I don't usually try to put together a review on any piece of gear, but being as Revival Audio and their Atalante 5's are relatively new, they're just aren't many owners comments out there. So, I'll try to keep this as short and to the point as possible I've been in the market for a new set of speakers in the 5-6K range for over a year now and have demoed the Cornwall IV's, Forte IV's and a few other pairs of narrow baffle speakers like the Sonus Faber Sonetto V's and some Fyne Audio 501 SP's. The problem was that none of them really sounded 5-6K better than my old Polk SDA's. They all had their strengths, but didn't WOW me. I backed off my search and purchased a pair of Linton Heritage 85's. They were on sale at a very good price and I'd always wanted to hear them. I loved the 'looks' of them and was more than taken aback by the size of scale the Linton's were revealing. It wasn't long after acquiring the Linton's that the Atalante 5's came into the picture and I took notice. They were coming to the US after having a good initial run in Europe, they are manufactured in France. I've had the extreme good fortune of meeting and becoming friends with a fellow audio nut that has a killer system sporting some DeVore 0/96's, driven by a beautiful 300B Integrated. While my budget would never allow for this level of speakers and sound, I wanted to get the best Monitor Style speaker I could afford and the Atalante 5's were right in that range. I soon learned the Taylor @GoldprintAudio was a Dealer for the new Rival Audio line. I've purchased a couple of pieces from Taylor previously, after a quick phone call I was more than intrigued. Only one problem, my partner for the past 36 years got the go-ahead to work from home and we were moving house to be closer to family. My new room was not as ideal as my previous, with a much narrower front wall. I was concerned about the 5's size in the new space and Taylor assured me that the 5's would not overload the room and that there were two rear ports I could plug if needed. I have a Cary Audio SLI-80HS Integrated and was also concerned if it could drive the 5's to sound their best as they are not the easiest load @ 4 ohm and 89dB efficient. I took a leap of faith and placed my order, including the stands. The 5's are huge and heavy by any standard weighing in at 73 lbs. each and the stands are fairly substantial as well. With the speakers coupled to the stands they have to weigh in the 90+ lb. range. The build quality is nothing short of perfection with a very nice Inlay and other details. The Walnut Veneer is beautiful and has a satin finish that looks like there is no finish at all, with a nice smooth and natural look and feel. After at least 200 hours the 5's are giving me the best sound I've ever had in my room. With good material the 5's have disappeared and are projecting a large, lifelike image that is very layered and has depth and width that defies the narrow space they are setting in. They are very balanced from top to bottom without any attention drawn to any one aspect of the sound. Rich in tone and texture, that is retrieving good detail but is smooth as butta and never fatiguing. The 12" Woofer is producing very tight, controlled Bass that is laying down a solid foundation for the music. NO external Subs needed and no plugs in their ports, the 5's are the 'full meal deal' in their own. I couldn't be happier with the Atalante 5's and can easily recommend them to anyone looking for this style of speaker in their price range. I feel their sound/presentation and build quality is outstanding for the price of admission. A to Taylor at GoldprintAudio for making this happen and being absolutely right about the 5's size in my room and the ability for the Cary to power them beautifully atalante-5
Great write up @mreeter - thanks for taking the time and congratulations again on what looks to be a fantastic pair of speakers. Enjoy!!
Nice write-up, glad you are enjoying them! I have the same experience with you regarding that they are fully balanced and a subwoofer is definitely not needed. And they are huge on the stands in person, photos really don't do the size justice when you think of "bookshelf" speakers. Did you experiment with tweeters to the outside before settling on inside? Just curious.
I did when I first set them up, I felt the center image was a little weak. Taylor recommended changing positions and that was all it took. The image had more 'presence' in this position and is sounding 'right'. To achieve 8' apart, center to center, they are only 10" for the Panels on the sidewall. If I had a wider space as you do, I'm sure they would sound better in their specified L/R position. They are setup in a smaller width space here also.
The Atalante 5's are Linton 85's on Steroids, every aspect of the sound and tonal quality is exceptional. The Linton's certainly showed me the way of the Monitor presentation, the 5's have taken that to a whole new level.
Thank you The room is not ideal, but I still realize how lucky I am to have a dedicated space to hang out. I have a place for everything, that's all I need.
Just for fun, was there an album, a song, a track that you played and that made you think, yes, these are keepers for sure?
Like most I have a list of some well produced music that I use as demo pieces. The Suite Theme by Maxwell, for overall stage width and depth. beautiful Sax and vocals. These gems for female vocals: Ruler of my Heart by Lady Blackbird How can you mend a broken heart by Hanne Boel Stormy Monday by Eva Cassidy, Live at Blues Alley Place to Hide by Kandace Springs Male vocals: Thanks to you by Boz Scaggs, exceptional Bass that the 5's shine on No Sanctuary Here by Chris Jones, also Bass for days Old Crow by Steve Strauss, floor to ceiling voice that is goose bump producing You Can't Beat The House by Mark Knopfler The Beat Hotel by Allan Taylor For Dynamics: The Morning Side by Steve Winwood Babylon Sisters by Steely Dan So many other good tracts that have drawn me to tears more in the past few weeks than the previous several years.
Except for the Steely Dan track, I don't know any of these. I've been listening to this lately and wonder how it would sound on the Atalante 5.
Mike, your post made me go look at the specs / vitals for these - those look really nice. I like the wood look and the cabinets, looks like they did a very nice job! That's the first thing I caught when I went to look at the specs - one thing good is it's a tight band - 3.2ohm dips, 4 ohm nominal, so you know what you have to work with! Then I thought "wait doesn't he have a tube amp" and was reminded you have the SLI-80. Are you able to use the 40 watts (Triode) to drive them or do you run Ultralinear to accommodate? (80 watts).
I've been driving the 5's with the Cary in Triode mode and using the the 4 ohm taps, it seems effortless. Taylor had stated that he was powering the 5's with a Sudden A21SE that also has a 40 wpc. I think member @JCOehler is driving the 5's with a Line Magnetic Amp of around 50 wpc. The 5's appear to be an easier load than what the specs would imply. But, I have to admit that my mind had been wandering a little with the notion of pulling out the little Cary SLP-98 and finding a good SS Power Amp to see what happens with a little more juice behind the 5's, this hobby
Congratulations on both the speakers and your new room Mike it looks like a great place to listen and the Atalantes are gorgeous speakers I love big monitors. And good call on the grills they really detract from all that gorgeous wood.
Why? Because you can! We've that in common.... SLI-80 equals 40 good watts , for those of us that can appreciate a good watt! That's plenty at 4 ohm / 89db, heck many "8ohm" speakers are dipping near 4 ohm anyways if you look closely! You could get to ear bleeding levels at 40W and those speakers I'm certain, which I'm sure is not your goal anyway.... BTW, I'm gonna miss the corn row carpet shots.....
The carpet...wife picked out the carpet for the new crib and stated "No more plush carpet for you to play in"
Just listened to this recently... I used to wear that album out back in the day... still a fantastic set even now! Another utterly superb album... one of a few I often put on thinking I'll just skip to one or two and end up playing all the way through.
@mreeter , thanks again for posting your thoughts. Having heard both - and purely for discussion purposes - even though I know you didn't hear them side by side, how would you characterize the differences between the Forte IV's and the 5's in terms of 1) resolving power and overall transparency. Are they similar or is one out ahead in any noticeable kind of way? You've already inferred that they're ahead of the Linton's which is our common reference point because we've both lived with that speaker long term. On a scale of “0” to “10” with “0” being rolled off and lacking resolution and “10” being detailed and explicit - with my personal ideal being somewhere between the two - in the context of my own system (which is unchanged since I had the Linton's) I might peg the Forte's at a "6", maybe "6.5" and the Linton's at "4". And even though I have a soft spot for the Linton and think they came tantalizingly close in many ways they ultimately lacked sufficient resolution to satisfy my concept of fidelity. There is the price difference to consider though. and 2) overall tone or presence? This could be specific to vocals if you like or just a general observation. If I remember correctly you said something in another thread about the Forte's midrange being mildly recessed compared to the 5's in your experience. Which to my thinking could imply that the 5's might come over as being the more lucid or "present" of the two? I've experienced a similar effect when I auditioned the Harbeth C7 XD. Compared to the Linton's the Harbeths had some sort of hard to define "extra" in the mids which of the two made them the superior speaker IMO. But like your audition of the Forte's that was just a showroom listen not longer term at home. BTW - I'm trying to peg these at a level. I won't be remotely offended if you tell me the unvarnished truth of your feelings. Even if they begin with "I really didn't like the Klipsch, I was just being diplomatic before..." Obviously you went for the Atalante's which means you preferred them so there's a clue there And this is all for academic and reference purposes at the moment - my Forte's aren't going anywhere anytime soon but these Atalante's remain a fixture on my "interest and curiosity list".
Thank you guys for leaving your impressions on those speaker! But why do you associate rolled off with lacking resolution? Do you mean muffled through the entire frequency range and lacking resolution?
