REL vs JL AUDIO

B&W or Bowers and Wilkins, whatever they call themselves today makes fine loudspeakers found at Best buy. I've failed to see Wilson, Magico, Marten, Estelon, or MBL there for sale.

Inside the Bowers & Wilkins factory to see the new 800 D4 speakers

The first subwoofer I had in my van was a top of the line JL. It was one of the first ones with a dual voice coil. It was a beast. I could run it as hard as I wanted and it took it all.

When that one eventually died I replaced it with a Dynaudio driver in the same box, same amp, same everything basically. I blew it up within a week. Luckily the dealer thought it was a dud so I got a replacement under warranty. Somehow though, I knew I had just driven it too hard so I ended up changing the power output of the amp to keep it alive.

Even though the JL was much more powerful and more fun if I wanted to play loud, the Dynaudio was by far the best sounding sub. There was no contest really, the difference was huge. The JL made low frequency noise, the Dynaudio played low frequency music. there was detail with the Dyn's that the JL's had never even hinted at.

I put that to the way the drivers work. JL drivers need a lot more power to get going, the Dynaudio moves much easier. That makes it move quicker, hence it keeps up better with the rest of the drivers.

JL's boxes are generally smaller and their amps more powerful that REL's. I assume REL subs don't need the power because their drivers are easier to drive and because their boxes are larger they also need less power overall to reach the same SPL. That equates to less movement of the driver for the same output. That can only be a good thing.

Hence, on the above, I would go for REL out of the two but when I'm ready to buy subs, I'll put my money to Dynaudio subs. I might need twice as many to get the same SPL but they're much cheaper too so the overall outlay will be the same.

Pot, please meet kettle…