A Tale of Two REL's...a REVIEW

pearsall001 · January 14

A little overdue but I wound up switching things around a bit. First off the REL T7/X subs are without a doubt furniture grade fit & finish...the polished gloss black is stunning. They recommend car wax for the finish. I'll have to hit up Mantis for his product recommendation.

Having dual REL's change the set up a little bit. You need to combine both positive leads in one spade (or banana) in my case it was spades & the black ground gets it's own spade. If you're running a single REL each positive lead gets it's own connector. No biggie to reconfigure.

I also put small furniture sliders beneath all legs which make quick work of moving them around to test different positions. First set up is setting phase which is rather straight forward...put on bass heavy music of your liking & listen to phase set at 0 give a listen & then listen set on 180, the setting that provides the most bass is the correct setting. I played numerous bass heavy tracks & eventually saw the 0 phase setting did the trick.

Then raise the gain knob a few clicks along w/ the XO knob a few clicks. Play your favorite music & dial both knobs up, down, up down again & again until you find that magical setting that blends seemlessly with your speakers. Now this did take sometime because you have to redo it every time you move the subs. I was working solo so I had to get up & go over to the subs one at a time to make the adjustments. You dial each sub in individually first then play them both together for final tuning.

Since these subs are designed in pure analog domain without the use of any digital DSP settings it's a little more involved but well worth it.

What I found after extensive listening was the way their sound augmented what you already loved about your present speakers but raised the bar...a lot & I mean a lot!! Music you know inside & out now sounded more complete, expansive & more involving with superb clarity. The new sound stage that was now present was really a treat. It's not about the bass at all per se it's the fine minute details that are now highlighted & really makes you sit up & say dang this was money well spent. But let me tell ya when a heavy bass track is in the mix they deliver in spades.

I even readjusted my Maggie LRS speakers a few more times while moving the subs around until I found their new magic resting spot. The whole process was time consuming but in the end the effort really paid off. Highly recommended, so if you're in the market for a new sub or subs for your 2 channel listening definitely put REL on your short list. When my long in the tooth Velo SPL 1200 that I use for HT kicks the bucket you better believe I will be checking out the REL HT line.

Phil

jbreezy5 · January 14

Great review, Phil!

One recommendation…If your Velo kicks the bucket, would go for SVS SB16-Ultra over REL HT series for theater.

Joey_V · January 15

Good review Phil

So it’s phase first then volume then position?

pearsall001 · January 15

Joey_V wrote: »

Good review Phil

So it’s phase first then volume then position?

Correct, From the manual: This may be the single most critical step, and because it is quite simple, it is often over -thought. Whichever position is loudest or fullest is the correct position. That is, when the position is working in harmony with your main speakers, reinforcing bass, not cancelling it.

REL recommends corner placement except for dual subs which work very well out into the room. You can see in the pics the subs are just a tad behind each speaker and with a slight toe in. That positioning really brought things into focus & locked things into place. After much trial & error I knew I had them both dialed in with that location... superb sounding to say the least. They are definitely not a plop down, set it & forgot it sub. A little time investment pays huge dividends!

bcwsrt · January 15

Phil, looking good! And, I can leave you alone now and turn my sights on @msg to get busy with his review, instead!

I'm glad you are enjoying your RELs. I knew you would and agree with everything you said about them! Sure hope you're still thinking about the Bassline Blue cables, though. They take everything you are already enjoying about what the RELs have done to the next level!

Happy listening!

Emlyn · January 15

Looking great!

jbreezy5 · January 15

bcwsrt wrote: »

Phil, looking good! And, I can leave you alone now and turn my sights on @msg to get busy with his review, instead!

I'm glad you are enjoying your RELs. I knew you would and agree with everything you said about them! Sure hope you're still thinking about the Bassline Blue cables, though. They take everything you are already enjoying about what the RELs have done to the next level!

Happy listening!

I thought you were eagerly awaiting redundant power cable reviews. No?

bcwsrt · January 16

Uhhhh … come again?

I’m not sure what you’re referring to, so … no! I’ve just been playfully trolling these two upstanding gents a couple different places about posting timely reviews of their latest hi-fi acquisitions.

Care to direct me where you got that idea, though?

pearsall001 · January 16

bcwsrt wrote: »

Phil, looking good! And, I can leave you alone now and turn my sights on @msg to get busy with his review, instead!

I'm glad you are enjoying your RELs. I knew you would and agree with everything you said about them! Sure hope you're still thinking about the Bassline Blue cables, though. They take everything you are already enjoying about what the RELs have done to the next level!

Happy listening!

I sent an email to REL asking if they can combine both positive leads into a single spade or forgo the spades & go with naked tinned ends. The A21+ has CHK custom 5 way binding speaker posts that can only accept a single spade.
I could also run the cable's directly to the LRS but I'd have to buy a converter to go from bananas to spades but unfortunately that eliminates being able to use both bananas& spades. It's either or. Waiting for a response.

Emlyn · January 16

The spades are intended to be a convenience on the Bassline. I've seen John Hunter say it's ok to remove them to shorten the cable. Rel doesn't put connectors on the ends of their normal cables because it's more flexible to not have connectors.

My JC5 amp has the same binding posts that make using some spades difficult. It's also possible to connect the Rels to an amp with banana connectors if the speakers are hooked up with spades.

bcwsrt · January 16

The two spades on the one (pos) terminal is a bit cumbersome on my amp, even. Combining into one would be ideal. There’s definitely plenty of extra wire to play with to do whatever you want, or need, to back there, though.

pearsall001 · January 16

bcwsrt wrote: »

The two spades on the one (pos) terminal is a bit cumbersome on my amp, even. Combining into one would be ideal. There’s definitely plenty of extra wire to play with to do whatever you want, or need, to back there, though.

REL got back to me & said they don't offer any custom configuration at this point other than spades. They said I can cut & remove the spade to configure it to meet my needs. Still debating on this one. I'm pretty sure it would be a bear to get both leads in one spade which is the way I would prefer. Then again naked ends would work I imagine. 🤗

bcwsrt · January 16

Understand, Phil. That would have me hitting the pause button on it, too!

Hey, enjoy the heck out of ‘em while you mull it all over! I’d love to hear that LRS/REL combo! 😍

msg · January 17

I thought I read someone recently post that tinned ends weren't a good choice. I don't recall the reason. I tried it several years back, but before I was serious about cables and connections.

This was when I was practicing soldererizing, too. The issues I saw were flux creep back up under the insulation, which oxidized the wire.

Later, the tinned wire would work its way loose in the binding posts somehow. I'm guessing partly due to not being precisely uniform across the solder, which would mean it couldn't be clamped uniformly in the binding post, thus a poorer connection with respect to uniform contact.

Maybe bare wire treated with Deoxit Gold 100?

I get why soldered ends are desirable though. For relocations or adjustments, one may find himself periodically shortening the conductor. Or just for maintenance if bare copper and not tinned copper as I understand some conductors are. @VR3 - is this how the strands are in the cable you prefer? I thought I read that you use or at one time preferred bare wire.

I wonder if @helipilotdoug has spades you could use. @pitdogg2 is a fan of Crimp Sleeves, and I've been meaning to try those, myself. You get a larger tube for combining conductors and protecting against oxidation, and may be able to fit both into a large AWG spade. No soldering, as I understand.

https://www.avoutlet.com/av-cables-connectors/av-connectors/speaker/viablue-crimp-sleeves/

Knowledge courtesy of The Pit®™

VR3 · January 17

I do prefer tinned copper wire. I also prefer bare ends, only makes sense to me but I do currently run banana plugs from furutech on my current connectors.

The problem with running a copper wire then you soldered the end to tin it is because it makes it a very hard cylinder and when you clamp down on it you are probably only making contact in a few places and it will most likely make it's way loose.

I believe there is a grease or a treatment if you wanted to run bare copper but eventually oxidation will come into play.

msg · January 17

Yeah, that's the issue I've had with soldered ends. It doesn't deform much at all, and yes, reduced contact area.

A Tale of Two REL's...a REVIEW

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