Audiophilepure

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“The cabinet that houses all of this applied cleverness is a solid MDF affair that makes use of curved edges to reduce the effect of standing waves through the reduction of parallel surfaces. There is no provision for bi-wiring and instead you get a solid pair of binding posts on the back that should accept pretty much any type of cable with any type of termination. Magnetic grilles are supplied should you wish to use them and the cabinet is largely free of adornment or frippery.

The Revel is not an easy product to photograph – not least because like most piano finish products, it is both enormously reflective and capable of retaining fingerprint smears seemingly forever. It is however a member of the notorious category of ‘things that look better in the flesh.’ You’ll have to take my work for this but sat on a stand in most rooms, this is a handsome and appealing speaker. It does without some of the fussiness that can affect some American designs and the result is a pleasantly understated object that should work well in a variety of spaces. ”

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‘The Elac AF-61 reminds me of that person in school who always had the right answer but never put his hand up first—the understated, confident one. Mid-priced by today’s standards, the AF-61 delivers in all the areas that a loudspeaker needs to. It can image precisely, play loudly without distress, extend low enough that with a bit of room-gain assistance a subwoofer may not be necessary, and be driven easily by the vast majority of good amplifiers, and looks comparatively unflashy while doing all this.

The ideal physical situation for this impressive loudspeaker would be a room that is slightly too big for the stand-mounted AS-61, and the ideal listener would be one who likes his music played louder than the AS-61 can muster. So, if you heard the AS-61 at a show or in a store, and thought “That’s the sound I want, but I just need a little bit more,” the AF-61 is very likely to supply the more that you crave.”

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“For me, however, the 705 S2’s strengths made this single weakness seem minor. In fact, I can claim that B&W’s new Continuum driver, as implemented in the 705 S2, is largely responsible for luring me back into the fold of proud B&W owners: I’ve bought a pair of 705 S2s. And now that I’ve reinserted the miniDSP Dirac Live room-correction processor in the digital signal chain and recalibrated my system, I can say with confidence that the strengths ascribed above to the 705 S2 are, if anything, more evident, and the shortcomings eliminated. Now it’s time to look at buying a high-quality subwoofer to augment their sound. Overall, the Bowers & Wilkins 705 S2 is easy to recommend.”