Rel T/5i

I’ve owned a pair of Kef LS50s for several years and have enjoyed their musical performance in my small (11ft X 12ft) music room. Recently, however, I decided that they needed some help in the bass department and started looking into small subwoofers. I discounted large subwoofers (SVS, Rythmik, etc.) because I didn’t want anything to sonically or physically overpower the room.

After reading countless owner and professional reviews, the Rel T/5i kept coming up as a good companion for the little Kefs. The piano black and down-firing (grille-free) design was, aesthetically speaking, a good match for the LS50s.

I also took a look at the JL Audio Dominion D108 and it had very impressive specs (-3dB @ 29Hz) but at $999 (gloss black), it’s almost twice the $549 price of the T/5i. Also, don’t remember any reviewer mentioning the word “musical” when describing the D108. All things considered, the T/5i seemed to offer far better value with a proven track record. With a 60-day return period and free return shipping I figured I had nothing to lose and placed an order for the Rel T5/i in piano black.

Within four days, the Fedex truck showed up with my order. After unboxing the sub, I gave it a thorough visual inspection and was very impressed with the build quality and the precision feel of the controls. The sub was connected with the supplied Speakon cable (High Level) and, when powered up, it was dead quiet (no noise of any kind).

At that point, I started adjusting various settings and realized very quickly that setting things up by ear was very problematic. What sounded good on one recording sounded less-than-good on the next. Having an Engineering background, I decided to take a more scientific approach with frequency response measurements. I loaded an SPL app (Decibel X) on my iPhone and, armed with a Test CD with 1/3-octave test tones, went to work.

From several professional reviews with measurements, I knew that the “knee” of the LS50 low frequency response was approximately 50Hz, but went ahead and measured the LS50’s FR in my listening space to verify that. I now knew that a T/5i Crossover setting of 50Hz (30Hz + 9 clicks up) was optimum. At that point, it was a simple matter of adjusting the T/5i volume to provide sufficient bass at 32Hz without creating a peak at the crossover frequency.

After listening to one recording after another, I knew that my work was done. The T/5i provided a nice foundation to the music with increased scale (width & depth) suggesting a larger recording space. The little Kefs no longer sounded small.

Well done, Rel!