How good is the Rel HT1205

Love4sound

Love4sound

Enthusiast
How many of you here own the Ht1205 or have heard the sub in a properly calibrated set up? I want some feedback on this sub. I currently use a Xtz10.17 and I thought of upgrading to a 12.17 but sadly I am unable to sell it. The dealer offered an exchange either with the xtz 12.17 edge,10.17 edge or the Rel HT1205.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I'd stick with XTZ and get the 12.17. I prefer the ported design and I believe there's some flexibility with variable tuning with that one as well.

How big is your room? Another consideration would be a 2nd 10.17 and go duals. 2 is always better than one for a nice even response.

*Edit: I didn't realize XTZ has 2 versions of their **.17 models. The Edge does look a bit more powerful, but dual subs are still the best way to go.
 
Love4sound

Love4sound

Enthusiast
I'd stick with XTZ and get the 12.17. I prefer the ported design and I believe there's some flexibility with variable tuning with that one as well.

How big is your room? Another consideration would be a 2nd 10.17 and go duals. 2 is always better than one for a nice even response.
My room is not a dedicated room. It’s a small 12*10 bedroom and I have a 5.1.2 set up. I don’t have the space for a dual sub. Yes the xtz 12.17 is my first choice but the dealer doesn’t have stock and given the corona situation in south of India it’s tough for him to arrange. I would love to get the standard 12.17 and if the stock isn’t available I thought of getting the Rel. Yes the xtz has 3 equalisers and 3 port tuning options.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
My room is not a dedicated room. It’s a small 12*10 bedroom and I have a 5.1.2 set up. I don’t have the space for a dual sub. Yes the xtz 12.17 is my first choice but the dealer doesn’t have stock and given the corona situation in south of India it’s tough for him to arrange. I would love to get the standard 12.17 and if the stock isn’t available I thought of getting the Rel. Yes the xtz has 3 equalisers and 3 port tuning options.
If he has the 12.17 Edge in stock that would be my choice if he's willing to let you trade up. It's a more significant upgrade and will give you more bang for your dollar. I've read good things about XTZ's subs. They're not boomy one note wonders.

Are you not happy with the 10.17? Is your room open to any other spaces? You're right, it's not a huge room.
 
Love4sound

Love4sound

Enthusiast
If he has the 12.17 Edge in stock that would be my choice if he's willing to let you trade up. It's a more significant upgrade and will give you more bang for your dollar. I've read good things about XTZ's subs. They're not boomy one note wonders.

Are you not happy with the 10.17? Is your room open to any other spaces? You're right, it's not a huge room.
Yes the xtz is an amazing sub for its price. It blends very will with your speakers and gives a balanced bass and disappears completely eliminating the sub localised effect.I went for the 10.17 with a plan of dual in the future.I can place the sub only in front and recently I did test a dual xtz in my room placed in front. It wasn’t good sounded to boomy and off. But I got a 12.17 to my place and it was awesome. So thinking to upgrade. The 12.17 had less port chuffing compared to the 10.17
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Yes the xtz is an amazing sub for its price. It blends very will with your speakers and gives a balanced bass and disappears completely eliminating the sub localised effect.I went for the 10.17 with a plan of dual in the future.I can place the sub only in front and recently I did test a dual xtz in my room placed in front. It wasn’t good sounded to boomy and off. But I got a 12.17 to my place and it was awesome. So thinking to upgrade. The 12.17 had less port chuffing compared to the 10.17
What other equipment and speakers do you have? Do you run room correction or a setup routine? Sometimes boomy bass isn't so much the sub as it is the settings and placement within the room. Good subs shouldn't chuff and get boomy if you calibrate and set them up correctly, which can be really tricky in some rooms. This is why I prefer using a good AVR with bass management. It's a common myth that AVRs aren't good for 2 channel music and that's just not true in my experience. Plus it just makes life so much easier.

I bring it up because I think if you're getting port chuff in a small room it indicates to me that you're running bass pretty hot. If you're running hot you might be missing some frequencies from nulls or dips and you're compensating with volume instead of some sort of EQ (whether it's PEQ or positional eq). Have you tried the sub in a different spot or do a sub crawl? How did you blend everything?
 
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Love4sound

Love4sound

Enthusiast
What other equipment and speakers do you have? Do you run room correction or a setup routine? Sometimes boomy bass isn't so much the sub as it is the settings and placement within the room. Good subs shouldn't chuff and get boomy if you calibrate and set them up correctly, which can be really tricky in some rooms. This is why I prefer using a good AVR with bass management. It's a common myth that AVRs aren't good for 2 channel music and that's just not true in my experience. Plus it just makes life so much easier.

I bring it up because I think if you're getting port chuff in a small room that makes me think you're running bass pretty hot. If you're running hot you might be missing some frequencies from nulls or dips and compensating with volume. Have you tried the sub in a different spot or do a sub crawl? How did you blend everything?
Ok I have a Denon 4500 paired with Dali zensor 3, Vokal, zensor 1 and svs elevations installed in the ceiling. C9 65 and a shield pro completes my set up Port chuffing isn’t bad just that in rare heavy scenes I get and the same scene will be handle better in the 12.17 due to the bigger driver, cabinet and port. Placement also I don’t have much option as I can place it only in the right side. Please see the image and that is the only area I can place my m y sub. I have calibrated purely based on trial and error method using audyssey taking lot of measurements using the app
C69E6445-57C2-4B11-AABF-579BF5C68CA9.jpeg
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Ok I have a Denon 4500 paired with Dali zensor 3, Vokal, zensor 1 and svs elevations installed in the ceiling. C9 65 and a shield pro completes my set up Port chuffing isn’t bad just that in rare heavy scenes I get and the same scene will be handle better in the 12.17 due to the bigger driver, cabinet and port. Placement also I don’t have much option as I can place it only in the right side. Please see the image and that is the only area I can place my sub View attachment 37071
Very nice! The 4500 is a very nice AVR too. The only thing that jumps out to me are that your speakers are right up against the wall, which can cause some problems. Hopefully they're not rear ported?

It looks like you have your sub set for a deep extension mode. Have you tried with both ports open and the higher output eq setting? My HSU subs are variable tuning also and I've found that I prefer the extra output in the audible range instead of the deeper extension in the sub 25 hz frequencies.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Audyssey MultEQ XT32 has some nice features that can help shape your house curve with the DEQ Reference Level Offset settings. When you run setup do you take all 8 measurements and follow the pattern on the screen? That's really important to get accurate filters.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Oh, I totally support you trading up to a XTZ 12.17 Edge. I think you'll see noticeable improvements. I'm just tossing out other suggestions for you to try as well. I've spent a lot of time learning how to use Audyssey to dial my bass in and have a very nice curve right now. There's a lot more to it than the sub itself. The room is who's in charge when it comes to bass, but there are things you can do.
 
Love4sound

Love4sound

Enthusiast
Yeah they are rear ported and placed 5-6 cms away from the wall. I have no choice due to space limitation to mount them and with a one year old running around the house can’t go for speaker stands. Yes I did take all 8 measurements. Chuffing isn’t bad and just comes in very rare scenes and also in 1 out of 10 movies with the 12.17 handling some scenes better.
 
CajunLB

CajunLB

Senior Audioholic
Running the sub in max output mode would help with the port chuffing mode also.
 
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