When Size Doesn’t Matter – The 2 x 55 Kilogram Powerhouse

I keep asking myself this question with large speakers: Who can set them up? I mean, it’s not enough that they somehow fit into the corners (where they shouldn’t be placed at all, by the way). These speakers naturally need plenty of air around them. In the manufacturer’s beautiful photos, this is solved exemplarily. It just helps sometimes to live in a villa.

When stroke doesn’t matter

The 2 x 55 kilograms of the Revival Audio Atalante 7 Evo must first be moved. But when they’re standing and get going, you don’t have to do much more. Except grin.

HiFi Test TV HiFi 3/2025

Test Floor-standing Speaker · Revival Audio Atalante 7 Evo

Not entirely uninvolved in the total weight is the mighty 38-cm bass driver with its fat drive system.

The dimensions are immense, the pictures are somewhat deceiving. Without stand, the Atalante 7 Evo has a height of 82 cm at 46 cm width and 48 cm depth. The stand adds 34 cm height. These facts should be known before falling in love with the Atalante 7.

Falling in love

I have already heard several speakers from developers Daniel Emonts and Jacky Lee. They were all excellent, especially considering the price. And especially the models of the Atalante series are simply great. A variant with 15-inch woofer? I’m immediately in! But it’s a bit unfair, because probably everyone thinks of bass first with the 7 Evo. Perhaps considers which pieces he wants to feed it first. But this is no riot box that just wants to make level. The use of rather noble drivers speaks against this. Of these, there are three pieces per channel here. Besides the 38-cm bass, the large dome midrange driver particularly catches the eye. The tweeter appears almost tiny in comparison, but is no less important.

With a diameter of 28 mm, the tweeter is one of the larger ones. Its membrane consists of a polyester fiber called Tetoron. The coated structure has significantly higher stiffness than a silk dome, without bringing disadvantages. Quite the contrary: The developers promise fatigue-free listening and neutrality. The neodymium magnet system has 5 dB more efficiency compared to the predecessor model, which can certainly translate into better dynamics. Directly behind the membrane, this also applies to the midrange driver, sits a small dome, I suspect plastic, which serves to absorb over 97 percent of the arising resonances of the tweeter. The technology goes by the name ARID (Anti Resonance Inner Dome).

This technology is also in the midrange driver, where it absorbs over 96 percent of the resonances. Here too plays a Tetoron membrane, here too a powerful neodymium magnet system provides the drive. Furthermore, cooling, suspension, rear airflow and transient response have been improved.

As one can see, the Evo 7 is very elaborately braced. No wonder with the energy that the bass releases.

Be that as it may: Who can and wants to set up the pair must first spend 10,000 euros. That’s a lot of wood, but certainly not badly invested. Nevertheless, it’s comforting at this price tag that the stand belongs to the scope of delivery. Our test sample was still pre-series optically, but technically “finished” and was still delivered in four boxes. Whoever acquires a series model gets only two boxes, since the speakers are already delivered mounted on the stands. That’s practical, but makes the matter another 12 kilograms heavier, so you end up with a total of 67 kg per channel.

Here the mounted midrange driver with its powerful drive system.

Here the most important individual parts: visible below: the ARID (Anti Resonance Inner Dome)

The midrange driver in detail.

The cover is two-part, the stand belongs to the scope of delivery.

The Atalante tolerates somewhat more base width than here if in doubt.

Which brings us to the bass. The (optical) heart of the speaker is impressive. 15 inches in a HiFi box are very rare. The membrane consists of a basalt sandwich, so presumably the developers have mixed volcanic rock flour with resin or similar and baked it with two plastic layers. That’s not a bad approach, you get a nicely heavy, resonance-poor membrane, as you want it for bass of this size. The thing must finally swing as piston-like as possible. The manufacturer promises a whole centimeter of linear stroke, that’s more than enough. The voice coil has a diameter of mighty three inches, the magnetic drive is exceptionally powerful and the manufacturer promises with solid 23 Hz not too much. You don’t need it, but it makes an impression first. The interior of the speaker also makes an impression. The bass membrane can unleash enormous forces, no wonder that the cabinet is correspondingly elaborately braced. It has a volume of 150 liters, which should represent a pretty ideal working environment for a bass driver of this size.

The reflex tube is optically somewhat unfortunately placed on the front, which only plays a role as long as you don’t use the fabric covers that cover the complete front (which I personally like optically very much). The already mentioned stand fits wonderfully to the 7 Evo, I could live well with it, whereas many stands, such as that of the Opera box from page 38, don’t quite meet my standards, being too unstable.

Listening test

So, and when the thing is standing and the amplifier fits (more on that later), then only joy remains. Very gently we started with Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers”, from that “Time To Move On”. And immediately this great looseness jumps at you, the Atalante 7 Evo shakes music practically out of its sleeve, without any effort, and not just in the bass, where you can expect that. The mid-high tone with Petty was wonderfully fine-structured, agile, detailed and pleasantly timbred. I’ll take that. And you can also learn something, for example that in the title track from minute two a deep drum comes in that I’ve never noticed.

Nik Kershaw’s “I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down” in the 7″ remix by Simon Boswell really lets it bang. But what was that? That suddenly really hurt. Also all crispness in the midrange had disappeared. What had happened? We had, because it delivers more power, briefly switched from the Soulnote A-3 to the Exposure 3510. But this duo didn’t want to work together. Every CD suddenly played annoyingly, as if the tweeter were new and far from being broken in. The listenability suffered noticeably. This is very unusual, the Exposure is without question a great device that has so far gotten along with all boxes. Significantly better it went with the Block A-200 from page 62, which really grows on me more with each test. That went much better, more relaxed, gentler. You can combine it like that, but the Soulnote makes everything much better again with the Atalante. According to distribution and trade, it’s apparently not unusual that the majority of the budget goes into the amplifying electronics.

And listening to this duo, you can only say: yes, that’s right! The bass beats in “Killing In The Name” (at “And Now You Do What They Told Ya”) hit the stomach pit, the box marches through this song like I’ve never heard! That’s so precise and ultra-crispy, a poem! It’s just ideal when the sound level doesn’t arise through stroke but through surface, so you get a fabulous effortlessness that probably otherwise only an excellent subwoofer delivers. Falco’s “Brillantin’ Brutal” also pressed into the stomach area, came dynamically and magnificently captivating from the membranes. At elevated level, you had to blink at some impulses on “Ihre Tochter”, you don’t experience that often either.

But also the speech intelligibility is top, the spatial imaging, the listenability, even though this is no typical audiophile box. It has more than sufficient refinement and showed with Pure Desmond “Plays James Bond Songs” how you serve details (such as breath and valve noises) unobtrusively but clearly and thereby place a double bass lifelike in the listening room. This is music listening as experience, in the very best sense!

Frequency response + Impedance

With its 15″ woofer including reflex tuning to 20 Hz, the Atalante produces plenty of deep bass without problems. The crossover frequencies lie at approximately 400 and 2000 Hz. The large 3″ midrange dome also plays distortion-free up to dizzying volumes, so that the box is very level-resistant.

Floor-standing Speaker Revival Audio Atalante 7 Evo

Equipment

Finishes: Walnut & Ebony
Dimensions (W x H x D in mm): 456 x 1160 x 480
Weight: 67 kg
Principle: 3-way bass reflex
Warranty: 2 years
Price: 10,000 euros
Distribution: BT HiFi Vertrieb, Erkrath
Phone: 02104 175560
Internet: bt-hifi.com/revival-audio/

Evaluation

Advantages:

Fabulously relaxed, deep bass
Fine resolution, airy, spatial sound

Disadvantages:

Large and heavy
Appearance not for everyone’s taste

Besides high-quality components, a Skyline Hybrid cable from van den Hul is also found on the crossover, which is also available as a ready-made speaker cable.

The tweeter also has a strong neodymium drive.

The Atalante family (from left to right): Atalante 5, 4, 7 Evo, 3 and again 5

Conclusion

15-inchers have something. If you flank them with top drivers for highs and mids, like with the Revival Audio Atalante 7 Evo, then the result is breathtaking. Here the developers knew exactly what they were doing. This speaker is a worthy top model of the Atalante construction series. What should come after that?

Review by Alexander Rose-Fehling – HiFi Test TV • Issue 3/2025

Revival Audio Atalante 7 Evo Review (English Translation) – HiFi Test