Little help with REL subwoofers, please?
I'm not especially knowledgeable about subwoofers and I'd appreciate some advice. I've got a pair of Magnepan 1.7i placed in a small (long, rectangular) room. I had a hefty JL sub that shook the house but that I could never fully integrate. On a whim, I switched it out for a pair of the diminutive REL Tzero subs and the sound is vastly better. On some music, though, such as classical organ, I miss the growl and thunder. I don't feel like I need to boost the "upper bass" and I definitely don't want to muddy things up; it's really the deep rumble that I occasionally want.
If it helps, I'm thinking of a piece of music like Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight," which about halfway through delivers a broad, deep sweep of musical sound that I want to *feel.*
I'm mostly pleased with the setup and I don't want to reinvent my room's wheel or break the bank. And I'd like to stay with at least two subs and likely stay with REL. So I'm thinking I might: 1) add a T/9X or maybe a T/7X and perhaps keep the crossover low; or 2) swap out the Tzeros and replace them with a pair of T/7Xs. For now, a pair of T/9Xs is a budgetary stretch that I'd like to avoid (and it is a small room).
Would it be weird having two Tzeros combined with the much bigger T/9X? Would the T/7X produce that deep, enveloping bass? I'm not particularly good at reading specs but -6dB at 30Hz doesn't sound especially deep to me. (The JL was -3dB at 23Hz.) Or am I misunderstanding how bass works and would a T/7X go plenty deep in a small room?
Thanks and Happy New Year!
sorry @northman i don’t mean to beat a dead horse 🤣 enjoy the process and let us know what you end up doing... by your username it doesn’t sound like you are near northern california, but if on the off chance you are, i currently have pairs of t9i, t9x, strata, s510... you would be welcome to borrow a pair to try |
Update on my experience with the T9x, last night's listening session relatively large expansion of sound stage, and bass starting to loosen up and gaining in impact. These improvements due to burning in of every single component from 10/2 Romex tie in to monoblock amps dedicated circuit, AC receptacle, power cords, T9x and high level cable. Really in awe of the extent of this ss expansion, I've gained less from far more expensive equipment changes in past. For years I've considered my Klipschoen's ss couldn't be bettered, life size three dimensional images, great organization and focus such that individualization of each performer easily heard. Take the subs out and ss collapses, absolutely amazing! I'm now considering how a pair of Rel Reference could improve upon TX performance, may step up to these if my room can handle it. Other amazing thing is only one click crossover change since sub installation, seems these may be set it and forget it subs, no more of those constant fine tuning changes that drove me crazy with past subs! I also expect further improvements with experimentation with high level cabling. Obviously, Rel philosophy has won me over. |
@jjss49, that's incredibly generous of you! I'm in Vermont, so not quite local, but I greatly appreciate the thought. I took a look at your impressive system(s) and I can imagine borrowing all kinds of things from you! @sns, it's great to hear about your listening session. Fantastic. My own listening sessions have started to feel a little less amazing lately, coincidentally right around the time that I launched this thread. Go figure. Ishmael, recognizing that the book we call Moby-Dick is but a draft, a draft of a draft, says, "God keep me from ever completing anything ... Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!" That pretty much sums up the audiophile world to me.... For what it's worth, I just downloaded the REW and ordered the umik-1. As I said above, I'm curious. In the meantime, happy listening to y'all. |
@pennfootball71 I don't hear any sense of these being slow thus far. I suspect Rel subs very difficult to make generalizations about since main speakers and amps have relatively large influence on how subs perform. So far, with my Klipschorns, the T9x has virtually no impact on bass performance per se, don't really reach lower, just a bit of db boost in freq. where in room response at my listening position begins to roll off. These all about sound stage expansion for me.
Going into Rel purchase, speed was of utmost concern for me, assumed these might be slow. Using this reasoning I partnered with Ac receptacle and power cords that I know supply fast, tight bass, considering silver high level speakon wire if I hear some slowing in future.
If these are slow, my past subs and present Genesis sub would be slower than slow, even with dsp slower than high level circuit in these Rels. I'm also open to the fact that over time I may hear some sense of slowness, why I may wish to upgrade to Reference models at some point.
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