Factors to Consider When Adding or Upgrading the Subwoofer in your Audio System or Home Theater.
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- The first thing you really should do is go to REL.net and look up the subwoofer pairing tool. It's called subwoofer finder. Many of the speakers that you're probably looking at will already be there, but there'll be things that are close enough. If it's one of the more obscure brands, if you write into us and we love to get emails, but let me tell you what we're gonna ask of you, because it is an interactive process.
The first thing we're gonna ask you is about your room and it's not just what you think of as your room, understand that we want to know what the primary environment your speakers and you listening are gonna be in.
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But in many, many instances houses these days have open floor plans. So if you're fortunate enough to have a regular sealable, meaning close the doors and the room is sealed rectangular box of a room, God bless you. You're in the minority. Most instances, we start talking to somebody and the individual says, oh yeah, my basic room is 14 by 20 with 9 foot ceilings.
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Then you start talking more, well, that's the living room, but the living room is attached to and consistent with and open to the dining room, which gives onto the kitchen. And right behind the kitchen, there's a door that goes down a hallway that's 15 feet long. All of these are spaces that a REL has to drive. It's one acoustic mass.
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So we really need to know both the primary and the secondary connective tissue if you will. In my own home, I've got an open floor plan with a centrally mounted staircase with a bathroom underneath that
and it goes up it's like three stories high. And so each floor is about 1500 square feet and it all talks to each other. So, you know, when a customer calling up going, well, you know, my living room's roughly 22 by 17. That's one space, but that's not it. I've got a 10 foot opening to an entryway. I've got an eight foot opening into the dining room and then it just flows from there.
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That's a very, very difficult space to drive. So space, and if you can beg borrow or steal one of those little Bosch or similar laser range finders, just put it on one wall, zap that zap the length and then the others. If you're talking about secondary spaces, you can approximate them, but that's really useful.
Second thing we're gonna ask you is what are your electronics? Why do we need to know that? Well, first of all, we can spot stuff where you go, you are not gonna want to use that with those speakers for a variety of different reasons.
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Maybe you need far more power than that. Maybe you have a 500 watt amplifier and a pair of Klipschorns that, you know, virtually manufacture sound.
So we will be asking questions about your electronics, but more importantly, if you're gonna use one of our classic RELs that hook up traditionally through the high level connection, we're gonna want to know what that is and how to guide you towards doing it. There are different kind of, we call it topologies,
different kinds of amplifier designs that some of which don't even have a ground, which is really necessary for a REL to operate properly.
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So let's find out what those things are. And if you're in a state of flux and you're changing things, we can often give you insight into really good suggestions. That would make really nice natural pairings for that too. So those are just some of the things you'll need to know and of course, then we need to know what the speakers themselves are and where you plan to cite them. And what I do with anybody that I wind up interacting with directly, I require, I don't suggest, I require that you send me 360 degrees.
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Stand up from your listening position, photographs of the room. And if you will, it used to be much more common where you digitally stitch I'm not requiring you to stitch them, but just sort of take the picture, including your left speaker and perhaps the left wall.
You know, then move it over to approximately where that left off, then do the same over here. The same, the same. So I can see everything. I first started doing this about six or seven years ago when a fellow wrote in with a problem solving question.
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He couldn't understand why his left subwoofer was so loud and played so beautifully, but his right one just seemed to be lost.
And he gave me the room dimensions and everything seemed. And I finally asked him to send me a picture at the time, just to the front of his system. So I could see the speakers, the subwoofer where was it located? And I called him back and said, when were you gonna make mention the fact that there was a staircase going upstairs, just right at the landing where your right subwoofer was?
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And it went up three stories straight up above the subwoofer that didn't occur to you. One's under an eight foot ceiling and the other one goes 23 feet straight. Yeah, they're gonna be very, very different. So these are some of the context we can spot...
That is why John is the Man 😎
A real passionate professional here. Thank you. 👍
This guy isn't just smart, he's extremely articulate.
Nice support!
I can’t even imagine this guys home theater set up.
REL subwoofers are the best! I love my pair of T9X subs and they added so much depth and realism to my music. Thank you REL!😊
Thank you for choosing REL for your system, and we are glad to hear that you are enjoying the performance of your T/9x subwoofers!
Makes sense.👍
Yes -- my living room is 14 x 17. But opening to the kitchen, with vaulted ceilings, led to the recommendation from REL of a 212/SX. Which I thought was crazy gigantic for my purposes. But I got one and it is NOT too big. It kills!
Interesting John. So tell me more, what’s a typical solution when a sub sits in a three story space or next to an open floor plan? Move up to a larger REL sub, or placement, or multiple subs? What might work in larger/taller spaces?
Thank you for reaching out. When the overall volume of the room increases it is typically necessary to upgrade to a larger and more powerful subwoofer and/or add a second subwoofer to to more evenly distribute their output throughout the room. The specific choice of subwoofer will depend on a number of variables specific to the room and system, so when you have a chance please write in to contactus@rel.net and we will be happy to provide a pairing recommendation.
I was really confused why there was a REL video about putting a sub in my "Audi..."
Dear Rel,
I bought the T7x weeks ago and am pleased with increased soundstage and realism. The scale of the sound is larger and the harmonics of the other frequencies are more nicely displayed.
But now that it is fully burned in, the crossover is completely turned down to 30hz, nothing wrong with this per se. But the gain is only 3 clicks turned open, in my opinion the subwoofer needs to work more to come into its own. (Correct me if I’m wrong).
I am considering downscaling to the T5x, only I am afraid the soundstage will sound less scale.
For your imaging, I play with a mostly tube based Audio Note system totaling cost 35-40k, so a quite serious setup. It adds perfectly the slam and impact that is hard to get with high efficiency loudspeakers.
My question is whether the T5x will perform better considering I can open up the gain further?
My space 10x18x 7.5ft ceiling (acoustically treated)
So I definitely don't want to shortchange my set and the sound in terms of scale!
Thank you for reaching out. The output levels of the T/7x will of course increase as you raise it's back panel Level control, though otherwise the T/7x will perform just as well with a Level setting of 3 clicks from minimum as it will with a higher Level control setting. If you are able to achieve a good level match with your main loudspeakers with these settings then I wouldn't worry to much about specifically how the Level dial is set.
That being said, if you feel that the T/7x is simply too much subwoofer for your system, then when you have a chance please write in to contactus@rel.net and our team will be happy to assist with determining which of our subwoofer models will be the ideal match.
I just purchased a dual T7X and a Parasound helo 23+ can I connect the high level cables straight to my Kef R3’s?
Thank you for reaching out. The Parasound Halo A23+ is a standard Class A/B amplifier, which means that you can connect the High Level cables for your T/7x subwoofers to the binding posts on the back of each Kef R3 speaker. For the left channel subwoofer the red and yellow wires can connect to the positive binding post on the left channel speaker, and the black wire can connect to the negative binding post on the same speaker. The same instructions can then be used for the right channel subwoofer, connecting to the right channel speaker.
Another great video John 👍.
Is there a reason the ProAc range is not included in the pairing tool? I've ended up going for a pair of T/7x's to match my ProAc DT8's, cant wait for stock to arrive!
Thank you for reaching out. Our website's speaker pairing tool is a work in progress, and we are consistently working to add more speaker brands and models to it. That being said, assumng that your system is placed in an average sized room then a pair of T/7x will be an excellent choice for pairing with the ProAc DT8 speakers.
@@RELAcoustics Thanks, I'm looking forward to them arriving!