Best REL Subwoofer for Magnepan 3.6's

Much Thanks! Scolley-

REL makes the finest sub on the market. One would be hard-pressed to find a better sub. Ease of use, ease of system integration, excellent dealer/retailer network and an outstanding product line makes for a no brainer choice. Even the older series subwoofer(s) are never out of date IMO.
Happy Labor Day!

After an number of months, I made a pretty big change that I thought was worth reporting...

Setting the RELs up initally sounded good - using their recommended front corner placement. But after months of listening, I became convinced that my bass was not quite as tight as it should be. And was - at times - a bit boomy. The fix was really easy.

I merely moved the subs out of their corner orientation, to being in-line with the plane of the maggies, right next to the woofer side of the speaker (opposite side from the tweeter), center of the sub on that plane. Audible difference. Nice, tight, coherent bass. Not remotely boomy. And any slam is now more crisp. It's a difference that you can literally FEEL. :-)

Obviously this completely ignores room modes, so your mileage may vary. But the maggies' bass (withot the RELs) sounded good where they are. So it's no surprise that putting the RELs right next to them would sound good too.

As stated in my first post, I've got 2.7QRs, not 3.6s like the OP. But I'd be shocked if REL T5s did not work great with them too.

FWIW my crossover is set to around 50 Hz, using high-level inputs at ~ 25% volume on the RELs.

Scolly,

I had the same type of success with a pair of JL audio E112 (with thiel 2.4). I use their built in high pass crossovers between the pre-amp and amp and it sounds great. The key to using subs is a good high pass crossover. I will be using subs on all my systems going forward. I crossover at 60hz but with the crossover I can really blend it anywhere between 100hz and 30hz if the gain is set right in the subs.

James633-

always nice to read about another Thiel speaker owner.
What brand(s) of other gear is in your system?
Most important, want brand(s) of cables/cords is in your system? Keep me posted & Happy Listening!

Jafant,

My system is cheap and simple. Wyred4sounds DAC2 (as dac/pre-amp) and their st500 amp (replaced my mcintosh mc252...). My interconnect/wire are just random kimber and wyred4sounds stuff that I all got used.

The thiels have been good (switching them out soon) but much better with subs high passed. Actually I am starting to think all speakers are better with Subs that are properly high passed, there is no going back.