Every once in a while, I feel a little like I have no idea what I'm doing and this hobby is silly. Today is one of those days.
The L52s arrived yesterday, and I've listened for several hours comparing back and forth with the Revel M126Be. With no EQ or subs, at first glance... I like them a lot. I was expecting and even hoping the M126Be would beat them easily, like they did the Def Tech D9's, but that didn't happen. I wanted my speaker search to be over with, but I wanted to just do due diligence since I said I'd compare the Revels and JBLs (Both also clearly sound better than the def techs to me, btw.)
At this point there are several layers to my potential biases:
- I liked the L82 and L100 a lot, so I expected to like the L52 originally.
- But I respect Erin's listening impressions like few others, so my expectations were lowered considerably by his impressions.
- But I thought the spin data for the L52 looked quite decent overall despite some on-axis problems, and had heard of others who liked them a lot.
- But I know the M126Be was likely Harman's top blind-tested bookshelf when it came out.
- But the L52s are so cute!
- But the Revels cost $4400. They have to be better!
- But wouldn't it be cool if the underdog was just as good?!
Make of all that what you will, but here's my main takeaway: the M126Be and L52 sound much more alike than different to my ears. The biggest differences aren't even in overall tonality to me. Here are some immediate impressions after about 5 hours total of listening.
I think the L52 seem to have a slightly wider, more diffuse soundstage, which I prefer. It seems harder to tell the sound is coming from the speakers themselves. But the Revel seem to create a noticeably taller soundstage, despite adjusting for tweeter height, so the impression is of a slightly bigger sound with a bit of extra precision. Overall it's a wash; the soundstage sounds great to me on both speakers, with a similarly sized sweetspot.
Out of the box, in my space, the L52s have the better bass. Much more enjoyable impact/kick almost surely thanks to that 100hz bump, without really being boomy. The revel digs deeper, but on most music the added kick is preferable. This is, of course, going to be room dependent and is completely EQ-able.
At my listening distance of about 7 feet and what I consider "too loud" listening levels, compression and distortion seem to be non-issues. I spent a good amount of time listening louder than I ever do outside of testing and I couldn't notice any meaningful differences in dynamics. Both sounded really good to me in this regard.
Out of the box, the L52 seems generally correct with timbre. Some tracks sounded a bit more correct on the Revels, others on the L52s. Probably an edge overall to the Revels, and vocals do generally sound a little less colored on the revel, but not by much. The L52 is a bit more forward, so I can see how Erin heard some harshness, but it's not as forward as most Focals, for example. The positive to this, to me, is that I think it sounds better at lowish volumes.
The timbre between the two gets even closer with the grille on the JBLs, but the soundstage seems just a hair more diffuse, maybe? I think I'm okay with leaving the grilles on for now. I like how they look at it helps my brain not pinpoint sounds to the tweeter. Haven't messed with the treble knob much.
To the point of timbre similarities, both the L52 and M126Be seem to work equally well with a revel M105 as a center on Atmos music/ surround/upmixing. I even tried using a Frankenstein pair of the M126Be and L52 for a hot second and it didn't sound half bad, despite the slightly different sensitivity!
More than anything, this has been a good reminder that most speakers from the Toole school sound more similar than different, especially when they have similar directivity trends (the L52 is asymmetrical, but cummulative early reflections are quite similar to the Revel.)
Right now, for my personal tastes and needs, I do think the M126Be is probably a
little better overall. I also have no doubt it's the more
consistent speaker. From living room to living room, track to track, and listener to listener the Revel would probably end up winning more comparisons.
But for me, without even reaching for EQ yet the L52 have left me very satisfied. I'm fairly confident I could EQ away most of the flaws I could hear, and they just weren't that big a deal to me anyway. Besides, I'd also have to EQ the revel to get the bass impact I get from the L52 too.
I'd like to spend a bit more time comparing, but if anyone's in the NYC area and wants a good deal on the M126Be's, there's a chance of a used pair going on sale soon...
(Made a few edits)