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Recommendations for a new subwoofer?

I had a REL S/2 sub in my system that I bought new in 2014 but earlier this year it suddenly refused to power up. I checked and replaced the fuse (which actually wasn’t blown in the first place, but couldn’t hurt to try) which yielded no result, so I called up REL directly, as they’re actually located in Berkeley CA, very near to where I live. The person I spoke to was very cordial and helpful, but it turned out that they could no longer repair that model. She did, however, refer me to a tech nearby whom, she said, may be able to help. So after some communication with the tech, I made an appointment and dropped the sub off back in February. Well, I knew in advance that things move slowly with him--he makes that clear from the beginning--so I just waited to hear. Finally, last night (yeah, I know: 3 months later) he informed me that one of the boards was fried, and they don’t make that one any more, so essentially the sub is not repairable. 

So this sordid story brings me to my question: what would be a suitable replacement for that sub? It had a 10" driver, which, for my listening habits and the room where my system is, was plenty adequate. It was paired with my Ryan R-610 speakers. 

A few subs I am considering: Elac Varro Reference RS500, Paradigm Defiance S10, and the REL T/9X. One reason I’m favoring the latter, despite my previous experience with REL, is that it doesn’t rely on an app to get it dialed in to my system, and I still have a rather good after-market speakon cable I can use.  Whatever sub I wind up with will have to have speaker-level outputs, because my integrated (Modwright KWI 200) doesn’t have a sub-appropriate input.

The above list should give indication of what price-range I can manage, i.e. $1500 or less. Recommendations and suggestions gratefully received. Thanks!

cooper52
cooper52 OP
202 posts
 

Here's an update: the ELAC Varro RS500 sub arrived yesterday and is now going through its paces in my system. Right out of the box, I'm kind of surprised how different this sub sounds to my previous (now deceased) REL S/2, but I'm certainly not disappointed. ELAC's app has proven extremely useful in getting the sub to integrate with my main speakers (to remind you: Ryan R-610's), though I've done just a bit of my own tweaking in terms of volume and placement. Right now I have the low-pass filter set to 55 Hz, which seems to be a pretty happy meeting place. I haven't yet delved into the app's parametric EQ utility, but hope to do so soon. The utility I've only played with briefly is the phase-angle adjustment. It seems perfectly happy set at 0 degrees for now.

The ELAC definitely delves deeper into the low frequencies than my REL did, but what I'm noticing immediately is that its presentation is not quite as tightly defined as REL's. However, what I am hearing seems to be a more melodic rendering of these low frequencies, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Like all new speakers, this one will probably require some significant playing time before it finds its true voice, so I'll give it a few weeks and see how/if it changes and post an update then. I have it connected via line-level RCA cables. It would be very interesting indeed to see how it behaves through speaker-level input, but that will have to wait until I really feel motivated to do it, as I'd want to invest in some decent speaker cables to try it.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your opinions and information in this thread. 

 

helomech
1,836 posts
 

Yeah unfortunately, almost no one does bass definition better than REL other than DIY open-baffle.

Their carbon subs are even higher speed and definition.

cooper52 OP
202 posts
 

Here’s the update I promised in my previous post: after living for a few weeks with my new ELAC Varro ES500 which I think has probably had enough time to find its voice, I’m liking it quite a lot. My first impressions were, as I said, that it was startlingly different from my old REL S/2, and this is still true, but what I’m hearing is added warmth, though not muddy at all. It seems to blend a bit more easily with the rest of the sound spectrum. The REL held bass frequencies in an iron grip, which certainly has its appeal (I lived with it for 10 years, after all, so...), but so far, I’m liking the ELAC better. 

My musical tastes are a bit all-over-the-place, though predominantly classical, as I am a (mostly retired now) professional musician. But I still revisit my misspent youth a lot, which includes the popular music I grew up with (think San Francisco in the late 60s) across the genres of rock, prog-rock, and English folk. I’m also a great admirer of Broadway shows. The latter, when well recorded, are particularly good for showing off the attributes of a system, and here I’m finding the ELAC sub to be a very entertaining and appealing addition. 

At the beginning, the sub was connected via line-level cabling, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to try out the speaker-level option, so ordered some cables from Blue Jeans Cable just to experiment with, and lived with that configuration for a week or so. A few days ago I changed back to the line-level connection, and by a very thin margin (which might simply be my imagination at work) prefer things this way--just a tiny bit fuller and more musical. 

Hope some of you find my experience of interest. And again, your input here was greatly appreciated.

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