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Why is an XA30.5 a bad match for Revel Ultima Salon II speakers?

I actually own Revel M106 speakers right now, but some day, I intend to replace them with full range speakers like the Wilson Sophia II or Revel Salon II.

People say you need a lot of power to drive the Salons. The M106 and Salon II have almost the same sensitivity, and the XA30.5 can play the M106 louder than I prefer to listen (FYI I have a Velodyne powered sub). I guess my ears are pretty sensitive to loud volumes.

Does having all the mass of driving full range woofers into the 20hz range increase or complicate the workload on the amp significantly?

What is it about these speakers and many others that would demand a larger amp even at moderate volumes? My XA30.5 is supposed to be good for about 190W into 4 ohms, but nobody, including Pass Labs, seems to recommend an amp of that size for the Revel Salon II.

If I were to buy the Salons but had no amp budget, would I be better off trading for a more powerful but somewhat lesser quality amp than the XA30.5 such as a Parasound?
sboje
initforthemusic
282 posts
 
I have Revel Ultima Studios and the more quality power I feed into them the better they sound. So I imagine it would be even more so for the Salon's

I'm using Vincent SP998 Mono Blocks and they sound sublime.  300W into 8 ohms, 50W Class A. 600W into 4 ohms. They have the best grip on bass I have ever heard. Beautifuly musical sounding they make the Revel's come alive. They just cruise effortlessly. You would have to spend truckloads more to get this performance.


bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
thanks stewart0722, initforthemusic - you guys just consolidated the point I was making. 
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
My amp drove the S8s (version 2) to ear splitting levels.
thanks again for the feedback bifwynne.
As you well know it’s the not ear-splitting levels we are trying to achieve. You could get that with a lesser amp too than your present ARC. What we want is loud without distortion - as you turn up the volume it should get louder but not distort. This is much harder to achieve than perceived....
sorry to read that the ARC 250W/ch is not in your cards....
seriously - you should look for a time-coherent speaker. Your quest for another speaker will end. Don’t waste your time with these wicked phase angle, crazy impedance curve speakers. They’ll leave you wanting for better sonics....FWIW.
stewart0722
184 posts
 
My bass desires are very well served by the 3.7s alone.........

It's a matter of placement......I go a little closer to the side walls and
about 18" from the front wall and the room is loaded very nicely
in the mid 30s hz range......

If I want more bass, I just need 20.7s.  Subwoofers do NOT integrate
with Magnepans, people just say they do to make themselves feel better about going down that road......I don't think that even Magnepan's own bass panels really integrate that well with the 3.7s at least by my standards....., that's based on me trying two of them I bought for an office system.......

Having said that, if you compared 3.7s with the Magnepan's of old in the lower regions, all of your concerns instantly disappear.......


bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
@bombaywalla , you said I "should look for a time-coherent speaker. [My] quest for another speaker will end. Don’t waste [my] time with these wicked phase angle, crazy impedance curve speakers. They’ll leave [me] wanting for better sonics....FWIW."

Gotcha.  I am aware of only 3 speaker brands that are purportedly time coherent; namely:  Vandies; Green Mountain Audio; and Thiels.  Am I missing something?   What brand did you have in mind? 
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