The Embrace can be configured for bipole, dipole, or Dual Drive operation. (Dual Drive is an arrangement available in a few surround processors—notably from Citation—that lets the user separately drive the front and rear drivers and…
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The Revel Embrace surround speaker uses five drivers. A single 8" woofer is mounted on the front, with a 4" midrange and a 1" tweeter on each of the enclosure's angled sides. The 4" midranges and 8" woofer are the same drivers used in the Ultima Voice center-channel. However, the 1" tweeters are not the same Scan-Speak design used in the Voice and Gems.
Setup
The Revel speakers were installed in my approximately 7000-cubic-foot home-theater room. Two Gems flanked the projection screen and were toed-in, the Voice center-channel was placed below the screen and aimed up toward the listening position, and the Embrace surrounds were mounted high on the side walls. During this review, I tried the system with one and two SUB-15s placed in a front corner and driven from a single LE-1.
The Revel speakers were installed in my approximately 7000-cubic-foot home-theater room. Two Gems flanked the projection screen and were toed-in, the Voice center-channel was placed below the screen and aimed up toward the listening position, and the Embrace surrounds were mounted high on the side walls. During this review, I tried the system with one and two SUB-15s placed in a front corner and driven from a single LE-1.
The subwoofer(s) can be connected in several ways. The recommended hookup uses the LE-1 amplifier's built-in highpass and lowpass filters instead of the…
Tweaking around
Driven by the Proceed PAV/PDSD surround processor and the Krell KAV-500 amplifier, the Revels sounded rather bright fresh out of the box. In the preceding weeks, I had been living with three Snell LCR 2800s across the front, two Snell SUR 800 dipole surrounds, with a Velodyne F1800R II subwoofer. This system, with its superbly resolved yet rather laid-back treble and warm upper bass and midrange, sounded nothing at all like the vivid and detail-highlighted Revels. In short, I had to readjust to a very different sound. (The Snells were designed by Kevin Voecks about four…
Driven by the Proceed PAV/PDSD surround processor and the Krell KAV-500 amplifier, the Revels sounded rather bright fresh out of the box. In the preceding weeks, I had been living with three Snell LCR 2800s across the front, two Snell SUR 800 dipole surrounds, with a Velodyne F1800R II subwoofer. This system, with its superbly resolved yet rather laid-back treble and warm upper bass and midrange, sounded nothing at all like the vivid and detail-highlighted Revels. In short, I had to readjust to a very different sound. (The Snells were designed by Kevin Voecks about four…
I could go into extensive detail about the Revels' outstanding midrange performance, but all you really need to know is this: It is open, detailed, and uncolored, with none of the boxy, nasal, artificial quality that crops up far too often in lesser speakers. And although the Revels' highs were a question-mark early on, I now consider their performance in this area to be among the best in the business: open, unrestricted, and sparkling.
Yes, there is still an occasional bite to the sound here and there, perhaps coming from the upper end of the metal-cone mid-woofers rather than the…
I should point out that in this comparison, and in most of my listening, I used the boundary-compensation feature of the Revel subwoofer/amplifier, which rolls off the deepest bass to compensate for room gain. The Velodyne was used in its full-range (15Hz cutoff) configuration.
Is the Revel the best subwoofer system I have yet had in my home theater? Well, almost. There is a significant downside to its performance. The SUB-15/LE-1 appears to operate at the edge of its capabilities; too much is being asked of it. While it can produce alarming bass levels, it doesn't do so without…
In a related problem, the LE-1 amplifier, which had worked without a hiccup for several weeks, perversely began cutting out on the last day or so of my serious bass testing. It did this three times in one hour. Resetting required turning it off, then on again; the third time, I had to unplug it and wait a few minutes before starting it up again. Was its protection circuit shutting down from the rapid succession of bass-heavy material it was being asked to reproduce? Perhaps. In a few hours of additional, more normal listening before this review had to wrap, the amp did not misbehave. But…
Specifications
Ultima Gem 2-way, 4-driver L&R speaker with reflex-loaded enclosure
Drivers: one 1.1" soft-dome tweeter, one 0.75" rear tweeter, two 5" metal-cone woofers
Frequency response: 70Hz-15kHz, ±1dB of target curve; -6dB at 47Hz (2Pi steradians, measured in anechoic chamber)
Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m (4Pi steradians, measured in anechoic chamber)
Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum with ±45 degrees maximum phase angle
Dimensions: 19.5" x 8.375" x 17.375" (HxWxD)
Weight: 35 lbs., plus wood panels 10 lbs./set or aluminum panels 26 lbs./set
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The Music Goes Round and Round
I did all my music listening to the Revels in my home-theater system, using the music modes of the Meridian and Proceed surround processors. Normally, I also try to listen to speakers in my music-only system, which is in a different room. But the time I had allotted for this was taken up by additional listening in the home-theater system, particularly in researching the bass performance described in the main review. No matter: A music-only review of the Revel Ultima Gems is planned for an upcoming issue of Stereophile.
I did all my music listening to the Revels in my home-theater system, using the music modes of the Meridian and Proceed surround processors. Normally, I also try to listen to speakers in my music-only system, which is in a different room. But the time I had allotted for this was taken up by additional listening in the home-theater system, particularly in researching the bass performance described in the main review. No matter: A music-only review of the Revel Ultima Gems is planned for an upcoming issue of Stereophile.
For now, my experience listening…
Measurements
John Atkinson performed the measurements on the Revel Gem and Voice. The main review presented here was completed prior to my seeing any test results. All of the measurements were made with the grilles and wood trim panels in place.
John Atkinson performed the measurements on the Revel Gem and Voice. The main review presented here was completed prior to my seeing any test results. All of the measurements were made with the grilles and wood trim panels in place.
Starting with the Gem, its sensitivity is 87.6dB/W/m (B-weighted), a reasonably average value for consumer loudspeakers. (For comparison, this is about 1-2dB less than you might see with a loudspeaker designed for THX certification.) The impedance varies slightly with the tweeter settings, but the plot of Fig.1, with the main tweeter set at "…
The sensitivity of the Voice center channel is 88.9dB/W/m (B-weighted). Its impedance, like the Gem's, depends on the settings of the rear controls, though the changes are relatively small. Fig.3 shows the impedance with the tweeter set to "0dB," the boundary control to "stand mounted." In some of the other settings, the impedance at 200Hz and above 10kHz drops slightly below 4 ohms (no lower than 3.5 ohms, but no competent amplifier rated to drive 4 ohms should have a problem with this.
Fig.3 Revel Voice, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).…