Revel Performa F228 Be speaker... thoughts?

@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. 

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.

I have a pair of F228Be that compare very well to the salons I just acquired. 
I feel the midrange is slightly better on the Be and they require less power to drive them. The salons really require a beefy amp. 
If you can get that last octave with a quality sub, it’s a great choice for both music and movies. 

I have heard the Salon 2 and 328be in the same room back to back but on different electronics. McIntosh C49/MC462 on the 328be and Mark Levinson on the Salon. salons on the inside and 328be on the outside. 

So not a true direct comparison but they are very similar. As a whole the 328be system seemed to have cleaner more even highs (to my ear) and the Salon system had deeper bass. They would be hard to tell apart if they were not in the same room. room/toe in/ and general setup will probably make a bigger difference than the speakers then selves. I felt like the equipment was making a bigger difference. I could hear the Mac sound through the 328be. I own Mac so no hate just an observation. The sound was a bit more in front of the 328be and a bit more behind the Solon. Again just a demo room so not super tweaked out.

I would be iffy on buying the Salon/studio as they are more or less discontinued. They have been out forever and I question part support going forward. Maybe if you don’t have kids running around to worry about breaking them. 

I have owned older B&W and Focals. I would take the Focals every time. B&W’s only good speaker imo is the 803/802/800 and even they have some midrange and treble oddities. Amazing speakers messed up with questionable tuning.  

Most impressive thing of the 228be has been the mids (well and how stupid loud they play) So transparent but natural sounding. The mids are a little forward for a revel but just a hair forward in reality. Really great speaker but I don’t think it impresses during the demo. When I demoed the 328be I thought it had the least issues of everything I demoed but I was not wowed. Even having them at home it took me almost a week to appreciate them but they were good right away. Not sure if it was positioning, sub integration tuning (I use two high-passed at 60hz), break in or psychoacoustics (I am going with the last one lol!) but I really like them now and have finally had a few wow moments. 

I have a hometheater music room so now the decisions is do I get another pair and center… or just live with a mix and match home theater. I am 90% music 10% home theater.  

 As a side note I have never had a speaker that can play this loud. I don’t understand what is going on. Maybe it is the 24db crossovers and some what limited bass extension. But even at 100db the sound seems to never compress or change. The highs are still clean, no midrange break up and the room gives up and rattles long before the bass drivers. From 70db to 100bd they frequency balance seems to stay the same.