Revel new Ultima2 Salon have you heard it ?

Finally heard the new Studios today. Front end was an Esoteric UX-01, Levinson 326S pre and Halcro amps with all Transparent Reference cabling and Shunyata PCs into a Transparent PowerIsolator 8. Bottom line, Revel nailed it. They sound like much, much better B&Ws with a better midrange and seemless integration. I still don't like the design with the base plate but it's actually kind of nice looking in person. In the end I went a different direction as the midrange isn't as transparent as I'm looking for (although it's clearly superior to my 803Ds). For home theater these are the speakers; for two channel they're good but not great.

French_fries,
frankly speaking I doubt that (SA)CD player development has seen relevant progress in the last couple of years, so I'm not really surprised that the 390S still does a great job! The same might be true for speakers as well... After 20 years of music reproduction experience, I came to the conclusion that basically all the equipment out there is not too far away from what is possible and it's mainly a matter of personal taste if you decide for ML, Krell, BAT, Einstein, Jadis, Esoteric, Revel, Reimyo, Burmester, ....
Do you use a pre-amp with your 390S???

kenyt- i am fascinated by the fact that you heard these speakers at CES with a ml-390s cd player. and they sounded great. am i missing something here? that cdp is "ancient history" as far as everyone is concerned. except for me since i have one and it sounds like music through another very revealing set of speakers as well. i wish people would pay more attention to comments like yours before deciding if it didn't come out in the last 3 years it isn't any good.

Kennyt,
many thanks for your suggestion to try the Transparent cables. I have asked Revel and they said that Kevin has used a lot of different cables for the Ultima2 development and mainly Levinson amps. My cable tests continued: MIT Oracle 3.2 and Synergistic Apex Tesla had no chance against the KS-3038 as well.
Psacanli,
a "real" comparison (same room and equipment) with the Dynaudios might be a challenge. I suppose you referred to the original Salon? The answer is (based on my memory and on answers by dealers) that the Salon2 sounds similar to the original version, but it does many things significantly better.

Can't wait to hear with Studio2 next year when Revel *finally* starts shipping the Ultima2 series worldwide.

Have you compared them to the Dynaudio Tempyation?

How does their sound compare to the original Salon 2?

Gernot,

Try Transparent Reference! It's what Kevin Voeks uses with them for all his demo's and what they are voiced with.

Now that I have had the speakers in my listening room for a while, I can add that I CANNOT recommend JPS Labs Aluminata speaker cables ($10,000!). ML 432 amp. No chance against the Kimber KS-3038 by a huge margin! I was told that I need more Aluminatas (interconnects and power cables) and so I did put them in. Didn't help either. After 3 days I returned to my Harmonix HGP-SUS...!

I have ordered as well, please (Alwyn & Kennyt) share your experiences in the first weeks. Which speaker cables do you use? Did you try different amps? How long was the break in period etc.? Thanks, Gernot

You are right Kal, I have recently developed first name dyslexia it seems, that is like the third time this week I've entered the wrong first name.....

Thanks for the correction!

It's Kevin Voecks, btw.

Kal

I heard them at CEDIA last year (horrible room) and @ CES this last January, they sounded great @ CES. Peter Voecks had them powered by a Levinson 433 with Transparent Reference MM wires and a 390s player. Very sweet, I am getting them as well, and will likely run 5x 436's (Voice center and Studio surrounds) though I just found out there is a problem with a suppliers part and the 436's are now backordered until at least November.

Hopefully you have yours already!