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Rel Sentor II Speaker Cable Upgrade evaluation

Rel Sentor II Speaker Cable Upgrade

I recently upgraded the stock Rel cable for my subwoffer that came with the unit to Discovery Signature Speaker cable. I purchased on audiogon a used 12' set of Discovery and then bought a Neutrik connector for $7 at my local speaker supply retailer. The Discovery Signature cable is there mid level series that consists of (4) 16 guage stranded copper conductors. I cut off the two spades on one of the two cables I had bought and installed the 4 wires to the neutrik connector which was fairly easy and fast.

The Sound: The overall improvement was a bit more that I initially was expecting. I have my Rel Sentor II set at 32 for the crossover point going from my Convergent Audio JL2 amp to the subwoffer. The bottom end bass was much fuller and more pronounced. The added richness combined with better definition produced a much more lifelike and convincing bottom end. After several days of listening in my system the improvement was at least 25-30% in the low end bass. The only regret I had is waiting so long to do the upgrade. I have owned the Rel for about 2 years and had I known it would have made this much difference I would have done it much earlier, even my wife who is not a audiophile noticed how more pronounced the bass was when she first heard it over this last weekend. For under $150 total it was the most cost effective upgrade I have done for my speaker system. The cheap stock cable the Rel comes with does not do this fine product justice. The stock thin wire looks metallic in color and does not ever appear to be copper.

Conclusion: In comparison the stock Rel speaker wire sounds somewhat thin, lacks the extension, definition, fullness and body of the Discovery cable. This cable upgrade along with a very good aftermarket powerchord can transform this already excellent product to the next level bring one a step closer to the live sound we all seek.

John
42659

Showing 1 response by semi

semi
649 posts
 
Frank was corrent in pointing out interconnect would be a better cable to substitute the stock REL cable. The signal cable in a REL sends low level info to REL, this is how REL detects how hard the main amp is working and at what freq range. Like power amp input, it's a high impedance input into REL and will not draw much current if any at all. For that fact, you want to keep the signal as pure as possible and shielding is more critical than current capability in this cable. Speaker cable does have shielding mechanism buildin, but not quite as extensive as interconnect in most cases.

Otherwise you will see the stock REL cable at least as thick as those Monster cable you can buy from Circuit City.
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