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Best €2500 sub purely for music?

I recently was lucky enough to try a demo between a two rel 9tx and one s510, and I though the s510 was vastly superior. My only hesitation for being one was that the EU pricing of rels are kinda steep, and maybe im not someone best suited to use them? To explain, I use a minidsp shd preamp to control my entire system. With that I always use a high-pass filter with a extremely sharp roll off of -48db. Anything above 60hz is given to the speakers. I found this to sound night and day better than trying to cross any speaker with their natural cutoff. This is antithetical to how rel designs their subs. Lastly, it only has phase adjustments of 0 and 180. Its for these reasons why im asking you if there are any alternatives to the s510 you recommend between €2k and €3k IN EUROPE (so no svs or rhythmic or any other US brand of any sort) that might be more appropriate for a purely hifi application?

My speakers are German physiks hrs-130's. They're omnidirectional, but what is important here is they a sealed design that is extremely precise and fast, but its not enough SPL for synthetic music. The lesser rel's arnt as fast as it, so I ask for something equivalent to the s series. I only want one, and my room is 30m^2. I will be using the full Dirac calibration of the shd to integrate it, so subs with on-board dsp is completely irrelevant, and I'd rather not spend on a feature that's useless to me. What other options are available here? 

endymion_joshi-godrez

Showing 3 responses by m-db

m-db's avatar
m-db
1,030 posts
 

Your confusing a -6dB sub-bass speaker with a subwoofer. Nothing wrong with that just be aware.

Californian Silicon Valley technology sold to a German company.

https://www.velodyneacoustics.com/en/

I can’t say if these folks are actually producing the DD Plus or their simply new old stock. I’ve been using these technology advances since 1983 and two DD Plus since 2011 without a problem. I see their price has gone up substantially for American purchase but your getting remote controlled, six customizable presets and total Auto EQ. The Swiss Army knife of subwoofers.

I’m not a fan of total system DSP so another model in there line up may be more appropriate and less expensive to your needs. Good luck with your search.

m-db's avatar
m-db
1,030 posts
 

In the subwoofer market you'll be better served by speaking to specific models of a brand. Lower cost models can be easily out performed by that brands higher end models. This may the case with your reference to SVS and JL Audio. 

If your going to be digitizing your entire audio band with Dirac a good quality non processing properly positioned sub could save you money. 

m-db's avatar
m-db
1,030 posts
 

["e_j-g (PS John Hunter himself calls the subwoofers, all the technicians I’ve talked to called rels subwoofers and the marketing on their website called their products subs. The company itself disagrees with that distinction)."]

The folks in West Berkeley are a nice bunch. I suppose when you buy the brand you can call it what ever you want. The original designer Richard Edmund Lord (REL) termed them a Sub-Bass System as seen on his Operating Instructions and referred to in the links below. Their measured performance confirms little functionality has changed since the 2007 sale.

https://www.manua.ls/rel/studio-iii/manual

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0704/relstadiumiii.htm

https://www.paragonsns.com/products/rel-acoustics-studio-iii-sub-bass-system

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