Revel salon Bass

When you demo the salons I would ask the dealer what cable he is using. Also how long have both the cable and speakers been broken in. This is the same question for the other equipment. I have the studios and the bass response is great. I have listen to lots of speakers and these are defintely at the higher end of what you would expect. I demoed some ML 436s amps with the studios and the whole thing sounded dead. Since I already had the studios and was using Proceed HPA2s to drive them at the time I knew there was a problem. The studios sounded great in my home and with the better amps should have been at least as good if not better. Apparantly this dealer had just hooked up the speakers and also had new cable. The sound was muddy. It blew my mind that anyone trying to sell this level of gear would actually let anyone listen to it before it was broken in. I ended up listening to the same setup somewhere else properly broken in and sounded great. Consider this before making conclusions on equipment. As best as you can do try to make all things equal.

I think one of the biggest problems with many dealer showrooms is the acoustics (yes--there goes Rives again on acoustics). Everything from poorly sized rooms with bass mode build up to rooms that have false ceilings leading into cavernous areas that cover the entire store, which lead to a huge loss of bass. Unfortunately, it can be very hard to find a commercial building that offers a good acoustic environment. There are of course those dealers that do take acoustics seriously, and in my view should be applauded. All of their equipment will sound better and you will be able to judge the differences in equipment in these venues much better.

The WP 7's are quite remarkable in bass reproduction. Not only can they slam if called upon, they reproduce the tone of bass and percussion instruments as well or better than any speaker I have heard in their size and price range. In my observations, the WP 7's are more emotional, musical, and involving than the Salon's. I have only listened to the Salon's with ML gear but I have listened to the Wilson's with tube and SS. They are great speakers. I highly recommend that you give them an audition.

Salons tend to be extremely neutral and revealing speakers, especially if the equipment upstream from them deviates from neutral. This includes the speaker cables, interconnects, and powercords (to include AC filtration). I can hear the tonal signature of every change I make in my system whether for better or worse sometimes. Wilson WP 7's are definetly a more musical speaker if that is what you are looking for. Realize then you are limited to a musical sounding system because you have elected to deviate from neutrality by your speaker choice.
I power my Salons with an Edge NL-10 and Harmonix Sophisticated Listeners Choice speaker cables (single wired only using Harmonix Max Jumper instead of the factory jumpers) and this is a perfectly sublime match for them. I have to agree the demo pair at the dealer had Levinson amps and Transparent cabling and I was not very impressed with the sound. These speakers are thorough breds that require very careful system matching and set-up to achieve the stellar sound they are truly capable of. But when done correctly will provide the truly exceptional bass that is tonally correct, tight, fast, and extended if it is in the source material. They were voiced for neutrality, not musicality, so if your not willing to system match and lean toward the musical look into the WP 7's.

It is astounding to me that people who make a living selling audio equipment use such little thought in the setup of the gear and where the consumer hears it. A minority of retailers really think about this and set the equipment up with the proper cable and acousitics. Why anyone would sell high end gear in a setting hostile to sound is beyond me. Rives is right it would be a great idea for these retailers to consider acoustics in their stores. It would be great if they would also demo broken in rather than green gear.