Tannoy’s popular Reveal range of entry-level nearfield monitors has recently been updated. Gone are the red and blue liveries of yore, with both the active and passive models in the revised line-up now sharing the same black fascia.
The other improvements, however, are far from superficial: whereas the old Reveals had rear-facing ports, the vents on the new models have been made to face the front of the speaker, thus making them more suitable for placement close to a wall (indeed, Tannoy say that the new Reveals have been optimised for quarter-space operation, and so should be ideal for use in smaller rooms).
The drive units have also undergone improvements, with the woofers’ offsets minimised and suspensions tweaked to increase excursion linearity, and the tweeters’ upper response extended from 20kHz to 30kHz, to minimise phase shift in the sub-20kHz band.
As on previous models, the baffle corners have been rounded to minimise edge diffraction, and the waveguides have been improved to provide a wider sweet spot. All three monitors in the range (the 501A, 601A and 601P) employ the same one-inch soft-dome tweeter, while the 601A and 601P use a 6.5-inch LF driver, and the 501A houses a 5-inch woofer.
The suffixes denote activity or passivity, with the 501A and 601A powered by an onboard 60W and 90W amp, respectively, and the passive 601P happy to run off an amp providing 50W to 100W (RMS) of power.
Available from May, the new Reveal monitors are priced at 145 Euros for the 501A, 235 Euros for the 601A, and 115 Euros for the 601P. Prices are per speaker, and do not include VAT.
