Amp and Sub Recommendation - Revel F208

[MIchi]

I have them for side surrounds in my 5.1 system with LCR 208's. I mean, they work and make the surround sounds, lol. I had Paradigm Studio di-poles before, and these are bi-pole. Both worked well for enveloping sound in movies. My concern for the surrounds weren't for music playback, but they add nice ambience with some of the music surround modes. Mainly Neo:6 if I choose to. Multi-channel music formats likely would work better with a direct firing speaker.

Most helpful, Tusken. I listen to a lot of music and have a decent selection multichannel and some quad formats.

 

[MIchi]

I'll also share I had been running my F208's on a Parasound HCA-2200II amp and after the 3rd repair in five years, decided to give the Hypex 502MP from Audiophonics a go, and it has plenty of power. I do wish I had a 3 channel amp, but my Yammy RX-A3080 seems power the C208 and S206's just fine. I tested center and then the surrounds with the Parasound to see if I could tell a difference and couldn't. It's in storage now. And while I loved the look and feeling with the big old amps, it was nice going from a 66 lb. amp to 17 lbs. I think it's cool how much power the little thing makes.

I'm in a 15x24ft. L shaped room and run two 15" Rythmik FV15HP2 subs for the movies. I don't believe 12-15" sealed subs would get the job done if you listen anywhere near reference levels. I'll listen at about -5dB under and they are working. I had an SVS PB2+(2-12" ported box) for 18 years before these, which I loved, but having the two subs definitely helped FR a bit with my wonky room. Some may cringe when they hear this, but my F208's are crossed over at 100hz to the subs because of how my improved the measurements were in REW.

The big old amps look impressive, don't they? I'm curious to see what happens with Parasound now that they have a new owner. They seem to be going back to the dealer model for selling their products. When they pulled out of Crutchfield I missed out on some outstanding sale prices as I found out too late. The Buckeye amps look darn good, especially Purifi.

Probably worth an e-mail to Rhyhmik for my room size to see what they'd recommend. The Rythmik subs aren't too much for your room when playing music?

The REW software recommended for your room to cross @ 100 Hz?

 

[Chrispy]

I was looking at subs this weekend and came across this quote from Home Theater Hi-Fi as they were reviewing the REL212/SX sub. "Per the REL website: “We do not recommend the use of a single REL with ANY brand of monoblock amplifier as it is possible to observe slight channel-to-channel dc offset that can result in mild oscillation. For any monoblock, we recommend the use of stereo pairs of the appropriate model of REL sub.”

REL 212/SX Subwoofer Review - HomeTheaterHifi.com

The REL 212/SX subwoofer simply offers an entirely new level of bass reproduction in both 2-channel and home theater applications, and I have 2 of them in my media room for review!

hometheaterhifi.com

Is this the above comment true in the article for just REL subs or all subs? The review's default system spares no expense. Had he purchased two of those subs which he reviewd, that's $10K .

Rythmik G22s with the Hypex amp looks like a more viable option.

Why anyone would bother with Rel in the first place is beyond me, especially their goofy connection advice.

 

[tuskenraider]

The REW software recommended for your room to cross @ 100 Hz?

Not really recommended, lol, it just showed me how the subs were able knock out some pretty big dips in the FR at that XO point.

 

[MIchi]

I have both but haven’t compared

Looks like the Performa 3's went on sale for 30% off from what I am seeing at Crutchfield as of end October. Probably as good a time as any to get rear speakers now.

 

[MIchi]

The M106s would be overkill for the rear speakers, but.....

 

[Laserjock]

The M106s would be overkill for the rear speakers, but.....

Some places have the M16 on sale also. M105 actually score better than the M106 I believe ?

 

[MIchi]

They score a bit better from what I've found with Amir's reviews of both speakers.

I'm debating what would be best for a nice higher powered amp or amps, what will sound best for 5.1 music that I have along with quad audio between the two.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Performas, even for surrounds. Bookshelf speakers are inherently inefficient and need current for best performance.

 

[MIchi]

No M106 or M105 for rear speakers or even the S206 surround, go big or go home with another pair of F208s or F206s?

 

[Laserjock]

Vote F206 raised up

 

[MIchi]

Vote F206 raised up

I did end up going with a pair of the M106s. I've got a 35 foot distance to run wire, I will just call it 40 feet so there is some room to play on the wire around a couple of bends. Most likely going with Canare 4S11 for the wires. It was nice to see Amir's comments with his 12 ga speaker wire measurment article, that they do runs with the Canare 4S11 past 100 feet.