Hi, I heard the Revel F20 and Aerius 6's.
I agree, the Aerials are smoother, "warmer" than B&W. They lacked detail and dynamics for my tastes.
The Revels were much clearer than B&W. Their lit. says their drivers reduce 2nd and 3rd order harmonics. This made sense to me because they had a similar clarity I heard in ATC active 100's. REF 3A DeCappos were also clearer than B&W - this again left me with a long face :(.
Not to get overly bowled over by Revels, their bass was very unmusical compared to N804. Drums sounded like the driver was bottoming out but that can't be at 85-90 dB. Sometimes violins sounded separated from the rest of the orchestra. So there was a coherence issue.
Finally they must not have the wide dispersion of N804 because the image would noticeably switch to speakers moving my head from left to right.
I think the new Thiel 1.6 was similar in style to the Revel. But Thiel bass was better quality and no image flipping between speakers. It seemed better to trade some bass extension than throw it away like the Revels - my opinion from what I heard.
I was told both B&W and Revel have a rising response curve in the mids and in the highs. This "flat" curve is good for studio monitoring and rock music but not for classical. I don't agree but I guess that's the design technology.
I agree, the Aerials are smoother, "warmer" than B&W. They lacked detail and dynamics for my tastes.
The Revels were much clearer than B&W. Their lit. says their drivers reduce 2nd and 3rd order harmonics. This made sense to me because they had a similar clarity I heard in ATC active 100's. REF 3A DeCappos were also clearer than B&W - this again left me with a long face :(.
Not to get overly bowled over by Revels, their bass was very unmusical compared to N804. Drums sounded like the driver was bottoming out but that can't be at 85-90 dB. Sometimes violins sounded separated from the rest of the orchestra. So there was a coherence issue.
Finally they must not have the wide dispersion of N804 because the image would noticeably switch to speakers moving my head from left to right.
I think the new Thiel 1.6 was similar in style to the Revel. But Thiel bass was better quality and no image flipping between speakers. It seemed better to trade some bass extension than throw it away like the Revels - my opinion from what I heard.
I was told both B&W and Revel have a rising response curve in the mids and in the highs. This "flat" curve is good for studio monitoring and rock music but not for classical. I don't agree but I guess that's the design technology.