After I bought a dealers salon 2 demos he invited me back a couple days later to listen to the 228be's and the first thing I noticed was the sound drawing me back to the speakers. The latest performa's cabinets are a bit noisy, not bad, but enough to distract me from the stereo illusion the bass was also lacking, but more bass would probably excite the cabinets even more. I agree that a used salon 2 if you have a powerful amp or the studio 2 if you want the best representation of revel speakers.
Like helomech said tho', While the ultima 2 was pretty special for the money in 2006, there's been forward progress made and many of us have moved on.