Focal 1038be or Revel Ultima Salon 2?

You guys are wrong about the metal drivers. These speakers do NOT sound metallic. Don't look at drivers and mentally project the sound you expect them to make. Just listen.

The Salon 2 are one of the finest speakers ever made, period. They have extremely little character of their own, and if there is a character it might be of slight euphony.....but very slight. This metallic sound talk is total baloney. It makes me question if you have heard them.

I nice stiff 100 watt solid state amp is the minimum to make them go, 200 watts would be better. Forget cheap tubes, but I have heard good results with 200 watt tube amps.

I can't say they are the best because I will never hear everything but they are the best I have heard. I think only truly exotic speakers will be better. They put a lot of thought and engineering into these speakers and did not just throw money at materials.

I own the Salon2 and don't want to brag about it. Every component has its limit. I heard better speakers but they all cost a lot more. One of my friends has speakers that cost $60k and it is slightly better than the Salon2. For $22k new, it is one hell of a speaker.

It is quite true to the source and highly coherent. You don't hear the drivers at all. It does need good power. You may need to crank it up a bit as the metal drivers are quite stiff.

If you are using 100K tube mono's you would not waste your time with the Salon2 speaker: plastic caps, plastic wires, and magnesium /metal cones.
If you are looking for the fine nuance of vocal and string reproduction and passages in classical that are at times are very low volume level followed by full orchestra these don't work as reference for that..you need a nimble loudspeaker that requires little power and yet can handle a lot of power at the same time this "flexibility" is not inherent in the Revel.

I like the speaker but I'm not putting it with Audio Tekne and Ella Fitzgerald!

I have Salon 2 speakers. I drive them with a Krell 402e and a BAT Rex preamp, and Esoteric K0-1, with Stealth IC cables and Siltech speaker cables.
I work with orchestras and bands and the sound of the REvel speakers is simply a joy. They sound great in my 18 ft. square library (heavily damped) but also fill the house with sound. They also sound good off axis.I have commented before--they sound good at very low volumes (better than any other speaker i have owned) so I can listen late into the evening when the house is asleep. But the speakers and acompanying equipment are all very sensitive to the quality of the recordings. Some recordings sound awful and some are spectacular. I find that acoustic recordings really sound excellent whether it is orchestra or chamber group, or jazz and vocalists. I find the system to not have a sound of its own. I have owned JMLab speakers before this and they are just not as extended and open. I heard Rockport speakers recently that were driven by Viva tube amps and they sounded very good but not in the bass. You need slam even with classical recordings. I would agree with one of the posts about the 86db sensitivity needing a higher powered amp.