When I first was introduced to Naim in the early ‘80’s two things stood out: active systems and subwoofers. I’ve had an active system since the mid’90’s, but I don’t have the space to insert two more 135s or a 250 into my system to make the most of the Ovator S600. I was reading about REL yesterday and was wondering whether there was scope for one or two in my system.
Does anyone have any experience of adding REL to an active Naim system?
Thanks for the link. Here’s the relevant points:
Jason at Naim and Rob at REL had a discussion and Jason said the best route would be to take a feed off the Supercap DR, that powers the SNAXO 362, that way the REL would be getting the complete frequency range that the S800s have.
I had a chord Epic Din to 2 RCA cable made that goes from socket 4 going into the low level RCA input on the REL. REL advise to use the Hi Level but doing it this way there’s hardly any difference you lose about 5 per cent of what the Hi Level does.
No the supercap powers and sends the audio signal via a burndy to the SNAXO which then splits the signal into 3 paths BMR (upper midrange & tweeter), Low Frequency 1, Low Frequency 2. The BMR crosses over to the large bass drivers at 380Hz which I believe have the same frequency range as each other going down to 20Hz.
I don’t take the RELs signal from the SNAXO, but from the supercap so the REL is getting the full frequency range that is being sent to the SNAXO before the SNAXO then splits it up, therefore the REL has bass, mids and trebles sent to it . The funny thing is that the uppermids and treble are affected byy the sub - I don’t know how but they do.
The cable Rel make is called Bassline Blue. There is a modified version of it which contains a little circuit that makes it compatible with Naim power amps so that you don’t have to connect at the speaker end.
There is also a version of this Naim specific cable made by Designacable. Maybe worth talking to them as you wouldn’t want the Neutric plug on the other end that Rel use.
The Naim DIN4-2xRCA Phono sub lead came in 5m and 10m lengths and had a 100R resistor fitted as standard.
Hi Camphuw it made a big difference to the sound stage and atmosphere to music with my S800s. There is no lag and the bass from the REL integrates with the speakers perfectly.
Well worth investigation.
People who have heard my system always ask why would I add a sub … I just turn it off and their jaws drop. 
That’s what I recall from my early listening experiences back in the 80’s. Now it’s time to come up to date. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Update: spoke to Ben at REL this morning and he recommended the s510 sub. Now I’ve got to find a dealer as mine has closed.
Just listening to a Roon playlist called Low End. A post on another social platform commented that listening to it convinced him that a sub was not necessary (speakers Dynaudios but not sure what the rest of the system was). Off to arrange a couple of listening sessions today.
I visited two high street stores this morning; the first did not stock the REL s510 but said that they would contact REL to see if they could borrow one; the other did not have one in but would borrow one from one of its branches.
Both had to ring REL to confirm the connections (from SNAXO’s supercap) and said they could not demonstrate the model because they could not set up a system similar to mine. This I understand and I await to see which shop will offer a home demo.
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With the big black box taking up significant space in my living room I am going to relocate several wine boxes worth of books so that the REL can sit to the left hand-side of the speaker. I fear it will be too close to the corner and have little room around it.
Its a very dust corner! Whilst less dust will be welcomed by very tolerant friend, I am not sure how she will react to this particular box. But it might add to her enjoyment of music.
Before: …
I run Ovator S600 active .I also have an nSub .I have still to integrate the two ,the nSub doing purely av duties . But I am feeling no inclination or drive to connect the nSub to the Ovator system such is the bass drive and depth I get active . But never say never
Good to know - and you have more space than I, plus a 250.2. I wish I had the space in my rack.
Here is a frequency response generated by Housecurve of my rearranged speaker placement before linking up the REL. I’ll take more readings later today before applying a convolution filter (the last filter I used took out some of the high frequencies - it’s noticeably brighter like this, but not unpleasant).
Mmmm cable arrived, connected, and blue light on. Initial impressions are good but I can’t put my finger on why. Still some tweaking to do, but the basic setup to sort out phase, crossover and gain was straightforward.
I was disappointed with the recommended track (4 from soundtrack to sneakers), but slow draw by the Ruben brothers got my feet tapping, and Purcell’s funeral music for Queen Mary had more depth and punch than I recall.
Here’s the preliminary Housecurve chart:
Well I’ve just scratched the same itch and bought a used REL T5i. Should’ve bought one years ago, hearing quite a few new things and it integrates very well once you’ve played with the settings a bit.
Is that a single sub or a pair and where is it/ are they positioned?
It’s a single @WeekendWarrior … no room for a pair. This one is slightly behind the left hand speaker in the corner angled across the long diagonal of the room.
Well I’ve kept the cross over at 30 Hz for now.
I love the sound of the sea!
You probably did - just me being fixated as it is a new toy.
