SVS vs REL and experiences with both: your comments and preferences...


I’ve owned SVS and now own REL but just wondering who has had both and would care to share your experiences between the two. They seem to both have great advertising but a much different approach to it . Customer service is top notch too.  They both to me seem to have tons of reviews and getting awards......Thoughts.....
bacardi
I’ve owned a pair of SVS SB-12+ in the past and if I had a smaller room, I’d still own them. Great build quality, excellent, sealed box performance, and fantastic value.

I now have a single REL 212SE and it too offers great performance... at a much higher price, but the build quality reflects that. The REL is smoother than any sub I’ve had in my system, and I got it at a price to good to pass up, so I expect to keep it a long time to come.


I love both SVS and REL but they are different. The SVS subs I have owned were really nice. I had a little sealed 12” that was awesome. Older sub but was built so well. Better than their new offerings. What was cool about it was you could set the crossover, say at 70hz, then pick a range in which to boost it, say 30hz. Im not sure why sub companies don’t still offer this type of adjustment. The other SVS I had was a monster. 2 13” drivers with 3 huge ports. The thing was close to 100 pounds and I was barely able to get it in my listening room. It was waay to big and I should have passed but I digress. That thing literally shook my entire house.


I’ve had 3 REL subs. The T5i, T9i, and S3 SHO. They were all great subs too. Ideally, I’d have 2 T9i’s and 2 SVS SB 2000’s (of higher up the range, sealed box).

The SVS’s seem to have more punch and the RELs are unparalleled in there speed and finesse.
Another sub thatI had that I really liked, that no one ever talks about, is the Monitor Audio Gold GX15. For a 15” sub, its fairly compact. It uses a great driver with massive motor, voice coil etc. They have a remote with an easy to read display on the front. Another great sub to try if one ever comes up near you!

I have a SVS SB4000 and a REL S5 SHO in my system as well as a Rythmik F12SE. Both the SVS and the REL have plenty of power and cycle nice and low. The biggest difference between them is in their reproduction of the musical envelope; Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. The SVS does a pretty good job of this reproduction, the REL, not so much. They are both fine with attack, but when it comes to decay and sustain the REL extends the timing of this portion of the envelope, maybe by as much as a quarter to a half second longer. The REL gives you a big fat, maybe even lush sounding bass, which a lot of people really like, but it is not nearly as accurate. This issue may only be present on REL subs that are equipped with a passive radiator so models without one, like the T5i probably don’t exhibit this trait. The other issue to me with REL is the lack of a variable phase control.