subwoofer to digital music and movies

I was set on svs, demoed the couple of svs and for music the rel t9i sounded far superior.  Went to another audio store, demoed the t9i against comparable JL model.  For music, rel wins for me. Have not demoed in HT.  Rel just sounds tighter and more musical to me and wife agreed.  Guess it's all personal preference. 

I sold my earthquake sub and purchase a JL fathom f112. I am speechless as there are no words in the audiophile dictionary to define its greatness. Once the system is perfectly dialed in (which took me weeks), for the first time I have jumped off my seat watching movies. In 2 channel dedicated listening, I cannot directionally point to the subwoofer, yet it fills more than just the lower octaves. Never understood until now when folk talked about the vocals and airiness coming to life in music because of a subwoofer. It's awesome!!! 

I did not demo the fanthom f112, out of my range. I demoed e110,  was trying to keep it under 2k so I could get 2 subs.

ghulamr, nice to hear. You've made a good investment that you'll enjoy regardless of your system or speaker changes.

A few years ago I was able to compare an early version F113 with my long gone Velodyne DD-18. After running JL's ARO the smaller driver was close to the 18. With the ARO off we ran the JL from the Velodyne's Room Optimization. The Velodyne Auto EQ curve for the F113 was very close to what the DD-18 looked like for that room. A small difference in the contour frequency and slope and the difference between the two became astonishingly small if at all. More of a room issue rather than the sub itself. 

This is an example of a Velodyne display. 
https://www.stereophile.com/content/jl-audio-fathom-f113-powered-subwoofer-page-2

Todays subwoofer DSP performance varies greatly. What your hearing is the value of JL Audio F series version 2. Enjoy.   

I sold REL when they first came into the US. They are still a wonderful product, but one of the most Overlooked subs on the market is Paradigm. Depending on budget, The Defiance X10 for $1k is a great value. It has Anthem Room Correction and an app that allows you to control the sub from your phone. The X Series is built in Canada and the woofer’s surround (ART - Active Ridge Technology) on the cone holds two US Patents = It increases the output +3dB (which is the equivalent output of two woofers) and cuts the distortion in half - those are the two patents. It’s incredibly musical and will pressurize your room improving the harmonics of music you listen to just like the REL does and has the kind of output required for home theater that the REL’s don’t. Check out the Defiance Subs on YouTube and at Paradigm.com