Revel M16 Speaker Review

[Chromatischism]

Try movie soundtrack music, like M83 - Oblivion.

 

[Chromatischism]

That's oddly straight. How far were you from the speakers?

 

[Chromatischism]

I prefer Variable smoothing as it applies less to the bass region.

Anyway, an in-room response like that would sound really bright. Usually, the off-axis reflected sound combining with the direct sound at the microphone produces a downward tilt. An in-room response that is straight like that is normally produced by a speaker than has an anechoic response of an upward tilt. Since we know the M16 does not, I question the measurement.

 

[richard12511]

I prefer Variable smoothing as it applies less to the bass region.

Anyway, an in-room response like that would sound really bright.

I think the scale of the graph is throwing you off. He's using a 90db scale instead of the typical 50db scale. Also, I bet he's listening closer than the distance Harman uses for their target slope. Harman target I believe is -10dB from 20Hz to 20kHz, but at what listening distance?

 

[napilopez]

That's oddly straight. How far were you from the speakers?

I prefer Variable smoothing as it applies less to the bass region.

Anyway, an in-room response like that would sound really bright. Usually, the off-axis reflected sound combining with the direct sound at the microphone produces a downward tilt. An in-room response that is straight like that is normally produced by a speaker than has an anechoic response of an upward tilt. Since we know the M16 does not, I question the measurement. Or, you have a lot of distance to side and rear walls.

Nah, that's totally within a normal range; look at the scaling. The general rule of thumb is 10dB from 20hz to 20kHz dB (~1dB per octave) and @franspambot is just a little off that. Besides, it depends on the reflectivity of the side walls and directivitt of the speakers. I often find a 10dB tilt a bit excessive in my home/tastes

 

[Chromatischism]

Nah, that's totally within a normal range; look at the scaling. The general rule of thumb is 10dB from 20hz to 20kHz dB (~1dB per octave) and @franspambot is just a little off that. Besides, it depends on the reflectivity of the side walls and directivitt of the speakers. I often find a 10dB tilt a bit excessive in my home/tastes

I see a slope of only -5 dB, from 77 to 72. It could be explained by the closer seating distance, which I suspected. My measurements at 9 feet are always close to -10 dB, with -8 dB being about the limit I'll tolerate, but that's my subjective evaluation of my system – though it does jive with Harman & others. Of course there are a lot of variables. What matters is how it sounds to him.

 

[Vesor]

Not practically. Noise floor in my room varies and so does the output of the speaker. I mess with the parameters to get something decent out of it but it just won't be that good ever. The only time it is useful is if you are chasing something you know about and tune the parameters to get what you want.

Amir, which amp can you recommend for M16 to reveal them fully? Someone try M16 with NC400 ?

 

[richard12511]

More, I am using the Dirac curve, which has to be different (though Harman said somewhere that it is close to its own). It may well be that the difference is something small like 1dB or so on the slope. Certainly nothing that would create brightness.

Yeah Dirac curve is about half the slope of Harman curve.

 

[BingaMoon]

Good to know. I did further augment the Dirac filter with the miniDSP EQ to further adjust a few room-specific issues, most notably by bumping up nulls between 100-300 and 400-800. The big result is that this caused the mids and lower end to "activate" the room earlier on, providing a "fuller" sound at lower levels, and so I don't play music as loud as before. Well worth the adjustment.

I may raise 30-40 more through my sub, but, as is, the sound is not "bright" at all.

My music has never sounded so good in my system. I am thrilled with this.View attachment 79050

(I feel almost strange saying this, but I just ordered some F226Bes!!! However, I would be beyond happy living with this M16 setup. These are fabulous speakers.)

Please post your comparison of the two of them once you hear them. I'm curious how big the difference between them will be.

 

[Dj7675]

Good to know. I did further augment the Dirac filter with the miniDSP EQ to further adjust a few room-specific issues, most notably by bumping up nulls between 100-300 and 400-800. The big result is that this caused the mids and lower end to "activate" the room earlier on, providing a "fuller" sound at lower levels, and so I don't play music as loud as before. Well worth the adjustment.

I may raise 30-40 more through my sub, but, as is, the sound is not "bright" at all.

My music has never sounded so good in my system. I am thrilled with this.View attachment 79050

(I feel almost strange saying this, but I just ordered some F226Bes!!! However, I would be beyond happy living with this M16 setup as my end game. These are fabulous speakers.)

I went from M16 >M106 and feel the same way. I didn’t find anything lacking, but came across too good of a deal on M106 to pass up.

 

[hawk01]

just got the revel m16 playing out of the box last night. so far it is delivering as expectded! the slight boost in 100hz as per @amirm review is both a good and bad thing, but generally good in my case. this thing can really fill in the low end substantially in my 1931cuft dedicated listening/home theater room. adequate enough that i may not need the dual subs except for the most demanding bass heavy material. for the bad, a minor nit really is a specific track where the speaker is slightly boomy due to its recorded deep bass. i may blame the recording itself coz the issue is common to all my standmount speakers which are all capable of delivering decent bass.

in lieu of any access and knowledge of EQ, i used the ole ”stuff a sock in the port fix” which immediately fixed the unwanted bass! works like a charm on this particular reference track of mine! which begs the next question to the more knowledgeable folks here in ASR. is this going to pose any serious operational hazards to the speaker under normal use? my typical in-room SPL is 75-80dB only except for the transient passages which hit 87dB. the sock is loosely tucked in the port. you could say its a very lossy sealed box at the moment...

again except for this very minor nit which i suspect is more of the track’s unusual recorded bass, the revel m16 is very hard to fault to my less than golden ears! every other reference material it played in a very balanced, detailed manner. nothing in the frequency response comes out of the ordinary. i may just get away without any EQ for the time being.

this will also handle home theater L/R main duties crossed over at 80hz so the bass boost issue will be quelled.

 

[Chromatischism]

I bet when you integrate your subs it will be much better.

And no, the sock is fine, but maybe find something else to use long term so you can get back to wearing those socks

 

[hawk01]

I bet when you integrate your subs it will be much better.

And no, the sock is fine, but maybe find something else to use long term so you can get back to wearing those socks

i definitely believe sub integration thru my humble yammy avr will yield more optimum results as with my every other standmounts. its also a good thing i have other socks on hand to fill in its more appropriate purpose!

 

[hawk01]

this particular track has bass frequency starting at time 0:49 which really excites my specific room mode.

 

[BYRTT]

.....this particular track has bass frequency starting at time 0:49 which really excites my specific room mode.

Phenomen could be analyzed in software as Audacity for example mark trouble area and use the spectrum dialog, but my ear tells its a kind of DC thumb that happen when drummer sets in becauce his kick drum pedal lands exactly on bass players attack.

 

[hawk01]

Phenomen could be analyzed in software as Audacity for example mark trouble area and use the spectrum dialog, but my ear tells its a kind of DC thumb that happen when drummer sets in becauce his kick drum pedal lands exactly on bass players attack.

hmmm, from what i glean you‘re trying to say that the bass overload comes from two colliding notes that should not have happened? or it was composed that way and eventually did not sound right on post production?

 

[BYRTT]

hmmm, from what i glean you‘re trying to say that the bass overload comes from two colliding notes that should not have happened? or it was composed that way and eventually did not sound right on post production?

Year i get its a bad miss on that YouTube video and if its the same on the real track material will mean its unfortunate mix decision, i'm too lazy recheck video into head phones but as my system is tuned it play all my track catalogs well, for example kick drum on Eagles live album Hell freezes over, Hotel California track sounds perfect and not overblown as when kick drum seems collide bass attacks on that YouTube video, and that Eagles track kick drum can easy take many systems to hit nasty modes.

 

[infinitesymphony]

this particular track has bass frequency starting at time 0:49 which really excites my specific room mode.

The bass note on the downbeat at 0:49 is C2, which is 65.41 Hz. You might also be hearing the octave overtone at 130.82 Hz. Doesn't sound out of the ordinary to me so you may need to control your room at those frequencies. You could run a slow sweep with a SPL meter (or your phone with a SPL metering app) to get a rough idea. Plenty of sweep videos on YouTube and elsewhere.

 

[hawk01]

The bass note on the downbeat at 0:49 is C2, which is 65.41 Hz. You might also be hearing the octave overtone at 130.82 Hz. Doesn't sound out of the ordinary to me so you may need to control your room at those frequencies. You could run a slow sweep with a SPL meter (or your phone with a SPL metering app) to get a rough idea. Plenty of sweep videos on YouTube and elsewhere.

hmm this one is certainly worth trying. sadly i will need to get hold of the minidsp once i get these pesky modes identified!

 

[infinitesymphony]

@hawk01 You have a lot of options here. If you're using Windows, Equalizer APO is a free system-wide EQ option that you can combine with results you create in Room EQ Wizard, or there are room correction plugins and EQs for many pieces of playback and audio production software.

You might also adjust where the speakers are in the room and where your seating position is located. This guide is a good starting point:

https://www.genelec.com/monitor-placement