Natural sound (REL Subwoofers)

With all due respect to you sub guys (and yes, I have owned a REL), I wouldn’t put a sub anywhere near 2.5’s (assuming they are in a small room). If you have a larger room, you should be putting that sub money toward 3.8’s, and keep subs away from those as well! The RA 55 is a great player, but it never sounded right to me unless I put it thru a decent preamp.

I also always assumed I would upgrade the speakers eventually, and would never consider getting a sub. The problem was I liked the sound of my speakers and of course the whole system, since the sound produced by those speakers depends on what powers them. I was only not satisfied with the low bass. Well the REL Storm III filled in the bottom perfectly, and also improved the entire spectrum of sound without changing the basic sound I liked. So the sub was the perfect sollution. Some would think higher frequencies are unaffected by bass, because "they contain no bass". This is not true. If it were true, the "exact" same note would sound exactly the same whether played on a piano, violin, clarinet, human voice, etc. These instruments all sound different and can be distinguished from the other, as do person's voices, because the frequency and harmonics surrounding the particular note embraces a much wider frequency spectrum. So anyway, if you like your system overall try out a sub and see if that works for you before changing your system. IF YOU GO TO www.audioreview.com you will find lots of reviews by actual users on various subwoofers and all the the REL models.

I have owned the NHT Sub-2 and my friend has a REL StentorII. The StentorII is a superb sub that will mate very well with your 2.5's and is better than the NHT. It should be as it retails for $4000 and the NHT only sells for $1200.00. The NHT is a very musical sub for the money but with Proac 2.5's I would stay with the REL. The REL also does amazing things for a speakers midrange. You gotta hear it to believe it. Highly recommended!!!

I have a pair of Rel Stentor II's with Sonus Faber Extremas in a fairly large room. The sound is seamless.

You should check also Vanderstein subs. The 2wq is extremely fast and tight and probably one of the most musical sub on the market. As a rule of thumb if you shop for a sub for music, sealed designs are the most musical and fast. Note that I am not talking about subs with passive radiators,.like for ex. the sunfire sub, because the passive radiator acts like a bandpass. I know that the 2.5s are power hungry and your amp might have a little problem driving them, which surely explains the lack of bass, in my oppinion 30w is not enough. If that is the case, I definetely suggest that you go check the Vanderstein as they have a very good solution to free up some power which will in turn free up the midrange and highs. Go check their website at www.vanderstein.com. To end this I can only tell you that buying a sub might only be a temporary solution for the innability of your amp to do bass. Try an amp with more power first to see what happens because I know that the 2.5s can definetly do bass.