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On Rel subs: Which are most musical?

It appears that rel makes some of the more musical audiophile quality subwoofers.
My question is which rel model do I go for? I am looking for a sub that isn't too big, is not sloppy but tight, blends in and fills the room with a natural sound that makes it sound as though it's live, in a very articulate realistic sounding system.
For what I am looking for do I look for a big size driver such as 15" or a smaller driver such as a 10" or 8" driver? Does a two driver sub do better than single?
What are the pros and cons between the two?
Does a smaller driver give me tighter bass and a bigger one give me lower and fuller bass?
pedrillo
luvwine
44 posts
 
I too have been very happy with the Rel B1. It is plenty deep and powerful for HT, but is an excellent complement to my Vienna Acoustic Beethoven mains--filling out the low bass without calling attention to itself. The crosover options allow truly seamless integration and the connection to the stereo amp allows a color match as well. Great musical unit. Also, it is wonderful to be able to drive the sub from both the LFE input for HT and from the Speakon connector for stereo with separate gain controls for each and not to have to fiddle with the sub when going from stereo to HT and vice versa.
dodger4
61 posts
 
If you are using a rel sub for music stick with the ones with the linear amps,which are much more musical ,for HT you can use the ones with the digital amps .which have more of that overused word ,,bass slam .
joeyboynj
621 posts
 
Luvwine, furseth2 or anyone!
What power cord are you using on your Rel sub? I'm having good luck upgrading to a PS Audio Statement SC power cord over stock, but its too long in lenght. Therefore, I going to sell it and try sometinhg else. Thanks!
jafant
10,525 posts
 
All REL products are very musical and very easy to integrate into any system. One has to decide which size woofer is suitable for their needs.
The Britannia Series was excellent and affordable.
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
All subwoofer's are the spawn of the devil. Beautiful when subjugated, but nightmares otherwise.

A smaller sub with higher f3 (-3 dB point) will tend to be easier to integrate with the room so many listeners think they are faster somehow, or more musical.  Well, no, they just get along with the room better with less effort. They don't try as hard to ring the room modes in the depths.

If you want to get a larger sub that can do 20 Hz with low distortion and high output WELL, you'll need to consider bass traps as part of your solution, and have some sort of great EQ and a way to properly measure the main and sub woofer responses.

I guess my main message is: Subwoofers are not anything like your main speakers.  They almost never are just drop, plug and play. The bigger, the more difficult, but more rewarding.

Best,


Erik
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