After reading a lot on this forum, I decided to go try out some revel speakers for a 5.1 home theater setup. I demoed the M105s and F208s as the L/R, paired with multiple centers and a JL audio 12" sub. I listened to various scenes in Interstellar as my test material. The speakers were sitting next to each other, I didn't replace the positioning precisely. I walked into this expecting that I would come out with buying the M105s for my L/R speakers, as my novice knowledge set felt like there shouldn't be a big difference between good bookshelves and floorstanders when paired with a sub. I believed this due to many claims on multiple forums that bookshelves with a sub should be equivalent, and the low frequency capability of floorstanders isn't useful when paired with a sub.
What I found was not a difference in detail between the M105 and the F208, but there was an obvious difference in how my body reacted to the sound. Scenes in Interstellar are quite tense and the F208s caused an obvious tingle in my spine and tension in my chest. My wife was with me and was able to blindly tell which speakers we were listening to based on the same feeling. We figured it must have been due to a volume difference, but I measured with an app on my phone and at the same setting on the AV receiver, the M105s actually were playing a couple DB louder. This feeling made the movie so much more alive and enjoyable, so I don't care about any differences in clarity/detail/etc.
I was actually quite disappointed in this realization due to the massive price difference between them. Is there an objective reason I felt this way? Do the larger woofers on the floorstanders do this somehow? I am new to this and very curious what is going on here.
(btw my wallet was also disappointed in what seemed like a clear increase in dialogue clarity with the C208 center vs the C205, but we didn't test that blind).
Thank you for any input! Glad to be here, I am appreciative of all the information posted here.
What I found was not a difference in detail between the M105 and the F208, but there was an obvious difference in how my body reacted to the sound. Scenes in Interstellar are quite tense and the F208s caused an obvious tingle in my spine and tension in my chest. My wife was with me and was able to blindly tell which speakers we were listening to based on the same feeling. We figured it must have been due to a volume difference, but I measured with an app on my phone and at the same setting on the AV receiver, the M105s actually were playing a couple DB louder. This feeling made the movie so much more alive and enjoyable, so I don't care about any differences in clarity/detail/etc.
I was actually quite disappointed in this realization due to the massive price difference between them. Is there an objective reason I felt this way? Do the larger woofers on the floorstanders do this somehow? I am new to this and very curious what is going on here.
(btw my wallet was also disappointed in what seemed like a clear increase in dialogue clarity with the C208 center vs the C205, but we didn't test that blind).
Thank you for any input! Glad to be here, I am appreciative of all the information posted here.
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