Contents:
- The Challenge for Modern Spaces
- Open Floor Plans Demands on Bass
- The Planar Concept
- Wall Acoustics
- Ultra-Thin Bass Design
- The Planar Cart
- Why PL-2?
- Greater Scale for Large Rooms
- PL-2 for music
- PL-2 for Home Theater
- Who is PL-2 For?
Deeper extension, greater output, and immersive bass designed for spaces that demand more.
I've spent most of my career designing subwoofers, which means I've spent an unreasonable amount of time thinking about bass. But over the last decade, something interesting happened. The problem customers were bringing to us wasn't really about bass anymore. It was about space.
The Challenge of Bass in Modern Living Spaces
People still wanted the emotional connection that only great bass can provide. They wanted the weight of a concert performance, the atmosphere of a film soundtrack, and the sense of scale that turns listening into an experience. What they didn't want was a large black cube dominating an otherwise beautifully designed room.
At the same time, our homes were changing. Dedicated listening rooms gave way to open floor plans. Living rooms flowed into kitchens. Dining spaces blended into media rooms. Architectural speakers became increasingly common. Interior design moved toward cleaner lines, fewer visual distractions, and environments that felt intentional and curated. Architecturally, these changes were wonderful. Acoustically, they created challenges. Bass doesn't care where your living room ends and your kitchen begins. It doesn't recognize the invisible boundary between one part of an open-plan home and another. Bass simply sees a larger volume of air that needs to be energized.
Why Open Floor Plans Demand More from Bass
And as rooms became larger and more connected, the challenge wasn't necessarily producing more bass. It was producing bass that could fill those spaces effortlessly. That realization ultimately led to Planar.
The Origins of the Planar Concept
The original idea behind Planar wasn't to build the thinnest subwoofer we could. It wasn't an exercise in industrial design, and it certainly wasn't about creating a lifestyle product. The objective was much more ambitious. Could we create a true REL capable of delivering authentic full-range performance while embracing the realities of modern living? That question changed everything.
Turning the Wall into Part of the Acoustic System
For decades, conventional wisdom suggested that walls were something a subwoofer had to work around. We took the opposite view. I've often said that the wall is your single best friend, and Planar was built around that philosophy. Rather than fighting room boundaries, Planar embraces them. By mounting directly to the wall and coupling its passive radiator to that surface, Planar turns the wall itself into part of the acoustic system. Instead of simply radiating bass into the room, the entire wall begins contributing to the presentation. The effect is difficult to appreciate until you hear it for yourself. The first thing most listeners notice isn't necessarily deeper bass. It's scale. The presentation feels larger. Taller. More expansive.
The bass seems to project naturally into the room rather than emerging from a single point source. In many ways, the wall becomes a life-size bass projector.
Why Planar’s Ultra-Thin Design Makes the Difference
That unconventional approach allowed us to rethink what a subwoofer could be. The ultra-thin form factor wasn't created to win design awards. It was created because many customers wanted extraordinary bass performance without surrendering valuable floor space. The ability to mount Planar directly to a wall allows it to become part of the architecture itself.
Some owners prefer exactly that. Mounted cleanly against the wall, Planar almost disappears into the room. Others take a different approach. With Piano Black finishes, Gloss White options, premium wood grilles, and the beautifully executed Planar Cart, the product can become a statement piece. That's one of the things I enjoy most about Planar. It allows people to decide how they want it to live within their home. Some will celebrate it. Others will hide it in plain sight. Good design should allow for both.
The Purpose Behind the Planar Cart
The Planar Cart emerged from a similar philosophy. One of the things I've always loved about high-end audio is that it rewards curiosity. The best systems aren't simply purchased; they're discovered. Every enthusiast knows the experience. You make a small adjustment, move a speaker a few inches, refine a crossover setting, alter a listening position, and suddenly the entire system opens in ways you didn't expect. That’s part of the joy. It’s part of the relationship we develop with our systems over time.
The Planar Cart allows listeners to continue that process of exploration. While wall mounting remains the ultimate expression of the concept, the cart provides freedom to experiment. Try different locations. Explore different relationships between the subwoofer, speakers, and room. Live with it for a week. Then try something else. Rooms have personalities. Every room behaves differently. The process of understanding those characteristics and discovering what allows a system to perform at its highest level is one of the most rewarding aspects of this hobby.
Why We Created the Planar PL-2
Once we began living with Planar and listening to it in a wide range of environments, another reality became clear.
Some rooms simply ask more from bass.
Not more volume.
More scale.
More reach.
More effortless authority.
That's why PL-2 exists.
Engineering PL-2 for Larger Rooms and Greater Scale
The goal wasn't to make PL-1 louder. The goal was to extend the Planar concept into larger spaces and more demanding systems while preserving everything that made the original so special. Open-plan homes. Larger listening rooms. Dedicated theaters. Architectural speaker systems spread across expansive living environments. These spaces require greater acoustic authority if bass is to remain convincing and fully integrated. PL-2 was engineered specifically for those environments. At its heart is a newly developed 8-inch flat-piston driver powered by a substantial 550-watt amplifier. Extension reaches approximately 24Hz, delivering deeper low-frequency performance, greater dynamic capability, and increased output. Yet the numbers only tell part of the story. The real achievement is how effortless it sounds. There's no sense of strain. No feeling that the system is working hard. The room simply fills with bass in a way that feels natural and unforced.
How PL-2 Enhances Music Listening
For music lovers, that translates into greater dimensionality and realism. Drums carry more weight and texture. Large orchestral works feel more expansive. Bass instruments occupy their proper place within the recording, helping establish the scale and emotional foundation that make music feel alive.
How PL-2 Elevates Home Theater Performance
For home theater enthusiasts, the effect can be equally dramatic. Soundtracks unfold with greater authority. Atmospheres feel larger. Dynamic moments arrive with more impact. Yet throughout it all, PL-2 remains remarkably difficult to localize. You're not listening to a subwoofer. You're experiencing a complete system operating as a unified whole.
Who Should Choose PL-2?
Ultimately, that's always been the goal at REL. The subwoofer shouldn't draw attention to itself. Its job is to restore what was missing. PL-1 remains an extraordinary solution for countless rooms and systems. But there are spaces that ask more from bass. Larger rooms. Open-plan homes. Architectural environments where scale matters as much as precision. PL-2 was created for those spaces. Not because bigger is always better. But because sometimes a room asks for more. And when it does, PL-2 delivers the effortless scale, deeper extension, and room-filling authority that make Planar unlike anything else in audio.
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