I'd be interested in hearing anyone else's comments regarding the Revel Concerta M12 bookshelf speaker. I haven't seen any reviews, but I heard a pair last night and they sounded amazing for a $650/pr bookshelf.
I demoed them at a local dealer through a Rotel 1056 A/V receiver, and it blew away comparable speakers. The clarity and range was superb. I compared it against B&W 602s (which went much deeper, but sounded congested and bloated), 600s (which sounded tinny and bright; 601s were not available), and PSB B15s (which also sounded tinny and thin).
A pair of PSB B25s was actually a pretty close second. The highs were maybe a bit cleaner/brighter on the PSB, but the mids and lows seemed to have more depth and clarity and accuracy with the Revel. Norah Jones sounded perfect on the Revels, but a bit thin on the PSB.
Fit and finish were very good; they look about as close to real cherry wood as any vinyl-clad speaker I've seen (I was told they are vinyl clad). My only comment is that the seam was clearly visible to me as a thin white line along the top edges.
My next step is to A/B them against a pair of Paradigm Studio 20s, but for now these definitely jumps to head of the class.
I also would like to find out how they compare to Monitor Audio RS1s, but there is no convenient dealer nearby (New England is not the best place to find MA speakers). Can anyone here help out?
Thanks for reading. . .
James Y
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Hey Jon- I own a pair of Concerta M12's. I've had them for about two months now and I love them. The funny thing is, I wanted to demo them against the PSB's like you did, but whoops, there doesn't seem to be anyplace in San Francisco where you can actually listen to PSB speakers, so your comments were very interesting to me. Another funny thing: I actually went to the dealer to audition the Paradigm Studio 20's and saw the Revels and decided to check them out as well.
I gotta tell you, it was pretty close call. Money wasn't a factor because I'd made up my mind that I would spend the 800 bucks on the Paradigms, and the Revels are cheaper. But the M12's just sounded better to me. The Studio 20's *may* be a little bit more accurate, but the M12's have a sweeter sound and were more three-dimensional (in my opinion, of course).
I was looking at the Paradigms because they are front-ported, while the M12's are rear-ported. This may or may not be an issue with you (it kinda is for me, but oh well.) Also, the M12's are not incredibly efficient speakers: 86db sensitivity, so load up on those watts! The Paradigm was noticibly louder with the same amount of juice.
I mostly listened to acoustic guitar, piano and voice when I compared these speakers, just FYI.
Also: I have them in black ("ash"), and I don't notice anything weird about the finish, but they do look incredibly plain.
I tried the F12 floorstander last week and was amazed! They are really nice but a little lacking in the highs. However, that is nitpicking because I was quite impressed. There was not a huge difference with my Wharfedale 9.6's but the mids were a little better with the F12 but I found my 9.6 went deeper and had better highs. Fit and finish was really nice and they were very heavy and quite big.
They would be on my list if I was looking for speakers.
I never tried the bookshelf as the dealer had recently sold them and said he was having trouble keeping them in stock as they were good sellers.
Well, I am interested in the PSB Image B25's, and I was interested in the Concerta M12's until I found out they are $650 a pair...so if the B25's are a very close second to the M12's I ought to save the $200.
And I can't audition them myself so I'd have to be the judge of which one is better in the first place.
This whole shopping for speakers thing is getting a bit too a-nal - driving yourself nuts over which of 10 fantastic pairs of speakers you ought to buy - it's ridiculous.
I mean really, B&W, Paradigm, PSB, Revel, NHT, Ascend Acoustics - the differences are probably so @#$%ing minute it's ridiculous how we're behaving.
Somed00d
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Tim, you should be able to get the PSB's for about $300 new. I bought the Image 2b for $249 new, in cherry about 2 years ago.