I opened a post a couple of months ago in relation to wanting to try out a subwoofer with my system and promised to post my experience, so this is for the members who commented on that thread, but it might be of interest to anyone out there who’s considering using one!
I had the flagship REL No.25 installed this morning by Martin @ Analogue Seduction and Rob from REL themselves. Well what a beast this piece of kit is, they just about managed to cart it into the music room.
It was placed inbetween the S800s and Rob proceeded to do some fettling while I went upstairs to make coffee. I opened the door and was absolutely staggered by what I heard, the SQ and musicality of my system was off the scale in improvement.
I’ll go into more detail after a few days of listening but so far eveything sounds more real, more emotive, more detailed, smoother to the point of effortless. The usual term of the speakers disappearing is an understatement. My wife came down later to have a listen, and asked if I’d turned the S800s off as you could not hear them at all. The music comes from out of all points of the room from the places the engineer designated in the mix, and makes it a far more ‘live’ experience.
As I’m writing this I’m listening to Steven Wilson’s ‘Home Invasion’ and I feel like I’m six rows from the front of the stage. Possibly one of the best upgrades I’ve made in recent years - I wouldn’t want to hear music without it now.
Hi S. REL usually take a feed off the back of your amp, but as my system is active that wasn’t possible to do. 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. It’s such an improvement in performance it’s worth trying a sub with a two speaker set up.
No in answer to your question, they asked where I wanted it to go and it was plug and play almost. I’ve had no trouble with boomy bass or nasty reflections at all.
Nice one. I have a Totem Storm sub running off my SC similar to you. And happy to report that I gave Home Invasion a good workout the other night and it was like being in the concert I saw in Auckland a couple of years ago. Happy days
Thanks Terry. The one in picture is A Speed Shaw Custom Harley bobber and the one just outside shot is a 1996 Harley Road King that I’ve owned from new and it still goes well
It’s an original work by ‘Paul Stanley’ from KISS. I bought from him a few years ago. He’s suprisingly a good artist and quite knowlegeable about art history, it’s one of his passions outside music.
Paul Stanley By-Tor there’s a connection for you and RUSH . PS have you seen the RUSH pinball machine recently released and which has already sold out!!
I did indeed but thanks for the shout out. Couldn’t see it fitting in with our decor - I’m told it is ‘Rocket St George’ flavoured. Frankly I wouldn’t know! Genuine Art would be another matter!
not far off !! You don’t really hear the bass as a big boomy bottom end. The cross over is quite low down so it just finishes the end of bass notes. The surprising thing is that it has affected the whole of the range, making the mids and even the higher frequencies clearer. The only analogy I can think of is like putting a primer coat on your car before the final paint job so that the top layer sparkles and has a deep shine. I didn’t have any idea what I was missing.
. PS have you seen the RUSH pinball machine recently released and which has already sold out!!
can’t find a non binary emogi