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Focal 906 or Revel CONCERTA2 M16?

Superparati

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Dear,

I went though a lot of pages from this form to understand and capture information in order to help me and choose the right speaker to go with my Arcam A29.

Currently I have a nice pair of Dali Zensor 1 connected to my amp without Sub (and I don't want one). Time to do the jump.
Today, I went listening to few speakers at richer sounds:
  • Dali Opticon 2
  • Focal Aria 906
  • Revel CONCERTA 2 M16

From those 3 I found the Revel and Focal having more bass while the Dali was more in the high frequencies and behind in the bass.
I don't know which one to choose between the Focal or the Revel and would need some advice.
I check on the Revel website and they do not give a lot of technical information especially the high frequencies, which is a bit strange.
The Focal are very nice, warm with a rich sound which offer great characters. The Revel offer the same but with a bit more bass. However I'm not sure in the high frequencies if the Revel are as good as the focal. from the listening looks like but not sure.

My type of music is very much classical music such as Brahms, Strauss, Vivaldi, Wagner, Mozart……… and more rhythm with Daft Punk, Jean Michel Jarre, Electric Light Orchestra, the Alan Parson Projet, Muse, and Electro. Very large variety of music as you can see.

Last, the price in UK the Focal comes at 800£ and the revel at £1000 when in US the revel is more at $900.


From your knowledge and experiences which one would you pick?

I feel also touching the price range of 1k I know the KEF 3R are the reference and spending 1k on the Revel might be disappointing. I don't know if I have the right approach but I feel like that now.

Thank you for your advice!
 
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daftcombo

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Can you describe your room?

Can you audition those speakers?
 
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Superparati

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Sure I've a 25 / 30 M2 room, with wooden floor.
And I forgot to mentioned but yes I went to listen it to then this morning.
 
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Superparati

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CDMC

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The Focal, Revel and Kef are all great speakers. If you can, demo them in your room and pick the set you like best.
 
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Superparati

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After much reflection I went with a pair of R3 Kef walnuts :) still waiting as was in back order. the price is indeed very different when a Focal can be found at 600€ in France vs Kef 1600€ it is a huge difference (but in UK the focal comes at 800£ and kef 1300£). I feel, sound wise, a beautiful well balanced very smooth and deep sound. Built quality is amazing, stronger than the Focal for sure.

I think I made a long term choice and very pleased with this decision.

Thank you all for your advice and now I working on building my Christmas DAC to replace my current HiFiBerry DAC Pro.
 

paul 1952

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I just bought a pair of Revel M16s. I am shocked that they cost what they did considering how good they are.
Have to agree...Picked up a pair back in January...Needed some brake-in...I have appx. 60 hours into them and they continue to amaze me..Seem to be getting better and better...In my opinion, best bang for the buck under $2000..My speaker search is finally over..will be hanging onto these for a long time...They look good and sound great! They replaced a pair of Elac UB5's which I really liked....These are so much better...
 

paul 1952

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Have to agree...Picked up a pair back in January...Needed some brake-in...I have appx. 60 hours into them and they continue to amaze me..Seem to be getting better and better...In my opinion, best bang for the buck under $2000..My speaker search is finally over..will be hanging onto these for a long time...They look good and sound great! They replaced a pair of Elac UB5's which I really liked....These are so much better...
 

daftcombo

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Have to agree...Picked up a pair back in January...Needed some brake-in...I have appx. 60 hours into them and they continue to amaze me..Seem to be getting better and better...In my opinion, best bang for the buck under $2000..My speaker search is finally over..will be hanging onto these for a long time...They look good and sound great! They replaced a pair of Elac UB5's which I really liked....These are so much better...
Break-in is a myth, but good you enjoy them. ;-)
 

Dumdum

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Break-in is a myth, but good you enjoy them. ;-)
Speakers sound characteristics do change from brand new to run in a little, it’s measurable and factual, fs drops, vas changes as suspension soften up, tweeters oddly are most prone to it and the top end changing… it’s not like you can deny that as it’s measurable, so break in isn’t a myth, I’m not saying you have to break in a driver in any special way, just use it, I normally give it 100hrs before fully as it then will be for years to come
 

daftcombo

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Speakers sound characteristics do change from brand new to run in a little, it’s measurable and factual, fs drops, vas changes as suspension soften up, tweeters oddly are most prone to it and the top end changing… it’s not like you can deny that as it’s measurable, so break in isn’t a myth, I’m not saying you have to break in a driver in any special way, just use it, I normally give it 100hrs before fully as it then will be for years to come
Show us measurements, please.
 

Dumdum

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fs will drop, qts and vas changes also, as I say I’m not saying it’s night and day, but physical parameters do change, it doesn’t take long, (I say 100hrs as a long time, as by that point it’s 100% not going to change until it gets to end of life or something perishes or breaks…) and anything will have happened that will

I know when I used to be top 3 in the world in db drag playing over 160, a freshly reconed woofer would be over 1db quieter than when I had given it several good 6.5kw runs of 5 seconds each, I didn’t do anything special, just rolled the volume up to get impedence rise and then gave it full send (I don’t advocate anything special). But an spl meter at a fixed point on the screen that measures upto 185+db (also used by nasa to measure rocket launches I believe) is as good and accurate tool as you can get, I never did measure whether it was the fs dropping and it becoming more harmonious with the steel enclosure it lived in and the peak frequency being a little off or if the peak frequency remained the same and it just got louder, I didn’t have any analytical scientific measurements aside from I burped it and it got louder each time until it got to 164 with the correct spider configuration and 3 burps to be safe

Show us measurements, please.
 

More Dynamics Please

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Deja vu over and over again and again ad infinitum. Speaker break in has been thoroughly covered multiple times in this forum and uncountable times in other forums. Speaker marketers appear to be the primary source of the audible speaker break in theory whereas speaker engineers say slight changes from break in can be measured but are not audibly noticeable. Harman marketing folks wanted to promote audible speaker break in until Toole and Olive set up a blind test that showed no audibly noticeable change from speaker break in. This was documented in an earlier ASR post quoting Toole:

In parts of the audio industry, there is a belief that all components from wires to electronics to loudspeakers need to “break in.” Out of the box, it is assumed that they will not be performing at their best. Proponents vehemently deny that this process has anything to do with adaptation, writing extensively about changes in performance that they claim are easily audible in several aspects of device performance. Yet, the author is not aware of any controlled test in which any consequential audible differences were found, even in loudspeakers, where there would seem to be some opportunities for material changes. A few years ago, to satisfy a determined marketing person, the research group performed a test using samples of a loudspeaker that was claimed to benefit from “breaking in.” Measurements before and after the recommended break-in showed no differences in frequency response, except a very tiny change around 30–40 Hz in the one area where break-in effects could be expected: woofer compliance. Careful listening tests revealed no audible differences. None of this was surprising to the engineering staff. It is not clear whether the marketing person was satisfied by the finding. To all of us, this has to be very reassuring because it means that the performance of loudspeakers is stable, except for the known small change in woofer compliance caused by exercising the suspension and the deterioration—breaking down—of foam surrounds and some diaphragm materials with time, moisture, and atmospheric pollutants.

It is fascinating to note that “breaking-in” seems always to result in an improvement in performance. Why? Do all mechanical and electrical devices and materials acquire a musical aptitude that is missing in their virgin state? Why is it never reversed, getting worse with use? The reality is that engineers seek out materials, components, and construction methods that do not change with time. Suppose that the sound did improve over time as something broke in. What then? Would it eventually decline, just as wine goes “over the hill”?
 
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