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Subwoofer matching

I was all set to pull the trigger on a pair of REL subwoofers.  These would be used with my Avangard Duo’s and Pass Labs XA 60.8 monoblocks.  My main music is Rock, Jazz and Blues.  I have been given advice by a few people now saying the 107 efficiency of the Duo’s will make it very difficult to find a matching paint odd subwoofers.  Feed back I have been given is “... it will take a powerful subwoofer to be able to match the output levels of your speakers“ and “The only REL model that may work for this application will be the 212/SE, which has a very powerful amplifier that will allow it to blend well with your speakers.”  A pair of REL 212/SE is a budget breaker for me.  I am in not position to judge if the advice is correct or not.  Does anyone have experience negating a pair of subwoofers to a highly efficient speaker?
chilli42

Showing 2 responses by kalali

kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Aside from matching the listening volumes, in my experience the bigger issue is matching the ‘speed’ of the subwoofer driver(s) with your horn system. The suggestion of using multiple small driver subwoofers is much better than using one or two large driver units.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
"...also, "speed" is a silly term and I don't think it's applicable to subs or really anything else in audio."

Perhaps in your opinion and in your experience, but not in mine. I have tried various different combinations of three powered subwoofers; 12" and 15" - one 12" I own in a different system and the other two borrowed from friends, with my Omega Super Alnico Monitors, and in all cases I felt the subwoofers could not "keep up" with the single drivers and there was an obvious tonal lag in the portion of the bass delivered by the subs. I and the man who designed/built the Omegas express this phenomenon as "speed", others might call it something else. His recommendation was to use subwoofers either with two 8" drivers in a sealed box or multiple 8" (or at most 10") driver sealed subwoofers.  Call it whatever you want.
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