Revel Performa M20
Loudspeakers
There aren't all that many "name" speaker
designers in the audio biz, but Kevin Voecks is definitely one of them. He first came to
real prominence when he joined Canada's Mirage, and was one of a legion of designers who
benefited from the facilities of the National Research Council in Ottawa and the tutelage
of Dr. Floyd Toole.
After Mirage, Voecks designed many distinguished speakers
for Snell Acoustics, before establishing his latest brand, Revel. Revel is a division of
Madrigal, which is part of Harman International. In a way that means Voecks has come full
circle because his ultimate technical boss is Harman's VP of engineering, Dr. Floyd Toole.
Revel has two ranges of speaker, Ultima and Performa. The
M20 is part of the Performa series, which includes surround and center speakers and a
powered subwoofer, plus several models that could be used as front left and right in a
surround system or as conventional stereo speakers. The M20 is the baby of the last group,
although it prices out at a fairly hefty $2000 U.S. a pair.
The speaker
The M20 is a quite compact two-way with an inverted
6.5" magnesium dome woofer and a 1" aluminum dome tweeter. Both are mounted in a
distinctive sculpted front panel that the company says reduces diffraction effects. The
rest of the enclosure is clad in wood veneer available in rosewood, sycamore, black ash or
cherry. It is shielded for use in conjunction with a video monitor.
The enclosure is ported on the rear, and there are the
usual gold-plated, heavy-duty binding posts on the back, along with a five-position
tweeter level switch that boosts or cuts the signal in 1dB steps (it was left at neutral
for our measurements and listening tests).
The M20 can be used as a bookshelf speaker or placed on
stands, which are available separately from Revel for $200 a pair.
The measurements
As might be expected from this company and this designer,
the measurements look very clean indeed (for a detailed description of what the curves
mean, see Inside Our Speaker Tests). The top curves in Figure
1, which represents what's being radiated forward into the listening area, are remarkably
similar, and extend higher in the frequency spectrum than many speakers we have tested.
The region from 500Hz to 2kHz is a bit ragged, and that was definitely noticed in our
listening tests. The general impression of these curves is echoed in the listening window
curve (Figure 2)
The lower curve in Figure 1 is something else again. This
represents the output fairly far off-axis, and it is this that determines the character of
what reflects off the nearby walls. The midrange irregularities are more noticeable here,
and there is a decided rolloff in the higher frequencies. The curves do retain their
similar shape, however, which indicates good dispersion.
The sensitivity of the M20, as measured in the conventional
anechoic way, is in the medium range: 86dB SPL.
The two curves in Figure 3 -- total harmonic distortion for
levels of 90 and 95dB in the middle of the spectrum -- don't rise unduly at the higher
level, which suggests that the M20 can handle quite a bit of power
Impedance (Figure 4, top) was unremarkable for a ported
speaker, and in any event has no effect on the sound quality. It does dip to about 5 ohms
at a couple of places, so it would probably be unwise to run these speakers in parallel
with others or to use an amplifier that has trouble with such loads. Phase performance
(bottom) was well behaved.
All in all, the Revel M20 performed in the lab as well as
we would expect from a speaker of this class (and price).
Listening tests
More than most speakers we have put through the NRC
listening tests, the Revel M20s seemed to be influenced by position, enough for one
listener to range from a score of 6 (out of 10) to 8, depending on where the speaker was
and where he was sitting.
One effect was on the treble, which the curves show to be
well maintained on axis, but to drop sharply to the sides. In the same round, listeners in
the direct line of the speaker indicated that treble was fine (or, in one instance, a bit
excessive), while those only a few feet off to the side showed a high-frequency rolloff.
To some extent this always happens, but it seemed to be more prominent with this speaker.
By the same token, bass was perceived as lacking unless the
speaker happened to be at the end of the row of speakers being auditioned. We listen to
speakers four at a time, so being placed at the end puts a speaker close to a corner. This
would only be a concern in music-only applications, however, as a home theater system
employing them would inevitably have a subwoofer as well.
The midrange was more problematical. The irregularities we
noted on the measured curves look to be relatively minor, but they were consistently heard
and remarked upon by our listeners.
Nevertheless, it may be that these far-from-extreme
observations were made in the light of the overall quality of the sound.
Some comments
- Some mid coloration -- quite a bit on female vocal
- Boomy bass [speaker in corner]
- Warm midrange, but hollow
- Clarity good -- best in group
- Open and spacious
- [Pink] noise good with a bit of mid ringing
- Good bass extension on orchestra
- Open, good clarity
- High frequencies a tad muted
The bottom line
The Revel Performa M20 is a bit of a conundrum. There's no
question that it's a fine speaker -- we'd expect no less from Kevin Voecks and Harman
International -- and our first glance at the measurements suggested that we'd find little
to fault in it. We were rather surprised at how audible the minor flaws were, but that may
simply be a result of the pressure cooker double-blind listening tests can become. It's
unlikely that any of our objections would be echoed in a home listening environment.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
Price:
- Revel Performa
M20 Loudspeakers: $2000 USD per pair
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