Surely any loudspeaker designer would envy Kevin Voecks his position as head honcho at Revel. Voecks proven pedigree as the man behind the Snell designs must have encouraged Madrigal to give him carte blanche, access to world class research and development facilities and an open cheque book to produce what has turned out to be one the most innovative and exciting range of speakers I have ever heard. Madrigal produce the Mark Levinson and Proceed range of electronics and they are owned by the enormous Harman International, hence the financial clout needed to research and produce a new range of drive units specifically for Voecks designs. At the moment the range consists of three main designs plus associated surround sound models. For the last few weeks I have been listening to the smallest of these, the Ultima Gem, which can be supplied with or without the dedicated Sub-15 subwoofer and LE1 amplifier. I chose to try them as stand alone speakers, supplied with only their pedestal stands.

They come packed in seven boxes and self-assembly gives you an idea where the money goes. Build quality and finish is truly fantastic, typically Madrigal and as good as I have seen with any audio component. The rear-tapering cabinets themselves are constructed from heavily-braced MDF and are surprisingly light until you bolt the side panels to them. Depending on which finish you choose these panels are either wood or aluminium and are fitted with a thick, dense viscoelastic layer which sandwiches between them and the cabinet itself. They are also used to provide mountings for the curved grille. The stands are equally impressive constructions and should be considered as an integral part of the speaker, so don't think you can get away without them. The base can be either wood or aluminium to match the cabinet panels, and the supporting column is sand filled. All these separate components are then very securely bolted together to form an extremely heavy and imposing structure. Though the Gems themselves are small at 19.5" high, 8.5" wide and 17.5" deep, they stand close to 50" high on their stands and this means they take up as much space as larger floor standers.

Each Gem incorporates 4 drive units including a rear-mounted tweeter that has become a bit of a Voecks' trademark. The two 5" mid/bass drivers are particularly interesting, each being made of a single concave dome of titanium with no central dust cap and suspended by a magnesium frame. Rather large 2" voice coils are wound with flat aluminium wire used on its edge to give as great a concentration of winding in the small magnetic gap as possible. These units are loaded with a 2" rear mounted tapering port that extends 6" into the cabinet. Perhaps, surprisingly, the tweeter is not a metal design but rather a 1.1" fabric domed model from the Danish Scanspeak Company and is sited between the two larger drivers. The second tweeter, 0.75" this time, is mounted high on the cabinet's rear and operates above 8Khz to support the front tweeter performance and increased directionality above this frequency. Very little in the way of solid detail comes from this unit as its main function is to add air and ambience to the presentation. Each tweeter has its own individually calibrated level control just above the rear bi-wired connections and these offer pre-set but very effective flexibility to suit different listening rooms and tastes. The Gems are internally hardwired with Kimber cable. The review pair looked fantastic in high gloss midnight blue with aluminium side panels and stand base. They are as much a design statement as a hi-fi component, though there are several other combinations of finish available which also have a profound bearing on the price.

I used a Mark Levinson No380 preamplifier and a No331 power amplifier combination to drive the Gems, connected by balanced Madrigal CZ Gel cable. I am sure that Levinson electronics were used to develop the Revel range so system synergy should be taken as read. The musical signal was provided by a Naim CDS 11 and the speaker cables were bi-wired lengths from Naim, Tice, and Leider, plus single lengths of the fabulous Tara Labs RSC Decade. But first came the complex job of siting the speakers. It isn't as if they beam high frequencies, boom or sound awful if not correctly located but the rewards from getting them just right are enormous. Even before I started experimenting with their distance to rear and side walls and their toe-in, it was obvious that the Revels are a truly class act. In fact, I really could not believe how refreshingly different they sounded. Totally out of the box, open and realistically dynamic, with tremendous speed and control. They show an amazingly natural quality to instrumentation, both tonally and dynamically and a totally effortless approach to presentation that just does not normally come from such small boxes. The only doubt was a slight treble glare, nothing approaching hardness but perhaps a consequence of their lean coolness of tonal balance.

It took a couple of days to get their siting just right. They like plenty of air around them and a modicum of toe-in, depending on how far back you sit. When you have that right you can begin to experiment with the tweeter controls. I found that with the speakers sitting well forward of a double bay window the factory flat settings were about right, but at night with closed curtains, advancing the rear tweeter level made up for the increased high frequency absorption and the perspectives were restored.

This is a subtle effect and hardly noticeable until you switch the rear unit off altogether when the sound collapses slightly It is all a matter of experimentation but small positional changes are the key to getting the best from the Gems and when you do.... WOW! The presentation of the soundstage and the musical perspectives it presents you with are better than any just about any speaker I have ever heard, and that includes electrostatics. The Gems literally disappear from aural view leaving only the music, rock solid and fantastically vibrant. The more I listened the more I learned. With optimal siting, the glare I mentioned had now completely gone, and I began to think that the cool balance was really a lack of coloration and cabinet effects. Rest your hand on a Gem side panel, even at high levels and it is remarkably unexcited. They are not just there to look pretty The small, stiff cabinet is heavily mass damped by those bolt-on cheeks, and gives the speaker no built-in bass or false warmth. Their extension and control comes almost entirely from the work the drivers are doing, and not from the box and baffle singing along in jagged harmony.

How good can the bass performance be from such a small speaker using such modest-sized drivers?

With the cabinet failing to make any significant contribution, extension is admittedly somewhat limited, but the two titanium drivers are truly exceptional units. Bass goes lower than you might think, but that is still not, in real terms, very low. But the quality and tautness is superb, making them both agile and informative. I believe that, in comparison, every small high quality speaker I have ever used has suffered from driver compression to a far greater degree. There is something in the nature of the way an instrument or a voice grows loud that has, for years, stumped everyone from microphone designers and recording engineers right through to those who make the equipment we listen to at home. As the level increases the equipment only manages to go with it for part of the way After that, any increase at the source is not matched at the output and a kind of aural squeezing takes place, that we perceive as a hardening of the sound. It is why grand pianos and violins, in particular, are so difficult to get right. A limiting' effect takes place that tends to bunch-up the note, hardening the leading edge and in the most severe cases turning 12' concert-grand's into honky-tonks with drawing pins stuck into the hammers. Listen to Keith Jarrets Köln concert to hear just how horribly unnatural this can sound. It can though also lend an air of excitement to some music, and gives false readings as to just how dynamically free and open a piece of audio kit might be. Ask any electric guitarist how he can give his instrument a more dynamic and 'leading-edge' sound and he will reach for his compressor.

When I mentioned earlier how refreshing the Gems were, this is what I was picking up on. In fact I believe they might even sound initially dynamically quite underwhelming to most listeners, as they are by no means forward or brash in their presentation. They do not reach out and slap you round the face but rather present you with a musical painting and invite you to step in.

Their unflappable calm and control, even under the most arduous musical conditions, is another tremendously impressive aspect of their performance. Only on hard rock were they mildly disappointing. It's not that they don't rock but rather that they somehow never sound dirty or visceral enough. Add a bit of distortion and some compression though and you would be in business.

The Gems drink power at an alarming rate and their 87dB efficiency means that using high-powered amplification of immaculate quality is absolutely mandatory. The Mark Levinson range is an obvious choice, but my No380 pre and N0331 power amplifiers are entry-level models, and good and powerful though the combination is at 100 watts per channel, I really felt that I had only heard a fraction of what the speakers were really capable of. I say this as they are enormously revealing of even the slightest change in system configuration whether it be the siting of the preamplifier or a change in toe-in.

All of this fantastic detail, imagery and openness are mightily impressive but they are hi-fi terms and, to me, would make the Gem worthless if their musical abilities were as inert as their cabinets. Far from it. The way in which this speaker pulls the threads of hi-fi and music together is enlightening and somewhat unique. Rhythmically their speed and formidable transient abilities combine with their relaxed nature to perfection, leaving the Gems unfazed and in control regardless of what the amplifier is telling it to do. Whether it is a small individual note plucked on a mandolin, or a full orchestral salvo, they are simply uncanny at showing the full shape and glory of the instrumentation.

You probably noticed that I am quite keen on these speakers, and trying to balance the review by finding bad points is not easy, but here goes. They are not great at low levels and can appear a little lightweight and thin at times. And they do seem to come alive as more and more power is fed into them. So clean are they that, if you bought a pair, I absolutely guarantee you that you will drive them harder than anything you have owned before - and love it. They are totally unforgiving of poor recordings but then most loudspeakers of this class are. What may be more of a problem is how unforgiving they are of anything other than absolutely top class ancillary equipment. They simply will not tolerate anything other than the best. We are talking about five grand a box hi-fi here, and that's a minimum. As I mentioned before, the Mark Levinson range is a safe bet and perhaps Krell or Jeff Rowland could do the job. Also speaker and interconnect cables are realistically likely to cost a figure well into the thousands, so this is not a speaker for the financially faint-hearted.

Prices are high, especially if you want one of the more exotic finishes.

The cheapest way to get into a pair of Gems is to have them in mat black with wooden side panels finished in rosewood, light oak, black ash or even left unfinished and this will cost £4795. To this I am afraid you will need to add the stands which, with their base finished in a matching colour to the side panels cost £1095. Tastier finishes are all high gloss. There is midnight blue, like the review pair, piano black, forest green, heather grey and a rather exuberant red. They all cost £5695 with the wooden side panels, but look at their best with the aluminium ones, which add another six hundred pounds. The price of the review pair was £7944.

Real quality is never cheap but this sort of quality is rare. Kevin Voecks is to be congratulated.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Revel Ultima Gem
Frequency Response; 70Hz - 15kHz, ± 1dB, -6dB at 47 Hz
Sensitivity; 87 dB/w at 1 meter
Impedance; 6 ohm nominal, 4 ohm minimum
Dimensions (h,w,d) inches; 19.5" x 8.375" x 17.375"

Prices:
Gem Loudspeaker; £4795 - £6295
Stand; £1095- £1649
Replacement Side Panels; £389 - £799 /spkr
Replacement Stand Base; £269 - £569 each

Manufacturer:
Revel Corporation
E-mail. support"at" revelspeakers.com
Web. www.revelspeakers.com

Distributor:
Path Premier
Tel. (44)(0)1494-441736
Fax. (44)(0)1494-440360
E-mail. premier "at" path.co.uk

Back to Last Page | Top | Forward to Next Page | Technical Review index