REL Quake or ACI Force for semi small room

Dear Mattehw: With all respect your dealer dos not know nothing about, sorry.

+++++ " it certainly makes sense to not drive the speakers as hard in the lower realms..." +++++

Certainly is. Please read carefully the link that I already give you ( the one that I post in this thread ). Read from SUDDENLY and below. It will be interesting for you.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul
Rel subs do not filter main speaker outputs.They are not like other subs and you cant think of them as such.When you set them at say 35 this not a typical crossover. The rel will rolloff below AND ABOVE this point.The proper setting depends upon the slope of the rolloff of both the speakers and the sub.For example: I dont recall exactly but I think the slope of rels rolloff(up) is 6db per octave which means a sub set at 20 will be -6db at @40hz (the octave is 20-40 at this frequency).This would integrate perfectly with speakers that were flat at 40 and -6db @20hz assuming the output is set properly.This is why rels are typically "crossed over"at such low frequencies. Obviously perfect integration is difficult to obtain but approaching it requires knowledge of the slopes of both speaker and sub frequency rolloffs(up). You could just "trust your ears" but this assumes you are used to flat response and not the more common midbase bump most are.
Jim

Dear Jim: Tks, now I can understand about.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Matthew: The Rel subs are a very good ones but are inadequate for a proper stereo music/soun reproduction.

I think that the REL design is more adequate to HT applications than for a stereo music reproduction.

For a less distortion design the REL subs sum-up the left and right channel signals and always works in mono way, this single characteristic unfit for stereo aplications.

Again, please read carefully at: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1117893153&openflup&27&4#27

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul ... the problem with your answers is that you always assume unlimited (or very high) budget.

All hifi components may be "inadequate" but also may represent the best compromise at their price points. The art of engineering is to find the best balance of compromises in order to hit the market at the correct price point.

If a REL (or similar) is inadequate I think you should tell us how you propose to improve on the REL for a budget of $800, roughly the cost of a used Strata 3.