This is a review and detailed measurements of the Revel C783 in-ceiling speaker. Was kindly sent to me new by a member and costs US $ 660 each.
You are seeing the speaker as mounted in my temporary MDF baffle for measurements. There are two switches to control level of bass and treble (I measured the former). It said tweeter is adjustable but I did not try and tested it head on.
Usually the mounting screws are threaded to the tab behind so relatively easy to tighten. Not here. They were thread forming (into plastic) so took fair bit of power to screw them in. That by itself is not a big deal but there is always the danger of the screwdriver slipping and tearing up the woofer. And it is not fun doing this on while working on the ceiling., I had to find the right phillips screwdriver so that it would not slip. Otherwise, speaker seems well made and comes with magnetic grills.
Making anechoic measurements requires special mode of Klippel NFS system where the back wave and boundary response of the artificial baffle are excluded. System only accepts the center as the reference so that is what I picked (of the woofer) as opposed to the tweeter that I normally pick. Fortunately they are close enough to each other than measurement accuracy was pretty high. Note that all axis are referencing the speaker being vertical as you see in the picture as opposed to its normal mounting position of on ceiling. So you have to perform some mental gymnastics to understand the measurements.
NOTE: Our company Madrona Digital is a dealer for Revel speakers and we likely have installed a lot of these in custom installations. My measurements are not subject to bias as they are standardized but you may feel fee to read such into my subjective remarks.
Revel C783 Speaker Measurements
As usual we start with our anechoic response of the speaker. I chose to not use the grill (impact is usually fairly small). I started measuring with the boundary compensation on thinking that meant it is mounted on-wall which it is. But the manual talked about proximity to a "wall." Not sure what that meant as speaker is always on a wall but I assume they mean a secondary boundary. For that reason I made the anechoic measurements with boundary compensation turned off:
Speaker is doing well until about 700 Hz where it experiences wide dip. Near-field measurement seems to indicate that tweeter is crossed too high:
I can't imagine a company like Revel making a simple mistake here. I looked up company spinorama and it mirrors mine (but with lower resolution) so this is what it is meant to be. Why, I don't know.
Our models of reflections don't work for in-ceiling speakers but they do indicate the level of "goodness" in speaker off-axis response:
The averaging works here to smooth out the curve and we are just left with some shortfall in energy from 1 to 1.8 kHz. A single PEQ filter should fill that in at the potential cost of more distortion (woofer is unhappy in that region). Here is our predicted-in-room response which again doesn't apply to this class of speakers:
Directivity narrows so point the tweeter at your listening position as company recommends:
Power handling is very good at 86 dBSPL:
Above I have shown the effect of the boundary compensation which cuts the bass. Turning it on lowers the distortion in bass naturally.
Note that both of these measurements are made with the backside open.
Waterfall shows resonances some of which I am sure is from the woofer but there may be some magnifications of it due to my baffle that is standing on its edge:
Finally, the step response shows two disjointed responses from woofer and tweeter which is odd:
I don't have a ceiling to put the speaker in so no listening tests.
Conclusions
Compared to some of the other in-ceiling speakers we have measured with angled drivers and such, the C783's standard configuration actually does much better with far less interference between drivers. The only odd thing about its design is the crossover region where the two drivers don't seem to meet.
Since I can't listen to the Revel C783, I don't have a recommendation one way or the other forum. Personally I would choose it though over some of the other funky configurations if I had to live with in-ceiling speaker and would take a shot at modifying the crossover.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
You are seeing the speaker as mounted in my temporary MDF baffle for measurements. There are two switches to control level of bass and treble (I measured the former). It said tweeter is adjustable but I did not try and tested it head on.
Usually the mounting screws are threaded to the tab behind so relatively easy to tighten. Not here. They were thread forming (into plastic) so took fair bit of power to screw them in. That by itself is not a big deal but there is always the danger of the screwdriver slipping and tearing up the woofer. And it is not fun doing this on while working on the ceiling., I had to find the right phillips screwdriver so that it would not slip. Otherwise, speaker seems well made and comes with magnetic grills.
Making anechoic measurements requires special mode of Klippel NFS system where the back wave and boundary response of the artificial baffle are excluded. System only accepts the center as the reference so that is what I picked (of the woofer) as opposed to the tweeter that I normally pick. Fortunately they are close enough to each other than measurement accuracy was pretty high. Note that all axis are referencing the speaker being vertical as you see in the picture as opposed to its normal mounting position of on ceiling. So you have to perform some mental gymnastics to understand the measurements.
NOTE: Our company Madrona Digital is a dealer for Revel speakers and we likely have installed a lot of these in custom installations. My measurements are not subject to bias as they are standardized but you may feel fee to read such into my subjective remarks.
Revel C783 Speaker Measurements
As usual we start with our anechoic response of the speaker. I chose to not use the grill (impact is usually fairly small). I started measuring with the boundary compensation on thinking that meant it is mounted on-wall which it is. But the manual talked about proximity to a "wall." Not sure what that meant as speaker is always on a wall but I assume they mean a secondary boundary. For that reason I made the anechoic measurements with boundary compensation turned off:
Speaker is doing well until about 700 Hz where it experiences wide dip. Near-field measurement seems to indicate that tweeter is crossed too high:
I can't imagine a company like Revel making a simple mistake here. I looked up company spinorama and it mirrors mine (but with lower resolution) so this is what it is meant to be. Why, I don't know.
Our models of reflections don't work for in-ceiling speakers but they do indicate the level of "goodness" in speaker off-axis response:
The averaging works here to smooth out the curve and we are just left with some shortfall in energy from 1 to 1.8 kHz. A single PEQ filter should fill that in at the potential cost of more distortion (woofer is unhappy in that region). Here is our predicted-in-room response which again doesn't apply to this class of speakers:
Directivity narrows so point the tweeter at your listening position as company recommends:
Power handling is very good at 86 dBSPL:
Above I have shown the effect of the boundary compensation which cuts the bass. Turning it on lowers the distortion in bass naturally.
Note that both of these measurements are made with the backside open.
Waterfall shows resonances some of which I am sure is from the woofer but there may be some magnifications of it due to my baffle that is standing on its edge:
Finally, the step response shows two disjointed responses from woofer and tweeter which is odd:
I don't have a ceiling to put the speaker in so no listening tests.
Conclusions
Compared to some of the other in-ceiling speakers we have measured with angled drivers and such, the C783's standard configuration actually does much better with far less interference between drivers. The only odd thing about its design is the crossover region where the two drivers don't seem to meet.
Since I can't listen to the Revel C783, I don't have a recommendation one way or the other forum. Personally I would choose it though over some of the other funky configurations if I had to live with in-ceiling speaker and would take a shot at modifying the crossover.
General Specifications
| Height | Cutout dimensions (dia.) 9.6" (24.4 cm) Square grille finished Height 10.7" (27.2 cm) |
|---|---|
| Width | Square grille finished Width 10.7" (27.2 cm) |
| Depth | Mounting depth 5.2" (13.2 cm) |
| Weight | Weight 3.1 lb (1.4 kg) / Shipping weight 4.1 lb (1.9 kg) |
| Features | Includes both round and square zero-bezel magnetic grilles • Round grille finished dimension (dia.) 10.7" (27.2 cm) |
| High Frequency Driver Components | 1" aluminum dome swiveling high-output tweeter with waveguide |
| Low Frequency Extension | High Frequency Extension 3-position HF level control / Low Frequency Extension LF boundary compensation |
| Low Frequency Driver Components | 8" Micro-Ceramic Composite (MCC) Cone, Cast-Aluminum Frame High-Output Woofer |
| Mounting | C-2 fastening mechanism • Compatible with wall material thickness range 0.5" – 2.0" (1.3 cm – 5.0 cm) |
| Recommended Amplifier Power | 10 - 150 Watts RMS |
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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