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

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