This is a review and detailed measurements of the Revel W228Be 3-way, dual woofer in-wall speaker. Speaker was kindly purchased by member through our company (Madrona Digital) and drop shipped for testing (cost: $3,500 each):
Please excuse the crude picture of the speaker. In reality, the speaker looks like the guts of Revel F228Be, with woofers reconfigured. It is a shame that its gorgeous looks will likely be hidden by the grill in many applications (I tested the speaker without it). Originally I was going to measure the speaker in baffle mode of the Klippel NFS but after realizing how tall and impractical it was, we decided to get the backwall and test the speaker as if it were stand-alone. The backbox is heavy, and much taller than the speaker itself making it very difficult to stand up solidly on Klippel NFS to measure it. But with the help of multiple bungie cords, I got there. The combo was too heavy for me to lug inside to listen to it so I am only going to show the measurements.
I don't know if I was doing something wrong but the backbox seemed to be a bit shallow, keeping the speaker from seating on it tightly. Gaskets were provided which mitigated this but there may still have been some leakage. Such leakage would be harmless in actual in-wall installation. But in my measurements, both it and the edges would cause some inaccuracy. Fortunately I found Revel's own measurements and they correlate well with mine, if you smooth it.
Note: as I mentioned at the outset, this speaker was purchased through Madrona Digital. Seeing how I am founder of the company, feel free to read whatever level of bias you like in my subjective remarks.
Revel W228Be Speaker Measurements
We are going to treat the speaker as stand-alone even though it is not going to be used that way. So be mindful of this as you go through the measurements:
Bass response is shelved down but likely due to the fact that you get enhancement there once speaker is mounted in-wall. In an in-wall situation other than center speaker, you are going to listen at an angle so let's look at ± 30 degrees:
The ups and downs above 2 kHz are smoothed out fair bit. Some of the variations left may be due edge diffractions of the back box which wouldn't exist in real life situation. To wit, near-field measurements of the drivers looks excellent:
Our models for early reflections and predicted in-room response don't work for in-wall installations but let's look at them anyway:
PIR response is surprisingly nice, likely due to good directivity which we can confirm:
I have greyed out the areas past the edges of the speaker.
Many of these in-wall speakers are installed in home theater application where power handling is a key performance metric so let's look at that:
Wow, this is superb! You are getting tower speaker performance in a compact in-wall speaker.
EDIT: forgot to include the stress SPL test:
Listening to sweeps, I could only detect some distortion at the start and nothing but clean sound even at 106 dBSPL!
Impedance is typical in the near 4 ohm range:
CSD/Waterfall response shows a number of resonances but these could be due to backbox that won't normally be heard:
Here is the step response:
Conclusions
Revel's goal has been to take one of their high-performance speakers, the Revel F228Be, and turn it into an in-wall speakers. Confirming this is kind of challenging due to factors I mentioned but I think we can safely conclude that they have accomplished that. Company's solution up to now has been JBL Synthesis line. It is nice to see that augmented with Revel touch and look. The main thing I like here is the power handling and directivity. Frequency response will have EQ anyway.
Since I have not listened to W228Be, I can't provide a recommendation one way or the other. But if I were building a home theater for myself, these would be the speakers I would use.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Please excuse the crude picture of the speaker. In reality, the speaker looks like the guts of Revel F228Be, with woofers reconfigured. It is a shame that its gorgeous looks will likely be hidden by the grill in many applications (I tested the speaker without it). Originally I was going to measure the speaker in baffle mode of the Klippel NFS but after realizing how tall and impractical it was, we decided to get the backwall and test the speaker as if it were stand-alone. The backbox is heavy, and much taller than the speaker itself making it very difficult to stand up solidly on Klippel NFS to measure it. But with the help of multiple bungie cords, I got there. The combo was too heavy for me to lug inside to listen to it so I am only going to show the measurements.
I don't know if I was doing something wrong but the backbox seemed to be a bit shallow, keeping the speaker from seating on it tightly. Gaskets were provided which mitigated this but there may still have been some leakage. Such leakage would be harmless in actual in-wall installation. But in my measurements, both it and the edges would cause some inaccuracy. Fortunately I found Revel's own measurements and they correlate well with mine, if you smooth it.
Note: as I mentioned at the outset, this speaker was purchased through Madrona Digital. Seeing how I am founder of the company, feel free to read whatever level of bias you like in my subjective remarks.
Revel W228Be Speaker Measurements
We are going to treat the speaker as stand-alone even though it is not going to be used that way. So be mindful of this as you go through the measurements:
Bass response is shelved down but likely due to the fact that you get enhancement there once speaker is mounted in-wall. In an in-wall situation other than center speaker, you are going to listen at an angle so let's look at ± 30 degrees:
The ups and downs above 2 kHz are smoothed out fair bit. Some of the variations left may be due edge diffractions of the back box which wouldn't exist in real life situation. To wit, near-field measurements of the drivers looks excellent:
Our models for early reflections and predicted in-room response don't work for in-wall installations but let's look at them anyway:
PIR response is surprisingly nice, likely due to good directivity which we can confirm:
I have greyed out the areas past the edges of the speaker.
Many of these in-wall speakers are installed in home theater application where power handling is a key performance metric so let's look at that:
Wow, this is superb! You are getting tower speaker performance in a compact in-wall speaker.
EDIT: forgot to include the stress SPL test:
Listening to sweeps, I could only detect some distortion at the start and nothing but clean sound even at 106 dBSPL!
Impedance is typical in the near 4 ohm range:
CSD/Waterfall response shows a number of resonances but these could be due to backbox that won't normally be heard:
Here is the step response:
Conclusions
Revel's goal has been to take one of their high-performance speakers, the Revel F228Be, and turn it into an in-wall speakers. Confirming this is kind of challenging due to factors I mentioned but I think we can safely conclude that they have accomplished that. Company's solution up to now has been JBL Synthesis line. It is nice to see that augmented with Revel touch and look. The main thing I like here is the power handling and directivity. Frequency response will have EQ anyway.
Since I have not listened to W228Be, I can't provide a recommendation one way or the other. But if I were building a home theater for myself, these would be the speakers I would use.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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