and the winner is.. Revel

[clpetersen]

In our living room system, I focused on stand mounters, and did not worry about frequencies below 40 Hz for this system. Off-axis listening important for this system.

The contenders (not in any order), all home demo-ed, with dealer side-by-side listening as well:

1. Focal Sopra #1. A real stunner to look at (if you like art-deco) and not too bad to listen to either. For the performance, a bit large, otherwise it would be in our home.

2. Magico A1. Fantastic sound, dispersion and control. But massive (in weight with Sound Anchor Stands) and not very room friendly. Considered the S1, MK II - dealer listen only. Heavy and with M-cast finish, a bit pricey.

3. DynAudio Contour 20i. Heritage not available for demo, could not find Confidence. Did not do as well as others off-axis.

4. B&W 805 D3. Liked this a lot, a noticeable high-end sizzle - was expecting this based on reviews. Not bad, just there. Off-axis 'ok'.

5. Harbeth 30.2 XD. Nice enough, but not for us. Dealer listen only.

6. Revel M126Be. The winner. Not quite as deep as the Focal - but close, sound very similar otherwise. Off-axis champ. Room friendly. But getting better stands.

I wanted to spend more, but the Revels won out. Side by side with Focal and B&W 805. Dynaudio and Magico side-by side (not a fair fight IMO).

Other contenders included Paradigm (too hot for me) and Aerial 5T - I had owned the 6T's - sorry to have moved on from them actually. But the Revels with much newer drivers bettered the 5T's especially in dynamics (ability to play loud, etc.)