Experience with stacked subwoofers?
I have seen a handful of responses to posts mentioning stacked line array subwoofers, like the stackable Rel 510s. Does anyone have a stacked subwoofer array in their system and can speak to their experience? The marketing hype that Rel puts out about this has me intrigued. Their explanation as to why it’s awesome makes sense, but also I want to go beyond the marketing and hear about real experiences before I drop a bunch of dough on something like that.
@guysellingstuff I finally got my third pair of REL S/510. I installed them this afternoon, and started with some setting guidance recommended by my dealer's installer. I have a new HRS equipment rack coming within a couple weeks, so they will tune the six-pack when they deliver the rack. In the meantime I'm enjoying it so far.
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It's interesting to see this, as it uses old "column speaker" tech to reduce vertical dispersion and increase horizontal dispersion. You can see old Grateful Dead shows where they were using this technique to shorten throw and increase horizontal dispersion. The other technique is to line them up on the floor horizontally, an array, as this will reduce horizontal dispersion and focus bass more in the central area of the room. Try it. |
That’s not how REL six-pack line arrays work. Each level has a different role and is configured differently (xover/gain). The height of the sub is part of that. There is no good reason to lay them out horizontally, and I have no space for that anyway. You can read more about REL six-packs here: |
@dwette Have dual S/ 812s with Tannoy Kensingtons and considering a 2+2 stack. Adding the second REL was an astounding upgrade. How did you find going from dual to a four stack? |
Here is my 2 cents for what its worth, i have owned a lot of speakers from full range Ribbons and Electrostatics to Planer Magnetics with Single Subs to Box speakers with Multiple woofers to 4 tower with line source woofer towers both servo and non servo and a lot in between. After 45 years of searching I finally have achieved what I consider the best sounding and most integrated bass I have ever had. As some have correctly mentioned the benefits of a line source array are indisputable and proven by many an Engineer. And yes open baffle line source array's have proven to me to be the most tunable. But I took it a step further and found Nirvana. I built an Open Baffle array borrowing Clayton Shaw's front port loaded design using 4-98db efficient 8ohm15" drivers with a high Qts on each side. I additionally am powering them with a pair of NOS Crown K2 amps that have a damping factor of greater than 3000. Also the ability to gain match them to my main speaker amp was critical. I tried just about every amp combination of equal power. That I had including BAT VK600mse, BAT vk655se, Classe CA201 and 301 Bridged as well as my Omega Ref Monos. But none of them could achieve what the Crowns were doing. I also tried a pair of Crown K1's that were equally as good the only difference was that I had the gain set full were on the K2's they are at the 2 O'clock position. I have also owned the Crown Studio Ref that will do an equally as good job but there is a ever so slight fan noise. The other key ingredient is using DSP to dial it in. I am using an Accuphase DG58. My God it is just incredible how they integrate and keep up with my Martin Logan CLX Arts that are crossed over at 112hz. The Speed and cohesiveness is mind boggling. I recently had Steve Bednardski, the founding partner of BAT over for a 5 hour listening session and he exclaimed "Its the BEST bass that he has heard". The Art's are powered by a REX500 with Gen 4 Superpaks and I can say the sound is intoxicating. Truly found my Dream setup. My Speakers in random order. Mirage M7si Auditioned I will try to post photos. My ad for my Classe Omega Monos has a photo. |
