New Serie S: Longer, Lower, Wider

Virgil Exner, one of the great automotive designers of the 20th century, first coined the term the “Forward Look” designs that borrowed from the sleek fuselages of jet planes and applied them to cars.

My journey into re-designing the proportions of our latest generation of Serie S had a more direct linkage back to our own Reference Range, which presently comprises the No.32 and No.31. When I designed that form, their basic origins lay in the No.25, and I had behind me a decade of designing RELs that borrowed heavily from the cubist proportions of traditional subwoofer design.

With Reference, I was free to expand into forms that were far more complex and expensive to build. Borrowing from my longtime study under Franco Serblin, Sonus faber’s founder, and a designer whose style is emulated to some extent today by virtually every speaker company on earth, the purpose of our curvaceous design was to better control the backwave of our faster, lighter driver cones. Uncontrolled backwave adds clutter and distortion to the resultant sound. Everyone who listens to the new models’ comments on how clean and clear they sound. That clarity is the result of minimizing the backwave.

But I also took away a conclusion I arrived at through countless hours of development: by lowering the height and expanding the width and depth, we delivered a sound with more explosive dynamics. When I looked to redesign the new Serie S, I studied the ratios that went into the No.31 and realized that while the curvilinear sidewalls still lay outside our budget for Serie S, I could get the basic proportions much closer to our Reference models. Lowering the height seems to force the backwave to explore the deepest portions of the cabinet. That, coupled with a general increase in volume, contributes to better dissipating the reflection of the backwave through the driver—a term I refer to as reversion. Every effort we have made to reduce reversion delivers a cleaner, crisper presentation of both music and theatre dynamics.

Our first pass at a physical prototype of what came to be called the S/850 had dimensions that lay within 3% of the final cabinets. Into this cabinet we installed the old S/812 amplifier and driver. The only difference was the cabinet design, and it required about three notes to realize that we had a design that instantly exceeded what we’d been able to deliver for six years in the outgoing S/812. The delivery was crisper, cleaner, and more dynamic.

Once we had established the basic proportions, my design partner Ryan and I moved on to detailing the cabinet and rails. I generally hate large, slab-sided walls the kind that feature on most subwoofers. Breaking up surfaces so they have visual interest is a design key for all larger RELs. Using three horizontal strake lines on the sidewalls emphasizes the low height, making the cabinet appear even sleeker and lower than it already is. The third strake is centered on the handles and is very short, yet it implies a continuous line that carries straight through the handle. Everything was done to clarify the lower aspect ratio and emphasize the horizontal nature of these designs.

The wood grilles, using a randomized mix of light, dark, and medium-toned tropical hardwoods, were added for two reasons. First, experiments I conducted a couple of decades ago on behalf of another speaker designer confirmed that cloth grilles limit openness and dynamics. Open slats allow air to explode freely into the room without the slight dulling of dynamics that cloth grilles introduce. I only wish they could be included as a matter of course on every model straight from the factory. They look stunning, and the improvement in sound is easily audible. The reality is that their construction quality and added labor costs—each grille requires five man-hours from start to finish mean we cannot include them at this price. As it is, we have significantly limited dealer margins to bring them to market at prices that represent only a small stretch in final cost, but with sonic and design benefits that last for your entire ownership of a new S. If, like me, you feel they add enormously to the experience, buy them at the time of purchase and enjoy them for the next decade or two; gratification delayed can easily become gratification denied.

Even the bottom rails came in for redesign. We stripped off the rear badges, as they clashed with the new design. And while we were at it, we eliminated the front “ski-tip” look of the S/510 and S/812, which we had hoped would allow the older models’ rails to disappear but never quite worked. The new, simple blunt nose, paired with a carbon-fibre badge displaying the model number, has been very well received. Added as well is an adjustable, knurled knob underneath that permits precise front-to-rear leveling on soft carpets.

Finally, we took a hard look at the traditional navy-blue anodization of our rear panels used for the past decade. Feeling that this new Serie S represented a dramatic upgrade in every way, I elected to move to a simple medium-dark grey. It delivers a serious message: these are new, important, and a significant step forward in performance and it reinforces our commitment to clean, uncluttered, higher performance

REL design.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short journey through REL’s design evolution for the new Serie S. If you enjoyed this and don’t already belong, please visit REL’s website and join our community; It's a great place to learn more as we continue to grow and improve. And if you’re already a member, please visit our Facebook and Instagram pages and let us know what you think. Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to read this.