Review: Revel Performa F328Be – Floorstanding Loudspeaker

The technology of the drivers is as remarkable as their number. Although the magnet systems of the 20-centimeter basses don’t quite keep up with the martial drive units of an ATC SCM50, when it comes to membranes, Revel has definitely arrived more clearly in the 21st century with the PerformaBe line than the British: The cones are made like in the ” “Normal” Performa 3 series are basically made of aluminum, but for the Be series they are coated on both sides with a so-called “Deep Ceramic Composite” (DCC) bright white. According to Revel, DCC is the result of a plasma-electrolytic oxidation process in which a plasma discharge creates a “coarse” ceramic layer on both sides of the aluminum membrane core. According to Revel, the ceramic layers ensure that the membranes only “break up” far outside the area to be transmitted and would produce partial oscillations  . This ensures optimal piston movement of the cone drivers over the entire transmission range.

The 130 mm cone midrange drivers of the Revel Performa F328Be – they sit in their own 2.8 liter housing made of 18 mm thick MDF – also have such pure white DCC membranes. Together with the impressive triple woofer assembly, this array gives the front view an interesting contrast – especially with the high-gloss black speaker. Especially since the tweeter, which we will come to in a moment, is also framed in white over a large area. The DCC midrange drivers take over the transmission between 240 and 2100 Hertz before they move on to the highlight of the Performa Beseries: the newly developed 1 inch beryllium tweeter with a ventilated pole core and a drive with double hard ferrite magnets that is significantly larger than the standard Performa tweeter and now has a diameter of 85 millimeters.

In contrast to the mid-range chassis, the beryllium tweeters do not have their own chamber in the housing, according to Revel. The white space around the actual driver is a “sixth generation acoustic lens waveguide,” according to Revel. The lens sits in front of the beryllium membrane, and that’s not just a good thing for acoustic reasons: although beryllium has almost legendary acoustic properties that make it the ideal material for tweeters, it is mechanically extremely brittle. And if a membrane were to break, it would be bad for the wallet. Luckily, the protective lens makes it nearly impossible for even inquisitive little fingers to do any harm. Quite apart from the lofty heights at which the noble drivers are in the front of the F328Be.

Built without compromise

Speaking of height: Let’s talk openly about preferences. One can certainly assume that the buyer of a pair of passive loudspeakers with a price tag pointing towards 20,000 euros attaches great importance to sound quality. Models that are discreetly integrated into the living room often oppose this idea. The Revel Perfoma F328Be take a clear position here. If you choose the top models of the PerformaBe series, you are sending a clear signal: Sound quality is damn important to me. Because the F328Be can have a dominant effect, especially in smaller living spaces – depending on the situation, even more than the higher Dynaudio Contour 60 (9,000 euros). The “slimming” high-gloss black doesn’t change that either.

The cabinet itself is made of medium-density fiber (MDF), with the baffle and laminated, curved cabinet walls being 18 millimeters thick. A central MDF bar runs inside the back of the case and is up to 50 millimeters thick. In order to suppress harmful resonances, especially at high levels, given the rather moderate wall thicknesses, Revel uses five MDF discs as cross braces in the Performa F328Be.

No breakup pain

The PerformaBe crossovers – Revel uses a separate crossover for the bass range and for the mid-high range per box – are mounted on nylon spacers in the main volume of the housing. According to Revel, only film capacitors   and air coils are used in the circuits of the midrange and tweeter . The Americans separate the tweeter at a very low 2100 Hertz with a 3rd order crossover (i.e. 18 decibels per octave), and the midrange driver has a 3rd order high-pass crossover at 240 Hertz and a 2nd order low-pass crossover towards the tweeter (12 dB/ octave) upstream. The bass is low-pass filtered at 18 dB/octave.

All in all, in my opinion, with the Performa F328Be, Revel delivers the high-fidelity equivalent of “solid home cooking” in terms of hardware, albeit refined with gourmet ingredients – but that doesn’t have to mean anything. Let’s see how well it tastes in the sound test.

Sound test and comparisons: Revel Performa F328Be

Attentive readers of my test reports will perhaps remember that my almost 25 square meter listening room is of the “well dampened type, with more or less pronounced peaks around 45 and 90 Hertz, depending on the speaker and placement”. So I probably wouldn’t think of installing floor-standing loudspeakers, which are almost 130 centimeters high and equipped with a total of six 20-size basses, in the listening room. Which would be a shame, because this audio report proves that superficial theory and measured values ​​are one thing above all: gray.

Theory & Practice

Because in contrast to many a compact loudspeaker with powerful bass, which in my room could only be persuaded with difficulty to a low-drone performance, the large Revel play surprisingly neutral, civilized, with a tendency to a tight, slag-free bass. Even when set up relatively close to the wall – with just under 50 centimeters of air in the back – and only one of the two bass reflex openings is closed, the Revel Performa F328Be operate without fat deposits and with a precision that I would hardly have expected from such a generously ventilated bass reflex system. Significantly more controlled and crisp than with the Lansche Audio No. 3.1 (from 18,500 euros) comes across quickly played double-bass attacks and hard-hitting double bass strings, although the membrane area is ventilated here by about twice as much.

I suspect that this and the good room compatibility are due to the spacious distribution of the ten bass sound sources (six drivers and four bass reflex openings). Each sound source stimulates the room modes relatively weaker and at different points. The large Nubert nuVero 170 , for example, also benefited in the listening room from colleague Jörg Dames from the woofers positioned at the opposite ends of the baffle and sounded extremely powerful on the bass side, deep and boom-free at the same time.

With a bit of luck and experimentation with the setup, it will sound balanced at the listening position – just like in my case. The F328Be play catchy and powerful – even if perhaps in the middle bass range and fundamental not quite as lustfully vehement and driving as the ATC SCM50PSL (14,580 euros). The Brits have no choice but to gape in amazement at the grand frequency canyon that the Revel are capable of descending: I can clearly feel the lowest frequencies in Yello’s “Kiss the Cloud” from the T oy album with my popometer and I can with the modulations of the Swiss synthesizer guru Boris Blankmore precisely than with any other loudspeaker that I have come across in this room.

Decent headroom

The bass drivers of the Revel Performa F328Be are so unimpressed by dynamic rough sounds like the fat bass drum in “This Boy” from Brendan Perry’s album Ark  that even at hearing-damaging volumes, goosebumps run down my forearms one after the other. The Dynaudio Contour 60 (9,000 euros) are halfway begging for mercy in the pouty corner, and only genuine horns like a hORNS Symphony 13 (14,900 euros) with their professional drivers come along at least to some extent. The mid-high range follows this level stability and dynamics an impressively long way. Only at painful volumes of the infernal crescendo at the beginning of “Montague & Capulets”.Romeo and Juliet by Dimitri Shostakovich I think I’m picking up some slight signs of stress. Despite the 91 decibel efficiency (2.83 V/1m) of the Revel Performa F328Be, this may be due to the “only” 150 watts of continuous power per channel of my Norma Audio PA-150 power amp (5,300 euros). To put that in perspective, if you regularly drive at this volume for more than a minute in an apartment building, the peace of the neighborhood will soon be over. Guaranteed.

In view of this performance, I don’t have to correct my in-depth comment about the “thumping” in the bass range, but I do have to be more precise: Revel has apparently equipped its Performa F328Be so generously above all to give them a good amount of headroom. Not only to be able to get things done dynamically, but also to let them complete their everyday tasks in a relaxed and relaxed manner. It’s easy to see that this woofer sextet doesn’t get on its knees before an acoustic task, but can go about its work completely relaxed and almost on the side, with love and a sense for detail as well as with an always-ready attitude. A tiny drop of bitterness: At very low volumes, the Performa F328Be relatively emphasize the mid/high range over the bass.

The Golden middle

None of the latter loudspeakers can keep up with the Revel Performa F328Be in terms of midrange transparency and dynamics, both in terms of coarse and fine dynamics. When it comes to separating and dynamically separating the individual voices of the choir in “Cantate Domino” from Oskars Motettkör ‘s album of the same name, the Revel have the edge. The same applies when they convey the blaring final fanfares in all shades and with pressure and smack. The Americans offer a clearer differentiation and release a looser, looser swing from the shots. In my opinion, that’s what makes the Revel sound so incredibly authentic, not the dry, punchy bass – but then there’s the tweeter…

The Art of Disappearing

Because the beryllium tweeter of the Revel Performa F328Be is indeed a real cream of the crop, but one of the modest kind. Its true qualities are not trumpeted, they only really crystallize after many, many hours of listening to a wide variety of musical material out. His great art lies, so to speak, in disappearing, in his ability to never appear offensively as a tweeter – wherever possible and therefore appropriate. For example in Pat Metheny’s “America Undefined” (Album: From this Place. This wild musical rollercoaster oozes high-frequency finesse, which the percussion brings in in abundance in the form of jingles, brass, wind chimes and bells – and the Revel delivers it with the silky-airy nonchalance of a damn fine ribbon .

Yes okay, but why not install a ribbon right away? Well, let me tell you: this may have other problems. Some say that the ribbon has a tendency to “rustle”, a subtle lack of cleanliness in the super treble , or the difficult connection to a midrange cone that is inherently less reactive. That’s all undecided, with the Revel neither one nor the other is an issue. On the contrary, it shines in both disciplines: Antonio Sanchez’s metal percussion in “America Undefined” always sounds holistic and maximally homogeneous, does not break down into attack and “body”. And the Revel play phenomenally clean – even in the very highest treble. Even the finest structures come out calmly and cleanly. Really really good.

space and illustration

In view of the equipment and dimensions of the Revel Performa F328Be, one might get the idea that they are loudspeakers primarily for friends of level and dynamics. That’s also true – except for the “above all”. Because another of their vocations lies – in addition to the effortless resolution and dynamic shading in all frequency ranges – no less in the representation of spatial width and references.

Let’s stay with the ATR mastercut of Cantate Domino : How spacious, deep behind the speakers and clearly separated from the organ the F328Be project the singers of the choir, how fantastic the members of the choir are to understand and identify individually, is new to my ears. Precisely because the Revel succeed in these feats on a stage that is basically arranged behind the loudspeaker level – in my experience, directly tuned loudspeakers usually shine here. Also the electronic gimmicks in “Black Shoes” by Felix Laband(Album: Dark Days Exit) place the Revel Performa F328Be seemingly physically tangible and right on target – it can be as big as a pinhead or flat, which is only determined by the music material. Even the Lansche Audio No. 3.1 (or its successor 3.2SE) and the talented ATC SCM50PSL don’t quite keep up either. One requirement: the listening distance should be at least 2.5 meters in order to achieve the necessary coherence of the sound image.

Almost more impressive than the imaging precision is how Handel’s “Judas Maccabeus” from Cantate Domino puts me in the Christmas spirit well in advance and emotionally touches me deeply when the Revel Performa F328Be take over the sound conversion. Why? Not because the Revel spill romanticized icing. But because they play so overwhelmingly dynamically open and ruthlessly honest, because nothing disturbs, my attention is not distracted by any inconsistency. But also because I’m not missing anything, but – on the contrary – there is more musically relevant information than this recording made me aware of beforehand. Fascinating!