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Pair of Rel S510’s or Carbon Special’s?

I’ve been considering adding subs to my system and am considering whether to go with S510’s or Carbon Specials…. Any thoughts? Here is my situation:

-Very large open room (open concept) with high vaulted ceilings

-B&W 802 D2’s

-Gryphon Diablo 300 amp

-Looking for MILD and subtle bass support for my speakers in my big room. For reference I tried the new, larger B&W 801 D4 speakers with my amp and thought there was way too MUCH bass…

-Despite the large room, the layout makes large subs out of the question. Carbon Specials would work. But size-wise would prefer the slightly smaller S510’s

-Don’t care about home theatre

-I do care about speed and bass definition and quality.  The more bass nuance and detail the better.

-I don’t care that much about getting down to the very lowest frequencies. Just need a bit lower than what my 802’s do

-Subs will be positioned about 6” on the outside of each main speaker. This is the ONLY place they could go…

-I’ve invested heavily in quality cabling (Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables, AudioQuest Dragon power cord, etc) and have a USB reclocker and network isolation switch. Just pointing out as all these elements have added precision, ambience, clarity and space to the sound of my system.

Anyone with experience in both the S510 and the Carbon Special have any thoughts on which way to go?

 

 

nyev
nyev OP
1,031 posts
 

@ohlala thanks for your perspective.  Regarding the S510’s being too small for my large room and speakers, I think you are right.  But, the fact that I am not feeling the need to fully energize my room with bass, and just wanting to add a bit of slight bass support, that might make the S510’s okay for my application?  And, might make placement easier too, given that I plan to have their output set low?

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hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 

@nyev 

 interesting subs and delayed phase feature, but to me it sounds like in my case I shouldn’t need a delayed phase feature since the subs will be practically in the same spot as my mains.

Mine are, too, but in order to deal with room modes, the adjustment on delay/phase is not identical on the two of them. After I positioned them, optimally, I then discovered that in order to get the best bass response, they need to be set differently; one wants to be at about 120 degrees and the other is at about 165 degrees. A REL would only allow 0 or 180. 

jl1ny's avatar
jl1ny
409 posts
 

I’ll echo what others have recommended. If you can afford the Carbon Special then go for it. I went from a T-zero mkIII —> T9x —> S510 in a relatively small room and I’m looking to move up to a Carbon. It’s a significant performance jump from the S510.

baylinor's avatar
baylinor
1,377 posts
 

@hilde45 

You are correct. I have Rythmicks too. The phase setting came out real handy when I realized having both subs by the mains did not work in my house of stereo as it produced incredibly loud rumble along the back wall. So at the recommendation of someone here I moved the left one down a third of the length of the left wall and with the phasing dialed in for this one, I no longer had any spot in the room with overly booming bass. I remember MC saying back then that phase adjustment didn't matter. That's when I started taking everything he was saying with a grain of salt.

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