I have owned the B15 for 4 years and really love this unit in my theater room
My room is 2,000 ft3 and the B15 can achieve reference SPL levels in this environment. This subwoofer works great for both music and movies.

I have tested literally hundereds of subwoofers and I still find this unit to be very compelling. The controls on it work great and the recessed nature of them makes it much less likely that they will get moved by dusting or other accidental contact. Their analog nature is also much more reliable than any digital solution. I find this subwoofer to be not quite as good as a JTR Orbit Shifter below 25 Hz and it is not as low distortion above 30 Hz as a REL Stentor III. Since both of those are much more expensive and larger than the Revel it is no surprise they have benefits over the B15. I also have tested the thermal overload circuit and it definitely protects this unit from overhearing.

At this size and price point I prefer the B15 to anything else. If you want a slightly more musical subwoofer I would get a REL Stentor III and if you want more rumble and great music the JTR Orbit shifter would be what I would buy if you have the space.

plenty of tight powerful clean bass on reserve

price

Subwoofers are usally designed to excel in either music or home theater applications, but rarely in both. That's why the Revel B15 is such a revolutionary product. It's almost been two years since I've owned mine and I'm still amazed with its finesse with music and slam in home theater applications. With it's built in 3 band parametric equalizer, it can be tailored to suit both music and movies. This subwoofer truly does it all and then some. Before I got interested in home theater, the Vandersteen 2Wq I owned was a perfect match for music. It integrated seamlessly with my 2 channel setup. However, once I got seriously into the home theater realm, the Vandersteen just ran out of steam. I was in a quandary with the fact that I did not want to settle for a sub that was great for home theater but suffered from the dreaded overhang on music. I also did not want to own two separate subs either, due to space and setup complexity. Overhang is caused when the sub cannot sufficiently control the movement of the subwoofer cone, thus resulting in the woofer continuing to vibrate when the music signal stops. This results in a muddy and boomy presentation that just isn't acceptable when listening to music. This is often a trait of poorly designs found in your major chain electronic super stores. It took a year of listening to many subwoofers on the market before I decided on the Revel B15 to replace my 2Wq. Here are some of the ones I demoed - Velodyne HGS 18, Sunfire, Paradigm, NHT, Polk Audio, Krell, etc. Not only does the Revel B15 integrate seemlessly to my main speakers as well as the Vandersteen 2Wq, its maximum SPL output is 126 db compared to 105 db. Remember that for every additional 10db of output, the ear perceives it as twice as loud. Since the B15 has a 20 db edge over the 2Wq, we're talking about triple the output. When I played the pod race scene from Star Wars-Episode 1, the roar of the engines was not only heard, but I also felt the pressure wave go through my body 12 feet away. Sometimes, when I forget to fully close the cupboard doors tightly, plates actually fall out of the shelves. On music, it just lays a solid foundation without getting distracted and annoyed by the typical boominess of lesser subs. This sub, literally pressurizes your room with it's monstrous output. Don't walk, but run to your nearest Revel dealer and give it a demo. I would not be surprised if you decide to purchase it within 5 minutes of listening to it.

Similar Products Used:

Krell, Velodyne, NHT, Polk Audio, Sunfire

IT DOES IT ALL!

NONE!

IF YOU WANT (QUALITY), DEEP, LOW, TIGHT, BASS, THIS IS THE ONE. I ONLY USE IT FOR HOME THEATER APPLICATION (I HAVE THE REVEL SALONS)AND IT'S AN AWESOME SUB. PREFER THE B15 OVER ANY OF THE REL SUBS THAT I'VE TRIED. FOR ME, NO NEED TO LOOK ELSEWHERE.

Similar Products Used:

OTHERS IN IT'S PRICE RANGE.

Power, control & quality of bass. Great with music or movies. The power of two subs in one.

Price $$. Tough to keep mobilized on solid-surface floors. Using three rubber isolation feet (w/o the spikes) has worked well in my environment.

Some background: I have been in the hunt for an audiophile sub for over one year to complement my B&W Nautilus 802s. My personal experience has been most subs are designed either for home theatre or music, but not both. The Revel is the first (in my opinion) to bridge the gap.

Prior to the Revel, I auditioned REL, Velodyne, M&K, & the B&W ASW4000. Each had their strengths but none jumped out as an 'overall' winner. As a result, I focused my attention on the B&W since it best matched (sound; finish) my 802s. Each time I auditioned it, I came away feeling something was missing. So I put off my search.

When I read about the Revel B15, I fired up my search & wasn't disappointed. The Revel produces the power of two 15" subs in a relatively small footprint (size). The REL and B&W are large, physical boxes. The best quality of this sub is the sound. It sounds refined & "there" at low volumes but can produce unlimited bass slam on demand. It is a very accurate & quick sub. This is, in my opinion, the refinement it has over the other subs. The B&W and REL are great at high volumes & movies, but lack the the finesse touch at lower to medium volumes.

I was fortunate to be able to compare this sub, side by side, with the flagship B&W sub. Both are very powerful subs but the Revel is easier to setup, is faster in terms of 'start/stop,' and less boomy.

No detail was spared with respect to the Revel sub. Choice of balanced or RCA connections. Parametric EQ for high-pass, low-pass & aux. Revel also provides software you can load to determine proper settings, spl, & positioning. With most other subs you will have to use your ears, pink noise & an spl meter. Like any speaker, it comes down to personal taste. In my opinion, the Revel seamlessly integrated to my Natilus 802s better than any other sub. And I have yet to find a shortcoming with it.

If you are going to spend $2K-$3K on a sub, do some research and audition them with the speakers you have (or plan to buy). In the end you won't be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Compared: Velodyne & B&W ASW4000.

tight bass, dynamics, equalization

none

I use this sub with a surround home theater setup. The cross over for the monitors is done at 80hz. I use JM Labs Electra 905s, center and surrounds. The interconnect to the sub is Kimber Hero balanced.

My room has at least 2 resonante modes that I cannot control by speaker placement. I was hoping that there would be better subwoofer equalizers available so I could use the HSU's and get a flat response, if they are out there I couldn't find them. I was using a non-HSU amp that did not include equalization and increased the problem with room modes.

The salesman at Definitive recommended the B15. I listened to it in their system with top of the line Revel monitors and was impressed, but that was their system. I got it in my system and it did everything I could not get the HSU's or full range speakers to do in my room. With hours of adjusting the equalizer and moving the speaker I was able to get almost flat response. I ended up using the crossover on the B15 and the 3 equalizer settings to create 4 bands that were equalized.

The quality that I like the most about the B15 sub is that it integrates with my monitors so well I do not notice the sub, it's just part of the music.

On movies the effects are clean and dynamic. I had got used to "boosting" the bass with the HSU's. The bass was deeper then but loose and boomy. With the B15 I do not boost the bass but crank up the volume for movies. When there is bass it comes in quick and clean, when there is no bass there is no boominess, much better.

If you have any problems with resonate modes in your room consider this sub. The Infinity home theater subs also have equalization if you cannot afford the Revel B15. If you can afford a more expensive sub consider 2 or more B15s. I really doubt the improvements a better sub could deliver would be more important than having multiple subs in the room.

Similar Products Used:

Hsu TN subs

Output levels (SPL), flexibility of use

Tends to "migrate" if placed on tile floor without spikes

Okay, I have yet to find a review on this so I might as well share my preliminary findings for anyone desperate for any info on these subs.
A little background: I have been in the hunt for a decent subwoofer for about half a year with the first priority being High output LFE for Home theater and potentially a secondary role in 2-channel stereo mode.
A salesman talked me into trying out the REL Stadium III but after probably a too-brief audition in the home, I returned it because I knew it would have taken at least 2 of these subwoofers to "fill" my 26x19x10 room properly. It did get really low but it did not shake the room like I thought it should. It did integrate really, really well with my main speakers in 2-channel stereo mode, and provided added-value but not enough to justify the cost with the priority set for home theater.
Next was the M&K350THX: This provided more output to support HT LFE mode but it appears I still would need more than one to fill the room. Also, the crossover at 50 Hz was not low enough to allow good integration with my main speakers in 2-channel stereo. It also did not get quite as low as the REL.

I borrowed a friend's Sunfire but the only thing nice I could say about this puppy was it got loud. I hear it's very placement-sensitive but I do not think it was responsive enough (and too boomy).

About a month ago, I was "browsing" the local high-end audio store to see what was new and was directed to the Revel B15 subwoofer which they had just recently started to carry. A quick look at the spec sheets told me 15" sub powered by built-in 1000W amp and crossovers selectable down to 30 Hz. This met my "wishlist requirements" very nicely - I did not think any sub would at this point in time). It also included the standard controls one would want in a sub plus 3 parametric equalizers to help with room-induced bass problems.
I initially had some misgivings about 15" subs with reputations of "boominess" and not really suitable as "musical" subs. The the first thing I did was see how well it worked with B&W speakers in 2-channel mode. I was surprised how responsive it seemed and how well it blended with the B&W speakers even using a 80 Hz crossover. And I could not detect any sign of the objectionable boominess I thought I was going to hear. This met the #2 priority, but there remains the LFE output requirement...

I next tried various DTS movies with initially-disappointing results. The salesman then tweaked the output levels and the 'WOW' effect was immediately noticeable. The final selling point was a replay of the Beach scene from "Saving Private Ryan" in DTS. This filled the showroom nicely which I believe was at least 50% larger than my own room. I was sold though I still had some concerns that this sub would not be able to deliver the same performance in my seemingly bass-challenged room.

The B15 did not disappoint in my HT room. I went through my library of DVDs and heard bass impacts I had not heard/felt before. One of my friends had complained about the lack of ".1" in my room before, but I doubt he will complain now. I was pleased to notice that I would have to address "room rattle" issues which I also noticed in adjacent rooms. This even got an endorsement from my Dad who suggested this 15" woofer was too big (SPL-wise) for my room. My current thinking is I will not need to add a second sub any time soon (nor could I afford it!)

I have just recently started to experiment with 2-channel stereo mode. I started comparisons primarily using Reference Recordings "Pomps and Pipes", track 4 "The Vikings" which has some good low organ music. Crossover was set at around 40 Hz as my mains already provide decent bass output (30hz-20Khz +/- 3dB ). Initially, I probably had the subwoofer output set too high as the sub made it's presence felt too well and I thought it detracted from the music (though not because of boominess which has never been an issue with this sub). I tweaked the sub output some and got it down to the point where I could not really tell the sub was there except for the occasional rumble; I did seem to notice a hard-to-describe "presence" which told me the sub was adding some subtle benefits to the music presentation (e.g. improved soundstage).

This experiment suggests to me that it will be well worth the effort to try to calibrate the sub for 2-channel mode and perhaps HT mode, (perhaps taking advantage of the parametric equalizers) for optimal integration with the rest of the room and audio system. Unfortunately, I do not have the tools yet to properly perform this task (Revel is allegedly still working on their LFO tools set as of this writing). I suspect a spectrum analyzer and a high quality microphone are also required for optimal tweaking.

System consists of:

Duntech "Black Knights" - main speakers
Def Tech BP2 - surround speakers
DIY 2-way with Dynaudio drivers - Center speaker
Revel B15 Subwoofer
Proceed AVP Preamp/surround processor
Classe CA-300 Power amp - Mains
Classe CA-200 Power amp - Center (bridged mode)
Adcom 5800 Power amp - Surrounds
Pioneer Elite DV-05 DVD player
Pioneer Elite CLD-53 Laserdisc player
Toshiba 48" Projection TV (ancient)

Similar Products Used:

REL Stadium III, M&K350THX, Sunfire True Sub