Revel Gem2 Loudspeaker

Control, Precision, Flexibility

The Gem2 is Revel’s Ultima2 “flex” speaker. Whereas most loudspeakers are designed for a single use, the compact Revel Gem2 can play many roles. Like Transformers for audiophiles, just tell it what you want it to be. A stereo pair? Not a problem. A small multichannel system, or part of a much larger one that might include (Revel hopes) the Salon2 or Studio2 floorstanders? Done. It has accommodations for wall-mounting, on the listener axis or in a multichannel array installed up high as a side or rear-surround channel. In situations where wall-mounting isn’t practical or wanted, a purpose-built pedestal converts the Gem2 to a floorstander. Like I said, Gem2 has more faces than Lon Chaney. But there is one constant and that’s superb sonic performance. Control and precision are the prevailing characteristics of the Gem2. In these very real senses, it is not unlike a studio control monitor. Its personality leans to the cooler side of the spectrum, but that is due, in part, to the pure, distortion-free images it produces. Its sound is utterly boxless and conveys the impression of transient speed and responsiveness that I associate with electrostatic and ribbon transducers rather than dynamic drivers in box enclosures. In fact, if your eyes were closed and the Gem2 was fired up you would feel that skin-tickling planar-magnetic or electrostatic sensation—the pleasantly weird feeling that music seems to be originating supernaturally from some place other than the speaker itself. Music just seems to trampoline off the Gem2 rather than emanate from it. At least part of this perception has to be attributed to the beryllium tweeter, which is as sweet and colorless as the best I’ve heard. Material colorations that I’ve experienced with earlier beryllium designs are simply no longer in evidence with the new Ultima2 lineup.

The Gem2 also has the lower-midrange and upper-bass energy that I’ve come to expect from Revel speakers. I heard it in the Performa F30 and more recently in the F52. Like a tide rising beneath the music the Revel’s output in the roughly 100–200Hz range fills the room with the weight and foundation of the performance. You can sense it in orchestras when trombones and bass viols weigh in, but it’s most easily perceived with solo piano. When Keith Jarrett plays “Shenandoah” (The Melody at Night With You [ECM]), you should experience the full scale of the instrument in the lower octaves—the sustain reverberating from the huge soundboard. This isn’t Schroeder of Peanuts fame tinkling on a tiny-tot keyboard. This is a thousand-pound concert grand meant to pressurize a symphony hall. Many speakers attenuate these octaves in the name of resolution and detail, but it’s a false choice. Revel and Gem2 have got this priority straight.

Even more impressive is the fact that the Gem2 is a threeway that integrates like an ideal two-way—an iteration that I’m especially fond of. There is little to signal inter-driver problems, and lobing is minimal. Vocals, male or female, are suave and uncolored. There is no sense of shoutiness. Fact is, cone drivers and horns can both convey a cupped-hands kind of loading that creates a hollowness with a vocal. Not here, folks.

If you’re of a “certain age,” you’ve probably had a listen to Steve Hoffman’s remastered LP of Sweet Baby James [Warner/Rhino]. Aching to hear some minutiae that you’ve probably missed over the last thirty-plus years? Listen to the title track and be amazed as you track Taylor’s head moving into and away from the microphone. On the Gem2 you can hear these tiny volume and frequency distinctions with exceptional clarity.

Given that the Gem2 doesn’t share the computer-sculpted-and-optimized baffle of the Salon2/Studio2, I wasn’t entirely surprised at the Gem2’s average soundstage layering and depth performance. It never lacked for resolution, but symphonic string section depth was a trifle compacted. In the Gem2’s case, the reality was that in order to allow a shallow depth suitable for wall-mounting while preserving adequate internal cabinet volume for sensitivity and output, a wider overall enclosure was necessary. In the grand scheme, however, it is a minor tradeoff.

There is one thing, however, that the otherwise-accommodating Gem2 is not going to do for you. And that’s deep bass. Since it was designed to run in concert with a subwoofer, it rolls off quickly below 70Hz. Subwoofer selection, therefore, will turn out to be critical, since the quality of the Gem2s performance will rise or fall based on its ability to integrate with the sub. That sub will need to be free of resonances and fast if it has any prayer of keeping up with the Gem2. This means a subwoofer of pedigree like the Revel’s own Performa B15a or, in my case, the REL T2, a newly crowned TAS Product of the Year.