Revel Performa F228 Be speaker... thoughts?

I would certainly take a listen to Focal Kanta 2 and Kanta 3, although you'd likely pay more for the 3's than the Revel F228Be.  Yes, the Revels measure about as well as can be done, but you have to enjoy listening to your speakers.  I think that's where Kanta exels.  They have the IAL3 version of their beryllium tweeter and it exceedingly detailed yet not as "in your face" as some earlier Focal Be tweeters.  With the Kanta, you just want to listen to music. 

@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! 

@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.

Hmm, it appears that Music Direct has a scratch and dent set of Ultima Studio 2 for $9K, which is $1000 less than their price for F228Be.  Some feel the Studio 2 is still a better speaker than the F228Be.  I wonder how bad the scratch and dent is on them?!
That's quite an extensive list of speakers you auditioned.  I've recently been considering B&W 804D3 since they are now showing up used for as low as ~$6k, but that tweeter scares me after hearing it sound so hot at a couple of audio shows. It was after that that I started leaning toward the Focal Kanta sound. 

Now, one thing about the Studio 2 that is a factor to me is the low sensitivity, compared to the Kantas.  I do have a powerful amp, but I still like the idea of a higher efficiency speaker.

@james633

"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."
So, can you suggest some speakers that don't rely on the port for below 100Hz and don't drop off hard below 100Hz? 

@james633

Thanks much for the extensive explanation.  Hmm, considering that in my family room, the front L/R speakers have to be close to the front wall, perhaps the Kanta 2 will work great.  The back of the speakers will need to be about 18" from that wall.  I was about to rule them out, based on your comment about Focal rolling off the bass hard below 100Hz. 

One nice thing about the Kanta 2 is that nice used sets are showing up at around $6500 lately.  Similarly, used sets of F226Be are showing up around that price or even lower.  So, Kanta 2 vs F226Be.....  They will be used probably around 50% for movies/50% music, so they also need to work well when playing movies fairly loud.