Hi, I have an Atom amp and REL sub which I want to connect up either via the back of the amp or via the speaker terminals. Have read lots of historical posts about pros and cons of both options. I don’t want to spend the money required for the REL Naim version of the Bassline blue cable but was considering the after-market version from Designacable. Does anyone have any experience with this and if so is it recommended? Also, my speakers are biwired, so if I decided to opt for the connection via the speaker terminals, am I correct in understanding that I need to connect the red and yellow cables to the lower positive terminals (as these are the ones that feed the bass drivers) and not to both upper and lower positive terminals? Is there any disadvantage to this set up compared with single wired speakers?
You are right for Atom it probably does not make sense to buy the expensive Rel Bassline Blue. I don’t have any first hand experience with the designacable clone but if you get it I would suggest getting the special variant for Naim. It seems to get good reviews and appears to be well made. Not sure on the Bi-wire … that’s worth an email to Rel support.
There really is not much point in biwireing speakers from an Atom amp in all honesty. I would use the speakers single wired, then just connect from the speakers to sub via high level. The most important thing is setting the subs crossover point just above the roll off point of your speakers.
The issue of the crossover point in my experience is more complex than that. It really depends on the speakers. In my case with Quad electrostatics I have the crossover set to dead zero. I have tried it higher and the result is the sub starts meddling with the lower Quad midrange which is not something you want. My dealer also sets his to zero with his Quads.
Rel has very good suggestions on where to start with the settings, and so does Paul McGowan from PS audio. He has a YouTube video on the subject I have referenced in a previous post. He advises setting the crossover very low for all speakers, not just Quads.
One more thing I forgot to mention - I believe Rel has actually certified the Designacable product. That seems weird for them to do but actually it’s quite smart. They want to sell more subs and a cheaper cable option helps them do that.
The sole purpose of the Rel for Naim cable is to allow connection directly to a Naim power amp. Connect to the speakers and you can use any cheap cable.
That is true, and the only Naim amps that need the special Bassline Blue for Naim cable are those that need the NACA5 cable to add the right inductance. I do not believe the Atom is one of those.
I have a six-pack of REL S/510. I use the REL Bassline Blue to connect them directlty to my speaker terminals. The red/yellow of each cable goes to the positive terminal. I combine the black leads via a ground wire and connect that to my Clearaudio Terra grounding station. The jumpers between each level are also Bassline Blue. I bought one pair used for about half price and the other pair were provided by my REL dealer free of charge.
The way I handled the Bassline Blue cable from my speakers to the first level of the S/510 was to buy a 3m pair, cut that in half and re-termine the bare ends (SpeakOn connect for one, spade fof the other) to end up with a 1.5m pair. That’s all I need since the six-pack pairs are next to my speakers.
N.B. If you use fully balanced monoblocks you need to leave the black leads hanging free unconnected, as per the manual. That’s true for the Naim 350s and will be true for the Boulder 1151 amps I plan to get.
It says on the Designacable website that their Naim compatible cable is REL approved, but I have also contacted REL to confirm whether they actually endorse it or not. As I am only using one sub, the option of connecting into the back of the amp is tidier from a concealing cables point of view. If I were using 2 subs, I would definitely go for the direct to speaker connection.
Yes it is much tidier from the amp rather than the speakers. If you do it from the speakers you have to split the Rel provided Cable so it can each both sides. I did it as a test and the result was a pretty messy wire.
Hey @kitfit1 - I’d forgotten you had those shorter cables made up. Mogami, right? I should really get some to replace the stock REL cables - yours look so much tidier!
Yep, they are Design Cables Mogami 75cm. They stock them though, so not made up especially. As you Have the same speakers and preamp as me, something worth noting.
If you connect both the live and ground to the speakers you will notice a constant “wooshing” sound from the speakers even with the volume at zero and speakers muted. It had me baffled for a while, but then it hit me. I plugged in the supplied REL cables and run the ground of each sub back to the ground on the 282, then disconnected the Mogami ground from each speaker. Harmony and silence followed. That’s why you can see the top Neutric plugged in on each sub.
Had a reply from REL: they say the Designacable version is perfectly good, just not as good as the BLB. You guys are clearly existing in a completely different universe of hifi blingery to mine and much of your terminology is alien to me. My humble set up is an Atom, a pair of 20 year old Monitor Audio GR20s and a SINGLE 20 year old REL R505 sub. REL said the Naim specific BLB cable is for the higher end power amps, for the cheaper integrated amps and streamers like mine they recommend connecting the sub wirelessly, which I can’t do due to its age or via the speakers. Interestingly, and I did push him (Ben) on this, he said just connect my single sub to only one speaker! This seems odd to me as obviously will lose the bass signal from one of the channels. I did read read on another thread here that the bass signal from both channels is pretty much the same, but it seems counter-intuitive to me.
“Ben” is sort of right. Most of sub bass below 80hz is actually mixed to mono during the mastering process, therefor both channels will be the same below 80hz.
That’s interesting. I have been thinking about a Sub. But it would have to be connected to a speaker, and because of our room preferably one speaker and one sub. More research to do.
In my use case it worked for me. That’s because my rig is powered from a BPS but my subs are powered from the ring main. Because a BPS’s earth is centre tapped and has no connection to the mains earth, my subs and my rig therefor had no common ground plane. Running one back to the 282 solved that problem.
