Revel Performa3 Cabinet Defect

I had to go through two pairs of F228BE purchased brand new due to quality control issues. The first pair had a sanding/polishing distortion at the rear of the parabolic cabinet that you could see the underlying frame piece. The decals were crooked on the top. The second pair was better but still had crooked decals and off center plinths. Maybe their driver measurements are good enough that they don’t need matched pairs but mine were manufactured 8 and 9 months apart and both pairs never really imaged that well which is surprising given how good their numbers are.  My room is treated and tuned very well. Other speakers simply disappear so it was disappointing. Too bad because the overall tonality was nice. 

Interesting comment about the pairs not being matched. I know manufacturers that are science driven like Revel and they will usually sell speakers as matched pairs, marketing them as being within .5 db of each other and 1 db of the reference. I had such a good experience with the salon 1 and performa 2 f52 that I'm surprised at what's happening 

Hmm interesting in a bad way. They “out source” both the drivers and cabinets and they are “cheap” for their performance which I think hang with much more expensive speakers. My 228be had no issues of any kind but I am not super picky about visual stuff so maybe just missed something cosmetic (I never like the look). They sounded 100% perfect with a locked in center image so I have no reason to doubt driver matching. 
 

I have since moved on to their sister company JBL but I would buy a pair of Revels again. But this is all the effect of the way Harman is structured now. Their products are  low cost for their performance and something always have to give to reduce cost.
 

I would love to know how many speakers Revel sells and what their economies of scale are. I would image Revel is just a fraction of what JBL is. JBL is very small in two channel currently but claims they are in 70% of theaters and they also claim something like 95% (?) of all movies are master on JBL synthesis systems. I have no idea how many stages and churches use them but I see them everywhere. Is that money shared with Revel at all? Do their finances cross paths or are they siloed?  
 

I got the impression that JBL/Revel research teams were rolled in to one group awhile back and the M2 was the first joint flagship product. It was basically JBL pro drivers tuned using Harman’s research. Not sure they sell the M2 anymore. One of their engineers claimed the SCL-1 ($32,000 a pair) are the replacement but that is really a custom theater speaker. I would love to see the SCL-1 spit shined for two channel but then I could not afford it lol. 
 

anyway I am rambling but I am interested to see what the future of Revel will be. They have not brought out anything new and as good was the Be line is, it is really a step back from the ultima’s they no longer make. I feel like Harman is 100% in on JBL’s live performance, cinema, and luxury home cinema  with little thought paid to Revel. Revel really needs a new flagship from a marketing standpoint if they want to stay relevant. 

The newer Revel are good sounding speakers , I can’t argue with that .  I just don’t think that build quality is on par with early Revel