Sonus Faber

Hey Kids, I found time to go out and listen to the Rel Sub's today. My local dealer had a Stentor III(demo I think), along with the other various models. He, and I concur with member Semi. The B1 is all that and a box of cracker jacks. Very musical, DEEP, and Quick! Very Quick. A great match for the SF's. He auditioned them for me with a Pair of Cremona's the Floor Standers, driving them with newest of the Classe's line of power the CA2200 amp, CP500 pre, and the new CDP100 CD player. Great sounds, and pleanty of low level details with a delicate, and resolved isolation of accoustic space. Well, I'm taken measurements to find out just where to place this new toy! As, for the new couch my wife was looking at??? Perhaps next year? LOL ;^)
Cheers

I had a Stadium III before, I now have a B-1. Stadium III was deep, loud, and quick. B-1 is deeper, louder, and quicker. On top, it blends with the main speaker even better. Maybe it's room interaction because the driver is now front mounted and more directional which will match most speakers' woofer orientation.

I haven't heard a pair of speaker with side firing woofers that I like, I am a believer in low bass is directional and side firing interact with room boundry too much to create peaks and valley in freq spectrum. The old ST series downward firing woofer has similar issue, but REL has the advantage of only covering low bass, unlike side firing woofer in a speaker which will go up to 200+ hz. I believed that's why REL changed their design strategy and went with front mount in the new Brittania line.

Hear it for yourself, 2 of the dealers I spoke to like the B-1 over Stentor.

Semi - which of the B series have you heard? How is it better than the ST series?

I have a REL STadium III nicely matched with a pair of SF Concertos. Very nice integration that allows a much lower power amp for the SFs. The SFs also function as the l&r IN A av ST-UP.

There are lots of fine subs out there, but none offers the unique high level input of REL. Your power amp does not deliver linear power to speaker due to amp and speaker cross-over interaction. That's why you hear from REL owners loving their subs because they integrate with their speakers, large or small, so perfectly.

So my vote is also a REL, go for the new Brittania series which is even better than the old ST series.

I have a REL Stentor II,mated,flawlessly,with an Avalon Ascent(sealed box)series II.When I decided to do this,my goal was to eclipse the design decision of Avalon,in their newer use of ported designs,to add to the bass output.Boy did I make the right choice.I now have a "CLASSIC",flawless, Ascent(a great design)mated with a sub,that blends perfectly.It would be very hard for me to make any kind of new speaker change,now,unless I moved to a different room.Good luck!!

I used the Guarneris with a Rel Strata III. This is a sealed box design and is very quick with appropriate adjustments for proper blending. The cherry finish actually looks OK near the Guarneri too.

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Mang53,
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I have a REL Stentor III matched up with a pair of Sonus Faber Extremas and they are perfect together and were quite easy to drop in to my system.
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The sound is totally fluid from top to bottom with no seams, disjuncts or bumps.
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I would highly recommend the REL Stentor III's.
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Good Luck,
Larry
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Sorry, the "GUARNERI's are the subject!