what most of you thought or what your pick would be between the Revel Salon 2 towers and the McIntosh XR100's I'm torn between both with looks and performances with my choice leaning more toward Mac since I'd be powering them with the 452 and the whole matching thing, but I will also be pushing these quite hard at times (rock-metal) and I want a well built power capable speaker for the long haul..I was considering Wilson's as well and have not cut them out just wanted some respectable opinions on my two narrowed down choices we all are familiar with pricing and these two options have a considerable difference between the two so I'm torn which is the better bang for my bucks!! 

Thanks all..
128x128shawnscola

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McIntosh amps are voiced laid back and mild in the midrange and upper mids. I have heard them sound very good with good speakers, such as Sonus Fabre and the like.  However, McIntosh amps paired with McIntosh speakers sound very dull, boring and lifeless.  There is absolutely no excitement or anything on this pairing.  I would not recommend it to anyone unless you really want that type of sound.

The Revel speakers are excellent and would pair much better with the McIntosh amp.  However, like everyone has said, they are not efficient (somewhat low at 86 db).

Some people here are recommending JBL compression and PA type speakers.  While these are good for live sound events, they are still really not an audiophile speaker.  If you are going this way with looking for a very efficient speaker, the new Klipsch Cornwall IV appear to be excellent.  With an efficiency of 102db/watt, you can drive them to maximum volume with 100 watts at 122db.  They will do much better then the other two speakers you are looking at for loud rock/metal type of sound.

There are others, but with the high power of the MC452, you should probably look in the 90-94 db efficiency range.
I heard the McIntosh speakers last year at RMAF.  They were being driven by the big 1.2kw monoblocks, but I was just not impressed at all.  Dull and boring.  However, I heard the McIntosh integrated paired with Sonus Fabre bookshelves and that was very nice, even though it was still the "laid back" McIntosh sound.