Has anyone heard speakers with a wider soundstage than Revel's?

[nerdoldnerdith]

From someone who owns Revel bookshelf, owned and sold Revel F226be, own BMR bookshelf and Philharmonic BMR Towers I can definitely say that the BMRs have the biggest sound stage. The towers sound huge and go low.

Cool. This is the first I've seen these in the wild. How do you like them vs. the F226Be?

 

[blestin]

I like them more than the F226be, no contest for me personally. I don’t have the F226be to compared to side by side.

But I can confidently say that if they were compared against each other without a subwoofer the BMR Tower would win easily. It goes to 25hz flat in my room, has impact, sounds huge, crystal clear highs and a beautiful midrange.

With subwoofers their probably much closer, but I would probably still prefer the BMR Tower. I am biased since I preffered the BMR bookshelf slightly to the Revel F226be. I think that it is slightly due to how they sound in this particular room, as I loved the Revels in other rooms and preferred them half the time.

The Revel’s have a different sound signature that some may prefer, slightly shelved up response from 4k. I thought they were phenomenal during for movies.

 

[Ron Texas]

A wide soundstage is nice, but as other members point out there are other desirable characteristics like imaging. I would add to that layering and dynamics. It's the total experience which counts.

 

[Chromatischism]

Vertical surfaces mess with the vertical image causing what I call "drift" when sounds move from driver to driver and around the directivity errors present in the speakers. (you can here this great in guitar parts, where the guitar seems to float up and down!)

Interesting point. A spinorama doesn't contain spatial information, that is, "where on the speaker is the sound coming from". I've heard mention of this before with a crossover that can split up the vocal range between different drivers, which is a benefit of a 2-way over a 3-way.

 

[mononoaware]

These are designed to fill an auditorium with sound. They will direct sound straight at an audience and keep it from ceilings and floors and provide a lot of coverage deep into a very big room at very high volumes. Aside from the looks, not really appropriate for a living room unless you want the loudest home stereo in your town.

Thanks. I noticed due to their narrow vertical dispersion they usually have about 3 or 4 stacked on top of each other. So maybe 1 will not exactly give an ideal listening experience.

 

[preload]

 

[Chromatischism]

Thanks. I noticed due to their narrow vertical dispersion they usually have about 3 or 4 stacked on top of each other. So maybe 1 will not exactly give an ideal listening experience.

That's for beam steering. Look up "line array speaker".

 

[LTig]

Thanks. I noticed due to their narrow vertical dispersion they usually have about 3 or 4 stacked on top of each other. So maybe 1 will not exactly give an ideal listening experience.

For a few listeners 1 would be perfekt. But most of them don't play bass, and they are designed to be used in multiples where the number of units and the angle for each depends on the distribution of the audience (distance and height from the array).

 

[mononoaware]

For a few listeners 1 would be perfekt. But most of them don't play bass, and they are designed to be used in multiples where the number of units and the angle for each depends on the distribution of the audience (distance and height from the array).

I think the idea I had was stretching the functionality and just rewarding the novelty.
I understand they are built and designed for a specific professional use and not optimal for consumers using just 2x units.

(-3dB) 48 Hz – 18 kHz frequency response is quite ordinary not impressive but not terrible, I was thinking with some EQ in the digital realm (low-pass) one could get a usable 30hz low-frequency extension at decent SPL.

 

[mononoaware]

That's for beam steering. Look up "line array speaker".

I recall Amir reviewing the JBL CBT speaker (CBT 70J-1). Looking at the jblprocom product page the first line says this:
"Asymmetrical vertical coverage sends more sound toward far area of room to make front-to-back sound levels more consistent."

So in effect this CBT line-array can widen the sweet spot on the horizontal plane from front to back walls of the room, giving "clear" audio reproduction to a larger area of the room (in crowd applications).
And the Presonus CDL12P is essentially a "modular" version of the CBT line-array which can be stacked and scaled to the area dimensions.

 

[tuga]

Let's say under $3k. I've heard a good number of speakers but Revel's had the biggest soundstage and was curious if anyone has heard something that had a noticeably wider soundstage?

The price is a bit tight but perhaps you could try some omnis?
Duevel, German Physics, Ohm, Shahinian...

 

[LTig]

With good use of EQ you can get an even mediocre set of loudspeakers to supply spaciousness. If you take several measurements (one enclosure at a time), mostly off axis (to 10, 20, 30 degrees both ways at least and maybe one at 45 degrees between the pair), and average the responses ... killing any major peaks in each loudspeaker, you'll eventually get a nice smooth reflective response that will match the on axis response (in shape) pretty well. The coloration pretty much goes away (the 45 degree shot between the pair will reveal this). This works well in reflective rooms. Ultimately, your on axis response may not be exactly flat anymore but the overall in room response will be real close. As a last measurement, I'll take one where the loudspeakers responses cross (mic pointed at the front wall). You should see a nice downward trend in both left/right responses as well as the combined L/R response.

Takes a little time but IMO it's worth it. You'll be able to hear the same tonal response no matter where you are in front of the pair.

I don't think that the tonal response at the LP will be similar to that of a speaker with flat on axis FR. As I understand Floyd Toole's book the sound quality one experiences is defined by the first wave front reaching our ears, hence flat on axis FR is important. If on axis FR is not flat one should EQ it to be flat. EQing the room response is rather a recipe for disaster.

 

[Chromatischism]

I don't think that the tonal response at the LP will be similar to that of a speaker with flat on axis FR. As I understand Floyd Toole's book the sound quality one experiences is defined by the first wave front reaching our ears, hence flat on axis FR is important. If on axis FR is not flat one should EQ it to be flat. EQing the room response is rather a recipe for disaster.

*Listening Window

 

[puppet]

*Listening Window

Right. Tuning for flat on axis will pretty much guarantee poorer off axis response in a typical room. The converse is also true. A happy medium between the two is what you can shoot for. JBL engineers did some papers on this back in the '80's. They could predict, given a loudspeakers dispersion character, what flat on axis looked like off axis and vice versa.

 

[LTig]

Right. Tuning for flat on axis will pretty much guarantee poorer off axis response in a typical room. The converse is also true. A happy medium between the two is what you can shoot for. JBL engineers did some papers on this back in the '80's. They could predict, given a loudspeakers dispersion character, what flat on axis looked like off axis and vice versa.

Sorry, I didn't make my self clear enough. With "If on axis FR is not flat one should EQ it to be flat" I meant to use EQ to make it flat in an anechoic room. You need the measured FR, of course, not what a mic would measure in the user's room.

 

[Duke]

(-3dB) 48 Hz – 18 kHz frequency response is quite ordinary not impressive but not terrible, I was thinking with some EQ in the digital realm (low-pass) one could get a usable 30hz low-frequency extension at decent SPL.

If the woofer is in a sealed box, maybe. But sealed boxes are at a disadvantage in a sound reinforcement application from both an SPL/weight/cost standpoint AND a heat-management standpoint, the exception to the latter being if the motor is on the outside of the enclosure. Otherwise the air trapped inside the enclosure just gets hotter and hotter, whereas a ported enclosure has an exchange of air with the outside world and is more likely to reach an equilibrium temperature and stop getting hotter. So the enclosure is unlikely to be a sealed box.

If the woofer is in a ported box, no way. 30 Hz is guaranteed to be well below the tuning frequency of a prosound ported box which is -3 dB @ 48 Hz and -10 dB @ 42 Hz, and strong bass boost below the tuning frequency will cause the woofer to bottom out long before you attain a satisfactory sound pressure level.

 

[Chromatischism]

Sorry, I didn't make my self clear enough. With "If on axis FR is not flat one should EQ it to be flat" I meant to use EQ to make it flat in an anechoic room. You need the measured FR, of course, not what a mic would measure in the user's room.

What we are getting at is the listening window (an average of anechoic measurements) is a better indication of what we will hear and is better to EQ than the on-axis (0°) sound.

 

[nerdoldnerdith]

What we are getting at is the listening window (an average of anechoic measurements) is a better indication of what we will hear and is better to EQ than the on-axis (0°) sound.

Most room correction software has you take measurements at several listening positions and equalizes the average. This is the best way to go unless you're in a heavily treated studio.

 

[ArtDJ]

My vintage AR-LSTs have the widest sound stage of any speaker I've heard. I've spent time listening to all of the Revels on the flagship store's showroom floor in NYC, and while they are wonderful speakers they're in a different category altogether, especially wrt the expansiveness of the sound stage.

 

[nerdoldnerdith]

My vintage AR-LSTs have the widest sound stage of any speaker I've heard. I've spent time listening to all of the Revels on the flagship store's showroom floor in NYC, and while they are wonderful speakers they're in a different category altogether, especially wrt the expansiveness of the sound stage.

Is this thing going to eat me?