When I was at the CAS in Emeryville, CA a couple years ago, the Revel Ultima2 Salons, JBL 1400 Arrays, and JBL Everest II DD66000s were in the same room, and I far preferred the Salons. The dealer had a pair of K2 S9900s sitting, disconnected against the wall. He had no intention of demoing them. I was at that point ready to bite on the Salons, but after the show closed for the day a few of us prevailed on him to hook up the K2s just for grins.

Once I heard them, there was never any doubt that I'd find a way to get them, and a few months and lots of haggling later, they were in my house.

To me, the 1400 Arrays seemed great, but they didn't pull me in like the K2s did, and curiously the 1400s don't sound as convincing as the SAM1HF units in the Synthesis set up. (Of course, that's in a pretty well-designed room vs. a hotel ball room divided in half.)

The K2s are driven by a pair of ATI 2003 amps, passively bi-amped, from the analog bypass of an Outlaw 990 through the balanced outputs. The DACs in use are in the Oppo BDP83SE and the iStream DAC for digital files. The third channel of each ATI 2003 feeds a Synthesis S2S sub that handles frequencies starting around 40 Hz.

JBL has such a broad range of products, it's like a smorgasbord: some things are exquisite, and other things aren't worth putting on your plate.

Quote Originally Posted by Mr Peabody View Post
Filecat, I have become a believer. I got to use/audition some Array 1400's in my system and they sounded great. Those horns are a credit to the technology and the 14" driver can be very physical. I passed on them because I couldn't get imaging in my room to my satisfaction. I could have had those with a 800 center. Out of curiosity what do you drive the K2's and the 7.1 system with? It's a shame the Synthesis isn't more widely displayed, the lesser expensive LS in that series are very good in my opinion and priced well too.

I'm happy with my Revel and what ever the marketing it's still a very good product. If any one read my past posts they would discover I was not a Revel or JBL fan. This was based on past products heard, however, current products have certainly changed my mind about both. Of course, this could change again, I haven't heard the new Performa stuff yet, , but I'm confident it will be up to their standard.

I wish my access to this forum wasn't jacked up, I just bought some Revel in-wall for one of my rooms, a set of 580's and a 552L, I'd like to talk about the project and once installed the sound.