The Joy of REL

“Wait~~, ~~ what just happened? That was incredible. I don’t understand.”
Words tumbled out of her like water flowing over smooth stones in a stream.

A friend of my wife’s who loves music had stopped by, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to show her what a great-sounding, modest system with a REL could do for her musical enjoyment.

I first played a cover of Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Kina Grannis on the system without the REL connected. It sounded lovely; well-balanced, natural and transparent, with excellent imaging. She was deeply impressed, as are most people who first hear what a high-end system can do.

Then I explained that I was going to insert a REL subwoofer, after first asking if she knew what a subwoofer was.

“It’s that thing that makes the bass go boom, right?”

“S..o..r..t of…” I answered through mentally gritted teeth.
“Listen for yourself and tell me what you hear.”

I played it again same cut, same volume all the way to the end. That’s when she blurted out the question that started this whole story.

What just happened is that bass, per se, doesn’t exist anywhere in this recording. The artist is a female singer playing an acoustic guitar. Later in the song, a violin joins in to add texture. No bass. So, what was she reacting to?

If you own a REL, you know this sensation that moment when you first heard music played in your living room (or a dealer’s demo room) that transports you into the performance. You must have experienced it on hearing your first demonstration of a REL. Suddenly, music acquires texture, gradations of dynamics hitherto missed, intimacy, and takes on the acoustic of the space in which it was recorded. In her case, it was a small, intimate studio with a slight bit of reverb.

Not that she could hear it or describe it. She didn’t need to. I recognized it.

I had my moment 31 years ago.

I had struggled to sort out how to connect the first sample of a REL in the U.S. The first night, it didn’t do much to impress. By the next night, it was filling the entire house we were renting with a new kind of sound, one that felt like I’d always wanted but didn’t know how to describe until I heard it.

Deep, not into the bass, though that was certainly there when called upon. Deep into the music.

That second night, my roommate and I stayed up till 3 a.m., discovering anew my vinyl collection. When the night started, like many audiophiles, I had maybe 15 records I loved the sound and the performances enough that I played them frequently. Too frequently. By the end of that night, I had 43, and the only reason it wasn’t more was because I fell asleep.

Once heard, you never forget your REL. You keep exploring music and movies.

We (SUMIKO, where I first worked, then later acquired with my longtime partner Donald Brody) became REL’s distributor. A couple of years later, I realized that we could add a separate, dedicated Low Frequency Effects input per Dolby’s specification for perfect movie sound able to blend with the High-Level Input for which REL has always been known. I shared my idea with Richard Lord and recall explaining that the two circuits could be joined together in a way like how DJs blend sound from two turntables, and he immediately caught the excitement.

These days, most RELs feature this combination of High Level + LFE, delivering that same sense of being transported into one’s favorite films. It brings movies to life in the same way that the High Level-enabled REL does for music. Voices take on the correct resonance. Spaces shown on film make sense. Walking through a tight passageway feels almost claustrophobic.

Step into a hard-tiled entry and the echo of high heels defines the space the hard, staccato rhythm of Jimmy Choos on travertine marble.

This ability to help immerse oneself in another world for two hours and fourteen minutes becomes so easy to fall into, one wonders how or why others don’t deliver this experience.

Why does Tom Cruise’s voice have that assured cockiness writ large on a REL, while Glenn Powell’s voice sounds merely cocky? There’s a world of difference between them, and REL helps break down the distance between those personas.

Listen to a standard theater in a friend’s room and one almost feels sorry for them, for how pinched and tight everything sounds throughout most of the movie. Going home to your REL-enhanced system, no one will blame you if you slip the same movie on again just to make sure you weren’t imagining the difference.

But no—yours envelopes you in this natural warmth. The timbre of voices is easy. Natural. Cruise delivers cockiness. Powell sounds cocky, but with something you hadn’t noticed on your friend’s system, humor, and even a grudging admiration for Cruise’s confidence.

You’re in the same movie but enjoying an entirely different experience.

Want the ultimate REL movie experience? Think of adding an HT/1510 or an HT/1205MKII to a theater built around our T/x or Serie S models for devastating Low Frequency Effects. It’s one of the crowning glories of a big theater whip-fast, ultra-low, ultra-loud, very deep bass delivered with explosive suddenness.

Think of it as the cherry on top of the whipped cream on top of your favorite ice cream. Hell, life’s short—put one up front and a bigger one in the rear.

Whether your jam is music or movies, or both, our intent is always to deliver the natural experience of sound appropriate to the performance and the venue. Bass is a vehicle—it provides the structural underpinning that allows one’s brain to tune in, turn on, and drop out. Drop out of those last vestiges of resistance to believing that what you’re hearing or seeing isn’t quite real.

Relax into your special place.