Official REL Subwoofer thread...

Hi Greg,

Good stuff. I was getting lonely here as a new REL owner. I just purchased the Britannia B2 a couple of weeks ago and it mates extremely well with my Dynaudio Confidence C1 monitors. Beautiful looking sub to boot.

I am still playing around with placement and I don't have it quite dialed in yet but I am still working on it.

More to come a long with some questions I am sure.

Hopefully there will be some other "misunderstood" REL owners that join in .

Rick

This thread is timely for me. I just upgraded my PSB 6i sub and PSB Synchrony Two's to the REL B1 and PSB Synchrony Ones. I'm hoping they get here this week.

I have a R-305 with a pair of PSB M2 Platinums and it's an awesome combination. The R-305 sounds more musical than any sub I've ever owned .

I have a Velodyne HGS 10 that needed an amp and really didn't know whether it was worth fixing so I started auditioning subs. I went to a dealer that has a large selection of good subs, REL,Velodyne,B&W,Sunfire,etc. A couple was listening to a T2 and I thought it sounded really nice for a small sub so I hung around when they pulled out a R-205. I was impressed and asked to listen to a 305 and it was just what I was looking for, small, huge sound for it's size, and musical. Before pulling the trigger I went to another dealer and compared the 305 with the Depth i. The Depth has great reviews and really sounds nice but the 305 was much more to my liking despite reviews that criticize it's low end and "poor measurements". It goes down plenty low for me, I use it in a 2.1 system and it rocks.

Painful on several levels.

My REL B1 and PSB Synchronies should arrive next week. I can't wait to hear them. However, they will be in a living room, not a listening room nor theater room. I hope that works out.

Thanks for the recommendations. I will study the manuel. Fortunately for me, one of the guys who will be setting up my speakers, attended the REL school at Sumiko. I would guess my room's volume to be about 7000 sq. ft. I can't adequately describe the thrill of hearing Biggs play Bach's Toccatas and Fugues on the Freiburg organs when the Synchronies were hooked up to the B1. I don't have those tracks you mentioned, but I will attempt to get them before the installation. My system has a Marantz SR8002, PSB Synchrony Ones, One B's and One C. I don't have the surrounds at this time. I love Blu-ray, but I must say the sound is even more important to me than the picture.

I had not heard Eva Cassidy until your recommendation. She was an incredible artist. I am still waitng for my REL. Anyone else getting a REL?

I also auditioned several other sub like the Depth and Definitive Technologies Cube. I was going to get REL T1 but when I heard it I was not that impressed, it didn't go as low as I would have liked. In the next level up from REL was the R series and more money but after listening to it I knew it was the one. I am totally happy with my R205. I use it mostly for music and once setup and placed correctly it adds the richness to the sound that just make the music so much more enjoyable to listen to.

Congrats on your great experience at Sumiko. Please share more details. From my own selfish viewpoint, what about the Britannia series?

That had to be incredible. What speakers were they using?


I did that two weeks ago. I think my B1 will be set up this week. I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas.

Well, now you'll need to duplicate that at your dealship.

I am interested in adding a REL subwoofer to (what will be) my system. I plan on purchasing 2 Dynaudio Audience 72's, a Dynaudio Audience 122c, and 2 Dynaudio Audience 42w's. I've listened to them at a local dealer and was sold. They had a REL T1 setup with the above speakers and it sounded pretty good.

I also heard a REL R-205 with a pair of Dynaudio Focus 220's.

Since I'm going to go with the Audience series, would there be any benefit to going to the REL R Series? What are the main differences between the 2 subs? I lose 100 Watts and it's $200 more... I'm sure there's more to it than that. Can anyone with experience with both chime in here? Or make recommendations with one over the other?

I like to have a decent amount of bass, but not crazily boomy. A good balance between musical and good for movies is what I'm looking for in a sub - even though this doesn't necessarily follow my musical preferences below...

My listening preferences are:
70% Movies / TV
20% Music
10% Video Games

Thanks!

Kwkshift,

Thanks for responding, I was leaning toward the T1. Yes, you are exactly right, my local dealer had the T1 in a 5.1 setup and the R-205 in a 2 channel setup. Which for my soon to be 5.1 setup, makes sense. Both sounded pretty amazing to me.

I'm learning all I can about loudspeakers, subwoofers, etc... but even after reading a lot about "passive radiators" I still don't really understand them. What benefits do they provide? In contrast, what benefits do sealed sub boxes provide?

Thanks!

Kwkshift,

Thanks for the great explanation, that finally makes sense. The Wikipedia explanation and Google searches just weren't making sense to me.

I appreciate your help and plan on adding the T1 to my home theater.

I'll check out the higher models the next time I'm there. Definitely worth hearing the next level...

Thanks!

If you really want to try to get a grip on passive radiators and ports, you should read this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1044443

Even though the title is "How do Ported Subs Work", there is a lot of discussion about passive radiators.

Mark Seaton knows both ported and passive radiators like few others. He will be coming out with his BMF, which will have 3 passive radiators. The BMF is going to be one of the best subs money can buy.

People are buying hundreds and hundreds of his ported MFW-15s sold by AV123. Some people can't wait to get their hands on the BMF. It weighs >150 pounds, and is likely to cost ~$2,000.

But when??? I was one of those people who couldn't wait and I gave up on that one a long, long time ago. I'm glad I did because there are too many great subs out there now to be waiting around for who knows how long. I'd be shocked to see that sub out by year's end and they've been talking about it for well over two years already.

Hi mojo:

I meant to say that "some people CAN wait to get their hands on the BMF".

I was not suggesting that the OP wait for a BMF. I was suggesting that the performance differences between a well designed passive radiator sub, a well designed ported sub, and a well designed sealed sub are not very significant.

For the sake of discussion if subs with passive radiators make a "thut" noise as our friend the REL dealer has suggested, than we can also say that ported subs produce "chuffing" noise when pushed at resonance.

Neither design is likely to make any rude noises when operated within design constraints.

More than a few people are into sealed designs. Sealed designs will produce more and more distortion when pushed, unless there is some form of limiter.

In sum, I was just trying to suggest to the OP that a well executed passive radiator design could be a prodigious performer, and that talking about "thut" noises out of context did the OP a bit of a disservice.

Perhaps Mark Seaton will drop in and update us on the progress of the BMF. Also, Mark Seaton among others has and can produce excellent subs that are sealed, ported, or have passive radiators.

I will leave you with this quote from Keith Yates an HT designer who spent 6 months testing some of the worlds best subs including the Genelec HTS6, and the Velodyne DD-18.

"If you have trouble believing that subs of different sizes, driver configurations, amplfier capabilities, cabinet makeup, countries of origin, and prices could possibly sound alike on challenging material, just take them outside, away from walls and the standing waves they create, match the levels, and listen for yourself."

I still want to see the BMF come to market even if I personally no longer have a need for it. I enjoy watching great subwoofers being born and I'm sure that when if finally comes, it's going to be really good.