Introduction It was only a few years ago that Revel embarked on its journey to design and develop some of the world's most accurate and musically satisfying loudspeakers. The company was established in 1996 through a collaboration consisting of Harman Kardon founder Dr. Sidney Harman, Sandy Berlin of Madrigal, and well-regarded speaker designer Kevin Voecks. From the outset, the design philosophy of the Revel team was to incorporate the highest level of engineering knowledge, fused with sound scientific principles in conjunction with real-world listening evaluations. Using these objectives, Revel created the founding benchmarks for developing their products. Though Revel itself is a relatively small company, its ability to exploit the enormous resources of Harman International gives them unparalleled ability to achieve their design goals. Their debut product, the Ultima Gem, drew critical acclaim for both its musical attributes and unique styling. Following the Gem’s release, Revel continued with various new loudspeakers under the Ultima series banner, all ...

Introduction Many home theater enthusiasts, myself included, often find themselves daydreaming about flagship processors, gargantuan amplifiers (the types that are capable of arc welding), cost-no-object speaker systems, and subwoofers that can register on the Richter scale. Unfortunately, many of these products can have prices in the stratosphere, at times approaching five digits or more for each component. The same enthusiast may not see the appeal in the necessity of taking out a second home mortgage in order to acquire the components for assembling such a “state of the art” system. Fortunately, there are many manufacturers on the market today whose business philosophy is to provide a high degree of performance without the soaring prices that these mega-systems often command. In terms of speakers, several Canadian companies have made great use of the National Research Council (NRC) laboratories to design great-performing speakers at very reasonable cost. For those who are unaware of the NRC, it is the ...

Introduction When considering all the components of any home theater system, very few factors can affect the final outcome as much as the selection of loudspeakers. It is amazing how comparably-priced speakers from different manufacturers, which are competently designed, and have similar technologies, can sound very different from one another. This is why the auditioning of loudspeakers is such an important, and sometimes challenging process. Although recommendations can be a great starting point, it is very important for you to listen and make decisions based upon your own preferences and personal requirements. In addition, when it comes to assembling a balanced, effective and enjoyable home theater speaker system, there's a lot to be said for a consistent design among all the speakers. Although many music enthusiasts have augmented two-channel systems by selecting potentially excellent center and surround speakers from various manufacturers while creating a home theater sound system, the end result is often less than satisfying. A ...

Introduction As an audio enthusiast for over 20 years, I was surprised to learn that Phase Technology has been building speakers since the 1950s. Unlike many speaker companies in today’s global economy, they build nearly every part of the speaker themselves. This includes the speaker cones, baskets, voice coils, inductors and enclosures. They go so far as to actually coat their own wire for the voice coils. Even if you have not heard Phase Technology speakers, you most certainly have heard their speaker drivers in other manufacturers' products. They have manufactured drivers for nearly every major brand-name speaker manufacturer in the world. Phase Technology holds a number of influential patents, including that of the soft dome tweeter, a product that they introduced and patented in the 1960s and later licensed to a vast number of companies. The Phase Technology theater speaker package reviewed here comes from their Premier Collection series. This package included three PC 3.1 ...

Introduction Specialty audio/video manufacturers come and go, leaving a rare few who last long enough to see their tenth birthday. Loudspeaker manufacturer Klipsch has survived more than five decades. They have done so with products designed and manufactured with an unwavering design philosophy - reproducing the live event. Klipsch provided me with a review package consisting of their largest components in the Reference line: the RF-7 floor-standing speakers at $2,200 per pair, the RC-7 center speaker at $800, the RSW-15 powered subwoofer costing $1,800, and the RS-7 wall-mounted surround speakers at $900 per pair. The center channel, front main loudspeakers are video-shielded and are available in three handcrafted furniture-grade veneers: jet ash, medium cherry or blond maple. The surrounds speakers are only available with black or white vinyl finishes. The RSW-15 powered subwoofer measures 19.25 inches tall, 18.5 inches wide, 24.5 inches deep and weighs 85 pounds. Its bass reflex design uses a rear-firing 15-inch Cerametallic (specially treated anodized ...