Not sure if I have enough oomph.


I've got a new in box Revel Salon 2 set ready to pickup for $15k

Not sure if my Krell KMA160's have what it takes.

240 WAtts at 6 ohms.

I'm thinking it's marginal.

Thoughts?

Thanks guys.

128x128paultapar

Nice speakers and congrats! From John Atkinson’s measurements…

My estimate of the Revel Ultima Salon2’s voltage sensitivity was 86dB(B)/2.83V/m. This is slightly lower than the specified 86.4dB but within experimental error of that figure. The speaker’s impedance (fig.1) drops to between 3 and 5 ohms between 17Hz and 600Hz, but as the electrical phase angle is generally low in this region, the Salon2 should not be hard for the partnering amplifier to drive.

I don’t think your amps will have any problem driving these speakers as they probably pump out around 320Wpc @ 4 Ohms that should be more than adequate. Hope this helps somewhat, and enjoy the great new speaks!

 

There is a ton of pop in those amps. Yes adequate for what you need. 2’s are not the easiest to drive out there. I passed up a pair because I didn’t have the amp to drive them at the time. Adding more power won't get a lot more. +3db to double the power. These Krell's have a lot of headroom for dynamic passages and absorb the electrical phase shift with ease. I would venture a guess and say they would actually work well together!

The key here is the speaker impedance plot:

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/revel-ultima-salon2-loudspeaker-measurements

 

This speaker has pretty low impedance (< 4 Ohms) for a wide range (20 to 100 Hz) in the bass.  This does imply that the speaker will be highly amplifier sensitive and auditioning it with different amplifiers will be helpful, or you could use it with a sub below 80 Hz.

I haven't heard yet a nice sounding setup with Revels in general.

While I've never owned any Revels (for probably reason of not being "my type of speaker"), but have heard them in various hi-end shops and into at least several shows and never Revel auditioning impressed me. Perhaps there's no amp that could drive them to open. Everything was as-if the sound was preserved in each of the speaker boxes and never went out.
I think you should aim for something that will give you closer to 1kw per channel.

Why not wait to hear the set up before going off in search of another amp?  I cannot think of a speaker that really "needs" more than the 240 wpc you can get out of the Krell; if the sound disappoints, it is not for lack of power.  

Try it with krell if don't like it bi amp it use krell for base and find a amp for the upper end I have the salon 1 and like it.im running 1k through it.it may be people aren't running enough wat5s through to get all the speakers singing.i have not tried the tube amp on the top end yet.so much fun not enough time.have fun you'll like them and enjoy the music

For an arena? No, you don't have enough power.

For the average home listening room?  You'll be just fine.

Of course the power requirements for just about any speaker depends upon not only sensitivity but also the type of music you listen to & at what volume level. if you like your music loud n a big room, you’ll use every bit of what you have & could probably benefit from more power. 
 

there is a difference between being just fine and being able to feel the low end thump that comes from having raw watts in your amp regardless of volume ... I think your underpowered for the speakers to truly shine

Hey, I own the Studio 2. These speakers go down below 4ohm. I believe it’s 3.78 ohms. I had an Ayre VX5 amp that did push them without distortion but they wouldn’t disappear. Even though the Ayre has 350 watts at 4ohm that is about where they capped off. Think of them as Maggie’s in a box. I use the Luxman M10X amp. It works great because it plays all the way down to 1 ohm. One trick if you feel they are a little under powered try tilting them forward with the spikes. A friend has the Sim 400 mono blocks on his Salon 2s. He loves them. Hegel line will do pretty good because of the damping factor. If you can find an older Plinius amp for about $3k it will make them sing due to all the class A power. The reason I got an amp to push them correctly is because the sound is so real you will be a little freaked out once they bloom. Hegel has a new 600 amp that just came out so the older 590 should be a steal. I hope this helps. 

with revels, it's more about having high current delivery than raw wattage--i've run mine with a 125w parasound (among many others) which does just fine. now, i don't think i've heard your krell, but reading the specs it should be more than enough--it claims to drive impedances below 1 ohm and to deliver a gazillion watts into 2 ohm.

Okay, I’m tired of reading responses here that these amps don’t have the juice to sufficiently power these speakers and who are clearly not familiar with this amp’s capabilities.  Here are some facts…

Each amplifier is capable of delivering:
160 Watts into 8 ohms
320 Watts into 4 ohms
640 Watts into 2 ohms
1280 Watts into 1 ohm

So please, stop with the nonsense that these amps are underpowered because that’s just silly, misleading, and ignorant.  I also think they could make a sublime match sonically with the Revels and would love to hear the OP’s impressions once he gets things.settled/burned in.

@paultapar 

While your amp has plenty of power, a subwoofer woofer or two can make sure you  rarely use more than a few watts. 

All the best.

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OMG.  Only now, after spending $15,000 are you concerned about this?  Like purchasing a Ferrari and then thinking about the gas consumption and repairs.

Well.... in a bit you will not have to 'THINK" about not having enough power or Ooomph.  Cross that bridge if you get to it.  

My grandmother told me not to worry about something you Don't know.  Worry about those you do know about.

PS.  "New in box.."  Break them in well first.  You want ooomph.  You will probably not get that straight out of the box.