Which REL sub, R528 or B2

Bol1972...I don't give a rat's ballsack about what you sold, and condescension and dismissal of other's opinions make you sound like my Uncle Dick. After over 40 years as a professional musician, professional live sound technician, audio fan, and male model (well...not the last one), I've found that you can tell a lot about how things sound by listening to them. Period.

I have a REL Q150E that is anything but "slow"...just a beautiful sounding little front firing sub that works really well. I shall continue to defend it regardless of the naysayers! Perception of "slowness" from a sub likely has to do with placement, or listening rooms of more than 10,000 square feet in damp unfurnished Medieval dungeons...like my guest house.

Bol1972...Again with the lecture, and utterly missing my point. I respectfully suggest you carefully READ posts and try to comprehend what they say before yammering away with your self important declarations, as they make you look foolish and slightly crazy. This forum is full of people who's taste, experience, and opinions differ from yours, and in many cases may be more refined. I'm now going back to listening to my wonderful REL supported system feeling satisfied knowing you've learned an important life lesson from my caring and compassionate post...you're welcome.

My used RELQ150e cost me $200 a couple of years ago, and remains my all time "bargain component score" champ, about which I am (maybe annoyingly) smugly satisified. Note that speaker "speed" is another one of those psuedo techno terms that means nothing in the real world of experienced listeners, bass players, and otherwise non biased individuals lacking a retail agenda.

I rest my case.

Case reopened. My main speakers (Silverline Preludes) get thin around 50 and thinner around 40 (ignore the specs for these...they're kind of silly), so the REL sits at 50 ish with frequent level adjustments (a "chicken head" knob allows easy gain changes) relative to source material. It does "charge the room" though, so everything sounds better all the time. Building your own cable is easy and the angled Neutrik Speakons are great and sit better. Another note for naysayers...in the March issue of Hi-Fi + a reviewer (Alan Sircom) says about the REL R-528SE, "Rel subs are always fast - it's one of the reason they consistently score well in hi-fi magazines, they are some of the only bass bringers that can keep up with snappy little sealed box speakers with ultralight 100mm mid-woofers." He's just another dude...but still...

YEAH! So now the "Fast REL" contingent is leading in the total point score...this could be a win.

I re-rest my case.

The Voodoo that he do so well.

If he's kidding he's my hero. Really...it would be so cool.

I just made a new REL cable from some Canare "star quad" stuff originally for no reason other than the Canare looks better (black mesh covered). Surprise surprise...I thought my old simple cable (some generic 4 conductor OFC my local audio joint gave me) was fine but this is better. Much better. Weird but true...higher sensitivity and definition for about 30 bucks (I, of course, used the same angled Speakon with good spades on the amp side). Oh yeah...and it looks really cool.

I don't get calibration systems except for the "gear adjustment challenged" listeners. I may have some advantage as a long time musician and concert sound tech (although among audio geeks that seems doubtful), but I trust my ears and other than my REL adjustment knobs I don't have any EQ on my preamp anyway (other than bass level tweaking I don't need any). Recordings have an infinite range of mixing results and sometimes the bass is way too loud, thus requiring my only EQ move which is to turn the sub down a little from time to time. Does anybody else do that? If not, why not? Do you surrender the control to a calibration system? Are we not men?

Jkuc...please explain...no wait...please don't explain as I somehow doubt I'd understand...really...thanks.

My REL is currently behind my left main with a fake plant on top of it, so it has disappeared even more. I AM interested in responses to my previous post (perhaps from somebody with reading comprehension ability) regarding sub level manipulation...any manipulators out there?

All well and good (and my trusty REL amazes me all the time, except when I'm not actually listening to anything), but I was specifically referring to having to adjust the level of the REL relative to the recording's bass output. I play some stuff that has really hot bass level (recent Donald Fagan, Peter Washington's bass on Charlap's Bernstein album, etc.). I don't adjust it too often, but I stuck a "chicken head" knob on it so I could tell where the High Level knob is without pulling the REL out from the wall (to satisfy my knob position curiosity relative to my obvious "golden ear" listening skills).

I'm talking small changes here, and my REL isn't out of balance most of the time (never an issue with classical, rarely with jazz)...my room sounds fine, and, as I assumed I explained, it is the RARE recording that has too much low end, or some old LPs that can use MORE low end...again, I don't do this often as the balance of sub level to my mains is seemless, but I refuse to allow some album engineer or mastering tech to harsh my mellow because he thinks I need low end beyond any reasonable level (if you have 'em, listen to my previously noted examples of these bass mix challenged recordings)..therefore I relish my ability to tweek it a bit. My only "tone" adjustment. I think it's a good sign of how well my system works in that it reveals subtle (and not so subtle) bass frequency level issues, and as a professional live sound mixer I have the street cred to adjust things (I say that to myself anyway). If you operate a sub at very low level you might never have to adjust it, but I'm a freak about tonal balance and love clean bass properly placed in the mix to my specific tastes. I sometimes crank stuff up to fill my house with music to hear it from other rooms (cooking) or to get sleazy drunk hookers to dance for me, and on some things if I didn't lower the sub output at (way) higher volume levels, it can sound out of balance. I decide what bass is appropriate as my rig is my subserviant and obediant slave and I am the decider.

Bol972 continues to describe "speed" and "timing" as if they were actual things that matter. The voice coil of a paper, aluminum, graphite, balsa wood (!), ceramic or macrame reinforced dried Yak turd driver all get their signals at something like the speed of light, and the tone and output sound dissimilar among brands for reasons having zero to do with what he (and others) describe as "speed." Using your EARS to decide what bass tone sounds best in a particular room is the ONLY way to find what you like, and this is as true now as it was 10 years ago. Just typing that seems ludicrous but I do what I can. I find the weirdly sincere condescension from Bol972 annoying, but it gives me something to respond to not unlike having to deal with a loose monkey jumping around my hut.

Bo1972...testing for "dimensions?" Your lack of English grammar skill, although perhaps charming to some, would be more easily tolerated if not exceeded by your lack of any grip on basic conversation skill or the reading comprehension effort required to actually discuss anything. If you have a point, it gets lost in the sauce of innanity and makes you appear sort of silly and lazy, like a sincere dog barking at the moon.

I should rest my case, but Bo is simply too entertaining...and although I think he just asked me a question, I have no idea what it is.

Timing and response as well as "speed" are utterly useless when used in a conversation about subs in any context other than discussing the design of a sound system for 100,000 listeners spread over acres at a festival. Bo's relentless nonesense insults the intelligence of experienced hifi freaks and spellcheck designers, along with displaying a sadly inadequate and misguided sense of musical taste...otherwise it's all good.