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Revival Audio Sprint 4 speakers: entertainment, involvement and listener experience (by The EAR)
Revival Audio Sprint 4 speakers
It is, and always has been, axiomatic that the ideal hi-fi system is the one that most faithfully reproduces the recording of the original musical performance. Yet never has the phrase ‘easier said than done’ been more crushingly apt. The problem here is ‘faithfully reproduces’ which, in purely pragmatic terms, is open to wide interpretation, not least because, and no matter how much money is thrown at the endeavour, mere verisimilitude is as close as things ever get.
Some approaches shoot for technical correctness in the frequency and temporal domains with a scientific rigour that seemingly can’t help but achieve the desired result. Others, more subjectively inspired, home in on the spirit and soul of the music with the intention of unlocking its emotional power and ability to connect at a deep, personal level. And, of course, there’s nothing to say that one can’t lead to the other. But mostly, it’s the character and quality of these high functioning but differing approximations we all invest in and get to argue over. If everything sounded identically ‘ideal’ as in the practical realisation of the axiom, hi-fi as a hobby would quickly lose its fascination.
As the most sonically variable of all hi-fi components, loudspeakers inevitably have the biggest say in the final reckoning. And having lived with French brand Revival Audio’s Sprint 4 floorstanders for a couple of months now, I’m pretty sure that its designers, perhaps a little surprisingly given their backgrounds, have gone down the Big Personality route. Engineer Daniel Emonts (Dynaudio, Focal) and former Dynaudio CEO Jacky Lee established Revival Audio in 2021 to ‘perfect true listening experiences through products of decades-accumulated craftsmanship’. I think that’s the key’s right there. ‘True listening experience’. I have the distinct impression the Sprint 4 isn’t trying to be a particularly ‘accurate’ transducer but instead has a cannily ‘shaped’ skillset that places the emphasis firmly on entertainment, involvement and listener experience.
As part of Revival Audio’s entry level range, the £1,790 2.5-way, rear-ported Sprint 4 is joined by the 2-way Sprint 3 standmount. They slot in below the more established Atalante line up which is topped out by the company’s grand and extravagantly Old School Atalante 7 Evo, a knowing but beautifully executed throwback to the days of studio-inspired large boxes toting an enormous (15-inch) woofer and monitor-grade dome mid-range driver, the cabinets resting on sturdy, stubby stands – all for a cool £9,390.
Nothing retro about the Sprint 4. Intriguingly, it has a removable ‘outer’ front baffle made from a light, rigid material contoured to offer a degree of wave guidance to each of the three drivers for less diffraction and better dispersion performance. Held in place magnetically, in the manner of a conventional grille, the actual circular fabric covers for the mid and/mid-bass drivers are click-attached to the back rather than the front of the detachable baffle.
Clever stuff. That said, I never felt inclined to remove the so-called Elytron Acoustic Baffle and circular grilles because, apart from discarding the wave guide benefits, the resulting look is maybe a bit too stark. The nicely finished cabinets are rear ported in two places and foam bungs are included to tailor bass output if required. Supplied in the box are outriggers to fix to the base corners at a 45-degree angle to enhance stability. They’re quite chunky and come with shiny round-tipped spikes which look the part but are unlikely to make it all the way through a plush carpet. The cable binding posts on the lower rear baffle look well engineered, too, but just the pair, so no bi-wiring.
The Sprint 4’s 28mm soft-dome tweeter, designed and made in house, features an anti-reflection inner dome (ARID) to absorb unwanted resonances. Not a unique endeavour, this, nor the oft cited aim to create a diaphragm material for mid- and bass drivers that is both rigid and light with good internal damping. RA’s solution, here, for its 178mm mid-bass and bass drivers is basalt sandwich construction (BSC) which it says delivers a ‘rapid yet smooth response with impressively tight bass dynamics’.
Sound quality
Unsurprisingly, given the Dynaudio-rooted credentials of Revival Audio’s founders, the Sprint 4s do textbook ‘hi-fi’ to a high standard. Perhaps most notable is their facility to project a spacious soundstage and image precisely. Even with the most densely layered and tonally contrasted jazz concoctions of Pat Metheney are rendered in an organised, separated, clean and clear fashion. Midband openness and clarity are well served, too, if quite forward in structure – at least when combined with a front end as potent and performance orientated as Chord Electronics’ Hugo TT2 DAC and Leema’s Tucana II Anniversary integrated amp.
But as I hinted earlier, and more significantly, the Sprint 4 also has an unmistakable presentational style that’s out to generate some real heat from the get-go when fed the right stuff. Capable of a showroom demo slam dunk, there’s a palpable solidity and dynamic energy to the sound that immediately commands your attention and, more importantly, keeps you hooked.
All but tailor made to exploit the Sprint 4’s front-foot enthusiasm and fulsome expressiveness, the first Qobuz stream is Huey Lewis and The News and The Power of Love. Okay, I recently re-watched Back To The Futurefor the umpteenth time. Leaning on a Leema Acoustics Tucana II Anniversary amp’s ample power reserves but staying just the right side of too darn loud, the result is wonderfully visceral, colourful and immersive. The Sprint 4 has a full-blooded, muscular grip on proceedings that brilliantly illuminates the track’s rolling hooks, crunchy keyboards, cutely timed bluesy riffs and cheeky Philly soul harmonies. It’s impossible not to engage with the unstoppable impetus of the track and I’m struggling to think of another similarly priced floorstander that could do a better job of communicating so much fun and energy.
The listening session moves on and I find myself choosing more big scale material than not to indulge the Sprint 4’s most obvious strengths. Huge anthemic songs with bags of faux stadium reverb like The 1975’s Somebody Else are an absolute blast, it’s as if the Sprint 4 is straining at the leash to show what it can do on a large stage. Crucially, its bass – while unerringly taut, textured and tuneful – is extended enough to capture a sense of stadium ambience whether real or studio added. Indeed, whatever they’re fed, the speakers have the wherewithal to sound big, authoritative, dynamic and, occasionally, thrillingly dramatic.
I was afraid this unconstrained largesse might mean gentler, more intimate fare would become no go areas. And yes, I do get the feeling that in realising such potent, colourful, big-scale credentials a few degrees of finesse, nuance and timing acuity, qualities more easily identified in some talented rivals, have taken a less prominent role in the overall balance. I wouldn’t necessarily choose the Sprint 4s to reveal in full the exquisite inner beauty of Joni Mitchell’s Edith and the Kingpin, but the husky timbre and sheer presence of the older Mitchell’s vocal has seldom sounded better.
Conclusion
One thing is sure. The Revival Audio Sprint 4 is not your typical circa £2k floorstanding loudspeaker. It’s not a consummate all-rounder. It isn’t a monitor-class transducer, capable of pulling apart a recording for forensic analysis. It is, however, musically rewarding, immensely likable and a whole lot of fun. What it does well it does extremely well and, in an imperfect but ever fascinating hi-fi world, just the kind of product to keep the addiction alive.