Revel Concerta C10 Review (center speaker)

[abdo123]

No. The Predicted-in-room response is excellent above bass.

Think of it this way. Take a perfect speaker that has 20 to 20 kHz response. Then high pass it at 200 Hz. Does it become a terrible speaker?

Yes it does, without a doubt. It’s literally turns into a mobile phone speaker. You of all people should know this since you never recommend speakers that roll-off above 100Hz because it always sound bright to you due to the lack of sub-bass.

Crossover at 180-200Hz with a subwoofer also means that the distance between the speaker and the subwoofer should be extremely low, as in the center speaker should be placed on top of the subwoofer which is not going to happen.

This recommendation is honestly against everything that you preached in previous reviews. Your standards for center speakers must have really went down after the last few reviews. It honestly doesn’t make sense to recommend a discontinued product anyway.

 

[LTig]

It may be a center well suited to a small HT but I'm not happy about the resonances in the mid range. If they really stem from the ports I'm wondering how much better FR would be with a sealed design - especially as I think that with such a sloped down bass response a port is not required in the first place.

 

[Rja4000]

Which way?

shelve down everything above 85 dB (flat attenuation)

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[Frgirard]

You are recommending a speaker that rolls off below 700 hz? That is a bit of a puzzle to me.

+1 and in multi chanel, the central speaker is the most solicited and should be more muscular than L and R

 

[thorvat]

It is 90 dB efficient. You can knock that down to 85 dB and response will be flat to 200 Hz then.

Which again is not enough for carrying human speach, as typical adult male will have a fundamental frequency from 85 to 155 Hz, and that of a typical adult female from 165 to 255 Hz.

Not to mention that most AVRs won't even let you apply 200Hz high pass filter as that is far too high from what is expected from good center speaker to handle.

 

[amirm]

Not to mention that most AVRs won't even let you apply 200Hz high pass filter as that is far too high from what is expected from good center speaker to handle.

What 200 Hz filter? I said nothing about applying such a filter. It would be the wrong thing to do as this speaker already has a high-pass filter.

What I said was that you could bring down its excess sensitivity and get a *flat* frequency response down to 200 Hz. It then rolls off from there.

 

[amirm]

+1 and in multi chanel, the central speaker is the most solicited and should be more muscular than L and R

Nothing slim like these speakers is going to deliver on that. My goal with these reviews is to find a speaker that fits under a flat panel TV on a shelf and produces good sound. It has to have at least decent directivity for wider sweet spot. All the previous ones failed at that. This Revel does a better job there. And subjectively does very well since it doesn't attempt to play low bass. In that regard, it can keep up with the dynamics of the movie.

 

[amirm]

This recommendation is honestly against everything that you preached in previous reviews. Your standards for center speakers must have really went down after the last few reviews.

What are you talking about? I voted down all the other center speakers I have tested. And my "standards" have not changed. The requirements have: speaker has to fit under the TV and have decent directivity.

This speaker has very nice tonality and fidelity. It just doesn't have bass. Don't confuse this with speakers that are screwed up altogether.

 

[MZKM]

Note: Rating meant for stereo speakers

Preference Rating
SCORE: 0.2
SCORE w/ sub: 4.5

Sensitivity: 90.2dB (300Hz-3kHz ; spec: 89dB)
Frequency response: +/- 10.5dB 80Hz-20kHz ; +/- 7.4dB 110Hz-20kHz

​

 

[MZKM]

You of all people should know this since you never recommend speakers that roll-off above 100Hz because it always sound bright to you due to the lack of sub-bass.

This speaker is going to be used very near the front-wall and likely paired with a sub, so the anechoic bass performance is not bad as it seems.

______
The preference score w/ sub also is likely underscoring this speaker as it just ignores the bass response, but the PIR curve is very bass deficient (and I don’t correct that) so it scores low there as well.

Would be interesting to see how much the bass improves when wall mounting.

 

[abdo123]

This speaker is going to be used very near the front-wall and likely paired with a sub, so the anechoic bass performance is not bad as it seems.

you can't do a crossover at 180Hz with the subwoofer being across the room. this product is unusable in my opinion.

Would be interesting to see how much the bass improves when wall mounting.

Easy, replace the on-axis response with the sound power. a 180Hz crossover is still needed.

 

[thorvat]

What 200 Hz filter? I said nothing about applying such a filter. It would be the wrong thing to do as this speaker already has a high-pass filter.

What I said was that you could bring down its excess sensitivity and get a *flat* frequency response down to 200 Hz. It then rolls off from there.

Simple fact is that center speaker, who can in a linear fashion handle frequencies only down to 200Hz, is not adequate for the job, and thus your recommendation comes as a surprise for not recognising such serious shortcoming.

 

[DSJR]

PLEASE can I try to put some context here?

Many of you guys are lucky to have large rooms and huge TV screens where something like this would be totally lost at the best of times. For those of us with small listening spaces and say, a 42" TV maximum (miniature for many of you I suspect), a brick and plaster boom-box of a small room with little to absorb bass reflections (which I understand timber built homes do better) and then, plonking said speaker close or tight to the wall behind or directly on the rack or support the telly is sitting on, which as Amir states, lifts the mid bass by up to 6dB or so, this tonal balance begins to make sense (remember my defence of the ATC 19 balance, as much of the bass reduction is made up for if used close or tight to the wall behind them as probably intended).

Do Revel make an updated version of this one?

 

[Matt0305]

This speakers is exactly what I'm looking for for my living room. I need a center channel speaker under 5 inches tall to be acceptable by SWMBO. Good directivity is important for my situation as half of the seating area is in a less than ideal location. This speaker has a very specific use case and I think Revel did a great job designing a speaker that is only 4" tall and has 3" drivers. The measurements for this one should be taken in context of the intended use.

 

[Sputnik]

Looks like a nicely executed design. The small drivers cannot produce low end correctly, so they don't try. If they did try, it would be bad. I'm sure Revel also makes centers with larger drivers, if you want better low end, you should look at those. But offering a slim, elegant and wall mountable center that doesn't try to overstep in what it can do, but focuses on what it can, seems like a nice option to have.

I spent a lot of time looking for an elegant wall mountable center speaker with good performance, and there isn't that much choice. I decided on a B&W XTC, it's certainly better at low end than this Revel, but it also looks awkward, floating between the fireplace and the tv.

 

[MediumRare]

Plentry of human of voices go below 300hrz. Many/most.

Agreed. As I said, the -6 is more like 150. Certainly this speaker cannot be used alone but rather as a fill-in for a weak phantom center.

Also, and this is critical: it is intended to accompany L and R speakers as well. Complaining it’s not full range is like complaining about vegetables that aren’t a sirloin steak.

Revel says: "The C10 is configured for the special demands of the center channel in movie soundtracks, providing exceptional dialogue reproduction and a seamless transition between the left and right front channels."

 

[Mauro]

Also, as this speaker for many would be mounted on wall with the bracket, it is important to note the affect on frequency response when mounted on the wall. Below is from the spec sheet of the JBL Control 25av (small 5 inch woofer) that can be mounted on wall with included bracket. Note the added bass starting at around 700hz which is in the ball park of where this speaker rolls off. I don’t think that is a coincidence. When installed on wall as intended, it can have a pretty dramatic affect on the bass.View attachment 171690

Yeah. Quite simple to understand I thought before reading this review and comments..

I guess there should be a different version of the PIR dedicated to wall-mounted speakers to explain this effect better @amirm

 

[Mauro]

Note: Rating meant for stereo speakers

Preference Rating
SCORE: 0.2
SCORE w/ sub: 4.5

Sensitivity: 90.2dB (300Hz-3kHz ; spec: 89dB)
Frequency response: +/- 10.5dB 80Hz-20kHz ; +/- 7.4dB 110Hz-20kHz

View attachment 171698View attachment 171699View attachment 171700View attachment 171701View attachment 171702View attachment 171703​

Yesss. 4,5 with sub is better than many center speakers https://pierreaubert.github.io/spinorama/

 

[Doctors11]

PLEASE can I try to put some context here?

Many of you guys are lucky to have large rooms and huge TV screens where something like this would be totally lost at the best of times. For those of us with small listening spaces and say, a 42" TV maximum (miniature for many of you I suspect), a brick and plaster boom-box of a small room with little to absorb bass reflections (which I understand timber built homes do better) and then, plonking said speaker close or tight to the wall behind or directly on the rack or support the telly is sitting on, which as Amir states, lifts the mid bass by up to 6dB or so, this tonal balance begins to make sense (remember my defence of the ATC 19 balance, as much of the bass reduction is made up for if used close or tight to the wall behind them as probably intended).

Do Revel make an updated version of this one?

Looking at their site it appears that the whole line up is gone. I wonder if we'll see an updated version soon.

I'd be curious to see how this compares to the Paradigm MilleniaOne speaker. Similar design aesthetic and apparently design goal as it too cuts off bass response at 120hz.

https://www.paradigm.com/en/passive/milleniaone-10

 

[Helicopter]

I should be jealous as my purchase of a center Polk R350 (2021 release and @$500+), did not do so well sucked, when tested.
But my fate is sealed and I have come to terms that fidelity only means 2 speakers/stereo for me.

Not me. My ultimate goal is to have the best speaker in the center. I think the form factor will probably be something like a sideways floorstander. The only one I know of like that is that newish Revel Be one. Though perhaps with the right setup I could get away with a regular floorstander. I am not really in the market yet though.