If something is wrong with your subwoofer, it may be an issue with how it was set up. Whether your crossover is set too high, your gain is too low, or you are having issues with your volume—all of these common errors are issues that REL’s experts have experience with, and we know how to help you resolve them.
Content:
- Most Common Setup Mistakes Found By REL Experts
- Properly Tuning Your REL
- Step 1: Familiarize Yourself With Your System
- Step 2: Start From The Beginning
- Step 3: Check Your Volume
- Step 4: Set Your Crossover
- Step 5: Check Your Gain
- Biggest Mistakes In Home Theater Setup
Most Common Setup Mistakes Found By REL Experts
There are a lot of common mistakes that our REL experts find when setting up home theaters all around the globe. Our North America regional managers spend a lot of time in the field visiting dealers, working to make sure their demos are up to snuff. In England, Rob Hunt performs miracles visiting dealers and some high roller customers as well. In our International markets, Kirill Nenarokomov is an absolute savant at setup and dial-in, backstopping our many international distributors and their clients. From these hundreds and hundreds of visits each year, certain patterns begin to emerge.
We thought it would be helpful for both existing owners and those who may just have purchased their RELs to see what the recurring setup errors are in order to obtain better performance themselves. The first tip(s) pertain most commonly with RELs that feature a High Level connection (10 meters long cable with a black and blue connector at one end).
Easily the most common error with setting up a home sound system is to set, a) the Crossover too high and b) the Gain too low. Usually both, as the second error is made in an effort to counterbalance the effect of the first. It’s an easy mistake to make; new owners aren’t used to listening for the proper effect of a true subwoofer so they will often turn the crossover up loud enough so that they can “hear it” (the most common explanation offered up). By this, they mean they can hear mid and upper bass “just like a speaker,” which means it’s very likely to have been set an octave too high to do its job properly. In a corrective effort, users then turn the gain down to try to minimize the effect of the too-high crossover setting.
Why does this present such a problem? Doesn’t turning down the subwoofer’s volume (Gain) make it all better? You might think so, but in reality you’ve just doubled down on the same issue. The volume being turned down helps a bit, but since they still “want to hear it,” it’s left a little too high but with notes emerging that are far too high pitched. We know instantly what it is when we get emails saying something to the effect that, “No matter what I try, I can’t get my REL to blend. What am I doing wrong?”
So, we at REL have been in the field, and we know exactly how to help. Here are some RELTips to help fix your home sound system.
Properly Tuning Your REL
Step 1: Familiarize Yourself With Your System
First, note that each control has tiny detents, or clicks. Experienced REL setup types take careful note of their click counts as they are like the proverbial breadcrumbs in the fable, allowing one to find one’s way home, should you get confused.
Step 2: Start From The Beginning
As always, use Track #4 from the CD of the soundtrack to the movie Sneakers. The reliable, deep bass impulses of the concert bass drum being gently struck make quick and easy work of adjusting settings.
If there is an error with your home theater setup, reset everything—it takes far less time than fighting with confusing results, and the solution takes almost no time to correct. Start by turning the crossover ALL the way down, right down to the bottom stop of the crossover connection. Do the same with the Gain setting, at which point you’ll have no output whatsoever (and you’ll think the writer is an idiot). Begin by turning the gain up high enough that you can hear the bass matching the output of the speaker; don’t worry that it may be set a little too low in frequency to make a perfect blend just yet. In our example, let’s presume that our theoretical Gain setting is 12 clicks up from the lowest setting for Gain. If you don’t know what Gain does, think of it as volume control, only with the sole purpose of allowing you to match the output (Gain) of your new REL to that of your speakers.
Pause for a few moments and double check your Phase setting using the small toggle switch that flicks right and left. Setting Phase incorrectly is an easy mistake to make because phase is related, or more accurately, derived, from frequency. If you perform your Phase check with the Crossover set to, say, 16 clicks on the Crossover setting, but then your final Crossover setting is perfect at just 11 clicks, it is entirely possible to have incorrectly set your REL’s Phase setting which will mess with the whole setup. Why?
Getting Phase set correctly is crucial because, when incorrectly set, it literally means the difference between the skin of the bass drum in the recording sucking inward rather than exploding outward. In practical terms, the deep bass pulses that need to move identically with your main speaker’s subwoofer’s movement will instead be fighting with the subwoofer. In our example, the woofer in your speakers is (correctly) moving outward and, if your REL’s phase is set incorrectly, your new REL can actually be removing low bass energy from the system. A few well-timed flicks back and forth (try to time it to be in time with an actual deep bass pulse from the drum strike) and you’ll quickly hear which setting results in proper deep bass energy, more of it than the opposite setting.
Step 3: Check Your Volume
If you’re struggling to hear which position of the switch is perfect, adjust Gain up or down to ensure the issue is not coming from the speaker’s volume being too overwhelming or not contributing enough signal. It’s important that the output from the speaker and sub are very close, in order for Phase to become obvious. Who knew Phase could undo all our hard work with Gain and Crossover?
Step 4: Setting Your Crossover
Ok, so the above should have taken, perhaps 5 minutes. Now, slowly begin bringing the Crossover control up 1 click at a time. If the REL begins to get obviously too loud and begins to drown out the speakers, reduce the Gain setting by a click or two until proper balance has been restored between speakers and REL. Continue raising the crossover until you hear a balance between the subwoofer’s tonality and that its texture matches the speaker. Deliberately turn the crossover up a few click past where you think the blend is perfect (…you ARE counting clicks right?). This is done to avoid hearing your mind playing tricks. At 2-3 clicks too high, you should definitely begin to think your system sounds like a bad car audio system. Here, reduce the Crossover setting until you think you’re just about perfect. At this point, you have essentially four choices: Crossover up or down 1 click in either direction (2 choices) or Gain up or down 1 click (2 choices).
Step 5: Check Your Gain
When one’s crossover is set 1 click too low, the music will have a subtle steely edge, a thinness to the sound with a slight bite. Set too high, the music takes on a warm, slightly sloppy character that can be described as dark. Gain is more obvious, so if anything err on the side of running it one click too high. If Gain being set too high is an issue, it’s easy to reduce it by one click once you’re certain this is the problem. But if you leave it too low, it can induce doubt in your results and once you start playing with your crossover control, it’s easy to go wrong.
RELTip: If your Crossover setting is set much higher than 10 o’clock—around 13-15 clicks up—you’re probably making a mistake.
New to setup? Start with our step-by-step How to Tune A REL Subwoofer guide.
Biggest Mistakes In Home Theater Setup
Mistake #1: Are Your Settings Too High?
For home theater specifically, the most common error is an extreme version of the previous issue. We often observe Crossover controls set ALL the way up and the Gain control turned ALL the way up. It’s a testimonial to the toughness of these models that they don’t all blow up the first day.
Start by turning your Gain and Crossover settings all the way down and try something few outside of the most experienced listeners do. Try unplugging the (Black) ground wire to each speaker, wrap a little tape around each spade or banana connector just to make certain it doesn’t accidentally short out and blow a fuse (or worse) in your amp. This turns off the speakers so you can focus on JUST the subwoofer.
Next, play a known strong special effects passage and begin bringing up the REL’s .1/LFE Gain Control. Can you hear deep bass (and a lot of it) coming from your REL as soon as you (slowly) increase the level? Great, you have permission to actually tune it now. If you don’t hear low bass beginning to emerge almost immediately upon bringing up the Gain, then turning the Gain control further will not make loud bass come from your sub. Instead, by turning it ALL the way up, you are simply guaranteeing that when a big bass passage does explode through your system, you will damage your new subwoofer. By turning your speakers off, it allows you to hear whether special effects bass is actually being sent to your subwoofer. Most don’t realize that signal—especially when set to the speaker’s “Large” setting—is only present on the subwoofer connection (LFE) when a special signal is detected by your Blu-ray player (or DVD); otherwise there is absolutely no signal present flowing down the subwoofer cable. In that event, repeatedly turning Gain up accomplishes nothing productive and will result in damage when signal finally is present.
Mistake #2 (for Theater Lovers): Is Your Gain Too Low?
Turning the Gain all the way up is not tuning any more than continually holding your accelerator down to the floor is “driving.” Theater is great fun, but finding the practical limits of your system is the key to being able to enjoy your system long-term. Try experimenting with your system without your subwoofer(s) present. Select one of your torture test movie chapters and slowly, carefully bring up the volume till it is at the ragged edge of distorting. Stop. Now install your subwoofer and play the same passage, again increasing Gain slowly—stop turning it up when it is right on the ragged edge of distortion (that dirty, grungy sound that sounds like an old Fuzz Face distortion pedal). Stop! That’s as loud as your system and subwoofer can safely be turned up. Here’s another little tip: Gain control likely cannot safely be set much higher than 1 o’clock on the dial.
Mistake #3: Was Your Crossover Set Correctly?
Turning your Crossover control all the way up is a huge mistake, because it actually reduces output. Why? Users unfamiliar with tuning and setup think that turning everything up all the way will produce the loudest subwoofer. They’re typically surprised to learn that it actually guarantees far less low bass output and that their subwoofer will crap out far sooner. Whether you really understand it or not, deep bass actually IS why you bought a subwoofer. It’s the deepest bass that produces all the great special effects in movies, not mid and upper bass—that’s the junk that makes it hard to understand what’s being said on screen.
Once you know your maximum Gain setting as per above, repeat the scene while slowly carefully increasing your Crossover setting. Note that any Crossover higher than 1 o’clock on the clock face of the control is running it too high. In most cases, you’ll find that running it between 10 and 1 o’clock will produce the biggest, loudest, and best combination of theater bass. Still, know that the higher you increase the Crossover setting, the more you will need to lower your Gain setting. Why? Because the wider open you set Crossover, the more signal comes through. Higher crossover settings allow more and higher frequency signals, therefore the volume needs to be turned down—or you’ll overload it all over again.
Just as important for theater special effects bass, setting Phase while the Crossover is set fairly low is crucial to ensure that it works best at low bass frequencies. With theaters, it’s best to set it at the beginning of your tuning, then double check once you’re sure you have Gain and Crossovers set properly. Play your favorite test track again and, while bass is blasting, flick the Phase switch back and forth. Don’t over think it—while setting phase, louder is better.
Enjoy everyone. With subwoofers, there’s truly something here for everyone.
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