"The Ultra High-End Speaker."

Good review of the Salon 2: https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/608revel/index.html

And, they're on sale at a great price via Music Direct!
$7500 each 
https://www.musicdirect.com/equipment/speakers/revel-salon2-tower-speakers-pair/

@erik_squires  +1

Since retirement I have had to be very selective with my finances and my audio purchases. Even within those parameters and with full knowledge that my system is midfi at best, I still find myself sitting in the dark, glass of wine in hand and completely lost in the music.

Isn't that the essence of why we do this?

It does my heart good to hear about someone who really enjoys having exquisite sound. Congrats on your system. Too many high rollers haven’t really earned their audio stripes, and are more adept at writing big checks than they are at identifying the true performers. To some degree it’s all relative to what we’ve been exposed to, but those who’ve owned and lived with that "ultra high end sound" truly know the difference.  It still boils down to synergy of the individual components.

My experience has been that price is not a guarantee of fantastic sound, and there are definitely diminishing returns, but it’s difficult to avoid incurring some substantial costs to get that upper level sound. Fortunately, there are still plenty of companies driven by their passion for audio who focus more on performance than profit.

If "ultra high end" is defined, even in part, by price, the Revel speakers do not qualify.  But, if it is performance, as measured by the owner satisfaction, it is entirely possible for that speaker, or one even less costly to qualify.  Even taking subjectivity out of the equation, there is no such thing as a best speaker that is superior in all aspects of performance, and not everyone agrees on which aspects have higher priority.  Add back subjectivity and there is nothing close to a consensus on ANY speaker being "good" sounding, never mind anything close to "best" sounding.  On top of this, there is no speaker that is appropriate to all rooms.  I personally find that low-powered tube amplifiers tend to be the best sounding amplifiers, and I have very specific favorite amps; that necessitates using certain types of speakers that then relegate others to less that ultra high end for my personal selection.

I've heard ultra expensive custom speakers that sound fantastic.  One such system was about 5 ft wide, by 4 feet deep by 8.5 feet tall.  It has twin 18" woofers, a giant horn midrange with field coil midrange compression drivers and a field coil tweeter.  Truly no expense was spared.  But, even it could not do everything, and the "compromises" might disqualify this speaker for another listener.  The woofers were quite restricted in output below about 35 hz.  Why? Because the requirement of ultra fast and nimble performance to match the midrange compression driver and the extended range for the shallow crossover at 400 hz or so, meant the driver had to be built with ultra low weight cones, and a surround that restricted the range of movement.  This meant compromising ultra deep response. 

In other respects, I suspect that great subjective performance in one area necessarily means affecting performance in another area; for example, the sense of midrange clarity might be a product, at least in part, of a leaner upper bass response because that bass tends to "muddy" the sound, but, if one also likes the warmer sound of a richer upper bass response, one cannot "optimize" both.  Hence, ultra high end might minimize compromises, but, it cannot eliminate them and the right balance could be found in a speaker that is cheaper, better suited to one's taste, and more appropriate for the particular room.

Thanks great post indeed from someone who knows better by owning some of the best ... ... 😊

my opinion is that you can achieve ultra high end sound with Revel Salon 2’s. given the appropriate sized room, meticulously treated, top notch power grid, solid well matured signal path and superior sources.

my opinion is that you can achieve ultra high end sound with Revel Salon 2’s. given the appropriate sized room, meticulously treated, top notch power grid, solid well matured signal path and superior sources.

there is nothing about a Salon 2 holding you back from musical reproduction nirvana.

OTOH there is a ceiling to ultimate degrees of bottom octave, scale and authority in a system with the Revel 2 Salon’s. and a ceiling on ultimate levels of resolution.

but i would rather have this ’optimized’ ultimate Salon 2 system, than an average level effort with a more capable speaker in a larger room. the Revel Salon 2 is formidable enough to take you far along the path. it’s over the hump into high level transducers.

it’s the sweat equity and high level thinking behind systems that become the difference. and there is more than one approach to skin the cat.

of course; what we mostly find is that someone willing to go all out on the effort side, will probably pay the piper to start with a more capable speaker so the ceiling is higher at the end. but this does not invalidate what the Revel Salon 2 can accomplish.

Ultra High End-ish Sound?

~10k onwards (possibly even 5k onwards if bought used) and subwoofer pairing.

Ultra High End-ish Sound+Looks+Bragging Rights+ Club Membership?

Spend half a million, file for bankruptcy, whatever...

Ultra high end speakers are carried by high end electronics w.r.t sonics. When such electronics are paired with many speakers in non-ultra high end price brackets (i.e., when such "relatively affordable" speakers are given the same opportunity), the ultra high end-ness of such speakers shall be revealed.

The soundfield of speakers and headphone are two different things ...

The timbre definition the immersiveness and all the spatial characteristics of sound which are numerous cannot be determined by the mere speakers choice...

Speakers exist only in a room, controlled one or uncontrolled ...

And any stereo system or speakers is impeding the spatial characteristic of sound by crosstalk ...

But headphone lack the body sensation of speakers and deep bass and they sound always artificial timbre ( my 9 headphones in particular) except for some very rare and costlier one ...The soundfield in most case STAY in the head ... ( save my K340 modified and perhaps top few others i dont know personally as the Raal or top Hifiman and Top Omega Stax )

Anyway timbre, immersiveness and spatial characteristics of sound dont come with speakers price tag ... They come with room acoustic coupling and with adding to that the necessary BACCH filters which is the acoustic last revolution ...

Nevermind the price you pay for your speakers ...Or even for your headphones... You will need acoustic material control and/or acoustic DSP ...With my K340 i need the two as with my speakers ...

My low cost system now is satisfying so much, but why ?

Because i succeeded creating a room/speakers relation very intimate as with headphone in a near listening position in a controlled small room ... And i succeeded in creating with headphone a soundfield speaker- like in timbre and spatial characteristics out of the head in many recording ... For me it was the goal... I listen music alone ...

Ok i spoke too much and we will go to the "Bugatti" and " Veyron" level speakers talk forgetting this new more affordable car that which is also a plane thanks to the BACCH filters .... 😁

Price tag  dont afford S. Q. ...Psycho-acoustics does at lower price nowadays ...

If you cannot perceive that the so-called "high end" speakers are better than yours, then you have probably crushed the competition.

My system is much less than yours. I think it sounds wonderful, even compared to more expensive systems. Often, they do things that my system cannot do -- bass and dynamic punch, super accurate sound staging. I've got my system doing something better, in some cases, than those systems -- intimacy in midrange, naturalness of soundstage, precision without hyper-articulation in instruments and highs.

I have heard a couple systems that do everything mine does plus the things it doesn't do. But they're not ultra-high-end. They are thoughtfully selected, matched, and placed in an intelligently treated room.

For me no speaker is ultra- high-end unless it's a headphone. There you have a lot more possibilities to get as close as possible to the raw natural sound.

I've gotten to a point in my life when I no longer care about "best" if I can't actually live with it in my living room space. 

For me, I go with large dynamic range, laid back, low distortion in small packages. I know the dynamic range plus laid back seems like a weird combination. For commercial brands I like Monitor Audio a great deal, with some appreciation for the modern Wilsons, and Magicos. With the right amps I might see myself enjoying some Klipsch Heresy’s as well.

It’s hard to separate the room from the speakers though. The best high commercial speakers I could fit in my living room may be far smaller than the most expensive. As such there’s a lot of very large speakers I would not realistically consider. Perhaps the largest commercial speaker I’d consider in my home is the Arion Apollo. Always had a soft spot in my heart for line sources and AMT drivers.

High end SOUND not high end gear begins when any speakers at any price is well embed mechanically, electrically and acoustically ( and i dont spoke about mere room acoustic here ) ...

Ultra high end sound ask for very ultra costly gear for sure ...

There is a difference in cost between a minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold and the higher acoustical optimal threshold possible ...

My point is : it is acoustic science not the gear price tag who define the conditions for the winner ...

My point is two subjective/objective thresholds in the law of diminishing returns are DETERMINED more by acoustics knowledge in the design and in the subjective acoustic experience than by the mere price tag ... Sorry for some of those who own one million bucks system , it is not a warranty for owning a ULTRA high end sound because the gear component cost such and such, it is way not enough ...

Then i will not speak mostly as the OP about the ultra high end speakers choices because this is less meaningful than speaking about this specific system/room or this other specific system/room with or without the BACCH filters for example correcting any faulty stereo system nevermind his price ...

Psycho-acoustics rule the show not the speakers price choices linearly ordered ...

My two cents ...

Kenmy good for you a well matched and tuned system will work wonders I too have heard extremely expensive systems that didn’t sound magical