Perlisten S7t Speaker Review and Measurements (Audioholics)

[Matthew J Poes]

It appears these speakers rightly are getting a lot of attention! Sadly, they are a bit out of my price range. Do the R5t warrant some attention as next-best? It would appear they will be less price and also have the THX Dominus Certification (R5t Tower — Perlisten Audio , scroll to the bottom).

What do you think of this model as a lower-cost (one model down) version of the S7T?

that is exactly it’s intent. Most is the same great attributes at a lower cost. The drivers are a bit cheaper with cheaper materials. But still great drivers. The measurements still look very good. Output is down but still well above average.

Dan told me that the SPL numbers are conservative and that they are working on more detailed specs.

those are available now if you are interested. If not, more is coming. That R series line is being fleshed out and more will be available soon

 

[echopraxia]

that is exactly it’s intent. Most is the same great attributes at a lower cost. The drivers are a bit cheaper with cheaper materials. But still great drivers. The measurements still look very good. Output is down but still well above average.

Dan told me that the SPL numbers are conservative and that they are working on more detailed specs.

those are available now if you are interested. If not, more is coming. That R series line is being fleshed out and more will be available soon

Are any of the Perlisten speakers available to audition in a showroom anywhere in the US?

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Are any of the Perlisten speakers available to audition in a showroom anywhere in the US?

yeah for sure. Contact fidelity imports to find out the closest dealer to you that has product to audition.

I will be able to demo the S7T at a soon future date by appointment.

 

[Gene DellaSala]

We are going to have a slug fest at the end of August/September with a pair of Perlisten S7t and Revel F328Be's in my theater room. I own the F328s and a bit disappointed in their anemic bass response for a tower of their size. I'm looking forward to this comparison to say the least. I'm also getting in a pair of Paradigm 100Fs soon too. Good times.

 

[Martin]

Need to bring them to the Florida Audio Expo.

 

[amper42]

I have the Revel F328Be setup with the RME ADI-2 FS and a Purifi stereo amp. REW graphs show bass frequency response flat down to 29Hz in my 24' x 28' listening room. This combo offers amazing kick.

 

[richard12511]

We are going to have a slug fest at the end of August/September with a pair of Perlisten S7t and Revel F328Be's in my theater room. I own the F328s and a bit disappointed in their anemic bass response for a tower of their size. I'm looking forward to this comparison to say the least. I'm also getting in a pair of Paradigm 100Fs soon too. Good times.

I think they purposefully ditched the deep bass response in favor of getting a bit more sensitivity. Compared with the -3dB of 23Hz on the previous flagship, the -6dB of the F328Be is a bit disappointing, but I can see how it's actually a good thing for those who use external subs. I'd probably need external subs if I went with the F328Be.

Will be interesting to see the comparison between the F328 and the S7t. Side by side, the Revel's measurements are a bit better, but if the S7t seems to have the output advantage(and maybe an extension advantage?). Be sure to measure them side by side, so we can see which extends deeper in room.

 

[Gene DellaSala]

I think they purposefully ditched the deep bass response in favor of getting a bit more sensitivity. Compared with the -3dB of 23Hz on the previous flagship, the -6dB of the F328Be is a bit disappointing, but I can see how it's actually a good thing for those who use external subs. I'd probably need external subs if I went with the F328Be.

Will be interesting to see the comparison between the F328 and the S7t. Side by side, the Revel's measurements are a bit better, but if the S7t seems to have the output advantage(and maybe an extension advantage?). Be sure to measure them side by side, so we can see which extends deeper in room.

They did as I mentioned here:
https://www.audioholics.com/tower-speaker-reviews/revel-f328be-vs-ultima-salon2

It's too much of a compromise for a tower of this size and price, IMHO. You definitely .need subs with these speakers if you're a bass head like me.

 

[Descartes]

They did as I mentioned here:
https://www.audioholics.com/tower-speaker-reviews/revel-f328be-vs-ultima-salon2

It's too much of a compromise for a tower of this size and price, IMHO. You definitely .need subs with these speakers if you're a bass head like me.

I thought you bought them?

 

[MZKM]

We are going to have a slug fest at the end of August/September with a pair of Perlisten S7t and Revel F328Be's in my theater room. I own the F328s and a bit disappointed in their anemic bass response for a tower of their size. I'm looking forward to this comparison to say the least. I'm also getting in a pair of Paradigm 100Fs soon too. Good times.

SoundStageNetwork has measurements available, not bad and that it looks really nice. Directivity could be better.

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...-series-100f-loudspeakers&catid=77&Itemid=153

 

[Kachda]

SoundStageNetwork has measurements available, not bad and that it looks really nice. Directivity could be better.
View attachment 143286

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...-series-100f-loudspeakers&catid=77&Itemid=153

Wish they would upgrade their graphics to show the spin and DI in a single graph like Klippel does.

 

[MZKM]

Wish they would upgrade their graphics to show the spin and DI in a single graph like Klippel does.

They do limited horizontal data and very limited vertical data, so not enough for a Spin.
Hell, I’d ask just for color coding, sometimes I can’t tell which line is for which as when they overlap.

 

[BenB]

I've spent a fair amount of time theorizing about multi-way line arrays, and I've built some with off-the-shelf parts. I'm glad to see them getting some attention here. If I worked for a speaker company with a budget large enough to have parts manufactured, I wouldn't use a horn tweeter in the middle of my design. There's a significant discontinuity in the horizontal dispersion of the perlisten 7 at 3 kHz. Personally, I like to keep horizontal dispersion wide high in frequency. In order to accomplish that in an uncompromised way, I would want to work with ribbon manufacturers to develop a double ribbon: a 60 mm ribbon and a 180 mm ribbon side-by-side in a single unit, possibly even sharing some magnets. This would allow for very close spacing horizontally, avoiding any horizontal lobing.

 

[amper42]

If you look at the SoundStage S7t measurements, bass rolloff starts at 80Hz with a -12dB drop by 29Hz. If these measurements are accurate that's a lot worse than my F328Be in room REW measurements. In addition, the distortion numbers are higher than Amir's measurements for the Revel F328Be. It would be nice to see a review of the S7t by amir.

I watched Gene's F328Be vs Salon2 review but it didn't have any measurements and was mostly a spec rundown and Revel employees giving their opinion. No reviewer measurements = a total waste of time for me. Hopefully, the S7t vs F328Be article will have substance? No, that's asking too much.

 

[VintageFlanker]

If you look at the SoundStage S7t measurements, bass rolloff starts at 80Hz with a -12dB drop by 29Hz. If these measurements are accurate that's a lot worse than my F328Be in room REW measurements

As you said: in-room. James Larson uses ground plane measurements: "The above graphs show the S7t’s low-frequency responses that I captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground in a wide-open area). We can see that the response gently tapers off a bit below 100Hz, and this is a very common design; in fact, it’s what we see in nearly every tower speaker I have reviewed. The reason is that domestic rooms will always give a boost to low frequencies whether through boundary gain or pressure vessel gain and usually a combination of the two."

 

[richard12511]

The reason is that domestic rooms will always give a boost to low frequencies whether through boundary gain or pressure vessel gain and usually a combination of the two."

Is this really true, though? Much of this thread is over my head, but I think it's saying that "room gain" as Matthew is describing isn't a thing for home listening(only for cars). At least that's what I gathered(it's just a series of nulls and peaks). This isn't my experience at all(my speakers have always extended much deeper in every room than anechoic), but it's clear to me that @René - Acculution.com knows what he's talking about, so I'm inclined to believe I've just been lucky.

Maybe I'll start another thread with questions on "room gain", as all my rooms somehow seem to get lucky and have it. Assuming that room gain isn't a factor at all for home listening, it is odd that the in room measurements extend flat down to near 20Hz. The -6dB point on the speaker is 37Hz, so that should be the "average" -6dB point, right? Some rooms will have a higher -6 point (say 40Hz), while others will go a bit lower(34Hz). Is that correct?

Comparing it to the F328Be, the Revel does extend a bit deeper(29Hz vs 37Hz), but the Perlisten has the output advantage. Sensitivity is the same, but the Perlisten can play ~10dB louder according to @Matthew J Poes' tests. That necessarily means it must be capable of almost like 10x the power handling? Very impressive, especially given that I'm guessing the Revel can probably take 500watts or more. Assuming it's true that it really has 10dB more output, that's crazy good power handling from the Perlisten. Hard to tell who has the better distortion performance, but both are beyond excellent to the point where it shouldn't be audible for either speaker. In my estimation, it's a great race, and I think both are appropriately priced.

 

[Gene DellaSala]

If you look at the SoundStage S7t measurements, bass rolloff starts at 80Hz with a -12dB drop by 29Hz. If these measurements are accurate that's a lot worse than my F328Be in room REW measurements. In addition, the distortion numbers are higher than Amir's measurements for the Revel F328Be. It would be nice to see a review of the S7t by amir.

I watched Gene's F328Be vs Salon2 review but it didn't have any measurements and was mostly a spec rundown and Revel employees giving their opinion. No reviewer measurements = a total waste of time for me. Hopefully, the S7t vs F328Be article will have substance? No, that's asking too much.

That was NOT a review but just a teaser. If you spent anytime reading our articles or watching our actual YT reviews you know that we are a very heavily oriented measurement publication.

 

[René - Acculution.com]

Is this really true, though? Much of this thread is over my head, but I think it's saying that "room gain" as Matthew is describing isn't a thing for home listening(only for cars). At least that's what I gathered(it's just a series of nulls and peaks). This isn't my experience at all(my speakers have always extended much deeper in every room than anechoic), but it's clear to me that @René - Acculution.com knows what he's talking about, so I'm inclined to believe I've just been lucky.

Maybe I'll start another thread with questions on "room gain", as all my rooms somehow seem to get lucky and have it. Assuming that room gain isn't a factor at all for home listening, it is odd that the in room measurements extend flat down to near 20Hz. The -6dB point on the speaker is 37Hz, so that should be the "average" -6dB point, right? Some rooms will have a higher -6 point (say 40Hz), while others will go a bit lower(34Hz). Is that correct?

Comparing it to the F328Be, the Revel does extend a bit deeper(29Hz vs 37Hz), but the Perlisten has the output advantage. Sensitivity is the same, but the Perlisten can play ~10dB louder according to @Matthew J Poes' tests. That necessarily means it must be capable of almost like 10x the power handling? Very impressive, especially given that I'm guessing the Revel can probably take 500watts or more. Assuming it's true that it really has 10dB more output, that's crazy good power handling from the Perlisten. Hard to tell who has the better distortion performance, but both are beyond excellent to the point where it shouldn't be audible for either speaker. In my estimation, it's a great race, and I think both are appropriately priced.

I don't think I said that it was not a thing at all in rooms, but that one should be aware that the theory presented pertained to a totally closed room, which nobody probably has. How bass extension in a normal room compares to bass extension in an anechoic chamber was not mentioned, but I would think you get less bass in an anechoic chamber.

Those Perlisten's have some really cool composite cone technology going on, would like to listen to a pair

 

[ctrl]

We are going to have a slug fest at the end of August/September with a pair of Perlisten S7t and Revel F328Be's in my theater room. I own the F328s and a bit disappointed in their anemic bass response for a tower of their size. I'm looking forward to this comparison to say the least. I'm also getting in a pair of Paradigm 100Fs soon too. Good times.

Wow, this is likely to be an "exciting" comparison.

When comparing LW, SP and SP-DI, one can notice significant differences.
I'm curious about the auditory impressions in the damped theater room. The differences should actually be clear, if corresponding room reflections are present.

Personally, I would probably have problems with overtones of voices, trumpet, saxophone, piano,... and distorted guitars with both speakers, as both speakers emit a bit too much sound power in the frequency range 2-4kHz - the F328Be hardly, the S7t clearly too much.

F328Be:

S7t:

 

[amper42]

The Revel F328Be highs are amazingly tame and the FR is definitely a downward slope. If I connect the F328Be to Audyssey it adds +2dB in the 2-8Hz range. With my RME ADI-2 DAC FS I leave the EQ flat and it sounds fine. I don't notice any issues with the F328Be with horns, saxophone and piano. It sounds fantastic in my room.