New Rel Carbon Special Sub “Roars” when there is no signal!
I’ve been breaking in my new Rel Carbon special subs (I have a pair) and one of them started having an issue after about 12 hours of playing them (quite loud).
Just recently the left sub makes an absolute roaring sound when the music signal stops, or when I turn the volume all the way down. It starts as a quiet rumble but VERY quickly builds to an absolute massive roar. Was worried about damage but it seems fine provided a music signal is playing. The issue did not happen until just recently. Now, when I simply turn on the sub, even with the Amp in standby mode, the roar starts building and I have to shut off the sub really, really quickly.
I have my Rel’s connected to my Gryphon Diablo 300, using Rel Bassline Blue high level cables, using Rel’s directions for connecting a balanced differential amp which I’m told the Diablo 300 is. I have each sub’s high level cable connected to the amp with each cable’s yellow and red lead connected to the red speaker output, and both black ground leads connected to my Diablo 300’s ground terminal.
There is one thing different about each sub right now - the sub without any issue is connected to the wall to a dedicated 20A circuit. The sub that just recently developed the issue is connected to a shared 15A household outlet - temporary until I acquire longer power cords. I have half a mind to plug the “working” sub to the shared household AC circuit to see if the problem is limited to that line but I’m a bit scared of damaging something.
My Diablo 300 amp is connected to a Torus RM 20 that is plugged into another dedicated 20A outlet….
Any guidance would be appreciated!
+1, @jetter ….try to isolate the problem. After swapping, if the problem persists then you know there is nothing wrong with subs. Be patient and work with REL customer service and your dealer to eliminate the problem. -1 on the advise to abandon high level connectivity on REL’s. You might as well save money and get Joe Blow subs if you can’t use high level inputs on REL’s. |
I have a pair of REL and had a similar issue using the speakon hi-level connectors. Floating the ground did not solve the problem. Trimming the cables helped a lot, but ultimately I connected both red and yellow wires to the red section of the speakon connector. Silence. Ultimately I bought 3m RCA connectors and ran those from sub-out on my amp to the Low Level input (not .1 LFE) and that sounded better than the stock speakon cable. If you want to stay with the speakon cable connection, get one made with exactly the wires you need (and nothing else) by Frank at Signal Cables - they will be much cheaper than the $600 REL cable. Check out signalcable .com /relspeakon.html |
@jetter , @lalitk I tried exactly that - swapping the left and right subs and leaving the connections in place. The problem stayed on the left, so there is definitely nothing wrong with the subs. When sliding the sub forward or backwards the problem goes away. When I leave the sub in place and move the power and signal cables away from other wiring, then the problem remains. It’s definitely something that happens when the sub is in that exact spot, AND the speakon signal cable is connected, AND there is no signal /music playing. Weirdly, it even happens when the amp is turned off and unplugged. But disconnect the speakon signal cable and no issue when powering on! Very weird problem. But nothing wrong with the subs. I’m going to buy a roll of EMI shielding material to experiment with. It’s not too expensive, and maybe I can try multiple layers if needed. The cover with a small bit of carpet or rug for aesthetics, once the issue is resolved. @sryeager yes it very much sounded like the end of the world! I couldn’t imagine if this happened when on the other side of the house or downstairs, with this sound blaring! I’d be already of not only the sub damaging but also random stuff in the house breaking! Even if I fix the issue with shielding, I’m going to be forever paranoid that it will randomly return. As I mentioned, for the first bit, there was no issue. Update: I wonder if I can get that sound to play when my houses alarm system is tripped. No need for monitoring with that sound playing - it would literally be impossible to be physically in the house with that roar!
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I forgot to mention - just as an indication of just how loud that sound was, when the issue happened the first time and we weren’t prepared to stop it, the sound persisted for about 6-7 seconds, and the problem sub actually UNPLUGGED my other sub connected to a different outlet about 12ft away! Just incredible. I think it’s the loudest sound I’ve heard, ever. Anyone know of the most effective brand and type of EMI shielding out there? Seems more practical than the paint option. |
