Best Of
REVIEW: REL HT 3D Setup...my take on the "Small vs Large" speaker setting. Also a few pics.
Where to begin? For years I always took for granted that for HT the consensus was to always set all speakers to "Small" & set XO to 80hz (give or take a little here) & that was pretty much it. EZ Peezy setup, set it & forget it.
Now REL on the other hand have been on the other side of the fence for a good 25yrs or so recommending to set speakers to "Large" w/ a sub for every speaker to get as close as possible to 20Hz-20kHz for maximum output. This mimics the Dolby Digital standard as set by Ray Dolby in theaters. The issue with this is that it's not all that practical for a typical home HT room.
REL can pull this off by the way they design their subs to handle HT & 2 channel simultaneously. Their subs have totally separate settings for the high-level & LFE, both settings have separate XO & gain adjustments for seamless integration. REL recommends a minimum of 3 subs to cover the LCR front end. Of course the more subs the better.
So I had to give it a shot using my 4 REL subs: 2-S812's for L/R mains using both high level & LFE, 1-T/5X using high level only for center speaker, 1-HT 1205 MKII using LFE only (behind my easy chair).
It certainly is more complicated getting everything dialed in for both 2 channel & HT because you can switch back & forth in the blink of an eye. For music REL likes using "Cosmo...Old Friend" on the
Sneakers Movie Soundtrack. To dial in the LFE there's quite a few, Edge of Tomorrow-Beach Assault, John Wick-Club Scene just to name a few.
So here's my setup:
L-Front JBL HDI 1600 - S812 (high level from 2 channel amp & LFE from AVR)
R-Front JBL HDI 1600 - S812 (high level from 2 channel amp & LFE from AVR)
Center-JBL HDI 4500 - T/5X (high level only directly from the speaker not the AVR)
HT 1205 MHII LFE only directly from AVR
So...How does it sound? Well in a nut shell I'm not going back to the "Small" setting & 80Hz XO. Having the 3 REL's up front & the single HT 1205 MKII mid room has really elevated the entire listening experience watching movies & TV. Very immersive sound field that places you right in the middle of the action, the entire soundstage just grew in all directions it was very impressive. The biggest surprise was the T/5X & how it really made the center speaker spring to life...it was so much more dynamic, added more body & weight to male & female voices. The center w/ the sub really anchors the entire front end. I feel there was so much I was missing with the center set to small. What a difference set to large & adding the sub. So needless to say I am extremely impressed with the new HT experience. On a side note the surrounds & rear surrounds are all set to small, 80Hz XO until I pickup a few more REL's!! LOL!
And it goes without saying that my 2 channel listening experience has been seriously elevated with the addition of the second S812...WOW!! Anyone running dual stereo subs knowns exactly what I'm talking about.
pearsall001
1 ·
Re: You’re doing it wrong…
Pretty sure my “system” at the cabin is considered doing it wrong…
Tomorrow I’ll be out before the sun so that I can also hunt Turkey wrong.
Tomorrow I’ll be out before the sun so that I can also hunt Turkey wrong.
Upstatemax
2 ·
Re: PSB Stratus Gold
Those look great, billbill. Nice job with them.
They seem like they'd sound, smooth and full?
Scott, that is accurate. They sound like a good large driver bookshelf with two low power, old school subwoofers. The 10” driver really digs deep and still sounds smooth into the midbass. The midrange is very pleasant even if it might not be super accurate or revealing. The whole sound is just very relaxed, but still engaging. The tweeter is surprisingly smooth for a metal dome. I've read one owner claiming the dome looses output over time due to ferrofluid thickening, but I'm not hearing any of that. I don't feelnthe highs are lacking. They are just right.
I ordered parts today to do a crossover refresh. This design has four 100uf non-polar electrolytics in each board. I'm not even contemplating a swap to a metalized poly for those. Just new Jantzen 5% axial non polar electros. Some Mills resistors in the tweeter section, Jantzen 20w sand cast for the rest, and some clarity caps for the midrange shunt, which might not even be worth the upgrade over electros, but at least those are small value and can fit, unlike the 100uf, which would be more than 2" diameter. At the last minute, I did add a couple Clarity SA for those yellow .47uf poly caps.
The mid-range shunts caps are hiding behind the inductor to the bottom of the photo.
billbillw
2 ·
Re: Omni-directional Speakers?
@msg There's a pair of Ohm Walsh 2 (or similar... it's kind of hard to tell exactly which) here.
These are later, lesser Ohms -- using, in essence, an upside-down woofer as the main driver
and a tweeter in the 'can'.
They aren't terribly hard to drive, they're not very big, and they're not heavy. They sound... not bad.
By way of all of this, I'm just sayin'... schlepp up this way sometime, and they can go home with you!
These are later, lesser Ohms -- using, in essence, an upside-down woofer as the main driver
and a tweeter in the 'can'.They aren't terribly hard to drive, they're not very big, and they're not heavy. They sound... not bad.
By way of all of this, I'm just sayin'... schlepp up this way sometime, and they can go home with you!
mhardy6647
2 ·
Re: Omni-directional Speakers?
I have heard a couple of different pairs of Ohm speakers. Decent sound IMO and lots of people enjoy them. Our dearly departed friend Eddie "The Knife" flat out loved them. One observation that really struck me was when I honed in on a piano. It was wide. A little too wide, if you ask me. At least for critical listening in the sweet spot.
They were enjoyable, but I couldn't get over the fact that it literally wrapped from one ear, to behind the speakers, right to the other ear, in a kind of oblong and oval in shape type presentation. Some may find this very appealing. I personally did not.
Other than that one weird thing, nothing else struck me as being bad. I didn't seem to notice this anomaly nearly as much when I was walking around or off axis. Admittedly, I never did mess around with speaker placement and that might have had some influence on it, TBT. If it were my system, I would have played around to see if that had any impact. RIP Eddie and thanks for the good times brother!
Tom
They were enjoyable, but I couldn't get over the fact that it literally wrapped from one ear, to behind the speakers, right to the other ear, in a kind of oblong and oval in shape type presentation. Some may find this very appealing. I personally did not.
Other than that one weird thing, nothing else struck me as being bad. I didn't seem to notice this anomaly nearly as much when I was walking around or off axis. Admittedly, I never did mess around with speaker placement and that might have had some influence on it, TBT. If it were my system, I would have played around to see if that had any impact. RIP Eddie and thanks for the good times brother!
Tom
treitz3
4 ·
Re: REVIEW: REL HT 3D Setup...my take on the "Small vs Large" speaker setting. Also a few pics.
A long time ago, purely out of interest I changed my HT speakers from small to large. I'll never go back.
Glad you're enjoying the rig, Phil.
Hey Jesse, how have you been.
It sure did make quite a difference. Being retired now my preferences have changed a bit to about a 60/40 split HT/2 channel. Enjoying both venues. It's amazing the soundtracks on TV/ streaming now. Why not enjoy both in one system.
pearsall001
1 ·
Re: Armacell Foam Inside SDA Speaker Baskets - My Experience
@DarqueKinght good stuff there......was the newer MW6511 stamped out of the same gage of steel or was it thinner?
Here's some photos from a Sept. 2009 article that people may now find more interesting:
https://www.ultraaudio.com/features/20090901.htm
Here's some photos from a Sept. 2009 article that people may now find more interesting:
https://www.ultraaudio.com/features/20090901.htm
Gardenstater
1 ·
Re: Post a picture.....any picture...part deux...
Sunset last weekend in St. Petersburg...the one in Florida.
jdjohn
8 ·
Re: ISO - Tubed pre-amp recommendations
Just got an email stating that Elekit is selling their kits for 10% off for three days. I didn’t dig too deep, but I assume their preamps are tubed. So if you can build an Amp Camp Amp, you can probably easily build one of these.
maxward
1 ·
