Cheaper Surround Speakers to pair with Revel F208 and C208

[jtremble]

I am in the process of setting up my HT/audio room and am looking for some speaker advice.
I currently have a pair of Revel F208s and will shortly be ordering the C208 center.

However, I am about at the end of my AV equipment budget for awhile. I'd love to add 2 pairs of the Revel M106s for side and rear surrounds, but the budget won't allow it at this time.

I am looking for a couple of pairs of cheaper bookshelf speakers that I can use for the next year or two as surrounds, before I purchase the matching Revels.... then I will repurpose the cheaper speakers out to my garage setup. Powering the speakers in my setup will be pair of older Acurus 100W/channel amplifiers.

A few options that have come to mind are
1) NHT C1s (if Amazon ever puts them on sale again)
2) NHT SuperOnes
3) Elac Unifi (now $300/pair)
4) Wharfdale 225s (now $300/pair)
5) Ascend CBM-170SE

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the options above and if there are any other speakers in the $300/pair range I should be looking at to best match with my Revels.

Thanks!

 

[Blumlein 88]

JBL LSR 305s. $300/pr, and powered. If you have single ended RCA outputs those can be paired with adapter cables to send to the 305's balanced input.

If your surround receiver doesn't have preamp outputs then you'll want conventional passive speakers. I'd probably go with the Elac on your list in that case. Or maybe these Elacs which are $329/pr on Amazon and which Amir has measured.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ut-2-0-b6-2-speaker-review.14272/#post-437636
https://www.amazon.com/ELAC-Debut-Bookshelf-Speakers-Black/dp/B07B4Q5587

 

[leeroy 85032]

I am in the process of setting up my HT/audio room and am looking for some speaker advice.
I currently have a pair of Revel F208s and will shortly be ordering the C208 center.

However, I am about at the end of my AV equipment budget for awhile. I'd love to add 2 pairs of the Revel M106s for side and rear surrounds, but the budget won't allow it at this time.

I am looking for a couple of pairs of cheaper bookshelf speakers that I can use for the next year or two as surrounds, before I purchase the matching Revels.... then I will repurpose the cheaper speakers out to my garage setup. Powering the speakers in my setup will be pair of older Acurus 100W/channel amplifiers.

A few options that have come to mind are
1) NHT C1s (if Amazon ever puts them on sale again)
2) NHT SuperOnes
3) Elac Unifi (now $300/pair)
4) Wharfdale 225s (now $300/pair)
5) Ascend CBM-170SE

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the options above and if there are any other speakers in the $300/pair range I should be looking at to best match with my Revels.

Thanks!

Infinity r162s...wait for the next sale...

 

[JustJones]

There some NHT Super Zeros on EBay for about $100 a pair. I used them for years as the surrounds in 5.1 system. Great little speaker.

 

[vavan]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the options above and if there are any other speakers in the $300/pair range I should be looking at to best match with my Revels

if you are confident you're going to buy matching revels in the future I believe almost anything will do. I have el cheapo heco victa prime 202 on surrounds and FH and feel no urge to replace those. I'd like to have c208 but I have no place for it and don't think c206 will be so much better than heco aurora center I have

 

[Cahudson42]

Infinity r162s...wait for the next sale...

+1 on the R162. But they seem temporarily Oos on the Harmon website . However, the R152 and RS152 wall mounts are available at $200/pr.
https://www.harmanaudio.com/loudspeakers/REFERENCE+152.html

Erin over at erinsaudiocorner recently Kippel-tested the Neumi BS5 at only $90/pr. Tested very well for that price range:

https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/neumi_bs5/

 

[Prolix]

I've owned both superzeros and superones. The ones are much more satisfying as a surround speaker IF you do full range eq. Without eq I find the tweeter almost grating, which i didn't experience with the zeros. The difference was so great I wondered if I got a defective pair of ones.

 

[hyfynut]

I agree with the recommendation of Infinity. They will be a much closer match than anything from the other brands mentioned. Another option is Revels on Ebay.

 

[jtremble]

Just to close the loop..... I ordered the M16s last fall, but they were backordered. My dealer called me back with killer deal on 2 pairs of M106s and I blew up my budget and now have F208s and a C208 up front, and M106s as side and rear surrounds. I picked up a Rythmik G25HP sub and this system really sounds good on both music and movies.

 

[goldenears]

I use R152 for nearfield listening connected to my PC with a small sub, crossed over at about 100Hz.

Zero complaints. Wonderful imaging and awesome balanced sound with a super strong virtual center.

I A/B'ed them as fronts compared to my Kef Q900 just for the hell of it and they did surprisingly well, if a bit "thin" and lacking prescence/bass at volume (to be expected with the massive physical size difference). So don't expect them to play super loud, but they can fill my small room nicely when crossed over to the sub.

They would be perfect as surrounds - I would not hesitate to use them in that role if I didn't already have Q100s.

I'd expect they'd match very well with your F208s as Revel/Infinity are both Harman, and use the same design goals.

Edit: Oh I should read better, congrats on the M106s. I bet that whole setup sounds great.

 

[rynberg]

Missed this last fall, but Revel S16s make great surround speakers, if you can live with 100Hz crossover. The thinner on-wall nature really makes mounting them much easier than trying to deal with bookshelf speakers.

 

[Dj7675]

Missed this last fall, but Revel S16s make great surround speakers, if you can live with 100Hz crossover. The thinner on-wall nature really makes mounting them much easier than trying to deal with bookshelf speakers.

Because they are placed on wall, I would guess most rooms could do 80hz on the crossover. I have 4 and audyssey set them at 40hz on the back surrounds, and 60hz on the side surrounds. I bumped them up to 80hz. I'm sure it is room dependent but it is a nice surround being so shallow.

 

[krabapple]

Why not consult Amir's Klippel-based reviews and choose from those?

 

[Dj7675]

Why not consult Amir's Klippel-based reviews and choose from those?

The OP ended up with M106's.

 

[rynberg]

Because they are placed on wall, I would guess most rooms could do 80hz on the crossover. I have 4 and audyssey set them at 40hz on the back surrounds, and 60hz on the side surrounds. I bumped them up to 80hz. I'm sure it is room dependent but it is a nice surround being so shallow.

Interesting, in my room, they definitely start rolling off fairly sharply at 100 Hz. Of course, since these are mounted on side walls, the width of the room can play a big part in this (room modes will be higher in frequency in narrower room like mine).

 

[Lsc]

Just to close the loop..... I ordered the M16s last fall, but they were backordered. My dealer called me back with killer deal on 2 pairs of M106s and I blew up my budget and now have F208s and a C208 up front, and M106s as side and rear surrounds. I picked up a Rythmik G25HP sub and this system really sounds good on both music and movies.

The M106 is probably the best surround speakers you could have gotten besides going full range. Enjoy the “bubble” of sound when you listen to HT!