First Things first. Anyone who claims these speakers have low bass isposting a BOGUS report and should be discarded.

These speakers require a long break-in period (about 100 hrs.). After the
break in period the Bass begins to take shape. Deep and tight is the only
way to describe it. Good things happen to those who wait.
The Revelation 3's are about 86db in efficency and require a quality amp
to drive them. My 70 watt Tube amp is more than enough for these puppies.
The bottom line: These speakers are AWESOME for the sound/price ratio.

Remember a few Quality Tube watts are a lot better than many low-end watts.
Quality is better than quantity.

My Setup is : Conrad-Johnson Preamp PFR
Conrad-Johnson Tube Amp Premier 11A
Genesis Digital Lens
Parasound Ultra 2000 DAC
Illuminations D60 Digital Cables
Kimber Kable Silver Interconnects
StraightWire Maestro II speaker cable.

Needless to say all this stuff is CLASS "A" all the way.

Frequency range(bottom mostly) and acurracy of acoustic material(soundstage & timbre), hoped to suit medium listening room (achieved). Build quality of cabinet, et al was to my delight.

Perhaps more power hungry than I'd hoped/planned(Bryston 3b).

Burn in?, yes. You mean I have to listen to music before it gets better, twist my arm, (not my RB300). 100+ hours in my opinion.
DownSide - Old Hard Rock? Yech (blame the producer). Love the tunes, just as long as I pull out my ol' JBL L40s.
UpSide - Well recorded rock (yes, there is some in my mind), remastered jazz and classical, sound full, emotionally engaging, and quite often, find myself, "its time to go to bed before the sun comes up".
Church organ is awesome, wish I had a behemoth amp.
Milt Jackson was on the other side of the room, I swear it!
Lenny Breau, almost beside me (soundstage!).
Fusion Miles,(I remember the 70s).
Could not ask for a speaker in this price category that can do so well, with all my musical tastes. Sorry if this sounds like everything else we've read/heard, it is simply the truth!
Thiel 2.3 and 3/ProAc/Aerial - little too bright & pricey.
Celestion A series(the big ones), great with rock, lost it with acoustic($$$).
B&W has insufficient punch.

Similar Products Used:

Thiel, Celestion, ProAc, B&W, Aerial, PSB, etc..

I was *very* impressed with both Hales Revelation Three (as well as the Revelation One). I stumbled across them quite unexpectedly, without ever having heard of Hales (been out of the audio market for some years). By far the best imaging (especially depth) I had ever heard -- brought back flowery adjectives I'd read in funny-sized audio magazines years ago. Midrange quality seemed to be very natural and pleasent, plenty of solid bass without being artificially boosted as so many speakers seem to be. Other people browsing in the store, totally unprompted, were also very impressed. They're really good.
I thought I detected what I might call some sloppiness in the bass, or perhaps better described as a lower midrange resonance or coloration. However, this quite possibly could be the room they were in.

They were being driven by some incredibly nice Balanced Audio Technology gear; don't know the model #s, but a tube preamp and a gigantic amp... about $15K of electronics, if memory serves!

Shouldn't matter, but... I don't like the way they look; bulky and the strange grill shape makes them seem awkward.

Although I have not shopped for audio in a long time, and can't really compare these to all the various speakers on the market now (wow, so many brands!), still, I think for $2,200 these speakers should provide a lot of pleasure to a lot of people. (But I myself ended up with electrostatics).

Enjoy!

Auditioned these speakers yesterday comparing them with the M&K150thx system (that I had planned on buying). Although they did not have quite the full scale dynamic assault that the M&K150thx speakers did on reference level movie passages they did play quite loud and clean. However, I was amazed at the difference in quality for music playback. From the first few notes it was clear that these speakers were in a different league than the M&Ks for vocals/acoustics. I'm not an audiophile so I can't talk about soundstage etc. but these speakers just sounded like they weren't even there, just the music was there, clear, crisp and surrounding. Stereophile did a review 2/98 and liked them, I think I'll probably be buying these for my home as well.
Reason they get a four instead of five is low efficiency (87db) which is probably why they didn't have quite the same blow your socks off levels as the M&Ks. Still did reference level without straining, however!

I read a positive Stereophile review on the Rev 3 ($2190)that caused me to seek them out. Previously, I had A-B'ed the Martin Logan Aerius ($2000) and Thiel CS1.5 ($2,200) speakers in a serious listening session and preferred the sound of Thiel. I had also listened to the NHT 2.5 ($1300) speakers under less than ideal conditions, but was impressed enough to want to hear more. NHT has since introduced a new speaker for twice the cost of the 2.5, and I want to hear it too. I then A-B'ed the Rev 3 and the Thiel CS1.5 through excellent equipment and there were very significant, easy-to-hear differences, not subtle at all. Both speakers sounded great, but in different ways. Oh, these are good times for audio enthusiasts when we can choose between such good choices available to us. The Thiels sounded marginally more accurate, for instance, finger snapping on a Diana Krall CD sounded more true and the individual placement of instruments in the soundstage was more pinpoint, more precies. However, the Rev 3's were more involving and musical. They seemed to emphasize the vocals in the soundstage more, with the vocals up front and the instrumentation behind. I could almost visualize a hologram of Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt at the mike on the song "Close Your Eyes" on the "Warm Your Heart" CD. The Rev 3 gives "goosebumps" at times; the Thiels did not. Detail, such as breathing into the mike, was about equal with both speakers. The Thiels reproduced the "air" around, and decay, of piano and guitar notes somewhat better. With Thiel, my ears told me I was sitting toward the middle of the listening room; with the Rev 3, I was in the fifth row, center. This was the presence that the Rev 3 gave the music, however, they didn't emphasize one part of the sound specturm over the other, smooth, smooth, smooth. Both speakers were very well balanced, but there is something special about the Rev 3 speakers. To sum up the differences in a word: the Thiel was analytical and the Rev 3 was involving. The Rev 3 do not seem to be very well known yet beyond the Stereophile review. Fi Magazine also gave them a positive review. Only a couple of stores carry them in the greater LA area (of course, you only need one store to buy the right speakers). However, I hope the Rev 3s get heard by a large number of people, because they deserve to be heard - they are on equal ground with much better known speakers. They are now on the top of the short list of speakers to buy. Seek out these speakers and give them a listen; they are well worth it. Overall rating: 4.5 stars.

I have auditioned the Revelation Threes twice; once with a friend who owns a pair of Thiel 1.5s, and another time with my son, who has a pair of M-L Aerius speakers. Both auditions were done using Odyssey (a U.S. subsidiary of the German firm, Symphonic Line) pre- and power amplifiers. My auditions were therefore under similar conditions to those giving rise to Phil C.'s review of 7/4. My conclusions are also quite similar to those reached by Phil. My friend, who is of the opinion that his Thiels may be a bit bright on some selections (but dead-on on most others) appreciated the slightly better warmth of the Hales, together with the fuller bottom end performance. But the greatest difference-maker was, as Phil mentions, the musicality of the Hales--they are not as coldly analytical as the Thiels. They possess fantastic dynamics and have a sense of rhythm and pace that are unmatched for the money. My son confirmed that the M-L Aerius is not in the same ballpark on several levels, but that, as one might expect, the upper-mids and above are perhaps smoother with the electrostatics. Incidentally, the Odyssey gear matches up very well with the Rev 3s. They are a real bargain at about $2,000 for both pieces and coupled with the Rev 3s and the Naim 2.5 CD player at about $2k, make up a very, very impressive $6,000 system.

Out of the box, the speakers sounded thin. In fact, there was very little bass (coming from a pair of 10 inch woofers that is), even when I moved them close to the back wall (about 1 feet apart). The highs sounded a tad grainy, although the mids were warm sounding and nice. I have to qualify here that I also have a brand new Bryston 3B-ST and a pair of WireWorld Polaris I speaker cables, which probably contributed to the sonic characteristics. The manual specified 100 hours of burn-in time and I so I began the burn-in process (which took me abot 3 weeks, interspersed with music here and there of course, pretty hard to listen to aggressive signal noise all day long). So, what happened after about 50 hours plus of burn-in time ? There is bass, real, solid bass coming from the speakers. The highs sound sweeter and the midrange just improved its warmth. Besides that, the soundstaging opened up and the imaging and air department are all there as well. Over and above, there is no fatigue at all while listening to them. In fact, I stayed up playing CDs after CDs until the wee hours of the night, simply allowing myself to be swept away by the music. Familiar favourites suddenly have bits and pieces of music that were not there before, or rather were not prominently audible.
Now, I have been looking around for a pair of music speakers for about a year. I've listened to Martin Logan Aerius i/SL3, NHT 2.5i/2.9, Vandersteen 2Ce, Linn AV5140/Kedilah/Tukan, Magnepan MMG/1.5/2.7 and they are all nice sounding speakers for their price (my price range is not more than $2500). In particular, I liked the Maggies but my current home situation does not allow me to have a pair (active dog, yound and curious son - you get the picture). However, the Rev 3 bested them all in terms of sheer musical enjoyment. I listen to quite a wide range of music, from jazz to classical to pop to R&B to occasional rap. The Rev 3 breezed through them all, and I think it is simply because they do not add or subtract anything. They just perform their job as a pair of loudspeakers, revealing everything in the music. This also means that if the recording is inherently bad, it will sound so. On the other hand, if you have a real lush audiophile quality CD, you will get to hear every bit of it. I have to add that when I switched my Polaris I for a pair of AudioTruth Argent cables, the sound improved by a very noticeable margin (which speaks volumes on the cable's capability). It made me smile ear to ear.

In short, if you are in the market for a good pair of music speakers and you have about $2000 to splurge, do give the Rev 3 an audition. You may be surprised at just how good they sound. Highly recommended !

Equipment :

Parasound CDP-1000 CD player
Parasound DAC-1600
Linn Majik (used as pre-amp)
Bryston 3B-ST power amp
Illumination DV75 digital cable
WireWorld Eclipse interconnect
AudioTruth Argent speaker cables
Audioquest Sorbathane Footers
Golden Sound DH Cones

I have owned the Hales Revelation 3's since April. Once the manufacturer's recommended 100 hour break-in was completed, many sleepless evenings were consumed by listening to my entire music CD collection. These speakers produce absolutely clean sound from whisper levels to massage levels. The 10" woofer does an amazing job of producing tight bass. The midrange and tweeter yield crystal clear vocals and natural voicing on wind, string and percussion instruments. My power amp, Sunfire Cinema Grand, easily drives the six ohm load all day long while staying stone cold without fans or massive heat sinks. These speakers also do an excellent job with Home Theater. I have two pairs of the Revelation 3's with matching shielded center channel speaker. When fed with a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal from my Panasonic A310 DVD player you experience the Home Theater bonus. Playing Fleetwood Mac, "The Dance", produces a "better than live" experience. I purchased these speakers without listening to them through an audio boutique which guaranteed my money back if I was not impressed with them. Needless to say, I am beyond impressed. These speakers produce high-end sound at mid-range prices.

I just don't get it. I researched, quite extensively, several speaker manufacturers (PSB, Paradigm, Mission, Thiel, KEF, Joseph Audio, Platinum) before I ventured out to audition them all. I was certain after reading all the recommendations from various rags, as well as this forum, that the Hales Revelation 3 was the speaker for me. They had everything going for them; a great reputation, build quality, and most important, rave reviews for their sound. Boy was I disappointed when I first heard them. Frankly, they sounded like crap! Forgive me for forgetting the associated equipment, but it was all high end from an extremely reputable high end dealer. Just to make sure I wasn't hearing things I took a friend with me to audition them a second time. We were both cracking up! The bass was non existent, the HF was OK, but the thing I remember the most was how up front and unnatural the mid range sounded. Everything from Berlioz to Sarah McLaughlan to Alice in Chains and finally to Kathleen Battle sounded horrible. The only moderately pleasant sounding material was from a Chopin Nocturne. The midrange was so up front that the speaker had virtually no soundstage, imaging, or any other redeeming quality. Classical music had no dynamics, Sarah McLaughlan was all voice and no music backing her up, and worst of all Kathleen Battle sounded like an old man. Generally, I don't comment, or wouldn't post a reply like this, but these were the worst speakers I have heard while on this journey! One star.

After reading the Stereophile review and talking with Rich Birke (his review follows) I decided to take a chance and buy these speakers without hearing or seeing them. I expected great sound but was not prepared for just how great they are. Straight out of the box with no burn in, my amp hasn't been burnt in either and with crappy cables these speakers are unbelievable. I find myself saying over and over "these can't be $2195.00"!! No speaker I've heard anywhere near this price can touch them (Theil, Martin Logan, Vandersteen ect...). My system presently consists of a Hafler 9505 Transnova, Hafler 915 Preamp and a Ultech UCD-100 CD player. I also own a Hafler 9270 which I plan to use for driving Revelation 1's in some kind of surround sound configuration. Thanks to Bob Trollinger in New Jersey for selling me these speakers, Paul Hales for making them and Rich Birke for the great advice.