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Revel f206 versus kef r7

A800

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formant_singer.jpg
 

q3cpma

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@q3cpma the graphic is well and good for Genelec's because they are designed that way. Those speakers also have boundary eq built in. KEF recommends a minimum of 9" from the front wall. For Revel I could not find a minimum, but they recommend plugging the ports if the speaker is less than 61 CM from a wall other large object. Of course, if you high pass your mains a lot less energy is coming out of the ports.

It probably boils down to do you want a speaker from an English company which is made in China and has Scandinavian modern design or a speaker from an American subsidiary of a South Korean company where Toole and Olive used to work, is built in Indonesia, and has styling which is somewhat baroque. Is that simple enough?
What I meant is that it doesn't matter where the port is located.
 

Alexanderc

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The graph is showing common formant frequencies of trained singers practicing a western style. I quoted fundamental frequencies in my post. This is my expertise (and my day job) and I’m happy to continue this discussion elsewhere so as not to derail the thread if anyone is interested.
 

A800

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The graph is showing common formant frequencies of trained singers practicing a western style. I quoted fundamental frequencies in my post. This is my expertise (and my day job) and I’m happy to continue this discussion elsewhere so as not to derail the thread if anyone is interested.
Please do so.
 

dwkdnvr

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For me, choosing between them would come down to the room. Big room would favor the Revels, small room the Kefs. This is based on trying my R3's in the living room (part of a ~1000 sq ft open concept space) and finding them a bit on the dull side. They're wonderful speakers, but in this space I'd definitely want wider dispersion.
 

aarons915

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For me, choosing between them would come down to the room. Big room would favor the Revels, small room the Kefs. This is based on trying my R3's in the living room (part of a ~1000 sq ft open concept space) and finding them a bit on the dull side. They're wonderful speakers, but in this space I'd definitely want wider dispersion.

I agree a bigger room does better with wide dispersion speakers but I wouldn't say that Revel in general has wider dispersion than KEF. Comparing the R3 to most Revels directivity index the KEF is 3db away from the listening window out to about 4k and then drops to just 4db away for the rest. Most Revel are very similar but may stay at 3db after 4k, I really doubt that is very audible considering in a large room the reflection will be way down in amplitude compared with the direct sound. The only speaker I've seen that has an objectively wider dispersion than most cone and dome speakers would be the Philharmonic BMR, I imagine any 3 way speakers with the RAAL 64-10 would be similar in dispersion.
 
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Novak

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My room is about 30m2 (322 sq ft). I think both should work fine.
More I read about these two, the less I see what the Revel would bring more than the kef (bearing in mind that they cost almost 1k euros more in Europe). I think the scale is beginning to tilt on the English manufacturer side.
 

rodtor

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My room is about 30m2 (322 sq ft). I think both should work fine.
More I read about these two, the less I see what the Revel would bring more than the kef (bearing in mind that they cost almost 1k euros more in Europe). I think the scale is beginning to tilt on the English manufacturer side.
That's interesting. Here, the Revels sell for $5000 (CAD), the KEFs for $5400. But the latter are available from a number of local shops. This does not seem to be true for the Revels.
 

Alexanderc

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Thanks for sharing
So based on your knowledge, is a tweeter crossover frequency at 2.9kHz better than 2.1kHz? Or is it just not relevant enough to rule in average?
That is a very interesting question. If there is any research on this, I haven't read it, and I've never heard it brought up by anyone in the context of that other thread. My guess is that you're right and a proper crossover will make this irrelevant.
 

dwkdnvr

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That is a very interesting question. If there is any research on this, I haven't read it, and I've never heard it brought up by anyone in the context of that other thread. My guess is that you're right and a proper crossover will make this irrelevant.
There is a lot of hand-waving around this. In the DIY community, you very frequently see people wanting to create a design that avoids a crossover 'in the critical midrange'. Lots of people chime in, and by the time the discussion is a few pages long, you have a 'critical midrange' that spans from 200Hz to 7kHz.
As far as I have absorbed the actual test results, the phase response associated with a typical crossover has never been proven to be audible. In this era of cheap DSP, it's pretty easy to create all-pass filters that mimic the phase response of an LR2 or LR4 xover over headphones, but even that hasn't lead to a surge in reports of audibility.
I actually think it's more likely that what people were hearing was the discontinuity in the power response due to a poorly executed speaker design, and chalked it up to the phase of the xover. That part is speculation though.
The upshot IMHO is to not sweat it - evaluate a speaker on the merits. Lower mid-to-tweeter xovers make it easier to achieve more uniform off-axis response, and so the trend seems to be to lower xovers rather than higher, although power handling does come into play for commercial designs - they have to be aware of the support costs associated with lower tweeter xovers and the risk of blowing them.
 

A800

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I think @ or slightly above 3kHz is enough.
 

jonfitch

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I'd take the KEF for music, since it's more full range and better uniform dispersion. For home theater I'd take the Revel as it should have better dynamics and most Revels are bass shy for their size (early roll-off) and designed to pair with subs in HT anyway.
 

A800

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The Focal Aria 926 or the Chora 826 could also be an option.
 

VintageFlanker

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The Focal Aria 926 or the Chora 826 could also be an option.
For @Novak budget, I would rather consider the 936 or 948. Both are still way cheaper than the R7 in my experience (3200€ for R7s where you can get 936s/948s for 1500€ or less during every Summer Sales). But Aria range is 7 years old now and will probably be replaced soon.

The R7s are a good option: We know both R3 and R11 measure really well. Then, we have datas to assume the Kef R whitepaper is somewhat reliable:
Spin - KEF R7 (2018).png


Revel are really expensive in EU, since there's not a lot (if almost none) distributors around here. For "1000€ less" as you say, I'd take the R7.
 
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Novak

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For @Novak budget, I would rather consider the 936 or 948. Both are still way cheaper than the R7 in my experience (3200€ for R7s where you can get 936s/948s for 1500€ or less during every Summer Sales). But Aria range is 7 years old now and will probably be replaced soon.

The R7s are a good option: We know both R3 and R11 measure really well. Then, we have datas to assume the Kef R whitepaper is somewhat reliable:View attachment 61789
Revel are really expensive in EU, since there's not a lot (if almost none) distributors around here. For "1000€ less" as you say, I'd take the R7.

Thanks VintageFlanker!
By the way, have you pulled the trigger on the R3?
 

VintageFlanker

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By the way, have you pulled the trigger on the R3?
Yep.:cool: Paid last week, and I should be delivered within one week (or at least, I hope so).

I plan to do some outdoor measurements vs Aria 906, by the way. Nothing that relevant, since we have tons of datas from @amirm about the R3... it is more intended to get an idea about how the Aria will perform against it.

@Novak, here are some measurements for the R7: https://www.i-fidelity.net/testberichte/high-end/kef-r7/seite-5.html
 
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Soniclife

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There is a lot of hand-waving around this. In the DIY community, you very frequently see people wanting to create a design that avoids a crossover 'in the critical midrange'. Lots of people chime in, and by the time the discussion is a few pages long, you have a 'critical midrange' that spans from 200Hz to 7kHz.
Agreed. It's quite amusing to me now when you think about this that in a lot of 3 way speakers the bass driver is handling some of the vocal range, and if you have a sub and turn off your mains when playing something acapella there is still something coming out of the sub, but very little.
 

vavan

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Get f208 or r11:cool:
 
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