Revel Performa F228 Be speaker... thoughts?

The Kanta is a fine speaker I am sure but it will need subs imo. 

You can these the bass drops off hard after 100hz and relies on room gain which can be hard to optimize both soundstage and bass or if you have an odd room. Below 100hz you are listening to the port which might not be as clean. 
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2090:nrc-meas...


you can also see there is too much energy in the off axis around 5k. Could make toe in/out tricky depending on how narrow your room is.

I like focal as a brand and having owned both Revel and Focal they are somewhat  similar in house sound. What I can say is that in the US the 228be is both much cheaper and measures better. The tweeter is cleaner to my ears too. Keep in mind the comparable Focal is the Sopra 3 not the Kanta. 

@james633 Thanks, great post.  But your link appears to be for the Kanta 1.  And I'm not sure I agree that the comparable Focal is Sopra 3.  But if that is true, the 228Be is a screaming value! 

Mtrot,

thanks for catching my mistake. Try this link below for the Kanta 2. Similar tuning as the drivers drop off around 100hz and a strong port tuning picks up. I have personally found this type (strong port output) of tuning a little hard to place. I bet if you dig you will find people that say the Kanta has lots of bass and others that say it has no bass. Both probably true and room dependent with that type of tuning. 
https://www.stereophile.com/content/focal-kanta-no2-loudspeaker-measurements


The 228be is much larger (volume wise) than the Sopra 2 and closer to the Sopra 3 in both size abs driver layout. The crossover points are almost the same too. I think a lot of the extra weight of the Sopra 3 comes from the glass base. 

The only real negative of the 228be is that it gives up bass extension for efficiency. I run subs with everything but if someone was agents subs they might want to pass on the Revels. But the light bass tuning gives them the ability to play crazy loud with little distortion. I imagine this was done for the home theater crowd. 
Anyway I really like the current Focal line. I just think they are over priced in the US with their recent price increases and I feel that Revel is on the lower end of the price scale making them a good buy if you are not worried about having something fancy and exotic looking. 

@james633 Yeah, I mostly agree with your points, especially that Revel does seem to be biasing their tuning toward the home theater crowd.  I do have an all-around family room setup that is for movies and music.  But my bias would be toward music listening enjoyment more so than home theater prowess. Besides, the Kanta has pretty good dynamics as well, as I understand it.

Also, my family room has a pronounced bass null at the listening position, but I can't really arrange the room any differently.  So, I'm not sure that either the 228 or one of the Kantas is going to be much superior to the other in bass performance in my room.

Another thing I don't care for with the tall F228 is the high tweeter position.  My seated ear height on my sofa is around 33 inches, so I really like how the Kanta tweeter, being below the mid range driver, is right about at my ear height.  Also, my seated distance from the front L/R speakers is only 10 feet, so my ears would be maybe 10-15 degrees below the F228 tweeter.  And I can't back the sofa up any more.

Yeah, Focal ticked me off with their ~25% price increase, but nice used sets of Kanta 2 are popping up in the $6500 range.  Used Kanta 3 seem much more rare and much higher in price.  Incidentally, used F226Be are also showing as low as $5000, but that is a fairly small speaker.

And also, with respect to aesthetics, I do think the Kantas will have a better WAF for me, as my room is our family room.

Yes the high tweeter on the 228be could be an issue at 33”, which is pretty low. My ear is about 38” and I sit 9’ away and have not had any problems. 
I got the Revel 228be for $6300 from Music Direct “new”. They were marked as demos but showed up unopened with the frisk still on them. They had 3 pairs marked as 60 day returns or demos but looks like they are all sold now. 
I demoed the Sonus Faber Olympica III, Wilson Sabrina, Revel 328be, Kef Reference 3, Klipsch Cornwall IV, Klipsch La Scala, B&W 803D3, and 804D3 before buying tue Revel. I liked the 328be the best and figured the 228be with subs I owned would work well and save some cash. It was an impulse buy due to bring so cheap but worked out well. Interestingly I inquired about ordering a pair through another dealer and was quoted an 8 month lead time (crazy) then started looking around online.