Stephen Mejias

At around this time last week, John Atkinson and I left the office and headed out to Bay Ridge to pack up the large and lovely Revel Ultima Salon2, voted our "Joint Loudspeaker of the Year" for 2008 and a speaker that JA absolutely adores. He selected it as his overall product of the year:

I was won over by the Salon2's combination of superb speaker engineering, top-to-bottom balance and sonic coherence, and apparently unlimited dynamic range, with nary a trace of compression or distortion.

If you read between the lines, you can actually hear JA's heart beating like mad, curses of joy and spit and passion all flying from his clenched teeth.

Later, in his March 2009 "Follow-Up" review (a subtly veiled excuse for him to hold onto the speakers for awhile longer), JA praised:

With the Ultima Salon2, Revel's design team has taken the conventional concept of a moving-coil box loudspeaker to the limit of what is currently possible.

Again with the joy and spit and passion. You'd think there'd be an exclamation mark in there somewhere. But do you hear it? Yes, you do! This is all to say, simply: JA did not want to let go of these speakers. He did not want to see them cloaked under some cottony veil, hugged by some undeserving Styrofoam, tucked within some unflattering, derogatory brown box!

But, oh. And, oh! What intelligent packaging Revel does provide! Unlike some manufacturers who pack their fine and delicate components in so much cheap and useless shit, Revel has designed packaging that actually compliments (and complements!) their gorgeous products. As JA and I veil and hug and tuck, lift and push and hoist, it is soon clear that the people who designed the Salon2's carton know, intimately, what this speaker is all about. This is packaging that makes sense. It is a real joy to pack this large, heavy speaker. And when we're done, not only do we feel satisfied by the good work, we feel confident that the speaker will reach its next home in perfect condition. Thanks, Revel!

Still, it's a shame to see the speakers go.