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REL Carbon Special Subwoofers or the REL G1 Gibraltar Reference Subwoo

Hi Everyone-Im looking to buy 2 subwoofers for my 2 channel stereo. Ive got the Aurender A30, Mark Levinson N53 amps N526 preamp and the Wilson Benesch Resolution 3Zero Speakers. I have all Clarus cables, power cords and power conditioners. They were all purchased used on Audiogon except for the Clarus. I’ve never had subwoofers in a 2 channel rig before just in my HT. Reading the forums here I have been seeing subwoofers being dicussed a bunch of times and has peeked my interest. My main speakers aren’t giving me enough base so I have decided to purchase either the Rel G1Gibraltar or Rel Carbon Special Subwoofers. I’d like to hear some comments on these two subwoofers or if you have any other subs you think I should be looking at.

Thanks,

David

 

 

 

David

fleetowner123
ricred1
2,054 posts
 

Not going to argue about audio. I owned a Martin Logan subwoofer from their balanced force series. I prefer my current subwoofer. 

sounds_real_audio
1,019 posts
 

Fat chance you will find a subwoofer that can match the speed of the woofers on your speakers. Two Isobaric woofers. If that means anything to you, I would suggest you purchase one Wilson Beseech Torus. The most advance and fast woofer I have heard. Keep in mind it is clean without the doubling that is usually associated with subs. The walls of you listening room are not going to shake, not without the usually 80 Hz. 

m-db's avatar
m-db
994 posts
 

s_r_a,    I've never heard subwoofer designers or manufactures mention the speed of their products. Is there a measurement that's not widely known, the sound of out of phase or a subjective observation?

What is, "the doubling associated with subs"?

sounds_real_audio
1,019 posts
 

 

b-db

Very similar to what happens when you toss a large rock into calm water. The first wave is sent out, and smaller and smaller waves follow. An no, manufactures will not tell you their speakers often double. You might want to do a little research on this. 

m-db's avatar
m-db
994 posts
 

s_r-a,   I'm a hack, so I just googled, 'how is subwoofer speed measured?' What turned up was subwoofer distortion, performance, phase, and port length, nothing on measuring a subwoofers speed. Can you suggest another search?

If I were a subwoofer manufacturer whose sub measured faster than brand W, publishing the measurements or their attributes would seem to be valuable marketing.

 

Could what you call doubling be a result of a drivers back wave? Your rock in the water analogy seems appropriate for reflex and open baffle subwoofers. Most people can easily hear the difference between a ported and a sealed sub.

Pressure created by the back wave within a sealed cabinet subwoofer appears to have a noticeably different reaction. Sealed subwoofers with increasingly more robust driver motors, servo limiting and those using proprietary equalization have lowered measured distortion dramatically.

 

This link seemed an interesting primer albeit from a manufacturer:

https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204374170-Isobaric-Enclosure-Types

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