Monoprice THX and Revel Beryllium Speakers Review

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We will discuss our measurements and listening experiences with the new THX speakers from Monoprice and special Beryllium bookshelf speakers from Revel.
Monoprice Monolith THX-365T Review:
www.audioholics.com/bookshelf...
Revel Performa M126Be Review:
www.audioholics.com/bookshelf...
Buy Monoprice THX-365T: amzn.to/313X75v
Audioholics Recommendations Amazon Shop: www.amazon.com/shop/audioholics
Audioholics Recommended Cables:
250ft CL2 12AWG Speaker Cable: amzn.to/2vwS9QH
Locking Banana Plugs: amzn.to/2ZQt15x
9ft 4K HDR HDMI Cables: amzn.to/2WiIXeD
Audioholics Recommended Electronics:
Onkyo TX-RZ720 THX7.2CH AV Receiver: amzn.to/2V61Kgu
Yamaha RX-A3080 9.2CH AV Receiver: amzn.to/2VzA03v
Denon AVR-X6500H 11.2CH AV Receiver: amzn.to/2LelABB
Audioholics Recommended Speakers:
SVS Prime 5.1 Speaker / Sub System: amzn.to/2GWoFCn
Klipsch RP-8000F Tower Speakers: amzn.to/2Vd8QQn
SVS SB-3000 13" Subwoofer: amzn.to/2XYxqBr
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#loudspeakers #THX #audiophile

[@xMI55IONx]

Really enjoy these long form discussions guys, dont let the naysayers put you off. 👍

[@bs11100010]

i sold my m126be and picked up the monolith thx460t and 365c and saved 1000 bucks. both are excellent speakers. ill probably pick up f226be down the road when i do a dedicated two channel system. but this made since for a 50/50 music/home theater system.

[@slyfoxx8540]

What put you off the revels?

[@joshdann2674]

viewing this almost a year later, but wanted to say - thanks for doing these. Your writeup of the performance of these speakers helped end a month-long search for my new theater speakers. There is a ton of marketing material available for a ton of options all over the price spectrum. Using your opinions and measurements as a baseline helps sift through all the millions spent on marketing and gets right to the facts. Thanks to your hard work, I have two pallets of Monoprice THX gear arriving today. Cheers, boys. Have a drink on me.

[@MPR_2023]

I have a full 5.2 monolith system. Two 460t, 365c, two 365t, two monolith 15’s v2, denon 3800 and a monolith 5 channel amp. This system is a thumper! I changed from a full klipsch rp series 5.2 and it was mind blowing the difference. I got everything on Black Friday for 40% off between Black Friday and email promo code.

[@doctorrazz]

Hey Guys thanks for your honesty it is refreshing. As a near lifetime owner of Klipschorns 1981's the year i graduated. I have listened to many of the top end systems and manufactures that you guys demo. The Wilson's, Focal's, B$W's all sound like great Stereo speakers. The Klipsch heritage line sounds like i am at a concert performance performance bad not perfect curve is not the issue. Reproduction of live music is what we are proud of. Subjective hyperbowl is for people who use waveform analysis. Thanks for the great reviews, keep them coming. My new Cornwall a 1996 addition sure has filled in the center channel and my Outlaw sub and the SVS mini i just ordered should make my new 23x 25 room sing like the old Massey Hall. The rear Paradigm towers will find a new home will give them away and Heresey IV's will move to the rear of my 5.2 system. Cheers. British Junky But Loud JBL knucklehead listeners can spend their way to subjective sound perfection. Go buy more albums. LOL love your advice and leadership.

[@paulorr9262]

James always does such great speaker reviews.

[@midevil1980]

Man, I could listen to Matt talk about speakers all day. Great video, guys. Keep it up! 😉👍

[@jeffsloane8628]

Holy crap this is a good video! The content is fantastic and technical level is spot on IMO.

[@SwirlingDragonMist]

There's some interesting approaches to creating a unified dispersion across the frequency band. You can spread the Treble, or narrow the Bass. Bass is naturally more omnidirectional and difficult to localize, while higher frequencies beam and bounce more like laser beams. One approach taken by Kii in their new Kii-Three speakers is to suppress the omni directional characteristics of bass, by using active noise cancellation from specially timed and phased side-firing and rear-firing woofers, the goal being to cancel bass waves that side radiate and would reflect off the walls, so that the only remaining bass produced is directionally beamed out the front woofer towards the listener, matching the beam like dispersion pattern of the higher frequencies. Pretty cool right!? Now the opposite approach taken by Mirage is/was (older discontinued "omni" designs) is/was to upfire the mid and tweeter drivers against a parabolic curve that would scatter those beaming frequencies in a wider dispersion pattern to match the naturally wide omni directional characteristics of bass. The up firing is interesting in it's own right, as many omni-directional designs from other companies such as those by Richard Shahinian, fire upwards at around around a 30-40 degree angle, using the empty ceiling space for "Oblique" and "tangental" reflections which have spread out from localizable pinpoints of sound into wider blurs, as the conically shaped beams have more length to spread wider as they go the unorthodoxly long distance to the ceiling and back down. We see this sort of angled Shahinian and MirageOmni style up-firing in bouncy house ATMOS implementations, while we see the Kii-Three style direct-sound philosophy in discrete in ceiling implementations of ATMOS which Gene seems to prefer. The two approaches are well visualized and somewhat analogous to comparing canister lighting, and open topped lamps, but the metaphor breaks down when you consider that illumination goals are different than listening goals. Sound has comb filtering interference, whereas light perceptively does not, but if your paint is glossy, you can literally see where your acoustic primary reflections are, so that's kinda neat. For the best image clarity you would want an acoustically "dark room" to use the illumination analogy, for an anechoic headphone like experience. If you're casually listening to music as you walk around the house, or have allot of sweet-spots to cover, you'd probably enjoy a diffusive ambient sound field with lots of soft reflections. The problem(s) with spreading higher frequencies to match the directionality of bass, is that the reflections of high frequencies are localizable, reflections cause interference and comb filtering which reduces clarity, which the brain can adjust for, and even find somewhat psychologically comforting when done right, but also straining when poorly executed. So the principal tradeoff is that the psycho-acoustic ambiance can be desirable at times, but at the expense of imaging, which is also very desirable, and kinda the whole point of Dolby ATMOS to begin with, whereas the very first old school dolby pro-logic surround concept was more about creating diffuse and ambient sound fields, with rear channels mostly used for things like rain and birds. Now, beautifully we can use acoustical room treatments to help bring the two philosophies together, using acoustic diffusers and absorbers, to enhance ambience, or to enhance clarity. If you're spreading the treble to match the bass, absorbers may reign in some of the drawbacks of the reflections. If you're narrowing the bass to match the treble, diffusers may create more immersive ambience. It's tricky because absorbers like fiberglass and foam absorb higher frequencies much more readily than lower frequencies, so absorption needs careful consideration to create smooth linear "broadband absorption" across all frequencies. You want your room treatments, like your speakers, to follow a flat response. So spring for getting the really thick stuff, because more thickness extends the frequency lower to cover more and more of the spectrum, as it's coverage is directly correlated to the wave's physical length. Bass is a wild beast, which honestly can be even too wild to tame at times, so you gotta use allot of bass traps, room eq, bass management, all while not sucking the life out of your bass or any other frequency, which I hear multi-sub can be very helpful for ;). The Kii-Three design is really innovative, and I hope Audioholics get's a chance to play around with some of them, I'm not an expert on acoustics, but I feel a high enough degree of confidence to share these insights. In ancient times Pythagoras taught his wisdom to his disciples in two grades, the first grade was the listeners, who were only allowed to listen and learn, they were known as the "Acoustici", the second grade was the "Mathematici" who could teach what they knew to others. I hope my musings here have been of at least a high enough degree to serve those seeking a higher understanding, and without error as to be misleading. I would hope we all have enough refrain to teach only that which we understand, but also the boldness to recognize when we have competence enough to bring another into a higher state of understanding. With that I will humbly take Gene and Pythagoras's advice, and... "keep listening".

[@isaacsykes3]

You sound great and provide even better information!

[@suschielgandhi5679]

Hey Gene...amazing video and thank you to you all for sharing all your wisdom. Please can you make a video on the F226BE with measurements and maybe a teardown of the speakers showing components such as drivers, crossovers, cabinetry etc. Thank you guys 😊

[@walrusgumbootable]

Thanks again for the content Gene!

[@EM-ke8is]

Really enjoy listening to you guys and the truth in what you are discussing as it shows you don't need to have a trust fund to get into the game of audio and home theater

[@andyjefferson1308]

Gene! What do you think of Kef R3?? Thanks for your input! Another interesting video...✌👍

[@tedmanasa907]

Great video, would love to see more measurement and method discussions like this. It helped bring a lot of the different concepts together in my mind, like why off axis response matters: because of reflections. Seems obvious now but no other video has brought that point home for me before. Could you do a similar type of video with an amplifier? Maybe the Emotiva XPA-3?

[@PoesAcoustics]

Ted Manasa we accidentally offended them multiple times. I still love them but they have rebuffed my hugs. None the less, I would like to do an amplifier video. I think it would be great to discuss the different parameters that make a great amplifier.

[@tedmanasa907]

Matthew Poes That would be excellent! I have been vacillating on whether to get separate amplification for my setup but I don’t feel like I understand enough about amplifier basics to determine if I will benefit from it.

[@FitraHomestead]

I would love if you can bring in the arendal full sized monitors in and discect them in the same way! They are not that big in North America, but are doing well in Europe. SpareChange has the S models. They deserve some recognition on your side of the pond.

[@shaner3d]

Please review the BIG new Polk Legends!!!!

[@DesignVisStudios]

Dirac works better with lesser speakers - it can be a huge upgrade for so so systems. But you guys are totally right in that well made speakers don't benefit as much. Which makes sense really.

[@AnyRoadAnyTime]

Yes, review those Polk Legends.

[@Vincent-lw2sp]

Review the polks!!

[@eliwalsh1425]

Sort of curious how these Monoprice mini-towers compare to the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers.

[@zombielandiii2711]

Hello! Recently subscribed. Can you share some thoughts on Kef R3? Thanks.

[@johnmastroleo995]

Gene I have a question regarding the Monoprice THX 365T Mini Tower/365C review. It was concluded that although the 365C speaker definitely had lobing it still measured very well especially for a horizontal center speaker. My question. Since the 365T has noticeable better measurments 50 degrees off axis are you saying the 365T mini tower will provide better dialogue sound quality when listening off axis? If so why do most people still pick a wide center channel, is this because its easier to place? I simply want the speaker that provides the widest sound coverage with the most clear dialogue. If the 365T mini tower is placed at the floor on a angular stand that aims it directly at the center listening position will it provide the widest sound coverage with the most clear dialogue for off center listeners compared to the 365C. Gene, Matt and James I greatly appreciate your hard work. Thank You you again. John Mastroleo

[@jasontyler4117]

Any thoughts on Jamo floor standing speakers ? Just ordered a set of the c97-ii for very cheap on a whim. I Have never heard a Jamo speaker and had a hard time finding many reviews.

[@zombielandiii2711]

Hello guys, thanks for the review. I already have a rsl CG25 as a center channel but I'm interested on the monolith's... Since you already reviewed both, Can you help me to make a choice ? Im looking for speakers to use 50/50 with music and movies. Thank you very much.

[@isaacsykes3]

I do!!!

[@JamesWilliams-gf8gm]

Great video.

[@toddroy9558]

Will you guys be reviewing the monoprice thx 465t speaker?

[@UBAYBE]

Looking for a decent AV Reciver yamaha or denon with 2 or 3 zones, mostly for home theatre. they will be plugged into B&W 602S3. 4k switching à must. What do you recommend?

[@joes3800]

+1 for reviewing the Polks. I'm not nearly as big as Hugo but I'll help if you fly me out! Thanks for the vids and the reviews, BTW!

[@Rene_Christensen]

The step response of just a Linkwitz Riley crossover alone, takling out the driver response, is going to look really messy, even though the crossover sections are in phase at all frequencies.

[@jonesgeorge1990]

Audioholics please reply. From your experience which home theater system is better: - Monolith thx 365 system with dual svs sub - klipsch rf7 iii system with dual svs sub - M&K s150 system with dual svs sub I am looking for cineplex movie theater kind of sound. Using only for movies. Please reply.

[@franciscoortiz6980]

In case anyone is looking for top firing atmos speakers. The NHT Media Series 2-Way Dolby Atmos Satellite Speaker will cost 300/pair and blows away these over priced mono speakers. And the NHT is a reliable brand that is know for speakers of high quality and value that will still work and sound the same 5 years later.

[@ubacow7109]

One year later dominus was met and surprisingly it wasn't as massive as they guys thought. Perlistens tower is about as big as any large tower.

[@dextermorgan1]

What met Dominus? Monoprice?

[@ubacow7109]

@@dextermorgan1 Perlisten's speakers and subs, M&K also has a lesser known Dominus spec sub that is pretty similar to perlisten's but more affordable.

[@donjaun540]

I know this is a late response to this video but those monoprice speakers are even lower priced now. $322 each. You should make a show on that. 🤗

[@lawrence09151]

lol at the comment about the 6.5in bookshelves and 18in subs and the dB difference :)

[@mickcase2001]

Hi guys love the show, can you tell me what you think of Jenson speakers.

[@1ufcfanatic795]

Jensen?

[@raymondcooke5506]

Even with a curved cabinet Revel could have mounted the tweeter like Monitor audio does, with a large bolt in the back smashing the waveguide against a gasket on the baffle.

[@PoesAcoustics]

Raymond Cooke I think the tweeter is too big and heavy. The bolt would also impact the electromagnetic behavior of the driver. I was thinking that an option would be to cast the waveguide into the battle and then boot the baffle on to the front. That pushes the bolts to the edge. We can ask Mark if they ever tested the diffractive effects of the bolts and why they went this route. I personally think the front of a speaker should be without any diffractive stuff. No bolts or anything.

[@DesignVisStudios]

Dirac can correct the horn sound out of horns. Tho you can sorta get used to it and your brain corrects the horn sound of of a horn after a while.

[@johnmastroleo995]

Gene Can you please give me the site where I can read Matt and James reviews and look at their measurements of products. Regarding THX specifications. Speakers are Fosgate Audionics MC 220 and SD 180. The MC 220 uses dual 1" Morel MDT-30c dome tweeters ( ferrofluid ) stacked on top of each other with a straight cut flange so the tweeters fit right together. The woofers are also Morel MW-166. The woofers are at the top and bottom with the tweeters in the middle. The crossover in the speakers were built by John Dunlavy. They are actually stamped Dunlavy Labs. My question is does the new Monoprice THX speaker have less lobing than the vertical speakers I have. I wasn't clear if Matthew was saying the horizontal placement of the woofers was better than the vertical placement. Since the original THX specification required vertical array has that changed? Would Monoprice horizontal configuration give me benefits of a wider listening window angle with smoother response. My Fosgate audionics MC 220 sit on the floor atop stands that angle the speakers directly at you but depending on how I reclined in my chair sometimes I get off axis and the dialogue is harder to hear. Would the horizontal speaker Monoprice THX speaker help me in that area Thank you in advance.

[@Audioholics]

Audioholics.com is where James Larson does written reviews for us. Matt is just getting started mostly writing tech articles for us. Vertical arrays are always better for reducing lobing as you can see in the measurements of the Monoprice review (linked in the description).

[@mikeboncheck5555]

Great video...I was board ....and did not even know why I clicked...?

[@damianzaninovich4900]

I enjoyed this talk. Love the Star Trek uniform. Makes me want to watch Spock’s Brain. If time coincidence isn’t important why do Wilson and Focal go to the trouble?

[@PoesAcoustics]

Damian Zaninovich neither of those brands are time coincident. They are time coherent. Basically in phase. Take a look at the Stereophile measurements and look at the step response. A time coincident speaker will have a perfect wedge. None of the speakers from either brand has that.

[@damianzaninovich4900]

Thanks for the info. I enjoy hearing you guys. I just think I like speakers that sound like the treble is reaching my ears nearer to the mids arriving. I had inexpensive Boston A40’s that improved when I turned them upside down and covered their baffles with felt. I have Mission 753’s, same thing, lean them back and they sounded better. I use Canton Reference 7’s now. I liked their size and weight, rounded cabinets, German manufacturing, tweeter below the mids and close out price(they’re a 10+ yr old design). Another example, we had a Lexus with a factory Marc Levinson system with the tweeters nearer to our ears. Hard to listen to. I have a Chevy pickup with Bose full range drivers. Lower definition but I’ve enjoyed it for five yrs. Well engineered, kudos to Bose. I don’t get a chance to hear these newer designs you guys do but I wonder how much has changed and if everyone hears the same way. Thanks, your channel has been educational.

[@JoshuaCorley]

They need to import these to Australia

[@billd9667]

My only concern about top-firing Atmos drivers is phase delay. The seemingly simple solution would be to connect the driver out of phase with the front-firing drivers, but that would still not assure proper phase. Does the onboard DSP feature in AV processors correct for this? Why don’t these all-in-ones at least have some sort of sound absorbing or blocking shield in front of the top driver to prevent direct “leakage” toward the listener?

[@PoesAcoustics]

Many do have that. In this case the hope is that the coincident driver has narrow dispersion. This is wha to hope to test later.

[@matt88169]

If you are going to talk smack about Auto-EQ, you really, really need to set up a 5.1 - 7.2 system (or some range of setups with and without subwoofers), and setup a "reference" - some ideal configuration, to which you compare the EQ system. Before discussing how bad half the systems are at nailing an optimal configuration, consider the flexibility that each has to let the end user do a final tuning assuming they have half a brain and decent listening skills. I am really interested in whether these systems are ultimately better tuning only for the "money seat", or if the "average response" taken over many positions in the room is actually superior overall. The single-point measurement that my system does works great, and my intuition is that you cannot tune a system to sound good everywhere, no matter how much you would like that to be the case. My experience is limited, unfortunately, to "Accu-EQ" from Onkyo (but I've had Pioneer auto-eq in a car environment), but the experience has been very good. The most consistent upgrade has been that it effectively EQs bass response to really tighten up the integration between the subwoofers and the other speakers, making the whole system sound significantly better to my ears. It seems to do this without EQing beyond around 200-300 hz, which i consider a good thing. I have used it in two very different rooms - one that was quite square and also quite "dead", and one that is quite lively and larger / more open. It seems to nail the distance to within inches consistently. However, crossover points have ranged from nailing the speakers lowest usable response (say, about 50 hz), to choosing a point that is significantly higher than I would ever use (something like 120 hz). No matter what, I would tend to choose my own crossover points that balance the performance for music and for movies. The levels selected are also typically off by a few dB for the speakers, and way hot for the subwoofers. Depending on what I am listening too, I will tend to adjust bass levels by 3-5 dB even after I feel I have things dialed in. Consumers that want a plug and play solution probably aren't getting the best performance that they can. But it seems that a person with a little understanding of what they are doing can get a great result with a "low end" solution.

[@Cujobob]

The philharmonic BMR is being sold again for a very nice price btw. With that said, I’d never not recommend a top shelf Revel product.

[@C--A]

The new Philharmonic BMR towers look really good.

[@saeedattar2853]

Polk Audio Reserve R200 Bookshelf review please

[@isaacsykes3]

I'd love for you guys to us your opinion on Ohm Walsh 2's or 3's, the Klipsch RF7 III'S, and the Tekton design Double Impacts.

[@Chrissy4605]

Momprice or Monolith?

[@markqiao]

why everyone like to ignore center speakers ? most audio come from center speaker for movies!

[@miketurner6118]

yes...measure the Polks!!!!!!

[@nhennessy6434]

Monoprice is obviously naming their models after their internal sku's. They need a lesson marketing, just hope they don't wind up going to Schiit to get it.

[@SlyNine]

A listening test over KZbin. LOL I wouldn't believe people do that. But I just watched a review and they did exactly that.... The absolute state of things.

[@alexanderscott3790]

If burglars broke into Genes home, would he still address them as "my friends?!"

[@Asoka-great]

he will become Clint..😉

[@lawrence09151]

Patrick of grope me on tv was mentioning how it was lame THX was certifying cheap speakers. My old Logitech Z5500 is THX certified. They have no tweeters and the sub is a one note wonder lol

[@gregkramer5588]

THX is a company with many certification specs. You have to look at the spec they are complying to to bring meaning to it.

[@PoesAcoustics]

These were THX certified as computer speakers. The minimum requirements are dramatically different. The home theater standard has some teeth to it. A lot of speakers couldn’t meet the spec. Especially the larger sub specs. We’ve been impressed with just how low distortion the recent crop of thx certified subs have been.

[@MRPC5]

Does the Revel have better dynamics with one 6.5" than the Monoprice with 2?

[@crazydwarfer]

Now, those 365Ts are $480 per pair.

[@jonlaw16]

29:35 I like to think that was a direct jab at Zeos Reviews here on KZbin. He uploads a listening demonstration with every product he reviews... Double the videos, double the ad revenue.

[@Audioholics]

It's a jab at any KZbin channel offering "listening demos" to it's audience and acting like anything useful can be learned from them.

[@zombielandiii2711]

@@Audioholics Wow... That statement is a knock out for sure.

[@Audioholics]

@@zombielandiii2711 sometimes truth hurts ;)

[@snauspockets9924]

It is what it is and you can choose to listen to a comparison between the two... whether that's useful or not is up to you. You said it yourself, he makes a separate video for that so you don't have to watch it at all if you don't want to. It's just for the curious. Z has never been technical like these guys anyway...he is more of a layman's review and people like that. You want to knock him that says more about you than him. One thing for sure, Z has more Charisma than the three of these guys put together.

[@snauspockets9924]

@Sly foxxx speaking of personal there's the guy like you that attacks me personally because I say Z has more Charisma than these guys put together... which is true by quite a large margin. Knowledge is great and all but I also like being entertained(this is youtube) and Z does that to a much much higher degree. When A shot is made at "youtubers" by another youtuber I can't help but laugh and comment. Don't get your panties in a bunch about it. But thanks for the opinion...

[@victorpulos823]

I call that snake oil speakers on top

[@DesignVisStudios]

Getting THX cert takes money mostly, outside of some basic requirements.

[@scottsmith8546]

Unless you have a giant room or are a private DJ, or something like that, why would you want giant tower speakers?

[@mundie33]

Scott Smith why would you want bookshelves unless you’re limited to listening to music on a desk? They’re going to have the same footprint once you get a stand. The 8” revels are big but not unmanageable.

[@scottsmith8546]

@@mundie33 I was asking this only for the purpose of knowledge. My room size is 15Wx22Lx8H; I have a couple of "large" RSL speakers from the 80's that have 12" subs in them and they are set automatically down to 50hz with audessy, and a new RSL center channel gets set down to 60hz, and sending the rest to the 400W RSL speedwooofer and another mid size ported 350W Onyko sub. Therefore I reasoned that if I had towers with even more subs, they too would get reduced down and essentially lose their purpose. If my room was a lot larger, then it would make sense. My room gets significantly pressurized to the point where I have to turn the subs down to 25% of their capabilities.

[@CanDoo321]

Looks like a troll doll on it’s side.

[@scarmenl]

They use the stupid unit names because of the overreaching and stupid international legal system.

[@zekechen1369]

The brave ukrainian coincidently train because ambulance maternally exercise atop a labored barometer. mature, sophisticated impulse

[@DuzBee]

Is that guy in the red having a stroke? Farrrrrrrk.... He sounds like a speaker / amp clipping harder than John Deer lawn mower bouncing off the rev limiter along the grass

[@reynaldos1chorizo]

Glad I'm not the only one that noticed. Lol. I was stoned listening to this and I thought my internet was cutting out. 😂

[@jtee9548]

The gentleman in red has sporadic bursts of staccato, blurted, interrupted, almost stuttering speech patterns. Judging by the eye movements he may be self medicating as well. It is VERY disconcerting, trying to follow his train of thought. The guy on the left should do the talking

[@tangojim]

Painful to watch. Guy in red shirt keep yapping and never to point.