Steve59. It's true. The Revel Salon 2 speakers are notoriously inefficient and hard to drive to their fullest potential. But, once you hook them up to the right amp, you're in absolute sonic heaven. My Revel Salon 2s are in a not so large room, so my extremely powerful H590 integrated amp (301/590 wpc), with it's extremely high damping factor, works beautifully at putting a vise-grip on the Salons drivers. All that's well and good for my modestly sized room. However, if my room was much larger, I would definitely opt for driving the Salon 2s with something even more powerful then my beloved integrated (mono-blocks at least 400/800 wpc). Perhaps your previous amp, and your friends Mac (although powerful) would not be the best choice to drive the Salon 2s. The key (it's critical) to driving the Salons to their fullest potential (I'm sure you're aware), as well as any large, floor standing, multi driver, inefficient, full range speaker, is not just the amps power rating, but, even more importantly, it's Damping Factor, which gives the amp the ability to actually control the speaker's drivers sufficiently (superbly).
Speaker that are 'KEEPERS" for the long haul!!!
For years and years, I brought in a multitude of different speakers into my listening room, never really being truly, completely satisfied with any of them. So the speaker merry-go-round went on and on, until I finally found the speakers that put all of that to rest. Not only was I dissatisfied, I was also going broke in the process. All that buying and selling was killing me and stressing me out, as well. It was the Revel Salon 2 speakers that finally got the job done for me. Once I got my hot little hands on the Revel Salon 2 speakers, it was all over. Now, I have absolutely no desire to switch out the Salons for anything else. The Revel Salon 2 speakers covered all the sonic bases for me, truly capturing my imagination, from top to bottom, like none of the others completely did. I get to hears all the new speakers at dealers and at shows, and they all sound just awesome, too. But, still, for my money, the Salons 2s are the ones (they’re just that good). The Revel Salon 2 speakers turned out to be all the speaker I think I’ll ever need, and will be with me for the duration. For which, my ears and my wallet thank me.