revel concerta2 f36 vs kef q550

[froze]

My much beloved 30-year-old JBL L7 speakers are frying, the tweeters have failed, and two of the mid-base speakers need to be refoamed, which if I was going to do those might as well do the 4 others, which in total would cost a lot of money, plus I'm getting something vibrating inside one of the cabinets when the sound is cranked.

So, that leads me to look at new speakers. Two that I thought were interesting from reviews were the Revel Concerta2 F36 vs Kef Q550. Both seem to get 5 stars across the board by all sorts of reviews by audiophile groups. Will any of those remotely compare to the L7s? Of course, if you haven't heard the L7s then you probably can't comment. According to one review the Kefs seem to have a better wider soundstage than the Revel, is this true? Or does the Revel have a similar wide soundstage?

I did find out that Revel is a Harman international company, which makes me wonder if they will have a sound signature similar to the L7s?

The room they'll go into is 15x22. The current amp is a HK PA2200 with 100 watts of high current, but I had the HK PT2300 already repaired once, last year, if it does something again I would probably be considering the Outlaw RR2160 MKII receiver. And I have a Klipsch R-120SW subwoofer. Not sure what else you all might need. I do kind of prefer sound that is a tad on the warmer side instead of screaming bright, the L7s were a bit bright in the house we're in now, but I was able to turn down the treble to almost all the way to get that a bit warmer in nature, in the old house it wasn't so noticeable and the treble was just past halfway.

Thanks for reading this and giving me your thoughts, or perhaps better speaker choice then those I mentioned, but I don't want to go above $1,500 for a pair.

 

[Deleted member 21219]

In case anyone is unfamiliar with the JBL L70 that the OP mentions, here is a review by D.B. Keele:

JBL L7 Speaker (Dec. 1992)

Jim

 

[TurtlePaul]

Umm, you are comparing to the L7 which were nearly $2k in 1992, the equivalent of ~$4,200 today. You aren't shopping in the equivalent product line - the Revel Concerta 2 (f36) and Kef Q-series (Q550) are both entry level product lines. They are well done, but make meaningful compromises.

Comparisons to match and surpass that today would be the Revel F208 and Kef r7 meta.

If you want to stay at $2k, the old (non-meta) Kef r7 are on sale now. You lose a little bass and the top end isn't quite as sweet at the new metas, but quite a bit better than the Q550.

Outside of Kef and Revel, I would shop Philharmonic BMR Towers ($3,900/pair) and Ascend Sierra Towers ($3k with dome tweeters or $3,600 with ribbon tweeters).

 

[Eurasian]

If you can find a nearby speaker repair shop, you should be able to get the surrounds for all of the woofers and mids replaced for less than $200. Once you do this and track down and fix the cabinet resonance, you should be good for another 30 years. If you have some money left over, buy good dsp room correction software (like Audiolense or Focus Fidelity) and make some filters. Those JBLs were and are excellent low distortion and high output speakers that can still embarrass many modern alternatives, especially with some dsp!

 

[Eurasian]

Oops, I missed the part about the fried tweeters when I first read the OP’s post. That might be a problem, but maybe with patience a pair will show up on eBay or can be had from JBL

 

[Eurasian]

Check this out: https://www.ebay.com/itm/394940227827

And there seem to be plenty of original tweeters for sale currently

 

[froze]

I'm retired now, and obviously not making a lot of money as I did in the '90s when I bought the entire stereo system with the speakers, which is why I don't want to go into the $5,000 range for new speakers, I need to be a bit conservative in expenditures, thus I'm looking at $1,500 range. I do have a 400-watt subwoofer, so any lack of base a lower-end speaker would have would be made up by the subwoofer.

I had two stereo-related issues this past week that happened within 3 days of each other, the speakers as noted, and the turntable fried, the motor stopped without making any noise suggesting a problem, and the belt is fine, and power is going to the outlet, but no noise from the motor even when I put my automotive stethoscope up to it.

I will call a speaker place in town and see if I can take them in and get estimates. But the last I checked they wanted $150 per speaker to refoam, plus now whatever the tweeters will cost, and whatever is loose inside the cabinet.

 

[MoreWatts]

Amir reviewed the smaller Revel F35 here.

The Concerta2 line is on sale for 30% off in the USA currently.

Crutchfield, for example, has F36s for $1540 a pair, F35s for $1232 a pair.

 

[froze]

ok, I see the post did post, strange, I posted and it booted me out of the forum, when I came back the post wasn't there, now it's there?!

 

[froze]

Keep in mind guys, when I say $1,500, to maybe $2,000, I'm talking about the pair not each!

If I go new, another speaker I learned of, the KEF Q950, can't really tell what any of the speakers sound like using my laptop, and headphones on the comparison at Crutchfield, but they seemed to be slightly richer sounding than the Revel Concerta2 F36 on the heavy metal track, but the other tracks were barely any noticeable difference. But that is going through headphones and a low-end sound card.

Any thoughts on the KEF Q950?

What I noticed too is that my speakers weighed around 75 pounds, these new speakers are averaging 20 pounds less, not sure what that means. The KEF Q950 has larger drivers than the F36.

I don't understand all those graphs that those websites showed mean, I'm not into graphs, they made no sense to me.

 

[eddantes]

I have the F35 and honestly... not sure why would anyone be disapointed with them. They are a bargaina and do all the things they need to... Except the lowest bass... which you're gonna fill with a subwoofer anyaways... I'm sure F36 dig a wee bit lower that 35s and thus will be a wee bit more satisfying.

 

[DMill]

KEF vs Revel, we do this a lot on this site. Both highly considered because they place so much value on accuracy and being neutral. My guess is you have no way to directly compare them. Brick and mortar is mostly gone. Unfortunately even people here who have heard them both, most likely have never heard them at the same time in the same room. So it becomes a subjective “I heard em and Pink Floyd never sounded so good.” That said, I’ve heard the Revels and Pink Floyd sounded pretty damn good. Look at the specs and measurements. Either way you have two great speakers. No bad choice and enjoy your retirement!

 

[froze]

KEF vs Revel, we do this a lot on this site. Both highly considered because they place so much value on accuracy and being neutral. My guess is you have no way to directly compare them. Brick and mortar is mostly gone. Unfortunately even people here who have heard them both, most likely have never heard them at the same time in the same room. So it becomes a subjective “I heard em and Pink Floyd never sounded so good.” That said, I’ve heard the Revels and Pink Floyd sounded pretty damn good. Look at the specs and measurements. Either way you have two great speakers. No bad choice and enjoy your retirement!

Like you said there are no brick-and-mortar places like there used to be, the only places I have where I live is Best Buy, and they only carry the low-end crap at our store, and we have high-end shop where the cheapest speakers are $4,000 a pair. When I bought my gear in the mid 90's I went to 5 different electronics stores, listening to a slew of speakers, and the 2nd best speaker I heard was the JBLs...the first best ones were Magneplanars, but they were $3,000 for each back then! Plus they needed a subwoofer because planar speakers back then the bass was not deep at all.

Does the Kef Q950. or the Revel F36 have a better more open soundstage?

This retirement thing is new to me...LOL!! I've only been doing it for 3 months, so my wife, who has always worried about money even though we had plenty of it back when I worked, is it bit on edge with all this, we could if we wanted to afford expensive speakers, but she's not into music, she can't hear music real well, so she doesn't enjoy it like I do, so for her to approve a higher amount of money for something she doesn't like isn't going to happen. We make the financial decisions together, but if we're not in agreement then nothing happens.

 

[TurtlePaul]

Ah, understanding the budget, I would add the Philharmonic BMR Monitors to the shortlist. The Revel f36 should he excellent if you don’t expect them to do the lowest bass.