How to set up REL Subwoofer?

If you think your main speakers would benefit from additional low end support from a sub then use the neutrik in conjuction with the .1/lLFE, if you feel your mains are adequate you can just use the .1/LFE by itself. The nice thing about the Rel you have is that you have separate gain controls for the LFE input and the neutrik/speakon input. You could always use the speakon connection for your center channel and use the LFE input for effects. Some people don't prefer this setup because of how the LFE track can interfer with dialogue coming from the center channel, experimentation in your system is the only way to know.

Yes male voices could play through the sub if you have the crossover set high enough for that to happen, will it sound "right?" Maybe yes maybe no, if the sub is crossed over perfectly, is positioned correctly and gain is set correctly you should never know the sub exists, the sound will be seamless and balanced. If your running a center channel and the sub is not hooked up to the center channel the chance of voices being transmitted throught the sub will be on the rare side. In my 3.1 setup, the sub is hooked up to mains, there is rarley dialogue from the mains, its all handeled by the center. The mains are transmitting music and effects with the occasional voice if its off center of the image. Contact me through email if you have more specific questions, i will try to help the best i can. If you hook up the speakon and LFE inputs and get a hum out of the REL i can tell you how to eliminate it, I dont beleive the REL manual describes waht to do when this happens.

As far as aftermarket speakon cables, i heard a differenece. Since your just getting the sub i would wait and get famialir with the sub, play with postioning it etc. RELs are easy to make sound "good" with little time setting them up, once you get familair with them and really start tweaking is when they really start sounding great. Take some time setting it up in the beginning, let it break in for a couple hundred hours then come back to it and dial it in.

The single "subwoofer" cable will produce mono, even if you had two subs and you used a RCA splitter both subs would be receiving the same signal. To get stereo bass you would need two subs and use two speakon cables, one summed to receive the left channel signal and one summed to receive the right signal. You need to provide further information about your receiver, the line level output of your receiver is "meant" to connect to the low level input on A SUBWOOFER, remeber a rel is not like most subs. A REL provides this option for use with powered speakers, since you have an amp driving your speakers the hi-level/neutrik is desired and shoul be used. Don't use the low level and the neutrik together. Connect the SW output of your receiver with an RCA terminated cable to the .1/lfe input on the REL. You should be able to assign your receiver to output LFE through the SW Jack. If your reciever has a subwoofer crossover setting for the SW output make sure it's set as low as possible, I say this only if you are using the neutrik and .1/lfe togethr. That way you are utilizing the Rel crossover. Earlier you stated you main speakers go down to around 70hz, I see no reason you wouldn't want to use the speakon cable to suppliment them. And use the sw output of your receiver connected to the lfe on the rel for effects during movies. As far as a dedicated cable for the .1/lfe track, I would thinking investing in cable for that would not yeild better resulsts then the money spent to upgradIng to a better sub in rel line up i.e. a r305, r505 or a b- series.

You can always trim the stock cable down. I have heard benefits from after market power cables and neutrik, I've never tried my higher end Transparent cables for the LFE though. Let me know if you hear a benefit. It's a good idea to re-torque the driver and amp mounting screws when it's new. They seem too loosen after being on the boat, be sure not to over torque.