• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Revel F206 Tower Speaker Review

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 3 0.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 11 3.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 99 28.9%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 230 67.1%

  • Total voters
    343
Crutchfield currently has the F36 for USD $699 each.
 
Crutchfield currently has the F36 for USD $699 each.
... and the F35 for $499
1741626327387.png
 
More likely there was something wrong with the demo space.
It was a very good demo room with plenty of space for speakers and listeners.
The room was acoustically treated at the first reflection points on all the walls and the ceiling, too.
The shop staff went to considerable care to position the speakers carefully.
The partnering equipment was good, and we were given as much time as we wanted to chose and play any music we wanted; and we did.
I went in there having just read Amir's review, was very confident that I would like them, and had firmly decided beforehand that I was going to buy them.
Instead, we didn't like them even in isolation, not having listened to anything else.
Subsequently, the Revels were replaced by Kef's in the same place, same music etc, and sounded much better.
The Revels were also being sold at an irresistible price.
I used to work in a high end HiFi shop, so not my first rodeo etc etc.
 
Fair enough. The only thing I would say is that the acoustic treatment may have been detrimental to the Revels, given that they are designed with wide dispersion and to use the early reflections for summing to a good in-room response.
 
Fair enough. The only thing I would say is that the acoustic treatment may have been detrimental to the Revels, given that they are designed with wide dispersion and to use the early reflections for summing to a good in-room response.
That occurred to me too, but the Kef's that we heard also had very similar and very good directivity behaviour. We also tried listening toed-in, toed-out etc.
 
That occurred to me too, but the Kef's that we heard also had very similar and very good directivity behaviour. We also tried listening toed-in, toed-out etc.
My 2 main sets of speakers are KEF and Revel, matched to their rooms for their very different directivity characteristics. KEFs are very even and only +-50 degrees. Revels are less even with +-65 degrees.
 
It was a very good demo room with plenty of space for speakers and listeners.
The room was acoustically treated at the first reflection points on all the walls and the ceiling, too.
The shop staff went to considerable care to position the speakers carefully.
The partnering equipment was good, and we were given as much time as we wanted to chose and play any music we wanted; and we did.
I went in there having just read Amir's review, was very confident that I would like them, and had firmly decided beforehand that I was going to buy them.
Instead, we didn't like them even in isolation, not having listened to anything else.
Subsequently, the Revels were replaced by Kef's in the same place, same music etc, and sounded much better.
The Revels were also being sold at an irresistible price.
I used to work in a high end HiFi shop, so not my first rodeo etc etc.
Which KEF model and did you buy them instead?
 
Do most my fellow revel 206ers smooth out the upper bass...I bring down the bump centered at 133hz and add boosts before and after 200hz, following Amir's meaaurements. I feel like it's a not-insignificant improvement.

I only realized how significant front-wall bounce can be pretty recently, I've only paid attention with two speaker setups, but I tell myself these have less front-wall bounce problems, placed as close to the wall as possible, than what I had setup before
 
The pdf above (if you scroll down a little) talks about why these speakers are better a little off axis, or at least it talks about a dip on axis at like 3khz due to the midrange cone and surround losing proper pistonic behavior. Should be slightly interesting to anyone with this SB Acoustics midrangs
 
Ah got it thank you. I have a DSPeaker Antimode x2 but I don't think it offers that flexibility.
 
Ah got it thank you. I have a DSPeaker Antimode x2 but I don't think it offers that flexibility.
If you're utilizing a PC, Equalizer APO allows for any sort of equalization you can imagine. You can carve the frequency response very precisely with its "graphic equalizer with variable bands filter"
 
Do most my fellow revel 206ers smooth out the upper bass...I bring down the bump centered at 133hz and add boosts before and after 200hz, following Amir's meaaurements. I feel like it's a not-insignificant improvement.

I only realized how significant front-wall bounce can be pretty recently, I've only paid attention with two speaker setups, but I tell myself these have less front-wall bounce problems, placed as close to the wall as possible, than what I had setup before

Short answer is yes.

I have 3 pathways:

1. TV / Movies via AVR with Audyssey XT32 = 7.2.2
2. Music via AVR with Dirac DLBC = 2.2
3. Music via PC with Dirac = 2.0



Media Room Pathways.png



I think I posted measurements of each earlier in the thread. If not, let me know, and I'll try to dig them up.
 
I found some of the measurements.

Starting with the AVR, a Denon 4800 with both Audyssey XT32 and Dirac with DLBC.

This is uncorrected without subs:
Revel F206 Left Right Uncorrected.png




This is with XT32 correction up to 1100Hz and 2x SVS SB2000 subs:
F206 LR XT32 1100 Sub .png



This is with Dirac without DLBC with subs with correction limited to 1000Hz (with DLBC doesn't look much different):
F206 Dirac Custom 1000 Left Right.png


Moving on to the silent PC running Dirac Standalone.

This is Dirac Standalone corrected to 1000Hz without subs (can be improved with more work):

F206 Dirac to 1KHz Left and Right.png


^ I shot the Dirac measurements with the mic in my hand. I need to redo them, but I usually just listen via the AVR these days, so motivation is low.

For those wondering about DLBC, here are the differences.

Left with and without:
F206 DL vs DLBC Left.png



Right with and without:
F206 DL vs DLBC Right.png


And all together:
Revel F206 SVS SB2000 Dirac Live vs DLBC.png


In my environment, DLBC actually performs worse and was not worth the upgrade cost.

And if you are wondering what Dirac and Audyssey can do if I let them correct the whole FR with custom curves...

Dirac full correction with subs:
F206 Dirac Custom Full Left Right.png


Audyssey full correction with subs:
F206 Left Audyssey Full FR vs 1100Hz Limit.png


F206 Right Audyssey Full FR vs 1100Hz Limit.png
 

Attachments

  • Revel F206 Left Right Uncorrected.png
    Revel F206 Left Right Uncorrected.png
    144.6 KB · Views: 17
Last edited:
I found some of the measurements.

I found some of the measurements.
Sorta interesting what your room did to the broad 1.2db bump centered at 133hz

I guess it's wrong of me to ask here, but your target response curve, where does it come from, I can't remember if I've come across info that it should be more complex than a flat, downward sloping line?

Quite lovely to see that someone with knowledge and some resources is advocating for the f206's ...Checking out these measurement makes me think of how foolish I'm being not getting into measurement taking
 
When I "reply" to a post, if I try and trim the content being showed from what I'm replying to I then can't get the cursor to move out of the shaded area? I wrote my reply and then trimmed, still messed things up slightly
 
Back
Top Bottom