This is a review and detailed measurements of the Revel C208 three-way center speaker. It was kindly purchased new and drop shipped to me by a member. The retail cost is US $2,000 but keep in mind that this includes dealer margin which doesn't exist in direct to consumer sales.
Important notice: our company, Madrona Digital, is a dealer for Revel products. While our business is custom electronics installation and not much "high-fi," you should assume as much bias as you feel necessary in my subjective remarks in this review. The measurements are produced as with any other product and no attempt has been made to make them different than any other speaker measurement.
I apologize for the crappy picture as I had to take it with my mobile phone given where the speaker sits:
Speaker is fully wrapped in plastic including front which I removed for testing. I leave as much as I can on so that it gets to the customer in as new of a condition as possible but makes the picture lousy.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1500 measurement which resulted in error rate of around 1 to 2%.
Testing temperature was around 61 degrees F.
Reference axis was that of the tweeter. The grill was not used. There are controls in the back to compensate for bass and treble. I left them at zero.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Revel C208 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
Close in view shows some irregularities in frequency response especially between 800 and 1.2 kHz. Opposite of many speaker, off-axis is better, approaching ideal:
Combining the two shows a predicted in-room frequency response that is excellent:
So don't go building a dead theater. You want these reflections to even out the overall response.
Drive responses in near-field measurement shows very good response:
Absence of a port means we don't have its resonances to deal with. That does translate into the typical bass response for a sealed box that sloops gently up. So sub-bass response will be there but at much lower level.
Impedance graph shows pretty low dip to 3.4 ohm and near it, there is phase shift as well so you best have a powerful amplifier to drive the C208:
Beamwidth is wide (which is what we want in a center speaker) but we see the same strangeness around 700 and 1.1 kHz:
As shipped, speaker wants to tilt up which is a good thing if you have it set low (i.e. below screen):
I was most impressed with the low distortion at 86 dB SPL and to some extent, at 96:
Revel C208 Speaker Listening Tests
I used my normal speaker stand which is too high for a center speaker below a projection screen. So I stuffed some rags in the back to make the speaker more horizontal. Once there, the sound was delightful. It was clean, clean, clean! Overall balance was excellent without anything standing out. So much so that I did not bother to apply any EQ. I just listened and listened.
I tested for dynamic ability by cranking up my 1000 watt amplifier to as high as I could dare and there was no sign of stress, distortion, bottoming out, etc. As my old saying goes, "I got scared before the speaker did!" Those dual woofers bring a lot of power handling.
There was this super nice diffused halo around this speaker. Anyone who thinks there is no imaging in "mono" needs to listen to a speaker like this. I sat there enjoying track after track even though I was playing just one speaker. This is what a great speaker with wide directivity delivers.
The only negative I found was the lack of deep bass. It is there, especially if you turn up the volume but it is not satisfying. You need a subwoofer which you would naturally have in a home theater. Note however that I had the speaker out good 5 feet from back and side wall. Closer to boundary placement may bring more bass.
Conclusions
A horizontal center speaker built to deliver high SPLs is challenging to build. Objectivity there is a miss in on-axis response but off-axis response fills that in resulting in excellent subjective and objective performance. Speaker is NOT however full range and needs a sub for full range performance.
As a center speaker where a sub is expected to be there, I am happy to give a strong recommendation to Revel C208. As a stand-alone speaker, it would rank one step lower as simply "recommended."
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Important notice: our company, Madrona Digital, is a dealer for Revel products. While our business is custom electronics installation and not much "high-fi," you should assume as much bias as you feel necessary in my subjective remarks in this review. The measurements are produced as with any other product and no attempt has been made to make them different than any other speaker measurement.
I apologize for the crappy picture as I had to take it with my mobile phone given where the speaker sits:
Speaker is fully wrapped in plastic including front which I removed for testing. I leave as much as I can on so that it gets to the customer in as new of a condition as possible but makes the picture lousy.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1500 measurement which resulted in error rate of around 1 to 2%.
Testing temperature was around 61 degrees F.
Reference axis was that of the tweeter. The grill was not used. There are controls in the back to compensate for bass and treble. I left them at zero.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Revel C208 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
Close in view shows some irregularities in frequency response especially between 800 and 1.2 kHz. Opposite of many speaker, off-axis is better, approaching ideal:
Combining the two shows a predicted in-room frequency response that is excellent:
So don't go building a dead theater. You want these reflections to even out the overall response.
Drive responses in near-field measurement shows very good response:
Absence of a port means we don't have its resonances to deal with. That does translate into the typical bass response for a sealed box that sloops gently up. So sub-bass response will be there but at much lower level.
Impedance graph shows pretty low dip to 3.4 ohm and near it, there is phase shift as well so you best have a powerful amplifier to drive the C208:
Beamwidth is wide (which is what we want in a center speaker) but we see the same strangeness around 700 and 1.1 kHz:
As shipped, speaker wants to tilt up which is a good thing if you have it set low (i.e. below screen):
I was most impressed with the low distortion at 86 dB SPL and to some extent, at 96:
Revel C208 Speaker Listening Tests
I used my normal speaker stand which is too high for a center speaker below a projection screen. So I stuffed some rags in the back to make the speaker more horizontal. Once there, the sound was delightful. It was clean, clean, clean! Overall balance was excellent without anything standing out. So much so that I did not bother to apply any EQ. I just listened and listened.
I tested for dynamic ability by cranking up my 1000 watt amplifier to as high as I could dare and there was no sign of stress, distortion, bottoming out, etc. As my old saying goes, "I got scared before the speaker did!" Those dual woofers bring a lot of power handling.
There was this super nice diffused halo around this speaker. Anyone who thinks there is no imaging in "mono" needs to listen to a speaker like this. I sat there enjoying track after track even though I was playing just one speaker. This is what a great speaker with wide directivity delivers.
The only negative I found was the lack of deep bass. It is there, especially if you turn up the volume but it is not satisfying. You need a subwoofer which you would naturally have in a home theater. Note however that I had the speaker out good 5 feet from back and side wall. Closer to boundary placement may bring more bass.
Conclusions
A horizontal center speaker built to deliver high SPLs is challenging to build. Objectivity there is a miss in on-axis response but off-axis response fills that in resulting in excellent subjective and objective performance. Speaker is NOT however full range and needs a sub for full range performance.
As a center speaker where a sub is expected to be there, I am happy to give a strong recommendation to Revel C208. As a stand-alone speaker, it would rank one step lower as simply "recommended."
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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