REL HT 1508 Predator

Zedturbo

Zedturbo

Junior Audioholic
UPDATE*****I now have 1 Rel HT/1508 as a demo in my living room. I seem to have it adjusted pretty good and Home theater sounds fantastic! Music...not so much. Again, I know the bass nulls kill the sound but when I sit in the exact same spot whether I'm listening to music or watching movies, the bass on music sucks big time unless I walk into the corners or away from the living room. I was going to be able to demo 2 at the same time but that kinda went out the window being that I'm not happy with the music side of the bass. The amp is turned up to about 50% and when the music is playing loud and I turn up the gain on the back of the sub to near 70% or so, the woofer starts popping like it can't handle the bass at that level. To be fair, I'm streaming Pandora off my phone through the Marantz AV8805 but that's just how I'll be listening to music. THE QUESTION IS...would a ported box have different characteristics as far as handling more power at louder volumes or am I just askling too much from this whole thing?? FYI, the center of my living room is a huge null
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
UPDATE*****I now have 1 Rel HT/1508 as a demo in my living room. I seem to have it adjusted pretty good and Home theater sounds fantastic! Music...not so much. Again, I know the bass nulls kill the sound but when I sit in the exact same spot whether I'm listening to music or watching movies, the bass on music sucks big time unless I walk into the corners or away from the living room. I was going to be able to demo 2 at the same time but that kinda went out the window being that I'm not happy with the music side of the bass. The amp is turned up to about 50% and when the music is playing loud and I turn up the gain on the back of the sub to near 70% or so, the woofer starts popping like it can't handle the bass at that level. To be fair, I'm streaming Pandora off my phone through the Marantz AV8805 but that's just how I'll be listening to music. THE QUESTION IS...would a ported box have different characteristics as far as handling more power at louder volumes or am I just askling too much from this whole thing?? FYI, the center of my living room is a huge null
All other things being equal, a ported box would handle louder volumes better, but mostly below 40 Hz. Most music does not dig below 40 Hz.

One thing you can do to fight the bass null is move the sub to another location. Try different spots until you get one that you like the most. The best way to fight nulls is to use multiple subs setup where they add up to the overall flattest response.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Do the sub crawl, man. Crude but effective. Room acoustics will destroy the best subwoofer: you have to work with them, not against.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
All other things being equal, a ported box would handle louder volumes better, but mostly below 40 Hz. Most music does not dig below 40 Hz.

One thing you can do to fight the bass null is move the sub to another location. Try different spots until you get one that you like the most. The best way to fight nulls is to use multiple subs setup where they add up to the overall flattest response.
Right. If it's single sub and it's a null more volume isn't gonna do too much. Placement and/or 2 subs is key to smoothing out those dead spots.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Right. If it's single sub and it's a null more volume isn't gonna do too much. Placement and/or 2 subs is key to smoothing out those dead spots.
Yep. It’s exactly like trying to EQ a null with boost.
 
T

TankTop5

Audioholic General
Can someone define subwoofer null please? I’m wrestling my own sub currently, from movie to movie and scene to scene it goes from great to atrocious.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
A null is a spot where the sound wave is greatly diminished due to the way they interact with themselves, or with sound waves generated by another speaker in the room. It can be as simple as a wavelength being cancelled out because it is interacting with itself as it bounces off a wall and returns to its source, or it can be a more complex interaction as it bounces off of several surfaces and interacts with itself or a wave generated by another source, but the result is the same.
This is why the subwoofer crawl can be done, for example. By putting the sub at the LP, you can move around the room and here where the bass sounds cleanest. When you switch positions with your sub in its new home, and you back in your LP, it should sound the same as what you heard during the crawl. Sometimes an inch can make the difference between good sound and bad.
I think this is still a simplistic understanding... but I hope it helps. :)
 
ematthews

ematthews

Audioholic General
I am late to this Thread... But.. I was always told and read the REL is tops for a music system only, due to the way it blends and plays with two speakers. Now mind you this is Audio only. Not HT. This makes me want to buy the REL sub for my system. Currently I am running a single SVS sub when required. It was not the easiest to blend either.. I do run a ported Outlaw in my HT set up and its wonderful. It was not so good for my audio system.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I am late to this Thread... But.. I was always told and read the REL is tops for a music system only, due to the way it blends and plays with two speakers. Now mind you this is Audio only. Not HT. This makes me want to buy the REL sub for my system. Currently I am running a single SVS sub when required. It was not the easiest to blend either.. I do run a ported Outlaw in my HT set up and its wonderful. It was not so good for my audio system.
That sounds like your preferences kicking in, rather than any particular challenge to integrate a sub between the types of systems let alone the types of subs....
 
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Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
My experience with SVS subs has not been "not musical enough". They were really easy to blend and super clean sounding. I'd still have SVS subs if their big ones weren't so expensive!
 
ematthews

ematthews

Audioholic General
My experience with SVS subs has not been "not musical enough". They were really easy to blend and super clean sounding. I'd still have SVS subs if their big ones weren't so expensive!
My SVS definitely works better than my Outlaw for music.
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
I'm wondering why people are bypassing Rythmik? If any ID sub company was a value leader in terms of price and performance, they would be it.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'm wondering why people are bypassing Rythmik? If any ID sub company was a value leader in terms of price and performance, they would be it.
Well maybe better than Rel....how do you figure particularly?
 
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