Best Sub - Rel or Vandersteen

Rlambert:

Although, I have owned KEF's for most of my "audiophile" life, I am very fond of, and will ALWAYS be a Vandersteen fan. In fact, when the time comes when I'll be ready to upgrade and change my speakers, Vandersteens (the 2Ce Signatures.... but the endcaps will be either glossy cherry or glossy rosewood..... or if these finishes are not provided by Richard V himself, then I will insist on unfinished endcaps and then I will pick up a can or two of "minwax" and do the job myself) will be my next choice. But being the present owner of speakers from "England" (the KEF Reference 102's with KUBE Equalizer), I cannot help but think that a subwoofer from the "UK" would matchup better with my KEF's than would a sub from America. So with that said then, I would say that which sub you should buy depends on what your primary priorities are. If you tend to go for accuracy and tightness over power and brute force, then I think you sould lean toward the REL. But now, if you need a sub more so for home theater than you would need for music listening, then I would lean toward the Vandersteen then. If you already have Vandersteen speakers to begin with, then the choice is obvious already.... Vandersteen. But for me, since I already own the KEF's, I would lean toward the REL (specifically, a Strata III) personally. If I were ever to own the Vandersteen 2Ce's (which even up to THIS day, they are still MY DREAM speakers), I don't EVEN know if I'll ever purchase a sub or not. They seem to go down pretty low all by themselves (the Vandersteen 2Ce's do have a VERY DEEP bass response), so that in my book, will negate the need for a subwoofer as far as I am concern.

So, with all of the factors weighed and all, I would give a "slight" edge to REL.

I don't think you will go wrong with either one (REL or Vandersteen). Good luck with your eventual purchase.

--Charles--

I've never heard the Vandersteen but I love the Rel. If you have any questions on any Rel subs, call Sumiko and they'll be more than glad to help you. Their site is Sumikoaudio.com to get the phone #.

Hello,

forgive me if I may: I have worked in this industry for 10 years, and have sold both products. I would strongly consider the Aerial Subwoofer. The Rel are not suitable for HT. Their connectivity doesn't lend itself to all HT scenarios. The Aerial is the best woofer under $10k BAR NONE>

Just a quick note on the REL connections. They do have the high impedance hookup option to go to 2 channel use. I think this is what brampy is talking about not being compatible with HT setups. However, they do also afford the option of RCA connection. This is standard for their subs. The owner has the option to use whichever one they want, so it does work well with HT. I apologize if I am overlooking someting that brampy knows, and would appreciate info if I am off base, but I think the sub is just fine with HT. After a lot of looking, I ended up with the REL Strata II and am very pleased.
I agree that the Aerial is a good sub too. I auditioned the REL Storm and Aerial sub at a local dealer last weekend(the Aerial was around 3500-don't remember the model) Both were very good. Hope this helps.

Todd

I own a Vandersteen 2W sub, which i pariedwith my norh marble 9's for a while.
It has since been replaced bya Bag End Infrasub-18, which thoroughly destroys it in terms of tonality and musicality.
The Bag is better, deeper, more musical, and stronger.

Likethe Vandy & REL, it is a music-first sub, and NOT for bone crunching SPL's for HT-
I would recommend getting a musical sub like the Vandy (or you can see I preferthe Bag End), then a second for the HT explosions if you need that.
dg