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Revel F328Be Speaker Review

JohnBooty

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It is a wonderful kind of bass you don't get out of a sub in how clean and integrated it is.
It's funny how new audiophiles come into this hobby dreaming of subwoofers.

And once we're in the hobby for a bit we dream of simply not needing them. :)

edit: Obviously, some things are not achievable without subwoofers. Depends on how important that lowest octave is to you and the material you are attempting to reproduce. Remember, the lowest string on a bass guitar with standard tuning has a fundamental frequency of approximately 41hz, and most popular music has been recorded and mastered to sound great on systems that don't even dig that deeply.

If you want pristine waterfall graphs down to 17hz you'll need to break out the wallet, the DSP, and a small army of subwoofers. I am not suggesting anything controversial or unconventional; nor am I contradicting our lord and savior Dr. Toole.
 
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sfdoddsy

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I’d be awfully surprised if the bass depth of the 328 didn’t match or exceed that of the F208, given they have the same drivers (albeit one extra) and similar cabinets.

My current speakers share the same drivers and crossovers with a rear port and match Amir’s measurements very closel

I’m not surprised they measure differently anechoically. Mainly, I suspect, due to the ports. If you look at the Soundstage measurements of ported speakers there is invariably a glitch depending on where the port is and its tuning.

You won’t really know the true status of the bass until you measure in room. And even that will, of course, be variable.

Like earlier posts, my query would be about the tweeter height and vertical dispersion. To get the most from the 328s you would need to be sitting a long way back.

As a couch slumper this would disqualify them for me at that price.
 

restorer-john

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It's funny how new audiophiles come into this hobby dreaming of subwoofers.

And once we're in the hobby for a bit we dream of simply not needing them.

So true.

I think there's about 8 or 9 in the house and only one in actual use: in my teenager's bedroom and even he has grown tired of thumping bass. I think he's disconnected it as the speakers I gave him, have twin 8" bass drivers.
 

pavuol

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It comes in an exquisite finish with sparkles in it in the top panel:
/

dad-opens-glitter-bomb-daughters-mail-1421942672k.gif


Well, I mean, happy anniversary :)
 

JohnBooty

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Not buying the subjectively super-integrated bass. Can’t see any reason not to get the same from sub-sat. Also pure luck if the bass sounds that good without bespoke room EQ. DSP of bass should bring potential improvements, and freedom to place subs in ideal locations should expand on that.
There's a reason (well, multiple reasons) why truly high-end systems don't have discrete subwoofers, and it's not because they don't want to sell you more boxes.
 

andreasmaaan

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I’d be awfully surprised if the bass depth of the 328 didn’t match or exceed that of the F208, given they have the same drivers (albeit one extra) and similar cabinets.

Actually, if you add woofers while maintaining the same cabinet volume, the result is the opposite, ie you lose bass extension.

In this case, though, the 328Be actually uses a similar but not identical woofer. So it’s not possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison.
 

mcdn

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There's a reason (well, multiple reasons) why truly high-end systems don't have discrete subwoofers, and it's not because they don't want to sell you more boxes.
Isn't it exactly because they don't want to sell you extra boxes? Charging $100,000 for some exotic speakers and then claiming they need extra subs isn't a good sales look.
 

Beave

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Actually, if you add woofers while maintaining the same cabinet volume, the result is the opposite, ie you lose bass extension.

In this case, though, the 328Be actually uses a similar but not identical woofer. So it’s not possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

Different woofers, AND a bigger cabinet, AND different porting (front vs. two rear). So definitely not possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison.
 

Sancus

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There's a reason (well, multiple reasons) why truly high-end systems don't have discrete subwoofers, and it's not because they don't want to sell you more boxes.

Where is the evidence that integrated woofers produce better bass than subwoofers? This isn't sarcastic, I'm truly curious. Because as far as I know, it's the opposite. Subwoofers require more work and you need more than one for the best results, but as far as I understand it, it is physically impossible to produce bass on the same level as this with ANY two speakers no matter how "high-end".

That said, a customer buying $16,000+ speakers probably doesn't want to be told "oh you also need a modern room EQ system, DSP, and 4 other boxes to get good results". Even though that is probably what they do, in fact, need.
 

audioBliss

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A truly high end system has extremely low distorsion and will play back 5Hz to 20kHz+ at extreme SPL while giving you crystal clear imaging from floor to ceiling and from front to back in a ~50m2 room. You can't fit enough driver cone area in two speakers to accomplish this. When you go deep enough down in the rabbit hole you will finally hear a system that is truly high end. I have heard a system like this and it had 24 subwoofer drivers and gave you the most breathtaking imaging you will have ever heard while at the same time shaking your whole body at 10Hz.

I'm sorry if you have never heard a system where the easy feat of integrating a few subwoofer drivers does not seem to have been accomplished.
 
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amirm

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Where is the evidence that integrated woofers produce better bass than subwoofers?
The are integrated and fully optimized for the rest of the speaker. With subs, you become the speaker designer having to do that optimization.
 

Dimifoot

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Maiky76

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amirm

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Not for the room though
That's not the case with subs either.

The other thing with subs is too much bass. When watching movies I am game for that. But with music it can get too much with some music, and not with others. Hooked up a sub to our living room TV system and had to disconnect it after a few hours since the commercials had the most bass!

Not saying don't use a sub but you are in for a lot of work to get them to work well.
 
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amirm

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Dimifoot

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We shouldn’t have to explain again and again in an objectivists audio science forum, why multisub+room Eq is mandatory for proper bass reproduction in rooms.

It has already been well explained and scientifically documented in chapter 8, pages 230-251, of @Floyd Toole
Sound reproduction : the acoustics and psychoacoustics of loudspeakers and rooms.

I am not saying it’s easy to get it right, but it’s the only way.
 
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