Revel F35 Speaker Review

[Balle Clorin]

I am adding the effect Trinnov room EQ has on the step response.
As written in Toole's book Eqing room resonance peaks reduces ringing in the room.
Blue=with correction, Red=without. The oscillations are at 31Hz the biggest room mode...

Water falls may be misleading but same reduced ringing is seen there

The same

 

[Xyrium]

Don't you think your listening evaluations would be more accurate with room EQ corrected speakers? I mean, speakers were designed to be listened with PIR-alike in-room response, not some wildly swinging curve depending on position in your garage.

And you don't need to do it with Dirac, you can create PEQ filters mannualy and copy them into Roon (or however you're playing music in the garage).

I don't believe so, as Toole has mentioned in his presentations, you want the flattest response from the speaker "to begin with", not after EQ. Otherwise, what Amir can EQ in his space may not be even close to what someone else has to do in theirs. I personally don't feel that there's value to presenting the EQ'd section in the review. That's my very humble option of course, as that section seems to add more confusion in these discussions.

 

[Fastfwd]

A quick update on my experience with the F35. I can't say this definitively because I can't roll back the clock to when I first set these up to do a direct comparison, but I recollect that my initial impression was similar to the review I read where it claimed these sounded 'tubby' on the stock rubber feet and the spikes helped. I put them on pennies with the spikes for a while and that seemed to help. I would have called it 'muddy' bass personally. I concede that my speaker placement is constrained and I can't give them all the room they might like too. So, take that into consideration.

Well, I searched for a better solution than pennies for the spikes to rest on and what I actually ended up finding was that when I put these back on their stock rubber feet they sound much better than I recollected in full range. I think maybe the 'break-in' during the months I searched for a better solution helped that muddy sound I thought I was experiencing. It makes me wonder if the review I read may have been influenced similarly.

Anyway, they sound great. I'm very pleased. They're probably still boosted in the lower frequencies by only getting 18" from the wall, but it works out ok with the correct Audyssey mode (Flat, 0-5db). I'm actually enjoying them full range with lots of acoustic blues, jazz, etc.

 

[Xyrium]

I do wish manufacturers would offer the speakers in the least expensive fit & finish it is possible to make them in. I'd like to be able to purchase SOTA performance without paying for furniture grade looks. Back in 1978 I was able to buy my new La Scala's unfinished in raw marine grade plywood and then I finished them myself. You can't do anything like that with them anymore either.
Same goes for cars. Back in the day you could order a new base model Chevy with the highest hp rated bigblock, 4 sp, 410 rear end etc, and if you were really serious you could check the boxes for things like heater and radio delete to save both money and weight. Today if you walk into Chevy and want the top performing engine, etc; package on a Camero you also have to get the very top of the line interior, wheels, appearance packages too.
The get into your wallet coming and going.

The kits at Meniscus and Madisound are great for that! Good ply and MDF are both cheap enough to finish with relative ease if you leave the corners sharp. Unfortunately, both plywood and MDF leave somewhat rough edges even using great router bits for roundovers, with MDF being better than ply in that regard, IMO.

 

[Bimbleton]

I suppose this is more of a subjective question, but after some months/years of ownership, how are you folks enjoying the F35’s? I’m not sure what the correct word is, but does it produce a clear coherent ‘image’ of the singer in the center of the L/R? Perhaps imaging is the right word.

FastFwd was already kind enough to send me some impressions after-the-fact. How do the rest of you feel? Thanks!

 

[AVKS]

I suppose this is more of a subjective question, but after some months/years of ownership, how are you folks enjoying the F35’s? I’m not sure what the correct word is, but does it produce a clear coherent ‘image’ of the singer in the center of the L/R? Perhaps imaging is the right word.

FastFwd was already kind enough to send me some impressions after-the-fact. How do the rest of you feel? Thanks!

I've had my F35s for a year now, using about 60/40 between movies/gaming and music use. The short of it is that while I know there are 'better' things out there, I am still fully satisfied with these speakers and have felt no desire to replace them (other than the occasional itch to grab a pair of Studio 590s on sale to try because I love their look and really like my 530s). I had a lot of gear before these (Def Tech, Jamo, Elac, JBL, Revel) so am confident in my gauging of their qualities.

Your imaging will be room-dependent and impacted by your ability to navigate it's sonic characteristics, but in my room my imaging is spot on and when gaming I even get occasional sounds that I perceive as coming from behind me. It happens pretty rarely but when it does it's simultaneously creepy and awesome.

 

[Bimbleton]

I've had my F35s for a year now, using about 60/40 between movies/gaming and music use. The short of it is that while I know there are 'better' things out there, I am still fully satisfied with these speakers and have felt no desire to replace them (other than the occasional itch to grab a pair of Studio 590s on sale to try because I love their look and really like my 530s). I had a lot of gear before these (Def Tech, Jamo, Elac, JBL, Revel) so am confident in my gauging of their qualities.

Your imaging will be room-dependent and impacted by your ability to navigate it's sonic characteristics, but in my room my imaging is spot on and when gaming I even get occasional sounds that I perceive as coming from behind me. It happens pretty rarely but when it does it's simultaneously creepy and awesome.

Great to hear! Thanks for your impression.

 

[Fastfwd]

I've had my F35s for a year now, using about 60/40 between movies/gaming and music use. The short of it is that while I know there are 'better' things out there, I am still fully satisfied with these speakers and have felt no desire to replace them (other than the occasional itch to grab a pair of Studio 590s on sale to try because I love their look and really like my 530s). I had a lot of gear before these (Def Tech, Jamo, Elac, JBL, Revel) so am confident in my gauging of their qualities.

Your imaging will be room-dependent and impacted by your ability to navigate it's sonic characteristics, but in my room my imaging is spot on and when gaming I even get occasional sounds that I perceive as coming from behind me. It happens pretty rarely but when it does it's simultaneously creepy and awesome.

This sort of reignited my thoughts on these F35s. Speaking of 'better' things out there - I looked at a few of the popular options like the KEF LS50, Magnepan LRS, etc. I also considered Triangle Bros and Wharfedale Evo 4.2. What it came down to for me with those options were the added expense or complexity of external amplification to drive the former speakers properly and the space required by the Maggies and the balance of home theater use that the Triangles might not fair well with in terms of power handling, but maybe not an issue idk.

For me space was limited. Honestly, the F35s really have just enough room, but I really think they would benefit from having more space from the front wall and possibly to separate them more. I think I got just about all of a floorstanding speaker that my space could possibly accommodate. They do work pretty well, but the bottom end is a little heavy and maybe not quite as tight as it could be when played full range. Again, they just need a little more room. I can always cross them over and let the sub take care of it though.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I've seen the Revel engineers (I believe) on Youtube discuss how these were designed to be run with a home theater receiver for guys on a budget perhaps. That was a big plus for me in my evaluation phase and I still appreciate it now that I don't 'have to' have external amplification, but I could if I wanted to. I do still wonder if the M16s wouldn't have suited my space better, but then I would have always wondered what the F35s would have sounded like.

Does anyone have opinions on what else out there can compete with these Revel F35s that aren't super picky about how you power them and/or require an unusual amount of room? They would also need to accommodate power handling of home theater duty. When I looked at the options that I was finding I finally got so saturated with researching that I just went with these. I'm guessing there are a few bookshelf options from KEF and others that might do the trick too.

 

[Bimbleton]

As a prospective purchaser of F35s/C25, the other speaker I was strongly considering was a set of Philharmonitor BMR’s — heard their treble is sublime, but haven’t been able to find direct comparisons to the F35’s.

 

[Blumlein 88]

This sort of reignited my thoughts on these F35s. Speaking of 'better' things out there - I looked at a few of the popular options like the KEF LS50, Magnepan LRS, etc. I also considered Triangle Bros and Wharfedale Evo 4.2. What it came down to for me with those options were the added expense or complexity of external amplification to drive the former speakers properly and the space required by the Maggies and the balance of home theater use that the Triangles might not fair well with in terms of power handling, but maybe not an issue idk.

For me space was limited. Honestly, the F35s really have just enough room, but I really think they would benefit from having more space from the front wall and possibly to separate them more. I think I got just about all of a floorstanding speaker that my space could possibly accommodate. They do work pretty well, but the bottom end is a little heavy and maybe not quite as tight as it could be when played full range. Again, they just need a little more room. I can always cross them over and let the sub take care of it though.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I've seen the Revel engineers (I believe) on Youtube discuss how these were designed to be run with a home theater receiver for guys on a budget perhaps. That was a big plus for me in my evaluation phase and I still appreciate it now that I don't 'have to' have external amplification, but I could if I wanted to. I do still wonder if the M16s wouldn't have suited my space better, but then I would have always wondered what the F35s would have sounded like.

Does anyone have opinions on what else out there can compete with these Revel F35s that aren't super picky about how you power them and/or require an unusual amount of room? They would also need to accommodate power handling of home theater duty. When I looked at the options that I was finding I finally got so saturated with researching that I just went with these. I'm guessing there are a few bookshelf options from KEF and others that might do the trick too.

Maybe using a modest sub with the F35 is a good idea. The bass becomes controllable, and the speaker is under very little strain.

 

[Shazb0t]

Definitely recommend crossing these over to a subwoofer for full range sound.

 

[Fastfwd]

Maybe using a modest sub with the F35 is a good idea. The bass becomes controllable, and the speaker is under very little strain.

I do have a sub to run with them. To be fair probably any alternative I was considering would have required a sub too, but maybe at a lower price point and possibly with less constraint for placement. Another reason why I question if the M16 wouldn't have been just as good for my space. I think I'm right at the minimum space limit to run these.

I do enjoy playing these full range for lots of music though. When I cross them over it goes from a little on the heavy side to seeming to lack enough bass/fullness of sound.

I've long decided to just enjoy them and not fret over it any further.

 

[Bear123]

I have the big brother, Revel F36. I run dual subs with them because to me, it doesn't matter how low any tower speaker attempts to play...fidelity and sound quality is better with well placed, high quality dual subs with the whole system eq'd below Shcroeder. I keep mine as close to the wall as possible....the more the low end is boosted, the better imo. Eq flattens things out so this only results in greater efficiency with lower distortion and more clean output capability. Also, I don't want speakers sticking out into the middle of the room, especially since there is no benefit. Crossed to subs, I can have literally any amount of bass I want with ultra low distortion, which is not possible with the little drivers used in the speakers. I would take M16's with subs long before I would settle for the reduced sound quality and lower overall performance of my F36 w/o subs.

 

[Bimbleton]

I have the big brother, Revel F36. I run dual subs with them because to me, it doesn't matter how low any tower speaker attempts to play...fidelity and sound quality is better with well placed, high quality dual subs with the whole system eq'd below Shcroeder. I keep mine as close to the wall as possible....the more the low end is boosted, the better imo. Eq flattens things out so this only results in greater efficiency with lower distortion and more clean output capability. Also, I don't want speakers sticking out into the middle of the room, especially since there is no benefit. Crossed to subs, I can have literally any amount of bass I want with ultra low distortion, which is not possible with the little drivers used in the speakers. I would take M16's with subs long before I would settle for the reduced sound quality and lower overall performance of my F36 w/o subs.

Whoa that’s an interesting tactic! Out of curiosity what crossover do you run at?

 

[Bear123]

Whoa that’s an interesting tactic! Out of curiosity what crossover do you run at?

80 Hz with my current subs. I've crossed them a bit higher when I was using pro drivers in my subs, as high as 110-120 but have to be little more careful with how hot you run the subs.

 

[AVKS]

This sort of reignited my thoughts on these F35s....

I guess what I'm getting at is that I've seen the Revel engineers (I believe) on Youtube discuss how these were designed to be run with a home theater receiver for guys on a budget perhaps. That was a big plus for me in my evaluation phase and I still appreciate it now that I don't 'have to' have external amplification, but I could if I wanted to. I do still wonder if the M16s wouldn't have suited my space better, but then I would have always wondered what the F35s would have sounded like.

Does anyone have opinions on what else out there can compete with these Revel F35s that aren't super picky about how you power them and/or require an unusual amount of room? They would also need to accommodate power handling of home theater duty. When I looked at the options that I was finding I finally got so saturated with researching that I just went with these. I'm guessing there are a few bookshelf options from KEF and others that might do the trick too.

I used the M16s in my theater/music area for almost a year before moving to the F35s (and the Studio 530s before that, and Jamo S803s/C93s before that, and Elac UB5s before that...) and while my space itself is fairly large I only sit 8 ft from the speakers and the 'nook' the viewing area is tucked into is only 9.5 x10 ft and has a wall a mere foot to the of the left front speaker. Moving from the M16s to the F35s was, in my opinion, a small but clear and definite upgrade with respect to evenness and detail, with both speakers more than handling my volume needs. The lack of midbass bump in the F35s vs the M16s also made it easier to cross with my subwoofer and I actually ended up gaining a ton of output below ~65 Hz due to how I was able to tune things. I did my measurements with REW but only run the system itself off an Onkyo NR656 so I too am the target audience Revel had in mind with this Concerta 2 system.

With respect to similarity to the Revels but not huge and not too picky about placement the JBL Studio 580s might be a good option if you're cool with the aesthetics. I find the Studio series to perform very similarly to my Revels... perhaps it's the Harman pedigree. I still use the 530s on my desk and have the M16s boxed up thinking I'll get them back out someday, but that day hasn't yet arrived.

As a prospective purchaser of F35s/C25, the other speaker I was strongly considering was a set of Philharmonitor BMR’s — heard their treble is sublime, but haven’t been able to find direct comparisons to the F35’s.

FWIW I found the C25 a bit underwhelming and I personally prefer center speakers to dig deeper than the 80 Hz f3 point that they have. I use an Emotiva C2 with mine but auditioned the Infinity RC263 as well and was quite pleased. I'm a function-over-form guy and picked these largely due to value but point being that you shouldn't have much trouble finding another neutral-ish center to match the F35s if you want something larger.

 

[Bimbleton]

Anyone have an impression of the C25 center off-axis?

 

[AVKS]

Anyone have an impression of the C25 center off-axis?

Well-engineered and better than many MTM centers. You can find the spins here:

https://speakerdata2034.blogspot.com/2019/03/spinorama-data-revel-home.html?m=1

I also found it to be a little bit boxy sounding. Fantastic clarity but not a sound that made me forget I was listening to a speaker, if that makes sense.

 

[BYRTT]

..... have the M16s boxed up thinking I'll get them back out someday, but that day hasn't yet arrived....

Based smootness in directivity index curve below 2kHz M16 over F35 think M16 should be improvement using subwoofers provided the -5dB less SPL for M16 verse F35 is not a problem for the used room size, what i mean is seen below spinorama where on axis response (SPL lowered minus 5dB) and directivity index of F35 is overlaid to Amir's analyze of M16, there's also a EQ suggestion using 3x PEQs for M16 plus remember the 5dB less SPL should you ever try again unbox M16 into same position as F35..

 

[Bimbleton]

I suppose what I’m most trying to figure out is, does anyone who bought F35’s/C25 have buyer’s remorse, wishing they had spent more on other brands/higher tier Revel offerings?