Product review: Revel Concerta2 M16 Speakers

Revel Concerta2 M16 is Harman’s midrange speaker solution that packs quite a punch. With a hefty amount of research from their engineers, a great manufacturing process, and top quality materials the Concerta2’s will not disappoint you if you’re looking for a warm yet accurate set of bookshelves.

Straight off the bat, these speakers look stunning. The minimalist look suits these speakers beautifully, with a clean laser cut Micro-Ceramic Composite (MCC) woofers and a very attractive Low-Resonance tweeter, the M16’s are sure to add a touch of sophistication to any room. The gloss black finish adds an exceptionally premium feel and has the weight to match (there’s an equally slick gloss white finish available as well). The black cloth grille that comes supplied is subtle but still offers a great look. At 7kg per speaker, they are sturdy. The extra weight from the cabinet also helps quite a bit with the resonance from the bass as you will see later. The protective plastic over the tweeter is a great idea (especially if there are kids in the house!) though I personally feel it could be made a little neater and clearer without the enclosure and having the exposed tweeter instead. The units are rear ported, so bear that in mind with regards to the placement of the speakers. Also worth noting: these units can not be bi-wired/amped. Another great technology included with this speaker is the Constant Pressure Gradient (CPG) technology. Harman’s engineers have designed the speaker with consideration of the music it is playing. The design of the casing, cone shape, and chassis all contribute to stop the compression of audio which works an absolute treat.

Now on to the sound. For the testing purposes, we used a Cambridge Audio CXA60 with AudioQuest Rocket 33 Cable in to the speakers. We were using Tidal with their ‘Hi-Fi’ service through Cambridge’s BT100 Bluetooth receiver. We played a range of tracks from Miles Davis, to Muse, to Björk, to Tchaikovsky and many others, trying to cover a range of genres to see where these speakers fit in with their frequency response.

Straight out of the box, these speakers sound fantastic. With little time for running in, they are clear, defined, and sound premium. The cabinet paired with the MCC woofers are a delightful pair, resulting is a well balanced low and mid range. Their sub/low frequency response is better than average for stand mounted speakers. The extra weight from the cabinet is a benefit, as the speakers can use the solid wood cabinet to resonate. When they need to add that extra punch, they are more than capable, and to complement them further, the low signal is stable and consistent;  a lot of speakers around that price point tend to fall short.

Moving slightly up in the frequency response diagram, the lower mid range is again, well controlled. They resonate enough to hit the sweet spot in low mid range without distracting you from entire song. They are tight, punchy, and give a well rounded sound, perfect for dance, rock, funk, and electronic genres.

The low end is incredible with these speakers, but what about the high end? The higher mid range is accurate and clear, though I found when listening to other units around that price point, the separation between the tweeter and woofer was not as obvious. Revel’s engineers created a “low-resonance” tweeter, effectively meaning the crossover is lower. This is great for accurate mids between the tweeter and woofer, but the frequencies above 18,000hz tend to be overshadowed by the lower range. This resulted in a slightly boxy less-open sound, but still accurate.

The high frequency response was very similar to the high mid range, it was relatively quiet compared to the other speakers. They lack the bright sparkle you hear from other speakers, but it is counteracted with a solid crossover. The high end isn’t overwhelming, though some may hear this as being less ‘open’.

The M16s are excellent speakers and convey the sounds incredibly accurately, though the low end is really where the magic happens for stand mount speakers. You will get an accurate representation of the high end, but it won’t have that magic ‘sparkle’.

The bottom line is, if you listen to a lot of rock, electronic/dance music, or have a keen tendency for bass, then these speakers will be second to none. But as with all speakers, hearing is believing and it all comes down to personal taste, so why not pop in to your local Richer Sounds and hear these great speakers for yourself?

Click here to learn more about the Revel Concerta2 M16 speakers

Author: Lewis, Weybridge store