Advanced Setups & Tutorials

We’re here to help clarify why you might consider adding to your current REL setup—whether it’s expanding a single REL or upgrading a pair to achieve the pinnacle of bass performance: the REL Line Array. And this goes beyond what you might initially think. If you search “multiple subwoofers in a music system,” you’ll often see the standard answer: multiple subs enhance headroom (maximum output) and reduce room resonances. While this is technically correct, it doesn’t explain why these factors benefit you or describe how they sound. What if you don’t regularly listen at 105 dB levels—how do these enhancements still matter? We’ll explore these questions and more in the following sections. 1. Stereo Pairs: The journey into multiple RELs often begins with stereo pairs, a straightforward yet transformative upgrade. Adding a second REL allows each subwoofer to serve a dedicated channel—Left and Right—addressing challenges you may not even realize exist. By positioning each REL near its respective speaker, you can fine-tune the system, perfectly balancing Left and Right channel performance. You’ll likely find each subwoofer needs different settings: one channel may require a notably higher volume or a distinct crossover setting. Why? Room acoustics. Common differences of 2-6 dB between left and right channels often require these specific adjustments. When dialed in correctly, your system will open up like a stage on opening night. First, transparency and clarity are immediately noticeable. Then, with practice, you’ll achieve coherence and solidity in the soundstage and imaging that many believe impossible to reach. Systems previously limited to the space between the speakers, can now produce a soundstage that extends beyond speaker width, delivering greater depth across the entire stage. Moreover, this setup allows the system to play louder with less effort, producing richer bass without strain or boominess. 2. Two Stacked RELs per SideTotal of Four: A “4-pack” is often a step toward a full REL Line Array and provides a significant upgrade in scale and power output. This configuration amplifies headroom and tackles room resonances on a whole new level, making a dramatic difference. Living with a 4-pack at home, I found it provides far more “muchness”—to borrow the Mad Hatter’s phrase. Technically, the 4-pack easily overwhelms common room suck-outs, those spots where bass can feel thin or boomy, no matter how much you adjust a single sub or stereo pair. In our open floor plan home (1,500 square feet), this setup filled the entire space effortlessly, reaching even distant corners. Standing 45 feet away in the kitchen, it was hard not to notice the coffee cups rattling, even at lower volumes. Deep bass has a way of doing that. 3. REL Reference Line Arrays (aka the “6-pack): Three REL (Serie S, HT/1510, and all Reference models current or past) subs vertically stacked per side (total 6) produce a wholly surprising result. Naturally, all the “muchness” of the 4-pack remains, but the top tier of two delivers a shocking dose of transparency and high-frequency harmonic structure that must be heard to be believed. Seriously? Highs from big subwoofers? Truth. It also—and this is why I say I’ve never heard anything deliver what these do––allows for the reproduction of real-world height that only a very few full range speakers can and those all cost over $200,000 per pair and are not for the faint of heart when it comes to setup. The REL Line Array has one other ability that those behemoth speakers can’t deliver. We can make sound, very much like the sound of those multi-hundred-dollar/euro/pound equivalents in rooms as small as 13’ x 20’ (4m x 6.2m) using speakers as small as quality stand mounted designs, such as KEF’s Reference 1’s. Below appears a photo of a Line Array of S/812 with a new speakers line from Germany called RA Acoustics in just such a room. Starting with a stereo pair of RELs opens a world of imaging and dynamic energy that no other component upgrade can match. Adding more, with partial arrays or full Line Arrays, is a greater investment but yields significant returns. As one satisfied customer at a recent show shared, “I’ve never heard anything transform my system like my Carbon Special 6-pack. I used to doubt the high-end reviews, but once I tried it, I was blown away. I’ll never go back. Thank you.” Thank you for letting us share what we love with you. We’re honored to help elevate your listening experience. Thank you for reading our latest blog. We strive to provide content that’s both entertaining and educational. If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, reach out to us at contactus@rel.net. We value your input and will do our best to respond within a few days. With over 160 years of combined experience, we’re committed to making your audio experience exceptional. If you found value in this piece, please share it with friends who might benefit.

Incorporating white as a color alternative to piano black lacquer can be a  design necessity for many rooms. Why choose white? Because in modern homes, spaces often serve multiple purposes. On Monday night, your living room might host a team meeting. Come Friday, it's movie night, with home theater features taking center stage. By Saturday, it transforms into a lively entertainment room for friends and family. White subwoofers make a high-end design statement that complements both modern and classical aesthetics. If you want your theater to deliver sustained thrills throughout a movie, rather than in just a few standout moments, consider upgrading your system to REL 3-D or HT/3D. This ensures your system delivers the full aural 3D experience envisioned by Dolby Digital. 1. Support Your Center Channel: At a minimum, add a REL High-Level connected subwoofer to support your center channel. Serie T/x, Serie S, and Reference lines all deliver High-Level Connectivity. Typically, the smallest of RELs applicable to your system should be forward-firing. From the T/7x and up, all larger T/x and S models are suitable. Choose the model based on your room's size, your main speakers' quality, and your preferred listening volume. 2. Enhance Front Channel Immersion: For an enhanced wrap-around immersion, ensure the Left and Right main front channels also have a High Level. This subwoofer will usually be the largest in your system. The right REL model depends on your speakers' quality, your room size (open floor plans require larger subs), and your appreciation of intricate spatial effects in movies. 3. Optimize the Rear Channel: The rear channel is crucial for a 3-dimensional effect. This will typically be your largest or second-largest subwoofer model. Many opt for a powerful Serie HT subwoofer here. In our own home, this addition has significantly enhanced the impact of epic movie scenes. In serious home theaters, front speakers and subs are often black to minimize reflections from the TV or projector that’s supplying the picture. However, even the most dedicated home theater enthusiasts should consider the aesthetics of their living spaces. White RELs integrate seamlessly, avoiding the loud proclamation of "HOME THEATER!!" in one’s loudest Gilbert Godfrey voice. For example, we use a new White HT/1205 MKII for the rear channel sub, paired with an HT/Air MKII wireless. This setup not only sounds fantastic but also adds a touch of lightness to what would otherwise be a dark and gloomy corner, making it an acceptable addition even for the most design-conscious households. Introducing high gloss finishes in high-end RELs is nothing new. Adding high glass white finishes to our home theater Serie HT lineup will be seen as brave in some quarters. However, we view it as a natural extension of our philosophy: ensuring REL subwoofers are welcomed into the finest homes. With white becoming a dominant theme in high-end design, it makes perfect sense to offer this finish. White allows subwoofers—often the least favored AV component by interior designers—to blend seamlessly into the room, making them a desirable addition to any stylish home. So go ahead, have your design cake, and eat it too. Pass the popcorn! Thank you for reading our latest blog. We strive to provide content that’s both entertaining and educational. If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, reach out to us at contactus@rel.net. We value your input and will do our best to respond within a few days. With over 160 years of combined experience, we’re committed to making your audio experience exceptional. If you found value in this piece, please share it with friends who might benefit.

No matter what style of music you love, Summer is the time to keep an eye out for the best music festivals of the year. If you’re in the UK, check out Nocturne Live June 12-16 in Woodstock. No, the other Woodstock, which is pretty much what the Brits would say about our Woodstock. With Coachella and Stagecoach having already kicked off the music festival season out here on the West Coast, we thought it would be fun to revisit what makes live music and festival sound so enjoyable and how you can bring your system up to a level that truly brings the concert experience home. A brief note to those who can’t afford some of the kits mentioned below; enjoy it. Half the fun of owning a Ferrari is dreaming about owning one for 40 years. Same thing with great audio gear. If it’s not in your budget right now, keep working on it. Usually, when someone really wants something and makes owning that experience a goal, good things happen. At the end of this article, a link to Music Festival Wizard will be posted allowing you to look up music festivals near you and all over the world.  Okay, without a doubt, the sonic takeaway from music festivals is the sound. Specifically the bass. There’s a visceral thing that happens when, I don’t know, 96 bass bins flying off of 8x40’ pole-mounted line arrays hit you like a sledgehammer. With a kick drum sound that compresses your chest, whether you want it to or not, it’s the bass that you’ll be talking about on the long drive home. It’s bass felt, not just heard that almost no home systems can capture. But some can. Nowadays, deep bass is easier than ever to afford. The same HT/1205 MKII at $899/£899 is surprisingly adept at music reproduction and crushes in-theatre applications. One of our best sellers, the T/9x similarly delivers a ton of smiles per mile. Any of our Serie S deliver deep bass that leaves our more affordable offerings in the rearview mirror. These and others in our repertoire will deliver satisfying deep bass and, if you can find a good YouTube video of a festival you attended, REL will help bring back some wonderful memories. RELTip™: For those of you who own an HT model, try running a stereo pair of RCA-RCA interconnects from the L-R preamp outputs on your AV receiver into two of the 4 RCA connectors on the rear panel. It will help you enhance the listening experience for music. And then there are those who really want to re-live the experience as though they were actually there again… No punches held back, the quality of bass reproduction I am going to describe doesn’t come cheap. If one seeks therarefied air, one needs to turn to military-grade bass hardware. Otherwise, those wonderful little 8” subs that are quick, tuneful, and affordable aren’t going to have you playing air drums along with Dave Grohl. Only a very few 10” based designs have the “it” to get one’s attention. For the real deal, we’re pretty much looking at 12” and larger and, even then, multiples of those drivers.  Also, the vertical height one experiences live simply can’t be replicated by a sub sitting on the floor, hence items 2-4 below. Here’s our experience of how to reproduce true festival-playback levels of bass, for those who love live outdoor music festival sound: In our lineup, my first thought to deliver the “mostest for the leastest” would be a pair of 212/SXs. This pair would deliver 2 x 1,000-watt amps driving  4 active 12” drivers + 4 passives cannily placed and tuned to deliver massive grunt. 900 inches of surface area and a couple of thousand watts has a way of shredding air with violence that is positively un-gentlemanly. A 6-pack of S/812’s. A 6-pack of Carbon Specials. A 6-pack of any Reference model we’ve ever made. Let’s wrap this up. You can see there’s a recurring theme operating here. It takes lots of horsepower and lots of surface area; many large drivers, to deliver “you are there” live bass. It’s hard to comprehend that a pair of powerful 212/SXs could be a starter course, but in this company, it’s because that final detail missing from even otherwise fantastic systems is the ability to convey full height /full impact to the soundstage. The 212/SX’s rear-facing passive does a remarkable job of providing necessary elevation, but once the 6-packs are switched on it’s game, set, and match I’m afraid. We try to provide the finest value in our affordable models and we’re  very proud of what they deliver for relatively affordable prices. And, we deliver no-holds-barred experiences akin to exotic supercars at the end of the scale. Whether you can afford a VW GTi or a Porsche GT-3RS, our goal is always the same; to deliver everything we know to you, within the limits of our engineering creativity and your budget. But whether flinging a GTi down a winding secondary road or running the Nurburgring , both your and  goals and ours  should remain identical. Finding fun and joy in the activity. If you love the experience of live music, less the 20-minute lines for a Porta Potty, REL delivers that experience and will help you revisit the feelings and thrill of your favorite music festival. Music Festival Wizard Thank you for reading our latest blog. We strive to provide content that’s both entertaining and educational. If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, reach out to us at contactus@rel.net. We value your input and will do our best to respond within a few days. With over 160 years of combined experience, we’re committed to making your audio experience exceptional. If you found value in this piece, please share it with friends who might benefit.

For years, REL owners have contended with a myriad of options when it comes to connecting the REL High-Level Connection to their amplifier. These permutations of connection methods were layered on over time as amplifier technology changed. We recognize that the number of connection methods is slightly daunting to any first time REL user wanting to connect High Level. If you can believe it once upon a time, there was only one way to connect. Well, those days of an almost universal solution are back as we now have one nearly perfect and simple High Level connection method. It works for Class A/B, Class D, Balanced Differential, Class G, Class H, and chemistry class—no, wait that’s an overreach. But for every amp whose chassis connects to ground, which is most of them, this universal solution works perfectly. THE REVEAL: If you just want to cut to the chase and learn that virtually ALL RELs and ALL amplifiers can be connected using one simple universal connection scheme, look no further. 1. The Red and Yellow wires are universally known as hot wires. Connect these to the positive binding post on your amplifier If you have one REL with a stereo amp or receiver connect red to the right channel + and yellow to the left channel +. Nothing new here… proceed to step 2. If you are connecting a single REL to a single channel whether it be a Monoblock amp, the center channel only or running a Stereo pair of RELs, twist the Red and Yellow wires together and connect to the corresponding positive binding post on your amp. Nothing new here either… proceed to step 2. 2. Here is the NEW part… get ready, it’s so simple it’s genius. Attach the Black ground wire on the REL High-Level cable to a chassis grounding screw or bolt on the rear panel of your amplifier or receiver. That’s it. Nothing more. You’re done. * A note about locating a chassis grounding screw or bolt: If you have a Phono stage on your integrated amp or receiver the Phono ground screw is going to be the easiest place to ground the black wire. Your next easiest option is to look for a thumb screw, Antenna input, or an actual screwdriver screw with one of these symbols  or  next to it. These are Universal Grounding symbols. If you don’t have either of these options don’t fret, tap the bare copper wire of your Black wire to a screw or bolt. If your REL was previously humming and it stops, you have successfully located a ground reference point. 3. It really is that simple! We’re pleased to be able to share this simple, foolproof way to achieve proper High-Level Connection of ground, in a way that is safe for any known amplifier genre. You can find diagrams and videos about this new method on rel.net and our YouTube channel.  Thank you for reading our latest blog. We strive to provide content that’s both entertaining and educational. If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, reach out to us at contactus@rel.net. We value your input and will do our best to respond within a few days. With over 160 years of combined experience, we’re committed to making your audio experience exceptional. If you found value in this piece, please share it with friends who might benefit.

Recently, a good friend, who’s also a wildly talented industrial designer, bought one of our Classic 98 subwoofers. He loved its design cues and how it fit his space and lifestyle perfectly. I knew he and his family loved movies and streaming as much as music, which was why I  recommended the Classic 98. He was happy enough with his purchase, but he wasn’t raving about its performance. When asked, he said, “Yeah, it’s good, really good.” He lives in a modestly-sized Southern California condo so the Classic 98 was more than enough to blow his space away with powerful deep bass.  I knew immediately why he was only experiencing the merely “good”, and not the kind of performance that recalibrated his experience of enjoying movies or streaming. “Please tell me you connected the high-level connection?” I asked him. Crickets. “Oh…yeah” I heard after a few heartbeats. “Oh, that’s right, you guys do the whole High-Level Connection” then, “Oh my gosh I can’t believe I forgot that.” I spent the next 5 minutes explaining what he needed to do to access as close to Full Range sound (why, oh why do the major Japanese receiver manufacturers limit almost all their receivers and processors to 40 Hz as a low-end limit?) as is possible these days. I moved on to other calls on my way home but he called again 5 minutes later. I couldn’t answer. Then again 8 minutes into my drive, then 14 minutes into the drive. When I got home, I played back the three messages that ran something like this (the language has been cleaned up because we’re a family-friendly channel). 5-minute call: “Holy Sugar, what a fantastic upgrade. I had no idea that there was bass throughout almost every scene!!” 8-minute call: “OMG, do your customers know about this? This is ridiculous, I just put Dune 2 into our Blu-ray and there’s this weird disturbing sound during the opening credits. It’s creepy and I never heard it do this before. This is crazy.” 14-minute call: “My downstairs neighbor just knocked on my door to ask me to turn it down, but then I invited him in and we spent the last 5 minutes showing how when I unplug your High Level, all the bass in normal scenes just stops. Are you sure your customers know about this?” If it didn’t occur to him, it may not have occurred to our gentle readers, so I thought it would be helpful to spell it out for everyone. Again. There are 3 parts to this: First, of course, you need to connect the High-Level cable. In the interest of brevity, please go to our website and click on “Our Pursuit” at the top, then select “How to Connect”. Or just click here. Note that you will be connecting the Red Wire to Right Channel +, the Yellow wire to Left Channel +, and the Black wire to chassis ground which, increasingly, is readily available via a knurled screw that’s clearly marked as ground. Thank you, Yamaha and NAD! Next, grab your receiver’s remote control because you’ll need to make a few changes. While yours may differ slightly in titles, the menu shots below will show you the correct settings to select. Click on Setup Menu first, then enter Speaker Config. Select Manual (NOT Audyssey or Dirac Live to enter your basic parameters correctly). What you’re trying to do is set your speakers as Low as they can safely handle, in my case, I was able to select the lowest setting that is safely possible when using a subwoofer in theatre mode, which on a Marantz is 40 Hz. Then select “Yes” for the subwoofer and make sure LFE+Mains is selected as shown. We normally select 120-200Hz for the bandwidth for the subwoofer. Finally, plug your High-Level Connection into the Input on your REL and adjust crossover and gain (volume) settings till they sound right for you. RELTip™: since your receiver is rolling all frequencies below 40 Hz off (this reduces the output of everything below 40 Hz) you will need to add a bit more gain than you may normally use for 2-channel music of your primary interest is theatre and streaming content. Under no circumstances, will you turn it up past 24 clicks of gain. Similarly, you will need to increase the crossover setting somewhat to account for the 40 Hz rolloff. In our systems at REL, we often are crossing over around 13-15 clicks when using music only. With theatre, if this is your REL’s primary mission, you may find yourself crossing over at something more like 17-20 clicks of crossover. For systems that are equally at home for music AND theatre, use whatever settings work best for music, the theatre will be slightly less dramatic but will still provide 80—90% of the improvements we deliver by using both LFE AND the High-Level Input simultaneously. RELs are nothing short of amazing in theatre. We derive our understanding of how to approach theatre sound not from mid-fi reviewers but from work we did in transfer studios learning how film sound was made. Unlocking this potential informs everything we do for our customers. It ultimately requires the use of a -High-level-enabled REL to obtain the highest film fidelity, which I have attempted to outline the basics of above. And when film sound decides to get crazy, we offer our HT range that delivers wickedly fast and fantastically dynamic special effects unlike any of our competitors. These reasonably -priced models are tasked ONLY with delivering the Snap! Bang! and explosive Boom! of big theatre effects. Combine the two and you have a theatre experience that marries the best of both worlds into a state-of-the-art theatre. And it all starts with our High-Level Connection! Thank you for reading our latest blog. We strive to provide content that’s both entertaining and educational. If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, reach out to us at contactus@rel.net. We value your input and will do our best to respond within a few days. With over 160 years of combined experience, we’re committed to making your audio experience exceptional. If you found value in this piece, please share it with friends who might benefit.