Looking for a new sub or pair

[Mouse]

Which subs work well for BOTH music and home theater, and look beautiful enough to pass the wife test.

I had my hopes up for the REL No. 25 but it seems to be underpowered compared to much lesser costing subs, I haven't heard it so I can't speak to it's quality. Another member here said it's not good for HT, but then said he might get 4 of them.

I've heard good things about Funk Audio, but I haven't heard much about them here. What's your opinion? It's not like I can demo it and it's made to order.

The room is about 1,000 sq ft and has a large hall connected to it.

[Rodney Gold]

SVS offer exceptional value and very good subs
https://www.svsound.com/pages/subwoofers
go for a pair or better still 4 of whichever model you can afford
https://www.svsound.com/blogs/svs/75040195-why-go-dual
Google "swarm of subs"
and "geddes toole multisubs"

[briweed]

JL Audio is a fabulous choice. Any of the Fathom series or Gotham work well. Ivan is also a dealer and uses many subs in his 2 channel setups as well.

B

[PHC1]

I had JLA Fathom's that I used with Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento's (monitor sized speakers) back in the day. First added one and then another and the results were jaw dropping after dialing everything in. Way better bass than any full range speaker that I could have used in that room. Highly recommend the JLA subs.

The icing on the cake for me was the Bryston 10-B sub crossover that really allowed to dial everything in to perfection not that I am saying it is absolutely necessary but it was the finishing touch.

[W9TR]

MasterLu has a very nice used Gotham for sale. I think it is the F213V1.
Tom

[Richard D. George]

A pair of REL S/5 subs connected speaker level. REL’s underpowered??

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Which subs work well for BOTH music and home theater, and look beautiful enough to pass the wife test.

I had my hopes up for the REL No. 25 but it seems to be underpowered compared to much lesser costing subs, I haven't heard it so I can't speak to it's quality. Another member here said it's not good for HT, but then said he might get 4 of them.

I've heard good things about Funk Audio, but I haven't heard much about them here. What's your opinion? It's not like I can demo it and it's made to order.

The room is about 1,000 sq ft and has a large hall connected to it.

Ask your dealer. Understanding the difference between LFE level and mains bass level and how to set them independently is key.

Also the RELs are not meant to replace a woofer in the mains but to work below them. The LFE crossover is set independently. With their unique hook up process, you are able to properly set levels for HT without affecting proper 2 channel set up.

[Masterlu]

JL E112 pair...

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by Richard D. George

A pair of REL S/5 subs connected speaker level. REL’s underpowered??

Yes, according to another thread by a guy with two No. 25 subs. I'm quoting him from his thread on this forum. I have a really big room that kills bass. They are also very low in wattage compared to other subs like velodyne and SVS. I'm not saying REL is a bad product, I'm just concerned that I'm asking too much.

I've got my 25's dialed in. Man they are awesome. A stereo pair is quite insane for music. The soundstage is stunning. Subs completely go away and I all i hear is the bass, exactly positioned in the sound stage. Beautiful imaging!

One critique: these subs probably arent' the best for HT. They reach their limiters very quickly (you hear a loud sound of the drivers being overexcursed). But they are the bests i've heard for 2 channel audio. Right now i'm looking at other subs for HT use, been looking at SVS, JL audio, and paradigm subs for HT.

[Mouse]

I also had the 5 channel sub setup demo using REL. I'm far from impressed and these guys seem to know their stuff. I probably need to change my expectations.
While REL is very tame for theater, I'm not unimpressed by REL. It's that the demo guys are right. When you have enough bass to feel an 18 wheeler tip over it drowns the center channel. My goal was to have enough bass to feel scared when watching movies, like fight or flight sensation. It wasn't easy to get the sub loud enough to feel the vibrations, but it did drown out the voices.

REL did very nice with music. When we cranked REL loud enough for a Mad Max to feel the rumble, the dialog was drowned out. They warned me about too much bass ahead of time.

The REL demo was weird, it opened me to think differently about a sub in a new dimension of space, literally. There was this song recorded by a singer with no music. It's like a church song. Without a sub it sounded fine, and then with the sub on I really couldn't hear much low frequency impact but all the sudden the room felt/sounded larger. The song didn't have a baseline to even know what I was hearing, yet the audio sounded more full and spaceous. I'm impressed.