Best Sub - Rel or Vandersteen

I've never heard the Vandersteen but I love the Rel. If you have any questions on any Rel subs, call Sumiko and they'll be more than glad to help you. Their site is Sumikoaudio.com to get the phone #.

Hello,

forgive me if I may: I have worked in this industry for 10 years, and have sold both products. I would strongly consider the Aerial Subwoofer. The Rel are not suitable for HT. Their connectivity doesn't lend itself to all HT scenarios. The Aerial is the best woofer under $10k BAR NONE>

Just a quick note on the REL connections. They do have the high impedance hookup option to go to 2 channel use. I think this is what brampy is talking about not being compatible with HT setups. However, they do also afford the option of RCA connection. This is standard for their subs. The owner has the option to use whichever one they want, so it does work well with HT. I apologize if I am overlooking someting that brampy knows, and would appreciate info if I am off base, but I think the sub is just fine with HT. After a lot of looking, I ended up with the REL Strata II and am very pleased.
I agree that the Aerial is a good sub too. I auditioned the REL Storm and Aerial sub at a local dealer last weekend(the Aerial was around 3500-don't remember the model) Both were very good. Hope this helps.

Todd

I own a Vandersteen 2W sub, which i pariedwith my norh marble 9's for a while.
It has since been replaced bya Bag End Infrasub-18, which thoroughly destroys it in terms of tonality and musicality.
The Bag is better, deeper, more musical, and stronger.

Likethe Vandy & REL, it is a music-first sub, and NOT for bone crunching SPL's for HT-
I would recommend getting a musical sub like the Vandy (or you can see I preferthe Bag End), then a second for the HT explosions if you need that.
dg