Revel F206 Tower Speaker Review

[thegeton]

Crutchfield currently has the F36 for USD $699 each.

 

[Astoneroad]

Crutchfield currently has the F36 for USD $699 each.

... and the F35 for $499

 

[Everett T]

... and the F35 for $499
View attachment 435083

Great deal for surround usage!

 

[welwynnick]

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.

 

[kyuu]

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.

 

[welwynnick]

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.

 

[Steve Dallas]

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.

 

[Laserjock]

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?

 

[Cadillacofminds]

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

 

[Cadillacofminds]

https://www.harmanluxuryaudionews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-2024.pdf

 

[kma100]

What do you use for adjust the bass?

 

[Cadillacofminds]

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

 

[Cadillacofminds]

What do you use for adjust the bass?

Equalizer APO, I'm using three peaking filters

 

[kma100]

Ah got it thank you. I have a DSPeaker Antimode x2 but I don't think it offers that flexibility.

 

[Cadillacofminds]

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"

 

[Steve Dallas]

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

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

 

[Steve Dallas]

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:

This is with XT32 correction up to 1100Hz and 2x SVS SB2000 subs:

This is with Dirac without DLBC with subs with correction limited to 1000Hz (with DLBC doesn't look much different):

Moving on to the silent PC running Dirac Standalone.

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

^ 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:

Right with and without:

And all together:

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:

Audyssey full correction with subs:

 

[Cadillacofminds]

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

 

[Cadillacofminds]

How do I insert emojis, I used a couple and they've disappeared?

 

[Cadillacofminds]

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