REVELL Ultima Salon User manual

ULTIM
a
HEAR
LISTEN
REVEL
SALON
STUDIO
GEM
VOICE
EMBRACE
SUB 30
®

Owning Revel®speakers
is a pleasurable experience for both
ears and eyes. Learning about the
finer details of their design and
construction will deepen your
appreciation of their lasting value.
®

The World’s Best Loudspeakers.
Hailed by critical audiophiles and
reviewers alike, Revel’s Ultima
Series sets the standard in
state-of-the-art speakers.
Optimized to provide superior
acoustical honesty with stereo
and multi-channel music as well
as surround sound movie sound-
tracks, the Ultima speaker
family combines stunning visual
aesthetics with incredible aural
performance for the ultimate
audio experience. Revel’sworld-
class team of designers and engi-
neers have created the industry’s
reference standard speaker
range, providing unparalleled
musical accuracy and incredible
dynamic authority.
THE LISTENING LAB
The Ultima Series offers truly supe-
rior sound quality and incompara-
ble technical pedigree, thanks in
part to Revel’s sophisticated labo-
ratory listening technique that —
for the first time — provides an
accurate correlation between
speaker measurements and sonic
performance. Though laboratory
measurements are critical, human
hearing is the ultimate evaluation
tool. Revel’s Multi-Channel
Listening Lab (MLL) represents the
industry’s most sophisticated
speaker listening facility, allowing
speakers to be compared as
single speakers, stereo pairs, or
multiple speaker groups. Revel’s
tests are based on extensive real-
world listening in five different
environments that simulate a wide
range of residential settings and
room sizes.
The MLL facility features a
remarkable, exclusive computer-
controlled speaker switching stage
3

that eliminates the problems asso-
ciated with speaker placement and
aural memory variables. Loud-
speakers are placed on computer-
controlled, movable platforms that
can quickly be arranged during
testing. As a result, the speaker
repositioning process takes only a
few seconds, allowing listeners to
quickly and accurately compare
speakers to each other from the
same room position and with mini-
mal time in between models.
All tests areconducted “dou-
ble-blind.” Once the speakers are
installed on the MLL platforms, an
acoustically transparent but visually
opaque veil obscures speaker iden-
tities from the listening panelists to
prevent human bias from tainting
the results. Even the computer
operator is not aware of the speak-
er identities, as the computer ran-
domly determines the listening
order prior to the test.
ANECHOIC CHAMBERS
While few speaker companies have
access to one, Revel has three dif-
ferent anechoic (echo-free) cham-
bers. Unlike most other companies,
Revel does not depend on elec-
tronic anechoic “simulator” testing
methods that often fail to reveal
critical performance flaws such as
resonances. Revel’s anechoic
chambers are state-of-the-art in
design, allowing for accurate and
useful speaker measurements of
complete speaker models and indi-
vidual driver elements.
TRANSDUCERS
Most speaker manufacturers
outsource their transducers, pur-
chasing off-the-shelf tweeters,
midranges, and woofers from
vendors. But Revel speakers fea-

5
ture a proprietary transducer
design found in no other compa-
ny’s products. These transducers
are exclusively designed, engi-
neered, and manufactured for
Revel speakers.
Revel engineers use
Computer Aided Design software
(CAD) to design transducers that
are optimized for each Revel
model. A powerful Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) system provides a
comprehensive computer simula-
tion of the entiredriver assembly,
allowing engineers to optimize
everyaspect of a transducer
assembly. FEA produces precise
models of the drivers magnetic
system, which is used to optimize
the electro-magnetic circuits for
each transducer according to the
individual driver’sapplication.
Transducer components such as
cones, domes, surrounds and cen-
tering diaphragms (the spider) also
benefit from FEA scrutiny in the
design process.
An in-house Stereo Lithog-
raphy Apparatus (SLA) is used
during development to help assure
very tight tolerances. The SLA uti-
lizes a high-power laser to precisely
solidify a liquid polymer into the
3-dimensional shapes specified in
CAD drawings.
During development, Revel
also uses the industry’s most
sophisticated driver distortion ana-
lyzer to pinpoint the precise source
and location of undesirable distor-
tions within the driver assembly. In
addition, a high-resolution Laser
Interferometer laser scans the
entireradiating surface of the driv-
er for evidence of breakup, which
occurs when the radiating surface
flexes undesirably.This incredible
tool helps Revel drivers to achieve

more linear pistonic behavior and
near-perfect pistonic accuracy,
delivering minimal coloration and
exceptionally low distortion.
The Laser Interferometer
also contributes to the design of
the speaker cabinet. To avoid
undesirable coloration, the cabinet
enclosure must not cause unwant-
ed resonances. Laser scanning the
speaker enclosureallows for opti-
mization of the cabinet design,
including proper placement of
internal bracing to create an
acoustically inert enclosure con-
ducive to the most neutral and
honest musical reproduction.
Prior to installation in the
speaker enclosure, each speaker
driver complement, baffle, and
associated crossover elements are
subjected to rigorous testing as a
complete sub-assembly. Com-
ponents are tested in an anechoic
chamber, then compared to pro-
duction reference standards. But
even with the tightest production
tolerances, slight deviations might
still occur from one speaker to the
next. To prevent this, a technician
compares each speaker to the ref-
erence standard, making careful
adjustments as needed. All tuning
adjustments and specifications are
then recorded and retained for
archive purposes, referenced to the
speaker’sserial number.
This careful attention to
detail allows Revel to achieve
unparalleled consistency among all
speakers, alleviating the need for
matched pairs. Instead, all Revel
speakers are matched within a
fraction of a decibel to achieve
superior soundstage imaging and
accuracy. In the unlikely event that
atransducer needs to be replaced,
specific production records

7
for each individual speaker allow
installation and replacement that
is a match to the original. Each pair
of Ultima speakers sounds the
same as the original reference pair
as well as the speakers that have
won accolades from reviewers
around the world.
Physically separated circuit
boards for each frequency range
prevent degrading mutual interfer-
ence caused by component-to-
component interaction. The result
is distinctly moretransparent and
distortion-free sound reproduction.
With the premiere of the
Ultima Series, Revel earned a repu-
tation for manufacturing “the
world’s finest speakers.” Since
then, Revel speakers have won
accolades from discerning audio-
philes and critical reviewers alike.
Collectively,the Ultima Series offers
an impressive combination of
advanced design, careful manufac-
turing, unbeatable audio perform-
ance, and handsome aesthetics.
Individually, each Ultima speaker
isastandout performer that prom-
ises to deliver a performance as
powerful as it is precise. The fol-
lowing pages detail the unique
design, engineering, and perform-
ance capabilities of each Ultima
speaker model.

Salon
Shown in
High-Gloss
Heather Gray
with
Aluminum
Side Panels

9
ULTIM
a™
SALON
Atechnological tour de force.
Unprecedented acoustical honesty.
Hailed by audiophile critics and
music lovers alike as the world’s
best loudspeaker, Revel’s flagship
Salon high-performance speaker
system defines the state-of-the-
art. Created with the immense
technological resources of one of
the world’s largest audio compa-
nies, Salon combines cutting-edge
engineering and manufacturing
expertise along with elegant and
sophisticated visual design.
Created from the ground
up, the Salon is endowed with
seven proprietary high-perform-
ance drivers, which in concertpro-
vide true full-range response to
reach below and above the limits
of human hearing. Low frequen-
cies are reproduced by a trio of
8-inch woofers, which feature
multi-layer mica and carbon-filled
co-polymer inverted domes that
are truly pistonic over their
assigned frequency range. The use
of multiple smaller drivers, instead
of a single larger unit, assures deep
and accurate bass reproduction,
while allowing a more desirable
narrow cabinet width. Equipped
with sophisticated magnetic motor
structures, the woofers feature
large edge-wound voice coils,
double spider voice coil centering
systems, and copper shorting rings
for truly linear pistonic behavior
and freedom from dynamic com-
pression at elevated volume levels.
Deep bass response is detailed,
powerful and authoritative,
extending all the way down to the
lowest bass registers with an in-
room low frequency extension of
16Hz. Remarkable, as some well-
regarded dedicated subwoofers
don’t provide this level of low bass
extension.
The critical bass-to-mid-range
transition is handled by a unique
mid-woofer, a 61⁄2-inch mid-bass
transducer that is housed in its
own separate sub-enclosure within
the lower enclosure. Essentially a
slightly smaller version of the
Salon’s 8-inch woofers, this driver
provides a seamless blend over the
critical upper-bass to lower-mid-
range band, eliminating any possi-
ble mid-range coloration associated
with wide-range woofers.
In the upper enclosure, the
important mid-range frequencies
are faithfully reproduced by a
4-inch high-performance driver
that is endowed with a high-per-
formance neodymium magnetic
motor system. It is equipped with
an inverted titanium dome which
is both very stiff as well as very
light, providing true linear pistonic
performance over its operating
frequency range along with free-
dom from dynamic compression.
High frequencies are
effortlessly reproduced by the pri-
mary1.1-inch aluminum alloy
dome tweeter, a proprietary unit
that provides shimmering high-fre-

Salon
Rear Panel
Shown in
High-Gloss
Heather Gray
and
Aluminum
Side Panels

11
quency response to above 30kHz.
Asmaller 3⁄4-inch rear-mounted
tweeter provides additional high-
frequency augmentation, optimiz-
ing the in-room response and
imparting a smooth and airy quali-
ty over the treble range. Three
high-frequency tuning controls
provide for proper in-room balanc-
ing according to each listening
room’s particular acoustics, and each
control features precision 0.5dB
increments via multiple fixed resis-
tors for optimum tuning accuracy.
Revel research into cross-
over designs found that low-
order, slow-slope dividing net-
works cannot sufficiently control
out-of-band energy from coloring
the overall sound quality. Salon
features four physically separated
dividing networks featuring a
total of 41 elements, providing
high-order, sharp-slope character-
istics. The use of physically sepa-
rated crossover boards is
necessarydue to the large mag-
netic fields that are created by
inductors in the crossover. Two
inductors in close proximity con-
stitutes a transformer,and in a
dividing network where inductors
are too close to one another,
audible distortion is inevitable as
out-of-band information colors
the contribution from the individ-
ual drivers. Salon’s physically sep-
arated crossover boards eliminate
these damaging colorations. The
Salon is also equipped with bi-
wiring and bi-amping capability.
To ensure the utmost unit-
to-unit production consistency,
and to be certain that each Salon
is virtually identical to the original
design prototype, each comple-
ment of Salon drivers and
crossover dividing networks is
hand-tuned to within a fraction
of a decibel of the production ref-
erence standard. This eliminates
the need for speaker pair match-
ing and provides the industry’s
tightest and most uniform pro-
duction quality.Each Salon speak-
er sounds almost identical to the
final design prototype, and is
equally matched to the Salon
reviewer samples that have been
praised by audiophile critics.
Salon’s elegantly styled
cabinetryhas been carefully
designed and manufactured to
ensure complete freedom from
enclosure-induced colorations,
and is sculpted with radiused
edges at critical points to ensure
optimum dispersion from the
upper-range drivers. A painstak-
ing multi-stage finishing process
includes eight coats of
polyurethane primers, multiple
hand sanding and wet sanding
steps, three separate coats of
color paint, finished with two
additional clear coat layers and
additional hand polishing. The
result is a glistening patina with
vibrantly rich color and mirror-like
smoothness, free of typical paint-
edsurface imperfections.
See page 22 for cabinet fin-
ish options.

Studio
Shown in
High-Gloss
Heather Gray
and
Aluminum
Side Panels

13
Engineered to the same exacting
high standards as Revel’s reigning
Salon speaker, the Studio high-
performance speaker system pro-
vides incomparable acoustic
accuracy and musical honesty, in
an elegantly designed enclosure
that suits smaller listening spaces.
Athree-way design, the Studio
features two separate acoustically
inert sub-enclosures, one for the
lower registers and another for the
mid-range and treble frequencies,
that ensure complete freedom
from cabinet-induced colorations.
Low frequencies areeffortlessly
reproduced by a pair of state-of-
the-art8-inch woofers, which fea-
ture composite mica/carbon fiber
inverted domes for true pistonic
accuracy over their entire operat-
ing bandwidth. High-precision
edge-wound voice coils and
numerous proprietary design
details in the powerful magnetic
motor structure contribute to the
Studio’sdeep and detailed bass
response and exemplary wide
dynamic range and freedom from
dynamic compression.
The upper enclosurehouses
the Studio’s midrange and tweet-
ers, and is carefully sculpted to
optimize dispersion for optimum
soundstaging clarity and wide lis-
tening area coverage. The 51⁄4-
inch midrange driver features a
substantial 2-inch edge-wound
voice coil, along with an inverted
titanium dome that is completely
pistonic over the entire multi-
octave operating range. A front-
mounted 1.1-inch aluminum
alloy dome tweeter is specially
engineered to provide true piston-
ic operation through the entire
high-frequency spectrum to well
beyond 30kHz, providing shim-
mering high-frequency detail and
crystalline clarity. A secondary
3⁄4-inch rear-mounted alloy dome
tweeter augments the contribu-
tion from the front-mounted
driver, optimizing the in-room
response, with adjustments
provided for in-room tuning and
balancing.
The dividing network, fea-
turing high-order sharp-slope
crossovers, is physically separated
(one circuit board for each of the
three frequency ranges). As with
all Revel speakers, each Studio’s
complement of drivers and
crossovers is individually hand-
tuned at the factory, calibrated to
within a fraction of a decibel,
compared to the production refer-
ence standard.
The lower enclosure is sup-
plied with a sheer convex grille,
and a matching optional grille is
available for the upper enclosure.
See page 22 for cabinet finish
options.
ULTIM
a™
STUDIO

Gem
Shown in
High-Gloss
Heather Gray
and
Aluminum
Panels
with optional
pedestal

15
Providing big loudspeaker sound
in an elegant compact cabinet,
the Gem incorporates Revel’s cut-
ting-edge technology to provide
musically honest and accurate
reproduction along with incredible
dynamic range. Featuring Revel’s
proprietary driver technologies,
the Gem is equipped with dual
5-inch inverted titanium dome
woofers that feature substantial
2-inch edge-wound voice coils
for generous power handling
capability and wide-operating fre-
quency range. These remarkable
drivers aresimply smaller versions
of their larger cousins found on
other Ultima speaker models,
providing all of the same benefits,
including low distortion, wide
dynamic range, freedom from
dynamic compression and opti-
mized dispersion characteristics.
High frequencies are delicately
reproduced by the front-mounted
1.1-inch coated textile dome
tweeter,which is augmented by
another rear-mounted 3⁄4-inch
dome tweeter for optimum in-
room response. These drivers
have substantial power handling
capabilities, to prevent the tonal
discolorations caused by dynamic
compression during high-volume
passages. The result is an expan-
sive yet detailed sound quality,
yielding truly impressive sound-
staging from such a compact
enclosure.
Inside, the sharp-slope
high-order dividing network fea-
tures two separate crossover
boards, to prevent the distortion
caused by proximity-induced
component interaction. And,
Revel’s incomparable attention to
manufacturing tolerances further
assures that each Gem is a dupli-
cate of all others, including the
production reference standard, by
individually fine tuning each and
every unit to match within a frac-
tion of a decibel. This obviates the
need for matched pairs, and pro-
vides unparalleled unit-to-unit
consistency.
At home in two-channel
stereophonic music systems as well
as multi-channel music and home
theater systems, the Gem offers
remarkable clarity and expansive
soundstaging in an elegant com-
pact enclosure. The acoustically
inertcabinetryis exquisitely styled
with a narrow footprint for opti-
mum placement flexibility and fea-
tures a convex sheer grille that
complements the enclosure’s ele-
gant lines.
The enclosureis supplied
with a sheer convex grille. See
page 22 for cabinet finish options.
Optional pedestals are
available that elevate and accentu-
ate the Gem, and areoffered with
aMatte Black pedestal and a base
that matches the side panels.
ULTIM
a™
GEM

Voice
Shown in
High-Gloss
Heather Gray
and
Aluminum
Panels
with optional
pedestal

17
ULTIM
a™
VOICE
The role of the center channel
loudspeaker is to provide the
acoustical “anchor” to the on-
screen dialog, music, and sound
effects, and to match the sound
quality of the left and right front
loudspeakers. Seems simple
enough, until you consider that
home theater systems vary widely
in where and how the center
channel speaker is physically
placed. Front projection systems
might have the center speaker
placed below or even behind the
screen, while other installations
might find the center speaker
flush-mounted in the wall or
placed above the video monitor.
As each different placement
option affects the resulting sound
quality, obtaining a correct
acoustical match with the left and
right front speakers in every
instance becomes difficult, if not
impossible. Unless the three front
speakers have very similar tonal
balances, achieving a smooth,
accurate and even blend across
the entirefront soundstage just
isn’t achievable.
The Voice is the first center
channel speaker designed specifi-
cally to address this problem.
Featuring two 8-inch inverted
dome woofers and one 4-inch
inverted dome midrange, along
with a 1.1-inch dome tweeter, the
Voice provides a uniform, timbre-
matched dispersion that covers a
wide audience listening area.
Three different boundary com-
pensation adjustments are
provided to allow correct timbral
balance for virtually any place-
ment possibility. With the Voice,
the correct tonal balance between
all three front speakers can be
evenly matched in any home the-
ater setup, resulting in dramatical-
ly improved soundstaging and
imaging accuracy.As with all
Ultima range speakers, these pro-
prietarydrivers arespecially
designed for incredible dynamic
range capability, preventing
dynamic compression from alter-
ing the timbral balance during
musical crescendo peaks and
explosive movie soundtracks.
As with other Revel speak-
ers, each Voice is individually cali-
brated during manufacture,
matching the production refer-
ence standard to within a fraction
of a decibel. Internally, the high-
order, sharp-slope crossover fea-
tures three physically separated
circuit boards, preventing the
mutual interference between cir-
cuit elements that degrades fideli-
ty and introduces distortion.
An elegant, optional
pedestal is available for situations
where floor-mounting the Voice is
desirable.
See page 22 for cabinet fin-
ish options.

Embrace
Pair shown in
Matte Black
with and
without grille

19
ULTIM
a™
EMBRACE
The diffuse and enveloping sur-
round sound field of a commer-
cial movie theater is the result of
the combined output of many
surround speakers placed at the
sides and rear of the audience
seating area. In the much smaller
residential home theater space, it
isn’t practical to use many sur-
round speakers to replicate this
effect. The Embrace surround
speaker features a unique dual-
dispersion capability, which pro-
vides for the first time the ability
to completely envelop listeners
with spacious and expansive
home theater surround sound
effects, while at the same time
minimizing the effects of sur-
round speaker localization.
On the other hand, multi-
channel music sources benefit
from a more directional dispersion
pattern, providing a more precise
acoustical image for instruments
and sounds directed at the listener
via the surround channels. Typical
surround speakers that are opti-
mized for motion picture sound
reproduction are usually only able
to provide a diffuse dispersion pat-
tern. The Embrace surround
speaker features a second, more
directional bi-polar dispersion
mode that provides the increased
directionality required by multi-
channel music sources. A remote
control provision allows automatic
switching between dispersion
modes with select surround
processors, and an enclosure-
mounted switch allows manual
selection of either mode.
Featuring Revel’s propri-
etary driver technology, the
Embrace is outfitted with an 8-
inch woofer equipped with a
composite carbon-filled mica
cone, along with two 4-inch
inverted titanium cone midrange
drivers, and a pair of three-layer
coated textile dome tweeters.
Since no two listening rooms are
alike, the Embrace is also fitted
with a flexible and configurable
dividing network, which allows
fine-tuning for optimum results in
awide range of listening environ-
ments and surround speaker
mounting situations.
As with other Revel
loudspeakers, each Embrace fea-
tures three separate crossover
boards to prevent mutual interfer-
ence between individual circuit
elements.
The result? Spacious and
expansive motion picture sound
effects that envelop the listeners,
and superior multi-channel music
reproduction especially with high
resolution music formats, such as
DVD-Audio and SACD. Embrace is
the only surround speaker that
serves both music and movies
equally well.
With your choice of Matte
Black or Matte White finishes,
Embrace may be ceiling or wall-
mounted.

Sub 30
Shown in
High-Gloss
Heather Gray
and
Aluminum
Side Panels