I had listened to 20+ speakers in extended listening sessions at many dealer showrooms. I visited yet another and in exasperation and listened to another 10. I was taken to the "warehouse" across the street and listened to another 10. Still, I never quite fell "in love". On the way out of the warehouse, I noticed a pair of Revolutions quietly playing in the background while "breaking in". They looked 'funky' and I'd never heard of the brand and I asked about them only as a curiosity. John Rutan of Audio Connection asked if I'd like to take them home and "try" them. I'm sure he was quite exhausted in dealing with me and offered in the hopes that the last 3 hours wasn't a total waste of his time. I agreed simply as a similar hedge on my time spent. I phoned in my credit card number 3 days later. I believe my system at the time was Theta Data Basic run balanced to Theta Pro Basic IIa to Melos SHA Gold to Classe CA400 to Revolutions. I also upgraded all cabling with John's guidance. I was freaking smitten. Divorce ensued a few years later and my system was gone. I was un-smitten. A few years and some lo-fi, mid-fi steps later, I bought another pair of Revolutions. Coupled with a Cary 303/300 to a Plinius SA100 Mark III to the Gradients and some Shunyata cabling and conditioning, I was again smitten. Smitten in spades. But, my beloved Cary has since puked and needs fixed. My point is, that someone that chooses the same speakers twice, speaks volumes about said speakers. They seem as organic, natural, precise, coherent, uncolored and holographic in presentation as could be. It should be noted that they worked exceedingly well in both of my listening rooms which are quite different rooms. It should also be noted that an acquaintance of mine that had lent me some $10,000 interconnects and had invested $250,000+ in his system with Wilson Watt whatevers, wanted to know where he could get some Revolutions. I had less than $20,000 invested in my system. He passed away before he got his Revolutions, but after I returned his cables. Bless his soul. (And mine). ;-)

Perhaps in deeper bass response they start rolling off gradually between 50 and 40 hz losing some bottom 'umph' on a few recordings. I've only heard better in systems that are well plumbed to 20 hz with a super-fast and well integrated subwoofer(s) or quick, multiple bass drivers like Dunlavy SCIVs. These systems lacked in other areas though. The Gradient's sin is one of omission rather than commission.

Sound of the these speakers is effortlessly transparent and airy. It projects an amazing holographic 3-D sound of an electrostat, but has the bass, slam, and speed of a cone speakers. There is no box resonance or coloration to speak of. It also does not have the narrow listening sweet spot like electrostats, it produces a room-filliing sound that sounds great everywhere in the room. Low points are that due to very low sensitivity, it requires powerful amplification to make the sound come alive. My Mcintosh MA6900 integrated amp pumps out a healty 200 watts per channel but it's barely enough for this power hungry speakers. It's fine at moderate volumes but at higher volumes and complex musical passages it does't seem nearly enough, I would recommed at least 400 watts per channel in to 4 ohms of high-quality solid state amplificationl. For tubes I would recommend at least around 150 watts per channel, not too many tube amp produces that much power. However it is not a difficult speaker to drive in terms of impedance - mostly at around 6 ohms and dips to around 4 in the lower bass region but never gets close 3 or below.