Revel F206 Tower Speaker Review

[rynberg]

Bass extension of this speaker seems to be insufficient?

Compared to what? For me, I would always use a subwoofer anyway, but I believe Revel erred on the side of sensitivity instead of deep bass response.

 

[fritobugger]

If you can find a sweet close out deal on the F208, they are a great choice.

Fantastic review! Thank you Amir. The choice is for me now between the 206 and the 208. They get the job done as reported by Amir: “By then, I could barely hear my wife trying to tell me something.” Priceless!

 

[Cadillacofminds]

I very much wanna (again) thank the fellow that sent these in, filling in the dip a little above 200hz makes sO much difference,..like really scratches an annoying itch I had but wasn't sure where. Reading that Sean Olive uses these as his mains makes me so glad I'm dumb, cheap, And lazy, in my never-measured-anything ignorance I could have swapped back in my wharfedale jade 3's and idk found them more appealing. People that have listened to these without this corrected, I'd argue you've missed a lot

 

[Cadillacofminds]

Amir talks of distortion levels being why he dislikes bookshelf speakers, which makes me wanna ask, isn't the fact that the designer can control the positioning of the mid and bass drivers, their distance from the floor, some significant benefit of tower speakers?

 

[IamJF]

View attachment 362863

Pop quiz. The Revel F206 is on the left. What speaker is on the right side?

Quality of low frequency drivers matters ... and area. This is a speaker with 2 12" drivers in closed volume - they don't need the reflex port to get THD down...

p.s.: linear THD scale ... ugh!

 

[IamJF]

Excellent measurements on this longstanding model and a highly professional review as always, cheers. If I was in the need for some more speakers, these would surely be on my short list.


View attachment 362888

This midrange driver ... looks A LOT like SB Acoustics. For sure custom ... labled
These are excellent drivers - hard to get better ones!

 

[Beave]

This midrange driver ... looks A LOT like SB Acoustics. For sure custom ... labled
These are excellent drivers - hard to get better ones!
View attachment 363221

The entire speaker is SB Acoustics - woofers, midrange, tweeter, and even the cabinet (I think) is made in a factory affiliated with SBA.

 

[beagleman]

Bass extension of this speaker seems to be insufficient?

For 2 6.5" woofers, it is very typical.

I think in "Real life room" one would actually get decent bass down to about 40 Hz or so, and possibly a bit deeper.
Sure, some deep bass was sacrificed to give decent sensitivity.

 

[IAtaman]

View attachment 362863

Pop quiz. The Revel F206 is on the left. What speaker is on the right side?

Is it 7Hz Zero:2? If not then maybe F328.

 

[thewas]

I think in "Real life room" one would actually get decent bass down to about 40 Hz or so, and possibly a bit deeper.

Exactly, many people tend to underestimate the influence of room gain, even my tiny Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 go down to 50 Hz with enough bass level in my actually rather bass absorbing (due to large window) room:

 

[mj30250]

I'm not sure that there's any singular subjective aspect of a loudspeaker system that varies as wildly as bass output. The same-size F226Bes were absolutely subwoofer-required speakers for me, and they were getting decent room gain. That's not to say that others wouldn't be content to let them room full-range. What bass they did have was quite clean and never audibly distorted.

 

[thewas]

I'm not sure that there's any singular subjective aspect of a loudspeaker system that varies as wildly as bass output.

I agree as it not only varies a lot by individual preference but also room acoustics and placement. In my experience wide SBIR related bass dips are very common and can be detrimental to enjoying the sound.

 

[CleanSound]

My main left /right speakers in my 7.4.4 setup. I’ve thought of replacing them with 226be but they are so good it’s hard to justify.

Sean, you mean to tell me that your employer doesn't give you a 99% off discount?!?!

So cheap!

 

[mns3dhm]

Start by pointing them straight ahead with no toe-in. Toe them in incrementally from there. I have not worked out the degrees of toe-in for my speakers, but they are only toed in about 1/2" from corner to corner vs. the front wall. That gives me the best imaging and frequency response in my room.

i have experimented with the distance between the speakers, their distance from the wall behind them and side walls, and toe-in. I wound up as you did with just a small amount of toe-in, but I think this is specific to this room so I’d encourage owners to experiment with this to get the best result.

 

[ChargedCapacitor]

I'm not sure what that is, but you can't rely entirely on these nearfield measurements. It might just be some bleedover from the tweeter output. And whatever it is, it's fairly low in level.

The response of this midrange driver by itself is pretty smooth in this region, with its breakup occurring around 10kHz.
https://sbacoustics.com/product/5in-sb15nbac30-4/

It's not bleed over, I have measured this exact phenomena on my SB15's when measured individually.

When you play a sine sweep without a filter and with a filter on this driver, the breakup is extremely noticeable, by ear, and by measurement.

Here is a quick sim of the driver crossed at 2kz, without and with filter. This filter is just a 2uf cap and 300mh inductor.

 

[welwynnick]

My dream speakers are Salon 2 or Blades, but they'll have to wait a while.
The shop in question just happens to be within walking distance of me, and I'm planning to buy a pair tomorrow.
This was very timely - thanks Amir!

Well, my son and I have just come back from the shop in question, Nintronics, which is a great place. Lots of really luscious HiFi, I was like a kid in a sweet shop.
We listened to the F206 in the acoustically treated demo room, expecting to be impressed and to enjoy the experience, but it didn't really happen like that. We listen to a variety of tracks, but often found them slightly pinched, sharp, grating and uncomfortable. When we turned the Michi amplifier up it made me cringe slightly, and we were discouraged from more listening and more volume. I fully expected to get my credit card out there and then, but it was disappointing and I didn't get the much anticipated feeling of wanting to own them. And this was an isolated test without any other comparisons at all. I saw a pair of Kef R11 meta a few feet away and asked to hear those (mindful of the similarly positive test here a few days ago). They're obviously bigger and more expensive, but I didn't expect there to be that much difference. It was quite the opposite, the Kef's were wonderful, more of everything, pleasurable to listen to, and we wanted to keep listening. Strings sounded like strings, and it felt like listening to music instead of listening to speakers. I really wasn't expecting this. My son thought just the same, even on the youngsters stuff that he chose to listen to. Much to my surprise, we left empty handed.

Nick

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Thank you…
Maybe Another Genelec 8361 killer with regards to value….???

Small question …when you say in your reviews “just kept listening “are you using both speakers at that point?

 

[cavedriver]

Apples to apples...feel free to show the data from a pair of bookshelves at $2,200/pair with distortion matching the F206.

Also, THD<100Hz doesn't matter with a sub is a bit of a silly statement. First of all, 80 Hz is a much more common and usable crossover point and isn't a brick wall...the mains are only down 15 or so dB at 40 Hz.

the Wharfedale Linton comes to mind at ~$1500/pair, although they are perhaps better described as "stand mounts" instead of "bookshelves".
From Erin's review:

No 2-way bookshelf comes remotely close to this level of performance.

I don't understand the reason for drawing this comparison other than to point out that yes, unsurprisingly, it's easier to get clean bass performance with a bigger box such as in a tower speaker. The point of "good" bookshelf bass performance has always been to get better response than all the other speakers of the same size.

@amirm , I would ask again if you could start including "height above base of speaker" for the zero reference of the vertical dispersion graph- it would really help in less far-field applications. Thanks for the review!

 

[mj30250]

Well, my son and I have just come back from the shop in question, Nintronics, which is a great place. Lots of really luscious HiFi, I was like a kid in a sweet shop.
We listened to the F206 in the acoustically treated demo room, expecting to be impressed and to enjoy the experience, but it didn't really happen like that. We listen to a variety of tracks, but often found them slightly pinched, sharp, grating and uncomfortable.

I've owned the F226Bes and have listened to the F206s. While I don't expect them be to everyone's' tastes, the adjectives you've used don't remotely align with my impressions of them. It sounds like something may have been askew downstream of the speakers, and/or perhaps they were connected out of phase.

 

[CapMan]

We listen to a variety of tracks, but often found them slightly pinched, sharp, grating and uncomfortable.

I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I agree with your comments on the dealer. They are excellent and have an unbelievable range of gear.

I don’t find the sound as you describe, but you heard what you heard. Hope you find what you’re looking for soon.

The predicted in room response of the R11 is a steeper slope than the F206 - so maybe a darker tonality if that’s the right word? -3db from 100-20KHz vs -6dB