[December] Tonality, transparency, and clout make for totally high-end sound at a not-so-high-end price.
Sometimes, boring can be better. Take Revel’s Concerta speakers, the high-end brand’s first system that can be called affordable. The Concerta models are traditional boxy rectangles all but devoid of titillating technologies or cool styling (though they have the most convincing woodgrain vinyl veneer to ever grace a speaker). All they do is deliver movie soundtracks and music with impressive fidelity, a near perfect dosing of dynamic ease and excitement, and the kind of effortless transparency and precision we probably should expect from a maker of up to $20,000-a-pair speakers — though not necessarily at this system’s $3,794 price tag. Revel’s B12 Concerta subwoofer includes a valuable room-correction filter, and the S12 surrounds let you choose between dipole, bipole, and monopole operating modes to suit placement, program type, or tastes. Otherwise, this suite’s story is plain-old, high-performance playback. Period. And I’m not complaining. —Daniel Kumin
www.revelspeakers.com
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Retail Innovation Award: Best Buy
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