I do not own a Revolve or Revolve As I understand it however, the Revolve is louder. And yet according to the owner manuals, both models output is 8w. Is this information correct?
I don't have a Revolve but have a Revolve and Mini 2 and so I did a quick experiment which may or may not be useful. I played the end of the William Tell Overture (first thing I could think of which was very loud 🙂 ) - the part we call the Lone Ranger Part and I measured the sound right up against the speakers in db. I used my Dell laptop wired since I did the measuring with an app on my iphone. I don't think the maximum output will be different whether it is wired or BT.
Here is what I found (phone against speakers):
Baseline with nothing playing - 47 db
Revolve - 97 db (sound maxed out with 95 but was distorting so I lowered it a bit and got 97)
Mini 2 - 100 db
(phone about 2 to 3 feet away)
Revolve - 87 db
Mini 2 - 86 db
Now keep in mind the sound is spread quite differently between the two speakers and will also decay differently away from the speakers.
I did also run William Tell against my computer speakers (Bose 201s connected to a 20 watt amp). I was able to measure 100 db about 4 to 5 feet from the speakers and the sound was obviously much louder than either of the two Bose portables. I could have run the test using my Roland KC-500 instrument amp which I can hear across the street but didn't see the value in that when comparing battery operated speakers 🙂
Not sure if db measurements will help but it was fun doing it! 🙂 What I believe is there is no real volume difference at max between the mini 2 and the Revolve - rather just the way the sound 'projects'.
Thank you. The revolve costs quite a bit more than the revolve. If the wattage is the same, what’s the difference between the models I wonder? (no pun intended)!
Unfortunately, I don't have any more access to the information than you do. The only way truthfully to know for sure about the volume differences is to have both and to play the same thing at max side by side and see if you can hear the difference. Keep in mind that these are not directional speakers and so they are designed to be heard all around the same way.
I checked out buy it now prices on ebay. The Revolve is 170 to 200 and the Revolve is 230 to 250. There is a slight price difference. Another option which is a bit more but adds functionality is to buy two Revolves like I do for about 350 - assuming of course you want to go with Bose :). That will also add additional volume and provide stereo separation (you'll have left on one and right on the other).