DFW Audiophile Club: Meet 37 - Zoom with Rel John Hunter 10/27/23

bcwsrt wrote: »

Is it possible for non-members to participate?

Yes
DM me and I’ll send you the zoom invite

Ill see a couple Polkies on tonight.
Looking forward to it.

It took me about 18 months to get John Hunter to do the zoom. He’s not the easiest to pin down

tratliff wrote: »

@Joey_V Can you also send me the Zoom link/invite?

Send me your email
Dm me

And we are live

This is amazing

treitz3 wrote: »

So, Joey. I had the time to join last night but I am not interested in REL sub's. The sub's I have offer me way more than it would be worth to upgrade/improve. If that could even be done. Probably just a lateral improvement, if anything but at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to achieve just that.

With that said, it does sound like this was informational. My questions are this...

1 - Would you consider a meeting like this worthy of joining, if the aforementioned was where you are at along your audio journey concerning subs?

2 - If so, what were (bullet points) the subjects that were discussed that would make this worthy of one's time?

3 - Were you personally taught something (or more) that you previously did not know about?

I have met some of these folks you mentioned and had GTG's before but sometimes, I simply felt like I was wasting my time, especially with one of the aforementioned industry insiders. Last question. Did you feel as if you wasted yours?

I will say this, it is nice to speak with industry insiders (the right ones) and glean knowledge/insight from them but I was just wondering what your thoughts were with my inquiry.

Tom

Hey Tom
I usually set up meetings and zooms that I find the club might be interested in. So I don’t necessarily organize these meets with my own needs in mind.

For me, I’m not really in the market for subs because either I already have dual JL 113v2 with a JL CR1 crossover OR I simply listen without subs on my Magico M2 99% if the time.

That said, I have quite a lot of interest in REL and would not be opposed to doing a deep dive on them if time or money permits someday. My worry with a REL set up is that my room may not allow lots of room for positioning of subs versus working with dsp to correct for the sound.

Plus if I do rel, I would want a full six pack.

1. Answer - yes. I view it as an entertainment meeting rather than I’m here to buy something meeting. John Hunter is not just about subs or rel, he has a lot of stories and insights into the industry that I was not aware of. People like him humanize the hobby.

2. Answer - the zoom was about 2.5 hours. We covered rels inception, early sumiko days, sonus faber, Franco serblin, audioquest, Wilson audio. We also covered masters speaker placement, how to set up subs. We also covered sub design and what makes the best rels the best subwoofers. I don’t think it’s a question of being worth someone’s time - I think it’s a question of if you want to partake in a discussion with other audiophiles in a live setting rather than a delayed forum or bulletin format. To me, that’s why I do it. It takes me about 4-5 hours on the back end to set up a meeting and that’s just the actual time spent logging on emails, corresponding with the guests, timing the meets, making an effort to make contact with the manufacturer, etc… I think it’s worth it.

3. Answer - yes. I learned about high level and what goes into it. The speed and delay of subs and the electric components. I learned about setting up phase first and foremost. I learned about directivity of bass waves. I learned about how certain rel products are made. Learned about what are the pitfalls of sub design. Learned about the cons of balanced driver design. Learned about which reference tracks to use. Many more to list.