Revel F208 Tower Speaker Review

[Blumlein 88]

What did you do with your old Revels?

I still have the F12s. Are interested in them? If so pm me, about it. Maybe tell me your location.

 

[tvrgeek]

Only criticism is them falling for the double terminals for the "bi-wire" snake oil.
I heard several of the smaller Revels and did not notice any obvious defect, which speaks very highly of a speaker.

 

[Biblob]

I still have the F12s. Are interested in them? If so pm me, about it. Maybe tell me your location.

Ah, not really. Also, sending them across the ocean is not my preference

How do you like the difference between the two?

 

[Shazb0t]

Only criticism is them falling for the double terminals for the "bi-wire" snake oil.
I heard several of the smaller Revels and did not notice any obvious defect, which speaks very highly of a speaker.

It doesn't actually hurt to have the ability to power the drivers independently, so it's not really a negative snake oil thing in my book.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Ah, not really. Also, sending them across the ocean is not my preference

How do you like the difference between the two?

I'm a bit perplexed. The F208 speakers are much better than the F12 speakers by a wide margin. The perplexing part is why? It is obvious in 30 seconds or less of listening to them. The F12 is a good speaker, far better than some costing twice as much in my own sighted uncontrolled listening comparisons.

In similarly uncontrolled listening, the F208 sounds much cleaner like a fuzzyness I never noticed surrounded the F12. The F208 also engaged the low end of my listening room a bit differently when positioned in the same spot as the F12. The F208 had a bit of an upper bass dip followed by much more bass firmness below 50 hz.

The F12 did imo have a bit of a hooded or capped off quality to the treble. What was there was good, but it seemed as if it didn't really quite respond all the way to the top. The F208 has none of that sounding clean, extended and airy in comparison. Worth noting I'm old enough my hearing doesn't go all the way to the top itself. One of my friends after hearing the F208 a few minutes said he was impressed with how open and clean it sounded all the way around especially in the treble.

So sounding like one of the high end audio wags, the F208 is cleaner, more transparent, more dynamic and has a much more cohesive quality top to bottom (excepting that upper bass dip which repositioning helped with).

I probably should take some time and do some detailed in room measurements to see what stands out. I've just enjoyed listening to them tremendously since getting them which reduces my motivation for investigating at the moment.

If there is any interest and he isn't overwhelmed I might take one to HardisJ for measuring on his Klippel. I don't live a tremendously far distance from him. It would be nice to know the spin-o-rama of the F12 to compare to the F208. It maybe all of this is due to the very slight uneven response of the F12 vs the F208. The F208 in general has one of the better spins Amir has come across thus far.

 

[Sal1950]

So sounding like one of the high end audio wags, the F208 is cleaner, more transparent, more dynamic and has a much more cohesive quality top to bottom (excepting that upper bass dip which repositioning helped with).

For shame on you.

 

[beren777]

@Rottmannash @Blumlein 88 would either of you care to PM me your dealer contact info? I paid much more than that but I have a little bit of time left in my return period.

 

[Acaps]

I too would love to hear from Revel owners who have a good dealer that is selling the 208 or 206 at a decent price? Crutchfield is MSRP thx

 

[stunta]

I too would love to hear from Revel owners who have a good dealer that is selling the 208 or 206 at a decent price? Crutchfield is MSRP thx

+1 Same here.

 

[RichB]

I too would love to hear from Revel owners who have a good dealer that is selling the 208 or 206 at a decent price? Crutchfield is MSRP thx

+1 Same here.

AVSForum SteveH, also at [email protected].

- Rich

 

[Rottmannash]

+1 Same here.

PM me and I'll share the guy I bought from.

 

[AudioLover73]

Anyone happen to have owned or hear the JBL PT800/PS1400 speakers? Here's their graph, so I was curious what I might hear differently compared to the F208s and how much of an upgrade these might be. Fun fact or so I hear, the midrange driver is the same as the one used in the Revel Ultima Salon (or maybe the Ultima2). I've also included the animated graph from the previous post by BYRTT below.

Thanks to Amir another new great review and performer in below animation have traced curves of Amir's analyze and official Revel spinorama and overlaid them onto a same scale:
View attachment 62603

 

[Dgob]

I am about to buy a pair of Genelec 8361A monitors with their GLM4 kit. I hope to be able to do a direct (wholly subjective) comparison with my Revel F208s. One will stay!

 

[testp]

I am about to buy a pair of Genelec 8361A monitors with their GLM4 kit. I hope to be able to do a direct (wholly subjective) comparison with my Revel F208s. One will stay!

hopefully, one of each!!

 

[Sal1950]

I am about to buy a pair of Genelec 8361A monitors with their GLM4 kit. I hope to be able to do a direct (wholly subjective) comparison with my Revel F208s. One will stay!

That will be an interesting shoot out.'
I anxiously await the outcome.

 

[Dgob]

The Genelecs have now been with me for a full week?

Well, it's obvious that the 8361A's are in a different league when it comes to detail retrieval, imaging and acoustic accuracy. A large amount of their advantage might lie in their auto-calibration abilities through the GLM 4.1 kit. The kit comes free with the 8361A's and couldn't be easier to use and eeks out the very best that your environment can afford. That is not to say that you should not attempt to optimise your room first; it's just to say that it will quite literally make the best of a bad situation. In that respect, I suspect that would make them particularly ideal for anyone dealing with a less-than-ideal listening environment (Sal1950 ).

What you hear is the music as recorded with a wide and very deep sound stage - where that exists on the recordings. I have not got the confidence yet to play around with the various adjustments that you can affect through the GLM and Genelec cloud. And in this respect you get a tool whose accuracy will prove invaluable to professional musicians and sound engineers. Having said that, I did play around with adjusting the calibrated Genelecs and you can truly flesh out the midrange with minor adjustments. It was just that when I did this, I also made one monitor much, much louder than the other and so decided to give them time as set up by Genelec's auto-calibration to become fully conversant with their attributes. After this, I will contact the support team at Genelec to get additional advice on how to vary their tone: IF NEEDED. And I must say that they have the most helpful and accessible support team I have ever used.

HOWEVER, I should note that the Revels are being judged in my listening room, where space and treatments are more than likely NOT getting the ultimate performance out of them. They still sound fantastic and my ears/brain are now equalised to their sound. The fuller midrange and colourful sound palette offered by the F208s is much more what the average audiophile might be looking for. The pronounced sub-bass being a case in point. Although the bass doesn't show the same speed and tight control that you get with the Genelecs, the fact that they can play down to 27Hz is audible in comparison to the present 30Hz optimisation of my 8361A's.

As it stands, my both Benchmark AHB2 amps and my Revel F208s are looking set to appear 'for sale' in the coming weeks.

 

[sdiver68]

I don't get comparing passive speakers with active/internally EQ'd studio monitors.

Back in the day, engine builders used to call forced induction "cheating". And certainly it is at any given capacity. Active/EQ is the forced induction of speakers.

Having said that, for the simple use case of best system for the money, I can certainly understand...just like I bought several FI cars regardless of "cheating".

 

[Pio]

Anyone happen to have owned or hear the JBL PT800/PS1400 speakers? Here's their graph, so I was curious what I might hear differently compared to the F208s and how much of an upgrade these might be. Fun fact or so I hear, the midrange driver is the same as the one used in the Revel Ultima Salon (or maybe the Ultima2). I've also included the animated graph from the previous post by BYRTT below.

View attachment 185150

Awesome comparison, thank you for doing this. Aside from the low end, very nice to see how close the measurements are considering they were done in 2 difference locations, probably a decade apart. The directivity is spot on..

 

[Pio]

The Genelecs have now been with me for a full week?

Well, it's obvious that the 8361A's are in a different league when it comes to detail retrieval, imaging and acoustic accuracy. A large amount of their advantage might lie in their auto-calibration abilities through the GLM 4.1 kit. The kit comes free with the 8361A's and couldn't be easier to use and eeks out the very best that your environment can afford. That is not to say that you should not attempt to optimise your room first; it's just to say that it will quite literally make the best of a bad situation. In that respect, I suspect that would make them particularly ideal for anyone dealing with a less-than-ideal listening environment (Sal1950 ).

What you hear is the music as recorded with a wide and very deep sound stage - where that exists on the recordings. I have not got the confidence yet to play around with the various adjustments that you can affect through the GLM and Genelec cloud. And in this respect you get a tool whose accuracy will prove invaluable to professional musicians and sound engineers. Having said that, I did play around with adjusting the calibrated Genelecs and you can truly flesh out the midrange with minor adjustments. It was just that when I did this, I also made one monitor much, much louder than the other and so decided to give them time as set up by Genelec's auto-calibration to become fully conversant with their attributes. After this, I will contact the support team at Genelec to get additional advice on how to vary their tone: IF NEEDED. And I must say that they have the most helpful and accessible support team I have ever used.

HOWEVER, I should note that the Revels are being judged in my listening room, where space and treatments are more than likely NOT getting the ultimate performance out of them. They still sound fantastic and my ears/brain are now equalised to their sound. The fuller midrange and colourful sound palette offered by the F208s is much more what the average audiophile might be looking for. The pronounced sub-bass being a case in point. Although the bass doesn't show the same speed and tight control that you get with the Genelecs, the fact that they can play down to 27Hz is audible in comparison to the present 30Hz optimisation of my 8361A's.

As it stands, my both Benchmark AHB2 amps and my Revel F208s are looking set to appear 'for sale' in the coming weeks.

If you're serious about the ABH2's, please send me a PM.

 

[Dgob]

If you're serious about the ABH2's, please send me a PM.

I am. Are you UK based?