REL Strata III repair issue

I too had issues with running stereo REL Stadium lll's and want to share what I eventually found. I had gotten them setup and running but one was playing a lot louder than the other for the same volume and crossover settings and the bass was altogether different being "rubbery and boomy"  is the best way to describe it. Definitely not as REL trait.

After confirming and reconfirming both subs were hooked up correctly thru the hi level inputs and with identical cabling for both, I concluded that something was wrong with the louder of the two because if I disconnected one of the high level connectors from the amp, it then sounded just like the other one. I pulled out by trusty Fluke DMM meter and measured the input impedance of the high level cables connected to the hi level input. With the louder REL, the measured impedance from GND to one leg was 9.6k ohms and the other was 19k. The other sub measured 65k ohms on both legs!

I removed the louder REL amp and a close inspection revealed nothing amiss, all connections were solid. I removed the other amp for comparison and that too showed nothing amiss but I did notice that the wiring from the balanced input, the hi level input and the balanced single input were different. Since these were different rev amps, I didn't give it much thought.

After giving it some thought, I hooked up the hi level cable to the balanced hi input on the louder REL and repeated the measurements and now got 65k from both legs to GND! Not sure if this was a miswire issue or a rev. change but with one REL hooked up normally thru the hi level input and the louder one hooked up to the hi level balanced input, the output from both was now identical with the same volume/crossover settings and the "rubbery/boomy" sound was gone. 

Ken

Fantastic information, Ken.  Your description of the sound quality of the suspicious sub is exactly what I hear: "rubbery/boomy"; BUT, from the less loud sub.  I will take a look at the wiring and see if I can find some inconsistency in the wiring.  I'll report back.  

Keep us posted- frogman.

Happy Listening!

Old thread but I'll add that my REL Strata lll also died due to an underspecced resistor (R8 on the board). Door stop. I spoke to them and they offered nothing by way of comfort like a discount or refund for their shoddy design.

Old thread X 2 but I thought I leave this here. IMHO, if the repair is less than an equivalent replacement sub, go for the repair. Also look around of a used model of the same sub, it might be cheaper to take the parts out of that one. I had to replace a Velodyne amp and it was something like 350 bucks with exchange but it's been humming along ever since, over 5 years.