Revel Owners Thread - Page 104

Ultimas are made in Mexico, not sure about other lines.

Concertas for sure are made in Mexico.
Performas were made in the USA and supposedly now made in Mexico.
Ultimas were made in the USA and some posts have said that they are now made in Mexico.

Some posts have said that Harman has moved all production out of the USA. Can't verify that as all my Revels are a few years old and all say Made in the USA.

Can't argue with that.

They are definitely NOT. Sad, but true.

KEF Muon, Blade, & Reference are made in England, the rest are made in China.
B&W Nautilus & Diamond are made in England, the rest are made in China.
All Focal are made in France.
All ATC are made in England.
All Dynaudio are made in Denmark.
All Amphion are made in Finland.
Paradigm parts are made in China, but assembled in Canada.
PSB are all made in China.

Revel Ultima are made in Mexico, the rest are made in China.

That's what I heard Mexico.

Thanks.

It seems like everything is made in China anymore.

Thanks, good luck with your speakers, they sound amazing.

They are only for 2 channel, I have much simpler taste with theater gear thankfully. Gear the are hooked up to consist of a sotm usb card, meitner ma-1 dac, bent audio tap-x preamp and hypex ncore400 amplifiers. Did some more listening tonight, nothing really critical, just casual listening of some old music I have heard hundreds of times , pretty much just putting some hours in for break in. They sound very sweet though and I know things are just going to get better.

Went back to the store today with my wife (and her Josh Groban CD), to have her see and listen to the F208s. She's OK with them.

BTW- In the fine print on the back plate, it states country of manufacture is Indonesia (or maybe it was Malaysia). I know it didn't say China, USA, or Mexico.

Looks like the manufacturing has changed again. Thanks for that clarification.

Does anyone have any thoughts on a normal 15 amp house receptacle having enough juice to power my Sunfire 200x7 amp? I'm in the wrong thread but you guys are knowledgeable. Also on this same circuit is a 1500 watt class D sub. Thanks.

Good to know,

China, Maylasia, Taiwan, same difference.

Nice system!
How do you like the Ncore amps with the Studios so far?
I'll be needing some new amplification for my system and have looked at these in the past.
Lots of people love'em.

Since that purchase I made on eBay is in dispute, and both Paypal and eBay escalated it to a claim. (This is not the first time he's done this) I looked at other options, and I just purchased a brand new pair of black ash F52's. it was a great deal. Now just have to wait a week or so for delivery.

My immidiate reaction to learning they weren't built in Mexico was slight disappointment because my long held wish was to have speakers using high end european drivers, but I was OK with Mexican?

Anyway, I'm alright with Revel using overseas manufacturing, more so than some other brands, because I have a feeling that Revel has the resources and commitment to maintain tight control over the manufacturing process, and that's really all that counts.

I currently have speakers from a British company that are built in China. Soon after I bought mine, they upgraded the speaker line with a modified design, new tooling, and a different factory. They started to get complaints about excess treble. Within the year, they advised customers that the new tweeter had higher output than planned, so they were advising customers to put a resistor in series at the tweeter's (bi-wire) speaker terminal. For some reason I can't see Revel in a situation like this.

Then at RMAF this year, I was told a story about a Chinese subcontractor who kept substituting cheaper parts into a product, convinced it didn't matter to the sound. I forget which company this involved, ha

Most high end European drivers come from Asia; most of those still assembled in Europe are made from parts sourced in Asia.

I've never been to Indonesia, but I know in the '80s Nike moved their manufacturing there, after first moving to South Korea. Nike was paying a $1/11hr day. That was even below Indonesia's poverty line. While they paid Michael Jordan millions to peddle their junk, as if he really needed the money.
I really doubt things have gotten much better there, these last 3 decades.

I don't know about Malaysia, as to their work/pay ethics.

It was my understanding when Harman closed the NorthRidge plant that they moved it to Mexico. I know the JBL Studio L series was already made there.

Personally, I would think real hard about not buying Revels if they are being built in Indonesia. That is just criminal. That would make Harman no better than Nike, imo. And I have not bought anything Nike since I read that article around '87.

Kevin Voecks is very meticulous and if history is any lesson, so is Revel. No matter where it's being made, it's going to be to the highest standards.

I'm absolutely loving it, right now I just have a bunch of music playing, mix of all genres and everything from 16/44 to 24/192 playing at random for break in. I find myself constantly stopping to sit down and listen when I walk by the room and everytime I do i'm grinning from ear to ear.
Still have not even bothered to adjust speaker distances, toe in, etc. or even play with the bass and tweeter adjustment on the back.
They seem to be blending well with the ncores which are very neutral sounding. The meitner may also have something to do with how well the speaker and amp are playing together.
There was only one instance where I had a bad sound moment, was a killers song that came on from the hot fuss album, it sounded awful, but I don't think it was the original release, believe it was from a highly compressed bonus version. Was probably the ncores showing the true colours of that particular recording.
So far though everything is good. The meitner is also new so it may also require a bit of burn in.

And everyone is being taken advantage of if they are being built in Indonesia. And then sold for the same ultra high prices they were charging when still built in the US. It amounts to Highway Robbery!!

Yes, the new Performa series are built in Indonesia for sure. They do claim that it is in an air conditioned factory;-)

Just my .02 cents here, but I don't know why so many people have an issue with where speakers or audio components are made, whether it be China, Mexico, or Indonesia, etc. Are people under the impression that these facilities in China or Mexico are some dilapidated shacks out in the middle of nowhere. Do people envision that these factories have screen doors on the front and crap lighting. Just because something is manufactured in China doesn't mean that is cheaply made or corners are being cut, in fact just the opposite. These plants in China are state of the art, and in many cases exceed the level of what is found here in the USA or even France or England. It's not like these plants in China and Mexico are busing in illiterate hobos or something that have no clue what they are doing. These are some of the most educated people in the world that are running these plants and building these speakers.

BTW, I am not saying that quality is the same for all speaker manufactures in China, or elsewhere. But it has nothing to do with the location, and everything to do with the speaker company itself. Cheap and crap speakers can and are made right here in the good ol' USA and anyone who doesn't understand that is just fooling themselves.

Yes China and Mexico do produce a lot of cheap goods that are sold at place like Wal-Mart and unfortunately that has contributed to a lot of stereotypes, but that really has nothing to do with audio components and speakers in general. Manufacturing in China allows American or European companies to charge slightly less because the plain simple truth is that manufacturing here in America has become too expensive, because we are to a large degree no longer a manufacturing economy, at least not in the same way we were 30 or 40 years ago. But again that doesn't mean that quality suffers because high production manufacturing has shifted to Asia and Mexico.

As long as the quality control is excellent, it doesn't matter where they are made.

It certainly does matter, if the reason for moving the plant is to lower the labor cost to such a point that the workers are paid a sub-standard wage, even for their 3rd world country. And then the manufacturer still charges a King's ransom for the finished product.
So everyone is getting screwed!!

Not everyone. Revel has improved their bottom line and Kevin and company will prolly get a nice fat bonus.

Well, sure it "matters", but I was talking strictly SQ. If quality control is excellent and the workers are doing a great job, the speakers will sound great.

China is not a third world country, it is a developed country that is right behind the US in terms of economic scale and resources. The reason it is cheaper to manufacture in China is because they have the scale of manufacturing plants and economy to manufacture at a high volume. I'm not going to get into the politics of what the wages are in China as that is for another time and place. You do realize that there was a time in America's manufacturing heyday where other more developed countries such as England and France had the same stereotypes about American made goods that many people have about Chinese made goods. The fact is that just like there is and was substandard products produced and still produced in American factories, there are also substandard grade products produced in China and elsewhere. It doesn't mean that everything that is produced in China is substandard.

Do you have a cellphone, computer, etc. What about an iPhone? Do you consider those devices to be substandard and cheap devices. I am not saying that we will agree on whether they are overpriced or a fair value, only the consumer can determine that. But I have never thought that my Mac computer or iPhone were low grade, substandard quality. Could that iPhone be even better if it was manufactured here in America. Maybe, but at what price and what level of quality could it be considered to be better if it was produced here in the US. I'm just saying that quality is overall more dependent on the company than they place or factory where it is made.

There was even a time when Made in Japan meant junk. Now you probably can't afford it.