John Atkinson: "The best speakers I've ever used in my room were the Revel Salon2's"

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PacMan

PacMan

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The Revel Ultima Salon2's offers superb measured performance (confer: Revel Ultima Salon2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com )

In this video, John Atkinson (1) explains loudspeaker measurements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j77VKw9Kx6U

At 50:03 a person from the audience asks "What is your own personal reference speakers?".
John Atkinson replies:
"The best speakers I've ever used in my room were the Revel Salon2's.
They really produced the most neutral sound, the best combination of bass definition and best bass control and the best imaging.".

(1) John Atkinson is the editor-in-chief of Stereophile. He has measured more than 750 loudspeakers.
 
PacMan said:
The Revel Ultima Salon2's offers superb measured performance (confer: Revel Ultima Salon2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com )

In this video, John Atkinson (1) explains loudspeaker measurements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j77VKw9Kx6U

At 50:03 a person from the audience asks "What is your own personal reference speakers?".
John Atkinson replies:
"The best speakers I've ever used in my room were the Revel Salon2's.
They really produced the most neutral sound, the best combination of bass definition and best bass control and the best imaging.".

(1) John Atkinson is the editor-in-chief of Stereophile. He has measured more than 750 loudspeakers.
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Those comments are totally out of context. That review was from six and youtube from at least four years ago. Go and reread what John said more recently in the Alexia or Magico reviews.
 
Revel Ultima Salon2's: Speakers that have stood the test of time!

These speakers were first reviewed by Atkinson for Stereophile back in 2008 and by Harley for TAS back in 2008 with much effusive praise.

A Stereophile recommended Class A component between this date and that. A real winner.

How many other speakers have been so widely reviewed from the last 7 years and still are going this strong? Very few I think.

If anyone here knows the answer, how many have been sold in that time? You could probably stack a lot of other brands up against it and the number would not be as high combined as the Salon2's have sold in that time.

A truly great speaker. Come one come all.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Those comments are totally out of context. That review was from six and youtube from at least four years ago. Go and reread what John said more recently in the Alexia or Magico reviews.
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I did read those reviews Myles, but like you told me earlier, did he try all of them back to back, or did he rely on memory.

I know you love your S5's, and I'm glad you do. But I would take the Salons first, every time.
 
I was also referring to measurements Mark. You don't need side by side comparison for that.

But no, I didn't just mention Magico and in fact if you reread Stereophile, the speaker that John loved and wanted to settle down with was the Alexias. Neither John nor Mikey liked the Magicos enough to put their money where their mouth was. So in reality, my post has absolutely nothing to do with what I own. It has to do with taking a reviewer's six year old review totally out of context. (think about how you might have felt about a product, not even Revel, putting the same six year old statement in an ad!) In the end, you can't hold a reviewer to something they said six years ago. Things change. As a matter of fact, there are several speakers that I could live with quite happily, not to mention my previous Martin-Logans.

BTW, you can go back and see what Soundstage said about the same two speakers also. SS rated the Salons as the best they ever heard until some other speakers came along eg. Magico, KEF and a few others.
 
I think the Salons have withstood the test of time better than most. That they're still relevant after 8 yrs. is pretty amazing in my book. A lot of companies would have had 3 new models in that time.
 
MDP said:
I think the Salons have withstood the test of time better than most. That they're still relevant after 8 yrs. is pretty amazing in my book. A lot of companies would have had 3 new models in that time.
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In my opinion, the two speakers that have withstood the test of time best over the last 8 - 10 years are the Revel Salon 2's and the Sonus Faber Stradivari. After 8 - 10 years, these are still the speakers of choice, even for new purchase, by a number of members of Audio Shark. And we're a pretty tough crowd. ;) The best way to future proof a speaker is to build it right the first time and build it to last.

Ken
 
It's all opinion and obviously quite changeable. Fremer decided on Wilsons, although a model that lists for nearly 10x the price of the Salon 2's. And as Myles noted, JA has written and said he would take the Alexias as a desert island speaker; again, they are more than twice the price of the Salon 2's. It wasn't so long ago that Myles was pooh-poohing Magico lovers, saying he was a commited electrostatic owner. None of that means the Salon 2's aren't excellent speakers, but there are plenty of other excellent speakers as well and at many price points. You'll find plenty of audiophiles who will tell you that compared to the Magnepan 20.7 the Salons are an overpriced rip-off (just for example).
 
PacMan said:
The period from October 11th 2011 to March 8th 2015 is "at least four years long" ?
Please explain.
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Aren't we being rather picky? OK 3 1/2 years but that still doesn't change the fact that Atkinson has written more recently that the Alexias are his desert island speaker. And as I said before, everyone here would rail against an ad that quoted a six year old ad as being deceptive.
 
Hmm. I think I smell blood in the shark pool and the sharks seem to be circling. To put things in context, some people are still swooning over speakers that were designed and built in the 1940s and 1950s. Can you say Quad ESL 57 or anything Western Electric?? If you have the original dust that came with them, they are worth even more.
 
rbbert said:
... take the Alexias as a desert island speaker; again, they are more than twice the price of the Salon 2's. It wasn't so long ago that Myles was pooh-poohing Magico lovers, saying he was a commited electrostatic owner.
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Good point.
I really just do not understand why Myles got so upset with John Atkinson's appreciations of Revel Ultima Salon2's:
* The date of the RMAF meeting which Atkinson held this speech on is very clear from the video (but Myles managed the "masterpiece" not to notice that).
* I wrote John Atkinson's words regarding the Salon2's exactly as John Atkinson said them.

Myles previously "pooh-poohing Magico lovers" and him thereafter buying Magico speakers thereafter, just strengthens his bad forum-behaviour.
 
PacMan said:
Me too !
To me, Magico S5 is very overpriced and lacks clarity.
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Well you obviously never heard them properly set up. Neither had I until they came into my listening room. If you think they lack clarity, then there was something else really wrong. Seriously amiss.

As far as being overpriced, where are your facts? Have you ever gone to the factory and actually had Alon justify the speaker's price based on what goes into the speaker? Have you actually seen what goes into the design, manufacturing, building, and Q/C for every speaker sold? I have and the markup on the S5 is a factor of 4X; in fact, that's probably among the lowest markups of speakers on the market.

But this all just obfuscating the original point that has nothing to do with Magico or any other speaker. It was about taking a quote out of context. It would be like writing a scientific paper in 2015 and ignoring any previous published experiments north of 2008 that didn't fit into your result. If you can't see that, then there's no further reason to discuss things.
 
PacMan said:
Good point.
I really just do not understand why Myles got so upset with John Atkinson's appreciations of Revel Ultima Salon2's:
* The date of the RMAF meeting which Atkinson held this speach on is very clear from the video (but Myles managed the "masterpiece" not to notice that).
* I wrote John Atkinson's words regarding the Salon2's exactly as John Atkinson said them.

Myles previously "pooh-poohing Magico lovers" and him thereafter buying Magico speakers thereafter, just strengthens his bad forum-behaviour.
Click to expand...

I think you are trying to put words in Myles' mouth. He is not upset with "John Atkinson's appreciation of Revel Ultima Salon2" speakers. This is no different than when Adcom continued to quote AHC on his comment about their amp many years after it was initially brought to the marketplace. The point is that time marches on and what you thought was your dream component 3 or 4 years ago may no longer be your dream component.
 
At one point - he also probably said that JBL L100s were the best. And so on .......

Obviously, any product that still sells in good numbers, after 5 to 10 years in production is a good product at a good price point. But I don't think that because a designer/company has improvements, they should necessarily wait for 5 years to bring them to the public. And they shouldn't be criticized if they do. I like the fact I can upgrade a product to the latest version.
 
mep said:
I think you are trying to put words in Myles' mouth. He is not upset with "John Atkinson's appreciation of Revel Ultima Salon2" speakers. This is no different than when Adcom continued to quote AHC on his comment about their amp many years after it was initially brought to the marketplace. The point is that time marches on and what you thought was your dream component 3 or 4 years ago may no longer be your dream component.
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I just refered to this RMAF-meeting in October 2011: Nothing more, nothing less.
I assume that the members of this forum has eyes: Then they see the date of the meeting being held was October 16, 2011.
If you have not noticed that date: Please see the first two seconds of the video.
 
PacMan said:
Good point.
I really just do not understand why Myles got so upset with John Atkinson's appreciations of Revel Ultima Salon2's:
* The date of the RMAF meeting which Atkinson held this speech on is very clear from the video (but Myles managed the "masterpiece" not to notice that).
* I wrote John Atkinson's words regarding the Salon2's exactly as John Atkinson said them.

Myles previously "pooh-poohing Magico lovers" and him thereafter buying Magico speakers thereafter, just strengthens his bad forum-behaviour.
Click to expand...

As Mark intimated, I didn't. It was all about taking a review out of context.

You like your Salons? Great. I have no problem with that. Nor do I with those with Raidhos, NOLAs, Wilsons, Rockports, etc. All have their strengths and weaknesses. You pay your money, you get what you want. That's why there's probably more brands of speakers out there than any other component.

As far as bad forum behavior goes, who made you the moderator?
 
rbbert said:
It's all opinion and obviously quite changeable. Fremer decided on Wilsons, although a model that lists for nearly 10x the price of the Salon 2's. And as Myles noted, JA has written and said he would take the Alexias as a desert island speaker; again, they are more than twice the price of the Salon 2's. It wasn't so long ago that Myles was pooh-poohing Magico lovers, saying he was a commited electrostatic owner. None of that means the Salon 2's aren't excellent speakers, but there are plenty of other excellent speakers as well and at many price points. You'll find plenty of audiophiles who will tell you that compared to the Magnepan 20.7 the Salons are an overpriced rip-off (just for example).
Click to expand...

Actually to be factually correct, I wrote in my review that I didn't see myself owning dynamic speakers. Not Magico. And I think that's fair enough statement from electrostatic lovers. That said, I have had numerous dynamic speakers in my listening room and reviewed and liked some of them too (as well as Magnepans too).

But again my comment had nothing to do with Salons but the context the quote was used. And no one has addressed that other than picking on my being off by 6 months out of four years. Can we say Benghazi?
 
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