New Revel Performa4 / Arcam Radia speaker line-up -- with Anechoic EQ

[nathan]

I said I'm sure the 226be is better, just wanted to know by how much. I can't stand the white drivers in the Be. I could out the grills on, but I like to see the driver's. The Be's are just fugly to me. I was hoping the 345 was not that far behind, so I can have something that sounds and looks good

Oh, I see what you are after. Without the AEQ, the be would probably win your preference rating in a double blind test, but they are within the margin of error in most respects.

With AEQ, I'd guess that the 345 might sound better. Take the savings from getting the 345 and invest in whatever Harman requires for the AEQ to be added to the signal chain, and that may be a winner for you.

 

[amper42]

Good points.

The crossover to the tweeter is at about 2khz, ie, handling about the top three octaves. Nowhere near 17khz which just about anyone who can afford these speakers can't hear well, anyway......

And the bass is going to depend so much more on the room and placement than the differences in anechoic response..... and anyway, if accurate bass is the goal, a set of subwoofers is going to win every time versus either of these speakers when those multiple subs are set up correctly.

I don't run subwoofers with my F228Be or F328Be. I tried them with subs while listening to Jazz and Classical but they sounded smoother without subs to my ears. There is something about a quality full range speaker that offers a consistent sound subs can only dream of. Don't get me wrong, subs are great for my home theatre sound effects, but for pure music listening enjoyment at reasonable levels the RME ADI-2 Loudness controls and quality full range speakers are my choice.

And comparing the F228Be to F328Be - it turns out in a medium size room the front ports on the F228Be can actually offer a bit more perceived bass than the F328Be. With the ADI-2 software, I can dial it in anywhere I want it but without alteration the F228Be will offer a bit more bass.

 

[nathan]

Hahahaha you got me. I thought you were being serious and just misunderstood the science, and I kept reading and figured it out. Good one!

 

[Null-Test]

As far as I understand the Performa3 series was built for sheer output capability (while maintaining the other common Revel speakers’ traits), so much so, that comparing the distortion figures from the german Audio/Stereoplay magazine for the P3 F206 (2x6,5” woofers), F228Be (2x8” woofers) and even the Perlisten S7t (4x7” woofers), one can see that the former (within its bass reach, ~60Hz) clearly beats the F228Be and, above 200Hz till 5kHz, it can match the S7t:

P3 F206

F228Be

S7t

Revel Performa4 series wasn’t built for sheer output, so it won’t perform nearly as good as the Performa3 range in this regard!