Setting up stereo Rel subwoofers….

["Been moving my sub about to the right or left of rig for months. Still not happy turn it up and midrange gets smeared turn it down and punch just drops. So finally broke down and did the floor crawl thing with sub in listening position. Son of a biscuit it worked. Really didnt want it in this position but it sounds so much better.

How many people end up with it here?

128x128jbuhl11-30-2024 11:33"]

["REL subwoofers (I still like our original term Sub Bass System for its more complete description of what we do)"]

Locating and positioning a subwoofer within a rooms standing wave bass modes using the subwoofer crawl is the first step with actual subwoofers. Despite REL using Richard Edmund Lord's term in the above clarification that their products are actually (-6dB) Sub Bass Systems, jbuhl11 clearly benefited from bass mode positioning.

In my short time with a large REL I found it also benefited from the bass mode position as well as using the preamps direct L+R low level XLR connections.

Down loading a low frequency cadence is more convenient for the crawl than track #4 on the Sneakers album. Good luck with your setup. 

In home theater setups, I placed the subs near the corners for maximum gain/bass. For audio, I placed the subs out into the room, once behind the speakers, the other times on the outside of the main speakers. I never wanted to actually hear big bass, just a better over all fullness with clean bass

Hi @jastralfu 

If he sets it up the way REL states like I posted above, the subs won’t need to be moved, the only thing he may have to do is adjust the subs volume down slightly.

REL will have you moving the sub around during set up if you only have a single unit, to take advantage of boundary reinforcement because of the lesser output.

I did not find this to be true in my basement.  With two Rel Carbon Specials just inside my main floor standing speakers, I got significant boom from right behind me (I have a wall around my utility closet right behind my couch).   For me, moving the subs well outside my speakers into the corners of the room, asymmetrically pointed, the room nodes smoothed out a lot and the booming decreased.  I also added bass corner traps in various corners of the room which also helps.  Now people can not even locate my subs, but they add significantly to air pressure and soundstage of my floor standers, running full range.  To allow me to have flexibility on placement, I run my subs with REL's wireless system which is fast and seamless.  Of course I still go through the adjustments of phase, frequency adjustment and volume.  It is set and forget.  For demonstration it is easy to click the wireless senders on and off.

If the position of the duel subs will allow, don't overlook option to make high-level connections directly to respective speaker binding posts vs amp.  REL has a YouTube video on same.

@fastfreight , using two subs, how do you connect them to the wireless sending/receiving units?  Thanks.