The Revel Concerta2 M16 is an excellent design that has been brilliantly executed and, as a result, delivered outstanding performance

The pair matching is outstanding, with the left and right traces so well overlaid that one channel obscures the other across the entire spectrum. This means excellent quality control and suggests that imaging will be outstandingly good with correct speaker placement. It also suggests there will be very little variation between different manufactured samples, which can otherwise be a problem with loudspeaker production processes.

Graph 5 shows the in-room response measured by Newport Test Labs, reflecting what you can expect to hear in your own room when listening to the Revel Concerta2 M16s when they are positioned well clear of any rear or side walls. This means that if you do move the speakers closer to one or more boundaries you could reasonably expect increases in both bass extension and level over what’s shown here. You can see there’s a slight boost in the low-frequency response between 80 and 250Hz, but it’s only 2.5dB so more likely to be heard as a warmth rather than a forwardness. As noted previously, the response is then spectacularly flat from 250Hz up to 5.5kHz, after which there’s a very shallow roll-off to be around 2.5dB down at 12kHz. The response then continues to roll off to be 3dB down at 16kHz after which it rises again, eventually to that tweeter resonance at 24kHz which is shown on Graph 2. Overall, this is truly excellent performance.

Newport Test Labs measured the efficiency of the Revel Concerta2 M16 as 84.7dBSPL at one metre, (with an input of 2.83Veq) using its standard test procedure, which is more stringent than that used by most manufacturers and a bit ‘biased’ against small speakers. So it wasn’t much of a surprise to find the lab’s measurement was somewhat was lower than Revel’s specification of 86dBSPL, not that 1.3dB is a huge difference! It does mean that in addition to the driving amplifier being able to provide current, it should also be able to deliver voltage, so a high-powered amplifier will definitely deliver better results with the Concerta2 M16 than a low-powered one. The actual power you need will depend on your room’s volume and absorbency as well as your preferred listening levels, but I’d suggest 50-watts as an absolute minimum, even if you only listen at low-to-average levels in a fairly small room. Overall, the Revel Concerta2 M16 is an excellent design that has been brilliantly executed and, as a result, delivered outstanding performance on Newport Test Labs’ test bench. Steve Holding