My new B Stock speakers
I finally got off the fence and a pair of B Stock Revel M126Be speakers arrived Friday, and there was no electrical activity in the atmosphere for the first half of the day, so I put 4.5 hours on them today (Sunday).
I want them to replace a pair of nearly 30 year old B&W 805 Matrixes. I say nearly 30 years old because I only remember that I bought them some time after ’94 and sometime prior to ’98.
Walnut cabinets and their appearance and finish is truly gorgeous, but that was not a priority, and the listing at MD did not do appearance justice. I listen in the dark with my eyes closed, and my listening room is closed off (I have three sometimes rambunctious dogs) whether I am in the room or not in the room. Appearance meant/means nothing to me. Just like my vehicles.
The serial numbers are not anywhere close to each other. I assume this is why they are B Stock? Not matched? The MD sales rep on the phone just gave me some generic possibilities why they could be B Stock.
This next is on me. Whenever I see speakers at MD that interest me (and the Revels did quite some time ago) I usually send MD a question asking where they are made. It is not due to xenophobia, but I would prefer to buy a speaker manufactured in America. I am not crazy about the idea of a company outsourcing for cheaper labor. But I am not trying to start a discussion on that. For the Revels, for some reason I did not send MD a message asking them where they were made, I did a google instead, and I got the impression that they were manufactured in Ct. And, without me asking, the sales rep from MD volunteered (when he was comparing Revel sound to B&W sound) that I would be impressed by the difference between British speaker sound versus American speaker sound. But the placard on the back says they were "made in Indonesia." Okay, enough on that . . . but I was looking for an excuse to send them back within 60 days.
They are rated at a sensitivity of 86 (the reviews say "easy to drive") and nominal impedance of 8 ohms. My Cary V12 did not sound (to me) strained using 50wpc triode vs 100 wpc ultralinear. These are in a small room at nearfield..
Out of the box:
I guess I had been in denial and my old B&Ws are actually worn out &/or obsolete.
Here is something that is NOT subjective that I do not understand, and perhaps someone who is knowledgeable can explain it to me. I have several test CDs. An older one has an in phase/out of phase that is a series of three test tones and the middle tone is supposed to be quieter as it is out of phase. With my B&Ws all three tones sound the same, BUT, on Rodger and Doug’s CD, where Rodger says says verbally "in phase, sound should be centered between your two speakers/out of phase, the sound should be all over the place. . ." (that was a paraphrase) the B&Ws did exactly that. So in the 4.5 hours I put on them today (before dark clouds appeared on the horizon) , I had both of those CDs out. On the first one that all three tones sounded the same with the B&Ws, with the Revels, the out of phase tone is CLEARLY quieter! What gives? I asked either here or on AA years ago why I was hearing no difference with the B&Ws, and the consensus was don’t worry about it as long as you hear what you are supposed to on Rodger & Doug’s CD.
Okay, I am going to wrap this up because I don’t have the ear that most of you guys have (no sarcasm intended) or the vocabulary. So I don’t always know what it is that I am hearing that makes me like and dislike or thevocabulary to describe. I do know that the test tone (in pase/out of phase) is tangible. I did unhook my sub (hmmm, is it possible that this affected my test tone experiment? I just now thought of that) because I wanted to hear them standing a lone. They could definitely benefit from more bass, and I do plan on listening with the sub, but to my ears they were not absolutely pathetic. They could just use more. They are rear ported versus front ported like the B&Ws are.
What I heard, and with my ears (abused by 28 years of jet engines and shooting rivets and other loud noises) anyone would be entitled to say "confirmation bias," but:
I did say I was looking for an excuse to send them back. However, I also said that relatively shortly after feeding them musical signals, I QUICKLY came to the conclusion that they sounded better than the B&Ws.
So at the risk of using subjective cliches, the clarity (especially on percussion and the high keys of a piano) was much sharper and defined. Voices immediately sounded as if they had more "texture" (if that’s the right cliche) and inflections were more noticeable. I put on the DCC red book L. Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits Volume 2 (because the same tracks sound better than on the MFSL red book Simple Dreams, I like the DCC sound better) and I wanted to hear the opening bass track on Poor Poor Pitiful Me (I definitely like the sub turned UP for that better than no sub), but despite that, her voice is a lot more "interesting" with the Revels than with the old B&Ws. By "interesting", I mean real.
I’ll leave it at that because I am no reviewer. I don’t even pretend to be. If anyone has borne with me this long, however, I am interested in why the in phase/out of phase test tone works with the Revels but not with the B&Ws.
Oh, and associated equipment was a Maranzt SA10 (but I did not use any SACDs for those 4.5 hours) a Cary SLP05, a Cary V12 in 50 wpc triode, I cannot biwire these Revels so I only used one half of my shotgun biwire set up which was the thicker of the two Kimber blue speaker wires, but I don’t remember the numbers, and Kimber balanced (XLR vs RCA is what I mean to say) Silver Streak interconnects. On an edit I will add that the power cord for the SACDp is a newly purchased from Amazon $50 Preffair (if I spelled that correctly) and the amp and preamp still have stock cords, but Amazon tells me that two more Preffair cords will arrive on Tuesday.
I’ll now apologize for any and all typos that I don’t get edited out . . . I was a bad typist when I had two functional eyes, and now I am a REALLY BAD typist. Plus, since it was too early for me to be drinking alcohol when I was listening, I went with coffee, and that also has an effect on my typing.
Revel 126Be are always on my radar. Great midrange on that speaker. Revel do not match serial numbers, so even a new pair from a dealer may have gaps in the numbers. B-stock likely had a cosmetic blemish that was fixed, or maybe a loose port, driver failure, who knows. It was fixed and you got a good deal on a great speaker. Enjoy them! |
@immatthewj that's a beautiful (and partly tragic) story! Thanks for sharing. I read somewhere that our musical taste doesn't change much, what we like in our teens is what would listen for the rest of our lives. Yes it evolves but we will always be drawn to songs we heard when we were young and invincible. Long and Winding Road, Different Drums, London Town were all breakup songs for me so I don't think I have heard them more than 5 times in the last 3 decades. Different Drums was especially painful because it made me realize why my marriage was over in a state of complete confusion, when nothing else led me to accept it. Every word "hit the spot" - not in a good way. I still remember I was driving through Kendall Sq in Cambridge, Different Drums (that I had heard 100s of times) started playing on the radio, and suddenly every word she sang had a different meaning. I had to pull over to avoid an accident, How much fun to talk about music not just gear.
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@dr-boop , thanks for the info on the Revel SNs. @mark200mph , on a good night, music makes me feel great. @grislybutter , ah yes. Different Drums . . . I can see that. I remember when I was in the Air Force back in the early ’80s, I had a buddy who had the Greatest Hits Vol 1 LP specifically for that track. He actually bought it because of a breakup. But it was not a breakup with someone he was married to. It is a magnificent arrangement that was put together for her cover of that song. I remember growing up in Montana in my early to mid teens hearing Linda on AM country radio stations . . . When Will I Be Loved . . . then about the time I graduated I heard her cover of Blue Bayou and I loved it so I bought the Simple Dreams 8-track . . . to this day Simple Dreams would be on my all time desert island list. I hate to use the word ’favorite’ (because I have so many favorites, how can any of them be my true’favorite’?) but I’d almost say that Carmelita is my favorite of the songs she covered on that one, which may actually be my favorite CD by Linda. ". . . Carmelita, hold me tighter, I think I’m sinking down. . . ." |
Listening through the break-in process can be maddening as you’re finding out. Things can get better, then get worse, and then better (hopefully) again. I wouldn’t start to seriously assess anything until you’ve got at least 200 hours on them, so if you continue to listen through that period I highly suggest having a good supply of wine on hand for sanity purposes. That you like a lot of what you hear already is an excellent sign though. I’m familiar with your B&Ws and would be surprised if the Revels didn’t surpass them on almost every level and think you’ve chosen wisely — FWIW. Also, that your B&Ws don’t appear to be capable of revealing phase differences would have me very concerned about them as that info should be readily apparent as it is through the Revels — very strange. |
