Revel 328Be owners...what do you think?

I owned the 228be for about 1.5 years and demoed the 328be both with and without the revel subs.

it is a good speaker that sounds as good as it measures. The reason to buy this speaker over others is the very smooth (extremely smooth) frequent response and wide even dispersion. It is a really easy speaker to live with but maybe not the absolute best at anything. If you find you don’t like other speakers because of a wart you nitpick the 328be could be a good choice as they are wart free.

The mids are comparable to any other highend box speaker, transparent and neutral. The highs are a bit softer than some other brands (focal etc) but just as detailed. I however find the bass extension a bit lacking for its size but fine. You really need boundary reinforcement to get down low. If pulled out into the room you might still want subs (I would) but in a smaller room 2-3’ off the wall they might be ok. I had my 228bes 5.5’ off the wall and highpass to subs at 60hz. That there is the issue for me. Once running a sub system you could almost just buy the 226be as they sound very similar and save a lot of money. I do think the larger tweeter motor of the 328be and does translate to better highs (just a touch) than the 228be/226be. I also think the 328bw highs are tuned just a touch softer.

I was not impressed by the 328Be despite being a longtime Revel fan. IMO it is overpriced relative to Revel’s more entry-level products. I would rather own a pre-owned pair of Salon2s, or even get Performa F208s and spend the savings elsewhere. 

That said, I recommend auditioning the Børresen X series which is within the same price range. To my ears they are simply on another level—treble, midrange, bass texture, imaging—they outshine the Revel Bes in all those metrics, not to mention outright musicality. The only area the larger X towers fall slightly short of the 328Bes is in lowest octave extension.

You did not mention your music tastes. For me it is not a rock speaker

Hmm define a “rock speaker”. I listen to mostly hard rock in general terms and felt revels did fine due to the downward sloping frequency response. Never harsh even on poor recordings. They play supper loud, silly loud before breaking up. Not sure I ever found the compression point honestly. The JBLs I have now do have more snap/impact of notes.

speakers that don’t rock to me are bright or lack dynamics. The Revels are neither bright or lacking dynamics but they are not the last word in dynamics either. 

After I bought a dealers salon 2 demos he invited me back a couple days later to listen to the 228be's and the first thing I noticed  was the sound drawing me back to the speakers. The latest performa's cabinets are a bit noisy, not bad, but enough to distract me from the stereo illusion the bass was also lacking, but more bass would probably excite the cabinets even more. I agree that a used salon 2 if you have a powerful amp or the studio 2 if you want the best representation of revel speakers. 

Like helomech said tho', While the ultima 2 was pretty special for the money in 2006, there's been forward progress made and many of us have moved on.