After a week or two, the only thing I'd noticed about the Studio2 was a recurring impression, in the listening room or in an adjacent one, that the bass had unusual impact and clarity.…
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My usual practice with a new speaker is to play it constantly but not pay too close attention to it: I turn on the radio or pop in CDs while I go about the other businesses of my life, and wait for a few weeks before I sit down to focus on critical listening. What usually happens is that, by then, the speaker has told me a lot by calling my attention to the things that stick out—usually, not good things.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way bottom-ported, floor-standing loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" beryllium-dome tweeter in waveguide front plate, 5.5" inverted titanium-dome midrange driver, two 8" inverted titanium-dome woofers. Crossover frequencies: 230Hz, 2kHz. Anechoic frequency response: 32Hz–45kHz, –3dB. Frequency response on axis: 33Hz–20kHz, ±1dB. In-room response relative to target response: 31Hz–18kHz, ±0.5dB. Low-frequency extension: –10dB at 21Hz, –6dB at 25Hz, –3dB at 32Hz. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 3.7 ohms minimum. Sensitivity: 88.7dB/2.83V/m (2 pi anechoic).…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Sony XA-9000ES and APL-modified Philips SACD1000 SACD/CD players, Bel Canto PL-1A and Esoteric DV-60 universal players.
Preamplifier: Bel Canto Pre6.
Power Amplifiers: Bel Canto eVo 1000 monoblocks, Classé D-3200, Mark Levinson No.433.
Loudspeakers: B&W 802D.
Cables: Interconnect: Crystal Cable Cinemax multichannel, AudioQuest Cheetah/DBS balanced. Speaker: AudioQuest Mont Blanc/DBS biwire. AC: JPS Aluminata.
Accessories: APC S-15, Environmental Potentials EP-2450 power conditioners.—Kalman Rubinson
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The Revel Studio2's bulk meant that I wasn't able to lift it very far off the floor for measuring. The resolution of the data in the midrange will therefore not be as fine as I usually achieve. All the farfield measurements were performed on the tweeter axis, which is a high 43" from the floor. My estimate of the Revel's voltage sensitivity was 89dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is within experimental error of the specification.
I measured the Studio2's impedance with all of its controls set to Normal (fig.1). The magnitude ranges between 4 and 6 ohms for much of the…
Fred Kaplan wrote about the Studio2 in December 2009 (Vol.32 No.12):
Toward the end of a highly favorable review in the March 2008 Stereophile, Kalman Rubinson wrote, "What's not to like—indeed, love—about the $15,999/pair Revel Ultima Studio2?" Having listened to these speakers for a few months now, I'd say my colleague underrated them.
As far as Kal goes, I agree with his assessment of the Ultima Studio2: top marks on highs, lows, midrange, dynamics (macro and micro), depth, and imaging. But what impressed me as much as any of those, if not more, was a quality KR didn't mention…
Sidebar: FK's Associated Equipment
Analog Source: VPI Classic turntable & tonearm, Lyra Argo i cartridge.
Digital Source: Krell Evolution 505 SACD/CD player with CAST outputs.
Preamplification: Nagra BPS battery-powered phono preamplifier.
Integrated Amplifier: Krell FBI.
Cables: Nordost CAST interconnects, Nirvana interconnects and loudspeaker cables.
Accessories: Bybee Technologies Signature Power Purifier, Black Diamond Mk.4 Racing Cones, Mapleshade pucks, VPI HW-19 record-cleaning machine.—Fred Kaplan
Sidebar: Room Measurements
Given that Fred Kaplan felt that Kalman Rubinson "underrated" Revel's Ultima Studio2 loudspeaker in his original review and how much I had enjoyed my time with the larger Ultima Salon2, I thought it worthwhile to examine how the speaker performed in Fred's room.
Fig.1 Revel Ultima Studio2, spatially averaged, 1/6-octave response (red) and of Verity Sarastro II (blue), both in FK's listening room.
The red trace in fig.1 shows the spatially averaged response of the Studio2s in FK's room. I derive this graph by averaging 20 measurements…
For years, I have espoused the use of the same speakers (except subwoofer) in all positions for multichannel music. To have no speaker in the system contributing a different voice to the choir seems as intuitive as having the room acoustics not color the sound. Of course, this still doesn't guarantee perfect timbral match—positioning and room acoustics usually impose some unique characteristics under all but the most perfect and symmetrical conditions. You can hear tonal imbalances even between the left and right speakers of most two-channel systems simply by switching pink noise between…
The DV-60's sound was the cleanest and least characterful I've yet had here for DVD, SACD, and DVD-Audio, but with a little effort, even it can be made to sound a bit bland. One of the salient features of the player is its ability to choose among upconverting filter configurations or to convert PCM to DSD. It is the latter that, in my opinion, goes a bit too far. Playing PCM-sourced discs using the default FIR filter, in either the Wide or Narrow setting, the DV-60 was as smooth, clean, and transparent as my reference universal player, the Bel Canto PL-1A, but with a marginally reserved…
Sidebar: Recordings In The Round
CONCERTGEBOUW BRASS ENSEMBLE: Brass
Music by Bourgeois, G. Gabrieli, Henze, Schmidt, van Otterloo, Woud
Ivan Mylermans, Concertgebouw Brass Ensemble
RCO Live 07002 (SACD).
This is simply glorious brass playing, and although most of the music was unfamiliar to me, it was all exciting and enjoyable. Except for Giovanni Gabrieli's familiar Canzon in echo duodecimi toni a 10, the works are from the late 20th century, but all are approachable and melodic. The Serenade by Willem van Otterloo (whom I knew, from my old Epic LPs, as the…