REL owners, how many clicks on your gain and crossover

There are tools you can use to precisely calibrate your subwoofer(s).

But, here is my take on this:

Music is more directional as the frequency increases. And, more omnidirectional as bass decreases. Natural bass notes have harmonics. The deepest bass tones will be directed to the sub, harmonics will find their way into the mains. Your ears and brain try to detect where the bass is originating from, which is going to be the higher frequencies in the spectrum. The goal here is to try to trick your brain into thinking the bass is coming from the mains and not the boxes located somewhere else in the room. This requires a combination of setting the crossover frequencies and subwoofer output to reach the best result. Too much gain and/or too high a crossover frequency will direct your ears to the boxes that contain the woofers. Depending on how loud you play, I try to place the responsibility on the mains to play as low as they can play and still sound clean, undistorted, and effortless and set the sub crossover accordingly. This gives the smoothest transition from low bass to the mid bass and makes your mains appear to magically have a couple 12" woofers in them.

It’s trial and error. The number of "clicks" required is difficult to predict. Good luck.

Roose, “put there garbage out” sorry I don’t get it. The subs are set up correct, I did list everything first post, 42hz, if you need speakers there Pulsars, reference 3a reflectors, I put room size and asked if people if they would like to put there set up it would be nice. 
 

My other system doesn’t need subs. When I was setting mine up I just wondered what others like. If there numbers, room and speakers were close to mine I think it would be interesting to know. I’m not trying to match others settings. Thanks everyone’s for there insight on how many clicks you used. 

I've got a pair of Rel Ti/5's in a 11' x 13' room. I have them placed on the outside of my speakers. I'm currently running a pair of ATC SCM19v2's but occasionally swap in my Maggie .7's. 10 - 12 clicks on both the volume and crossover seem to get the job done for me. 

@paulcreed

“Roose, why don’t you understand rel says everyone will probably end up around 15 clicks. Why can rel claim how many clicks but I can’t ask how many clicks, makes no sense.”

REL doesn’t say that.

They suggest a starting point and attach a crossover value to that starting point. Since there’s no scale on the crossover pot people have to talk about “clicks” and not hertz. Silly REL.

But if you think about what you’re asking here the light should come on, hopefully.

What can you or anyone learn from knowing where people are setting their crossover points? You didn’t ask people to reveal what brand and model speakers they’re using, hence the number of clicks people arrive at provides no useful information for you, me, or anyone. It’s like asking people what time of day they put their garbage out.

Where you set the xo point is largely determined by the natural roll off of your main speakers, which is a function of the speaker design and how/where you have them positioned in YOUR room. And of course that includes your room dimensions, specifics about your room acoustics, etc.

So there are too many on-site variables for the “where’s your clicks” for it to provide anything meaningful to you or anyone else.

If you need help dialing in your subs and you’re wondering how to arrive at the correct crossover point then there are a few useful articles and/or videos around that are easy to find and easy to follow.
Here’s one, there are others. Good luck.

REL says to start at 15 clicks, about 10:00 , then to adjust depending on room, main speakers, and personal preference. They estimate that most will end up between 12-18 clicks depending on those variables...

Roose, why don’t you understand rel says everyone will probably end up around 15 clicks. Why can rel claim how many clicks but I can’t ask how many clicks, makes no sense. 
 

I’m finding all tracks are sounding best between 2 and 3 clicks on gain which does not match rel. So I asked, what’s the big deal why take audio so serious, it’s just music.

Ive had 6 private messages telling me how many clicks they use, maybe because they don’t want to post and be judged by people like roose.

I don’t understand why it would help to know where someone else has their crossover points set on an unknown pair of speakers?

FWIW, with my stereo pair of S/510’s the settings in my 28’x15’x8’ room are:

Five clicks from 20 hz on the crossover and 12 clicks clockwise on the high level input for use with a pair of Thiel 3.6 speakers;

3 o’clock in the crossover and the same setting on the high level input as the Thiels for use with Tannoy Autograph Minis.

The Thiel 3.6’s, according to the book, is flat to 31 hz and -3db at 29hz. But in my room it starts going downhill at 50 hz. The Autograph Mini drops off at 100 hz and the bass completely disappears at 60 hz.

I personally don’t have the patience to listen, get up and adjust, sit back down and repeat the process the way the REL manual suggests.

The way I dialed them in is with the Stereophile Test CD2 bass decade test tones and a dB meter from an RTA app. I ran the tones for the speakers and the subs separately. I noted the bass fell -3db at 50 hz on the Thiel and set the crossover on the REL until 63 hz was -6db lower than 50 hz. That turned out to be 4 clilcks. I then adjusted the high level input until the REL put out at 50 hz and below the same level as the Thiels at 63 hz and above (15 clicks). I then set the other sub to the same settings.

Both subs are wired with the red/yellow together.

For the Autograph Mini’s I repeated the same procedure only I cranked the crossover to 3 o’clock beforehand -- and it sounded damn good so I left it there. Makes it easy to switch between speakers with the crossover at those settings (I can eyeball the 3 o’clock setting and it’s easy to count to five).

The final adjustment was with a couple of test tracks, mainly "Bass Room" Nenad Vasilic (Galileo Music) and PS Audio’s playlist, both on Qobuz.

It took me quite some time to get mine dialed in, keep at it. In the end, my settings were pretty low, but I like the results and cannot tell that I have a sub.

Thanks everyone for there advise but I have read the manual, watched all the videos days ago and have set the sub the way I like it for now, it’s still breaking in.
 

I have owned many subs but used in home theater only. I tried them 15 or so years ago in 2 channel but it wasn’t for me. Maybe the same this go around, most of my speakers are floorstanders only a few monitors

. I was just curious how many clicks everyone tried. I still like it with subs turned off but turned on is good too. The jury is still out for me.

REL recommends starting at 10:00 position and tuning from there...I generally change one click at a time...

In the manual they start with the crossover and gain at their lowest settings.

I have mine placed next to and slightly behind the front of the speaker. Dial in each sub by themselves as in the manual( I just disconnect the speakon terminal from one sub).

Here's the Tx series manual...

I don’t think it’s foolish. Rel videos say 15 clicks -3/+3. That’s way to much for my room. I’m now using both red and yellow wires into amp. I’m running 4 clicks on gain right now as I explore what’s going on. I said I know all rooms are different and just curious. Your statement “foolishness” is why I stay away from these forums most of the time being a member here for over 15 years.

as others have said, follow the instructions step by step, to the letter (and use the speaker level input/speakon if at all possible)

asking others for settings here is foolishness -- this is completely room and system dependent

I have a 7i and have wondered if I added one if it made sense to connect the red for one of them and the yellow for the other? Anyway, I think it is good advice to follow REL until you need to do something different. 
 

As for placement, I have a small room, and I found it best to pull the sub out even with the face of my speakers which are out from the wall. Otherwise, I would get a bit of boom. 

REL recommends disconnecting the yellow wire only if you find there is just too much volume coming from the subs.  Leaving the one wire off lowers the signal and that is the only reason.  I would try the standard hook up first.  There's a reason they put three wires on the cable.  Cheers.  As for gain, it's trial and error.  Every system is different.  

Check out the REL videos on YouTube, they will walk you through the setup and tunning of your subs. As mentioned above each setup can and will be a bit different.

You’re better off following what is suggested in the manual, it works very well, everyone’s set up will be a different than yours.