How do SVS subwoofers compare to REL?


I'm looking for subwoofers (one or two) that have a very "tight" natural sound and are not overly boomy. In the future I hope to pair them with some Magnepan speakers. Magnepans are known for having a natural sound, and I want to compliment that.

I've been told that the REL subwoofers (e.g.,T/9i or S/3 SHO, etc., are a good match for Magnepan speakers. However, SVS subwoofers have also been recommended to me.

I don't have any background in high-end audio, so I am interested in opinions of folks here. Are SVS subwoofers considered generally as good as REL in regard to the features I'm interested in? Is either clearly superior? (I had never heard of SVS before yesterday.)

Which subwoofer size (in REL or SVS) would be a good match for a pair of Magnepan 1.7i in an 18 foot x 15 foot room (ceiling about 10 feet) with carpet on floor?

I'm looking at these so far:

REL T/9i Subwoofer about $1300
REL Acoustics S/3 SHO Subwoofer (Super High Output) about $2100
SVS SB-4000 13.5" 1200W about $1600
Any other recommendations?

Total subwoofer budget is around $2600 max. ($2000 or less would be better.)

Also, I believe it is better to buy two smaller subwoofers, compared to one larger one, right? (I'm just not sure where I would put two. Placing one is easier in this room. And I plan to connect everything with speaker wires, not wireless.)

Thanks

lowoverdrive

Showing 1 response by dlcockrum

REL is a sub-bass system vs a subwoofer per se. They are not designed to be used with speakers with significant bass deficiencies (ie small monitors) or with crossovers that divide frequencies between the main speakers and a subwoofer.

RELs actually pressurize the room with very low frequency soundwaves that add heft and punch to the lowest frequency portion of the music while opening up the entire soundstage across all frequencies. They should provide a great seamless pairing with your Magnepans as they are a full range speaker with good bass extension already.

My experience over many years of using multiple RELs is that they should be connected to the amplifier’s speaker outputs (vs XLR or RCA line level connection) for two channel listening and should be adjusted such that they are not heard but felt, ie the crossover level set at the lowest position and the gain setting kept very low such that you never sense that they are playing until you shut them off and immediately notice the loss of low frequency energy in the room and the reduction in soundstage size of the performance.

Contrary to some others, I would recommend that you go with one BETTER sub than two lesser ones, ie one SHO vs two T/9i’s, but two SHOs will certainly be better still as two will load the room more uniformly.

JMHO. Hope it is helpful to you.

Dave