Revel Performa M126Be Bookshelf Speaker Review

Revel Performa M126Be Introduction

Loudspeaker manufacturer Revel has been a consistently reliable brand for high-quality speakers ever since its inception by Sidney Harman in 1996 as a luxury brand segment of Harman International’s family of audio businesses. Leveraging Harman’s highly-regarded research into the human perception of what constitutes good sound reproduction, Revel makes speakers that uses their findings towards producing perceptually high-fidelity loudspeakers. They combine the engineering for high sound quality along with exquisite industrial design for loudspeakers that perform as high-end as they look. In 2018 Revel released the Performa Be loudspeaker line which served to fill in the very wide pricing gap between the Performa3 line and their top-end Ultima2 line. Presently there are only two speakers in the Performa Be line: the M126Be bookshelf speaker and the M228Be tower speaker. Today we are going to look at the M126Be bookshelf speaker.

The Performa3s was a highly-regarded speaker line, and the Performa Be speakers look to be a premium ‘no-compromises’ version of the Performa3 design that spares no expense in maximizing the potential of that platform. That sounds like the recipe for a very good speaker, so we’re very excited to have a pair of the Performa Be M126Be bookshelf speakers in for review. These are not inexpensive. At $4k a pair they are the latest bookshelf speaker, loaded with cutting-edge technology from one of the most admired engineering teams in the loudspeaker industry. The question is do they live up to these very high expectations?

Monoprice THX-365T & Revel M126Be YouTube Reviews Discussion

Appearance

The Revel M126Be is a really good-looking speaker, but a bookshelf speaker at this price point had better look nice. The M126Be can be had in four different finishes: gloss black, gloss white, gloss silver, and a polished Walnut wood finish. We received the gloss black finish. One distinctive styling cue is the rounded side panels and top panel that give the M126Be a much softer aesthetic than a box with a bunch of 90-degree corners. The top of the speaker has a ‘top cap’ that is a piece apart from the rest of the enclosure and is finished in a scratch-resistant high gloss; it almost resembles the hood of a car. Indeed there is nearly a sense of automotive styling here as the speaker looks like it has a modern car’s aerodynamic shaping. It reminds me of a high-performance luxury car like a Mercedes-Benz or upper-tier Audi. Doubtlessly, the solid color gloss finish is a factor in this. With the grille on, the M126Be looks nice but fairly inconspicuous, and I prefer these speakers with the grille off since it reveals an elegant font baffle arrangement. The tweeter and woofer are mounted in a curved fixture that surrounds them both, and the woofer cone and tweeter waveguide have a cream white color and texture that makes for a nice contrast with the black surround and driver frame. One aspect that helps maintain a clean appearance is the grille uses magnetic adhesion, so there are no grille guides to interfere with the clean front baffle. This is a very high-end looking speaker that has a graceful and uncomplicated appearance that could easily fit in any interior decor, even a very luxurious one.

Design Overview

As previously mentioned, the Performa Be speakers are like a deluxe version of the Performa3 speakers. The Performa Be speakers use the same basic design as their Performa3 counterparts, except that everything has been taken up a notch so that the Performa Be speakers can be considered the Performa3 platform that has been pushed to the upper limits of what is possible in that basic design.

 

To start with, let’s talk about the tweeter. Revel decided to use a Beryllium diaphragm tweeter in the M126Be, hence the ‘Be’ in the Performa Be series name (‘Be’ is the atomic symbol for Beryllium). Beryllium is expensive but is one of the best diaphragm materials for a tweeter dome. Ideally, a Beryllium dome should be able to play up to extremely high frequencies very smoothly with little distortion compared to other dome materials such as the Performan3’s aluminum diaphragm tweeters. This is on account of its low weight combined with its very high stiffness; this Audioholics article on how to identify high fidelity loudspeakers discusses the matter of diaphragm composition and Beryllium’s advantages here. It is three times stiffer than conventional diaphragm materials such as aluminum but exhibits three times the damping and is only half the weight. The reason why it isn’t more widely used is expense: I am told that an aluminum dome normally costs under 25 cents whereas a Beryllium dome costs over 30 dollars (and that's not counting the motor structure or other parts of the driver itself). The Beryllium tweeter is mounted in Revel’s latest generation waveguide so that directivity is better controlled than previous Revel waveguides. When we remove the tweeter driver from the cabinet, it is absolutely massive and is by far the largest tweeter motor I have personally seen to date. Part of the reason why it is so large is because of the two 3 ⅓” ceramic magnets which give the tweeter a major boost in sensitivity. Ceramic magnets also have the advantage of better heat dissipation over the Neodymium magnets that most tweeters use. 

The woofer cone is made from a material that Revel calls ‘Deep Ceramic Composite’ aluminum (which I am guessing is a heavily anodized aluminum), which should be a somewhat higher-performing cone material than the regular aluminum used in the standard Performa3 speakers. It has a very substantial ½” roll surround, so it looks to be capable of high-excursions. Looking at the driver removed from the cabinet, we see a heavy-duty cast aluminum frame along with a beefy motor section that uses a ⅘” thick, 4.7” diameter magnet with a vented backplate. It has a new optimized motor assembly versus the Performa3 driver. This is a formidable 6.5” woofer, but I would expect nothing less at this price point.

 

The crossover circuit in the M126Be has higher-quality parts than the Performa3 speakers such as air-core inductors and film capacitors. When we take a peek at the crossover board, we see three good-sized air-core inductors, two big film capacitors, and two resistors. These components add up to a 2nd order crossover on the tweeter and a 3rd order crossover on the woofer at 1.7 kHz.

The cabinet is made from ¾” MDF panels with a window brace between the tweeter and woofer. Amp connectivity is made from a very solid five-way binding post befitting the high-end construction of the rest of the speaker. The M126Be has a rear-mounted 1 ¾” port that is equally flared on both ends. The port is designed using fluid modeling, but such a relatively large port in a bookshelf speaker will do a lot to ensure port turbulence never becomes a problem even without sophisticated physics modeling. The speakers also come with port plugs for instances where boundary gain gives too much of a boost to bass frequencies. There is a generous amount of stuffing on the inside that is lining the walls instead of floating freely. The knock test doesn’t reveal any kind of hollowness or ringing, and that is not surprising since these speakers are a hefty 22 lbs. each even though they are just average-sized for bookshelf speakers. They have the solidity and weight that one would expect from a luxury item.

Listening Sessions

In my 24’ by 13’ (approximately) listening room, I set up the speakers with stand-off distances between the back wall and sidewall, and equal distance between speakers and listening position. The speakers were set up to face the listening position directly, as was prescribed in the owner’s manual. Listening distance from the speakers was about 9 feet. Amplification and processing were handled by a Pioneer Elite SC-55. No room correction equalization was used. Subwoofers were used for some content that contained deep bass frequencies.

Music Listening

In evaluating the sound of a loudspeaker, a great place to start is an acoustic recording that places emphasis on a clean vocal lead. For this task, I selected Karrin Allyson’s ‘In Blue,’ a 2002 bluesy jazz album in which the multiple grammy-nominated Allyson covers a range of blues classics from Bobby Troup, Blossom Dearie, and Joni Mitchell. Allyson’s rich, sultry voice is backed by superb instrumentalists with saxophone, percussion, bass, and piano accompanying her singing. The recording quality is outstanding and this album could and should be used as reference material for high-fidelity sound systems everywhere. From the first note, I was taken by the M126Be’s realism in reproducing ‘In Blue.’ Imaging across the entire soundstage was beautifully realized. Allyson’s voice was squarely anchored in the center with the instrument sounds being given their own space around her. The sound was like listening in a club at a mid distant seating position, unlike many other jazz records that place the listener in the front row where the instruments are further off to the sides of the listening position. I can enjoy recordings engineered to imitate either vantage point, but the imaging capability of a sound system needs to be very good to convincingly pull off the soundstage of ‘In Blue’ and luckily the M126Be speakers excel in this respect.

Along with the superb imaging, the tonal balance was also magnificently rendered. I didn’t sense any misplaced emphasis on any particular sound nor did I sense any deficit in any range. Allyson’s voice sounded natural, and the instruments also had an even tonality that surely is what the recording engineer was going for. The bass reproduction from these average-sized bookshelf speakers was very good, although the addition of a subwoofer would no doubt have given the lower notes a bit more heft. For this type of music, however, the M126Be speakers had sufficient low-frequency extension. The illusion that a good pair of speakers can cast from a stereo recording is always a cool magic trick and in this particular case, the M126Be speakers created a jazz ensemble in my home theater room that was vivid and nearly tangible. ‘In Blue’ is a superb recording that should be paired with a superb sound system, and the M126Be speakers certainly qualify in that regard.      

For music on a larger scale, I chose an orchestral recording, again taking from the ‘In Classical Mood’ series. The album was entitled ‘Twilight,’ which is a compilation of different tracks united by a theme of its namesake, the onset of night. The tracks in this compilation are pulled from a host of other classical albums and include pieces by composers such as Elgar, Beethoven, and Chopin. Most of the pieces were performed by major players such as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alan Schiller, and English Symphony Orchestra. The recording quality is generally quite high, even though the tracks were taken from a variety of sources, so they have different sound engineers and recording techniques. The M126Be speakers reproduced these pieces with aplomb. The M126Be speakers were able to convey the differences in the authoring of the tracks by the sound engineers so that the differences in venues, performers, and recording techniques were clearly heard.  The soundstage in each of the songs was meticulously rendered, and my listening room was aurally transformed into a number of different concert halls for the duration of this album. Instrument sections were intelligible and easily localizable within the soundstage. The M126Be’s low-frequency extension was good enough for these particular recordings, however, the addition of a subwoofer might be desirable for orchestral recordings that bring in deep bass elements. That being said, I would guess that their bass extension is adequate for most classical music. While I don’t think the tonality of the speakers would leave anyone wanting, those who crave the dynamics of a live orchestra may want larger speakers, and I would guess that their tower speaker siblings, the F228Be speakers, would fill that role. Even so, these speakers have a terrific dynamic range for their size. Many of the tracks in ‘Twilight’ are on the mellow side of classical music, but some of them have some boisterous moments which exhibited a wide dynamic range and good transient behavior from the speakers. I think that the M126Be speakers did a superlative job in replaying ‘Twilight,’ and I think any classical music lovers would agree.       

Another kind of content that I like to use to assess a speaker’s sound is chorale music because it still places a focus on human vocals but covers a wider range of frequencies than music with a single vocalist. I think it's a great music type to detect any potential shortcomings in the tonal balance of loudspeakers. An album that I used toward this end is ‘Timeless: Ten Centuries of Music’ which I saw had been very highly praised in other publications. ‘Timeless’ traces the evolution of chorale music over the past millennium over 16 tracks from nearly ancient compositions to modern-day pieces as performed by the Cappella SF and conducted by Grammy-winning chorus director Ragnar Bohlin. The production quality is first-rate, as would be expected from an album by the highly-regarded Delos label, and it can be had in a 24bit/192kbps WAV file for those who want the highest possible fidelity. I only had the CD-quality FLAC but that is good enough for me because I have trouble hearing above 18 kHz; audiophile bats and dogs may prefer the 192kpbs sampling rate format, however. As a musical experience, hearing ‘Timeless’ on the M126Be speakers was sublime. I was cat-sitting during this listening, and the cat agreed with my assessment of the quality of this musical performance; it had been wandering around for all the other material I had been playing, but for this music, it perched itself on an end table and seemed entranced by this sound. The soundstage presented by the album and the speakers were as good as anything I have heard in my room; it was wide, and the acoustics of the setting was vividly captured so that the venue, the St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, was practically realized in my listening room. The imaging was exceptional, and I could nearly pick out individual singer positions within this 25-singer choir. Voices had an excellent level of detail, and the choir as a whole could be quite vibrant at times which the speakers did nothing to hinder in the slightest. I could use ‘Timeless’ as replayed on the M126Be speakers as a reference point for superior audio reproduction. I believe this is the sort of experience that could open the eyes of the uninitiated to the power of high-fidelity audio.    

The base specs of the Revel M126Be speakers suggests an average bookshelf speaker; there are many two-way bookshelf speakers using a 6.5” woofer and 1” dome tweeter. But after seeing the heavy-duty motors of the M126Be drivers, I thought that maybe these could jam a lot harder than your average 6.5” woofer/1” dome tweeter bookshelf speaker, so I decided to play an album that could get loud without much letting up. An album I selected to rock these speakers was ‘Sequentaria’ by Jeffrey Koepper, released in 2008. ‘Sequentaria’ isn’t an especially loud album itself but it’s the type of music that I like to play loud. It is electronic music that is heavily reminiscent of the kind of music Tangerine Dream was famous for in the 1970s and ’80s which relied heavily on arpeggiated sequences along with sweeping atmospherics which combined to form a wall of analog synth sound. Koepper sticks pretty close to this formula but carves out some interesting new rhythms and melodies with vintage synth sounds. The pulsating bass lines and harmonically-rich lead synths create a very dense sound which is a good stress test on a speaker if played loud.

Even at loud volumes, I did not hear any complaints from the M126Be speakers during the playback of ‘Sequentaria.’. I did not deliberately seek to drive them into distortion, and I am sure I could have if I had wanted to, but at the levels I was listening to ‘Sequentaria,’ which was likely quite a bit higher than what most people would, the speakers were unperturbed. I was again surprised at how solid the bass was while listening to this album. The M126Be speakers produced a full, meaty bass sound. A subwoofer might have made the bass a bit more authoritative, but the low-frequency behavior of these speakers was considerable on their own. It was impressive to hear such a big sound from modestly-sized speakers. The M126Be speakers also did a great job in recreating the supernatural soundstage of this electronic music soundscape. All manner of buzzes, beeps, and drones whirled about over the entire front area of the listening position, and these speakers were able to throw sound well outside the boundaries of their placement. For those listening in a central position, good speakers such as these with proper placement and the right recording can really capture much of a surround sound experience without the need for physical surround speakers. 

Movie Watching

I had heard high praise for ‘Logan,’ the last film of Hugh Jackman’s tenure as Wolverine, but had not had a chance to see it yet, and what better way to watch it than with a pair of high-end speakers such as the Revel M126Bes. A film like this is bound to have a top-notch sound mix with a wide dynamic range, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how the M126Be speakers could handle some heavy-duty action sounds effects. I did engage the subwoofers for this viewing as I guessed this movie would have substantial bass below the speakers’ specified -6 dB point of 54Hz. I also set the receiver to not use a center speaker and use the M126Be speakers to create a phantom center. I did this since so much of the sound would be coming from the center channel that it wouldn’t really be much of a demo of the M126Bes if I left the center speaker in the mix. I played the movie loud and found that this movie benefited from a louder level than most modern action movies because ‘Logan’ wasn’t wall-to-wall action scenes that so many other action films tend toward and instead spaces out the action. The M126Be speakers were a great fit for the movie and were able to handle the wide dynamics with ease. Dialogue, music, and effects sounds were all kept distinct and separate. Even though it was just these two bookshelf speakers carrying the load from 80 Hz+ with no assistance from a center speaker or surround speakers, they still presented a cinematic experience, and I did not miss the center or surround speakers. It does help that I can sit in a location that is equidistant between the speakers, otherwise center channel content and surround content would get heavily anchored toward the speaker that the listener is closest to, but that would be true of almost any speaker (the exception being narrow dispersion speakers with a hard toe-in). What was demonstrated here was that listeners can still get a big-screen experience without needing big speakers; they just need high-performing speakers.

Something else that I watched with the M126Be speakers was the new Amazon TV series, ‘The Boys.’ This show is a dark comedy about some vigilantes who decide to take down a group of reckless superheroes who abuse their powers. This is a major production from Amazon, and no expense is spared bringing this story to the screen. As such, I thought it would be good material to see how the M126Be would handle a television production. I viewed this series in 2.1 mode so that the M126Be speakers would be given dialogue duty along with the rest of the content that a center channel normally carries. ‘The Boys’ turned out to be a bloody, satirical look at superhero culture, and the M126Be speakers delivered the goods with respect to sound reproduction. Dialogue intelligibility was crystal clear, and effects sounds such as gunshots and various superhuman deeds shine when the sound mix calls for them to do so. Since the dialogue is filled with quick jokes told by characters with thick accents, a good sound system might be a requirement for getting the most from the verbal sparring in ‘The Boys’ without missing anything, and the M126Be speakers work well in this regard.

The music was anchored by an original instrumental score from Christopher Lennertz and peppered with an eclectic mix of punk, rock, and pop tunes ranging from The Clash to Jane’ Addiction to The Spice Girls; the M126Be speakers helped to make the soundtrack a delight to hear. Speakers as expensive as the M126Bes aren’t necessarily needed for a show like ‘The Boys’ to be an enjoyable aural experience, but the better the sound system that can be given to such a dense sound mix, the better it will sound, and the M126Be speakers did not constrain the sound mix in any way that I noticed.

Revel M126Be Bookshelf Speaker Measurements & Conclusion

 

The Revel M126Be were measured in free-air at a height of 7.5 feet at a 2-meter distance from the microphone, and the measurements were gated at a 9-millisecond delay. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 250 Hz and accuracy is completely lost below 110 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/12 octave resolution.

Audioholics Measurements of the Revel M126Be Bookshelf Speaker

The above graph shows the direct-axis frequency response and other curves that describe the speakers’ amplitude response in a number of ways. For more information about the meaning of these curves, please refer to our article Understanding Loudspeaker Measurements Part 1. The overall response is good, although the on-axis response is a tad more ragged than I expected. There is a small bump that appears at 5 kHz, and my guess is that the response around that area is due to some effect of the waveguide since it disappears outside of a 10-degree angle. The ‘Listening Window’ response is very flat, and that is what should be given more attention since it is more important. The design philosophy of many of Harman’s products, which includes Revel speakers, places more focus on a wide range of angles over the front hemisphere of the speaker rather than any single angle. So the ‘Listening Window’ and ‘Early Reflections’ curves, which are averages of a multitude of angles from the front half of the speaker, have an extraordinarily neutral response as opposed to the on-axis response which is not quite as perfect. The directivity indexes show pretty consistent directivity control which is another hallmark of Revel’s design philosophy.

Harman Measurements of the Revel M126Be Bookshelf Speaker

As a point of comparison, Revel had sent us their ‘Spin-O-Rama’ measurements for the same M126Be unit that they sent us, and the above graph is their measurement set. This graph comes to us courtesy of Mark Glazer who has been a primary engineer at Revel since its early days. Mark has been a friend of Audioholics over the years and has helped us bring our loudspeaker testing procedures to our present levels of accuracy. We have been fortunate to have assistance from such high caliber engineering. I thought it would nicely illustrate some points about testing speakers that some readers may find interesting, and so Revel has allowed us to publish their measurements. First of all, our measurements and Revel’s measurements track very closely with each other, but there are some differences. The most major difference is that Revel has captured more high-treble energy from the speaker than we managed. This is not surprising since higher frequencies are the range where differences will most likely be seen from different test conditions and configurations. The most likely explanation for this discrepancy is that we use a windscreen on our microphone which does attenuate very high treble frequencies in this range. Of course, Revel has no need for a windscreen since they test in an anechoic chamber. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that these measurements resemble each other as much as they do, but considering we are using entirely different equipment, different software, and are testing in different conditions, it is nonetheless remarkable that we do see such similarity, and it helps to validate the CTA-2034 protocol from which both of these testing procedures are derived.

 

The above graphs depict the Revel M126Be speaker’s lateral responses out to 100 degrees in five-degree increments. More information about how to interpret these graphs can be read in this article: Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II. One thing that we can see more clearly that the preceding graph hints at are the exceptional linearity of the off-axis responses. They are so very flat and neutral over a wide angle. This speaker could be listened to well off-axis and the sound would be very balanced almost anywhere in the front half of it. We do see high treble rolling off more quickly as we move further off-axis, but that is very typical of dome tweeters. For those who want the highest frequency exposure, I would recommend that they listen to this speaker with it facing them directly. For those who want a somewhat warmer sound, simply angle the speaker so that it is pointing thirty to forty degrees away which will shave off some of the sound above 10 kHz. Overall, we see beautifully controlled behavior over the entire front lateral angle of the M126Be. This is terrific engineering and is what one would hope for from a speaker in this price range.

 

The above polar map graphs show the same information that the preceding graphs do but depict it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, these polar maps use color to portray amplitude and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s behavior more easily. For more information about the meaning of these graphs, we again refer the reader to Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II. In this graph, we get a better look at the M126Be’s excellent directivity control. It is very consistent and smooth up to 10 kHz. Clearly, the waveguide is doing its job. We also see little evidence of the crossover here, so it does look optimally designed. As was seen before, the dispersion begins to tighten up above 10 kHz, but there is still a strong response up to 15 kHz out at a 50-degree angle, so the dispersion is quite wide and will cover a broad area with a full sound to very high frequencies. Those who do not want to miss that rare 20 kHz content will have to listen on-axis.

 

The above graph shows the M126Be speaker’s response behavior along its vertical axis where zero degrees is directly in front of the tweeter, negative degree values are below the tweeter, and positive degree values are above the tweeter.  It should be said here that the vertical response isn’t nearly as critical as the horizontal response, so an imperfect vertical dispersion is much less of a problem. While we do see the usual off-axis cancellation that occurs in two-way designs between the woofer and tweeter where the difference in their distance from the microphone becomes larger, the resultant null is relatively mild with respect to most speakers of this design type. The performance here is above average, however, it still indicates that the best response occurs right around the on-axis response. As usual, these speakers should be listened to with the ear roughly level with the tweeter.

 

The above graphs show the Revel M126Be speaker’s low-frequency responses that I captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground in a wide-open area). Revel characterizes the low-end response as -6 dB at 54 Hz, and this is a conservative spec by my measurements. In ported mode, the response knee pretty much starts a bit below 60 Hz, and there is usable output below 50 Hz. I also measured the M126Be with its port plugged. We can see that it reduces output below 100 Hz. This might be handy for those who are getting too much of a bass boost from having to place the speaker near large room surfaces. Overall, the responses shown here are quite good and shows a well-implemented port. This is a bookshelf speaker with solid extension down to 50 Hz, and that range will cover most music recordings, especially of acoustic music. Those who don’t need deep bass can get by without a sub, but those who want the subterranean thunder of modern action movies will certainly want to add a sub. I think the 50 Hz extension is a very reasonable frequency to aim for. It covers much conventional music without trying for deep bass which would have incurred a big penalty in sensitivity.

 

The above graphs show the electrical behavior of the M126Be speakers. Revel specifies the M126Be speakers as having a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, and that looks to be correct. The minima occur just above 200 Hz at 6 ohms. We can see the port tuning occurs just above 50 Hz. The overall electrical load is very benign and these speakers could run comfortably on any halfway-competently designed amplifier. These speakers do not need to be powered by an expensive amp. They will work fine even with budget amps. I measured the M126Be speaker’s sensitivity at 87.9 dB for 2.83v at 1 meter which is a bit higher than Revel’s spec of 86 dB for 2.83v at 1 meter. That isn’t bad at all for a normal-sized, 8-ohm bookshelf speaker with extension down to 50 Hz. It’s quite good when considering the design and performance.

Conclusion

I like to wrap up these reviews by briefly going over the strengths and weaknesses of the product under review, but that is not easy to do with the Revel M126Be speakers because they just don’t have any real weaknesses. One might point out that the dynamic range of a two-way bookshelf speaker with a 6.5” woofer and 1” dome tweeter is going to have inherent limitations, and that is true, but the dynamic range of these is well above similarly spec’d bookshelf speakers. Also, a speaker with wider dynamic range will necessarily need to be larger, and one of the goals of this speaker is to produce the best possible product in a reasonable enclosure size, so I don’t see this as a valid criticism. Yes, there are less expensive speakers that can play at louder levels than these but not with the same size with the same low-frequency extension. Those who are looking for really loud speakers need to be shopping for an entirely different form factor. And these can still get loud; I would trust these to stay clean at louder levels than most other similar spec’d designs out there.

One could point to pricing: there are many ported, two-way bookshelf speakers using a 6.5” woofer and 1” dome tweeter out there, and most of them don’t cost anywhere near $4k/pair. That is true, however, one is not likely to find such a design as uncompromised as seen here. The M126Be speakers pretty much maximize what can be done with this form factor. I don’t know of any better speaker in this common design type. If you want one of the very best medium-sized bookshelf speakers available, here it is. Many high-end speakers with similar design can cost a lot more yet aren’t likely to match the performance shown here, and in that sense, these are a bargain. I don’t see these as being over-priced; they are not cheap, but you do get what you pay for. 

Now let’s talk about the highlights of the M126Be speakers, and to start with, let’s discuss their performance. The M126Be speakers are very accurate speakers with an outstanding off-axis response. They will not misrepresent or distort what is being sent to them. They could easily be used as reference monitors. They are not fussy about placement or positioning and should work well in many different listening situations. This flexibility is allowed by the exceptional off-axis response as well as the ability to seal the port. These attributes add up to a very natural sound with terrific imaging abilities. Bass extension digs down to a solid 50 Hz, which is good for a speaker of this size and capability, and the bass response also keeps an even keel whereas some bookshelf speakers of this type will have a slight mid-bass boost to give an impression of greater bass performance than in actuality. The high-end drivers in these speakers give them an unusually high dynamic-range for the size and low-frequency extension. They also have very friendly electrical characteristics that allow them to get along nicely with nearly any amplifier.

The M126Be speakers look great as well as sound great. As was mentioned before, they can fit in just about any decor, and wouldn’t be out of place even in very luxurious interior decors. One aspect that helps in this respect is that they are not large speakers, so they don’t have to eat up a lot of space which can constitute a substantial visual aspect of the room. Their high-gloss finish and sleek shape are commensurate with their pricing; again, you get what you pay for.

If you are looking for bookshelf speakers and are willing to pay for really good ones, you should be taking a very hard look at the Revel M126Be bookshelf speakers. They are superb and well-rounded performers that have no real shortcomings. If I were on the market for bookshelf speakers in this price range, I would have these very high on my list. I am sad to have to return them, but I am glad that I had the chance to spend time with them. Highly recommended!

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value