Amp for Revel Salons

I have heard the Salons with Mark Levinson amp and pre-amp. Since I am not that familiar with Levinson amps I do not know the model number, sorry. I was floored by the 'liquid' midrange. I have never heard a better midrange in any speaker I have auditioned. This was a good combination when I heard it, but I prefer Krell to Levinson... for what it's worth!

I happen to own the Revel Studios, but I spoke with a Salon owner who had just upgraded from the Studios and he said that while his Studios sounded great with a Levinson 250W/ch amp, that the Salons just sounded good with the same amp. He said that they really need power! (He heard the Salons at the dealer with 750W/ch Krell monoblocks and said they sounded wonderful, so much so that he immediately upgaded. I spoke to this guy because I was looking to purchase his used Studios, and we got to talking about both speakers.)

While I will not give you a specific recommendation for an amp, I will give you my advise, which is to get a really powerful amp. (Minimum of 300W/ch.) If you can afford (and have the room for) monoblocks, that is the way I would go if I were you. The monoblock design has more current and will drive the speakers the way they are intended to be driven.

For your information, I use a Levinson 200W/ch amp, and it works great for the Studios, (but then again, it has two less drivers than the Salons!)

PS I prefer the Levinson sound to Krell, FWIW.

I bought Krell FPB 350 MCX's from a guy who had been
using them with Revel Salons. Reason he was selling? He was upgrading to the 450's. He really liked the Krell Monos, but felt that 350 watts per wasn't enough to drive the Revel Salons to their fullest potential. Just thought I'd pass that on. I would not
recommend a Tube Amp with Revel Salons.

Try the new ML 436s. They sound great with these speakers. If your budget will permit try the ML 33 series which has incredible power. I have listen to these combonations and they are excellent. You should try to listen to these amps with your speakers before buying them.

Add the Spectron Musician II to your list. 500 watts/channel @ 8 ohms, 650 @ 4 ohms.

I've only auditioned the Salons once. The amps were the 33 H and the result was amazing.
They extremely clean and revealing, so you need top class amplification in order to get the best from them. Yes they are demanding on power, but they don't need a 1KW amplifier in order to sound as they should (this depends on one listening tastes, of course).

A less expensive alternative to the ML could be the Plinius SA-250 mk IV, which is an outstanding amp. I've never heard the combo, but I think the plinius will handle it with no problems (I know someone who uses it to power the Apogee Duetta: his pair was measured to deep as low as 0.8 Ohms and this was the only amp he got that could handle them - this includes the large monos from Krell which over-heated). I drive my much more modest Revel M20 with plinius and I think it's a mtch made in heaven, so maybe it works also with their "bigger brothers"

Regarding the tubes, although I've never auditioned any pair of Revels with tube amplification, I think it may be worth trying ... the new 300 W from Tenor Audio could be interesting

Good luck!

Vermeer

I have the Pass Labs X 350 driving the Salons. This is a good match but I believe that these monsters want and need more power. I am thinking about upgrading to the X600.

Thanks everyone, for your response. There are some good leads here. I've already started checking some of them out.