Subwoofer matching

I was all set to pull the trigger on a pair of REL subwoofers. These would be used with my Avangard Duo’s and Pass Labs XA 60.8 monoblocks. My main music is Rock, Jazz and Blues. I have been given advice by a few people now saying the 107 efficiency of the Duo’s will make it very difficult to find a matching paint odd subwoofers. Feed back I have been given is “... it will take a powerful subwoofer to be able to match the output levels of your speakers“ and “The only REL model that may work for this application will be the 212/SE, which has a very powerful amplifier that will allow it to blend well with your speakers.” A pair of REL 212/SE is a budget breaker for me. I am in not position to judge if the advice is correct or not. Does anyone have experience negating a pair of subwoofers to a highly efficient speaker?

chilli4201-23-2020 7:52am

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millercarbon Details Discussions Posts This discussion 12,531 posts 01-23-2020 at 08:18am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete How many is much more important than which ones or how expensive. In other words, regardless of your budget its better to spend it on 4 than 1. Put another way you cannot find one sub that will be as good as 4 that cost 1/4 as much each. Search Swarm or distributed bass array. System matching with 4 is a non-issue.
shkong78 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 1,485 posts 01-23-2020 at 09:56am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Recently I had great result by adding two 18 inch Scaena subwoofers to my Lansche 4.1 speaker. You may want to contact Mark Seaton to get advice on subwoofer to add to your speaker. https://seatonsound.net/product/f18-subwoofer/ https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/what-is-the-most-musical-fast-and-accurate-subwoofer-you-have-heard.21597/page-4
lak Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 4,658 posts 01-23-2020 at 01:22pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete I'd suggest placing a phone call to REL and asking their opinion. REL customer service is very good.
onhwy61 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 5,235 posts 01-23-2020 at 02:04pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Why not use the Avantgarde subwoofer? It's specifically designed to work with their horn loudspeakers.
mijostyn Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 8,570 posts 01-23-2020 at 02:34pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Chilli, Any subwoofer that can match the volume you like to listen at will be fine. Most of us rarely listen over 95 dB and any pair of 12" subwoofers will do that easily. They all have adjustable gain. You just adjust it to match the output of your main speakers. It will require more power to reach the same volume but all the decent subwoofers are equipped to handle that. The 4 10" drivers you get with the swarm system will also do just fine. So, unless you listen at 115 dB any decent subwoofer can be made to match your system. You are right to start minimally with two.