REL R-505 review, 4.5 out of 5
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The genius/nutter inventor is a tradition in the UK.UK inventive genius is special.Sometimes a tragic rot sets in when a company headed by a creative genius is bought out by another company that doesn't understand the product.The only versions of certain products worth having were from the previous era of the manufacturer.This is common amongst electric guitars.
It was with mixed feelings that I found out that Richard Lord, REL's fabulously entertaining and gentle genius, was no longer to have direct design input into the products.One of my heroes should retire with the most comfortable and spoiled-rotten retirement that any man ever deserved.
I am grateful to be wrong.For one, the new owners seem aware of what they have bought, and in no way are the subs going to change anything.The new R-Series of subwoofers is the result of a project that was being worked out for a long time before Richard Lord presented him with a set of slippers.
REL never found a way to make a good subs cheaply.It tried with the smaller series.Despite not being cheap, my test sub bass system is a grand's worth and it comes close to its performance.A whole new look to play is brought about by it.
The REL stands upon solid aluminum feet and has a sealed box with 500W class D amplifi er and sexy control box underneath.You can use a non-crossed-over signal and a Neutrik Speakon to connect to the LFE channel.This last takes speaker level signals from the front pair of speaker's terminals and collects all the bass the surround sound engineer neglects to put in the 'point one' channel.You get the best of both worlds if both speaker and signal level operate at the same time.The technique is now used by at least one other bassmaking brand.
The control box is mounted underneath, connected by a screw-in multipin, and the knobs are behind frosted glass.The Speakon and the phono have gain level knobs for each level of input.The only other knob has the 25 and 100Hz selection.There is a phase 0-180o switch.
The grille is huge as it needs to cover a thick paper-coned driver that can leap a decent distance right out of its box, yet the 500W class D amplifi er manages not to need external fi nnage to cool it.
The speaker driver's own natural resonance is ugly amounts of power, according to the manual.Not by adding boomy EQ boost, but by having enough juice to play the snake's belly fatness tones and then, where the tone is less profound could be overblown to use an EQ cut instead.Similar reasoning is followed by a sawn off shotgun.
I like to use a piece of simple stereo from the movie Sneakers to check out how far down the subwoofer reaches.It has a large and profound thrum-thump, which stretches the subwoofer output channel and allows you to feel what degree the unit is pressurising your room.
As well as keeping a melodic grip on bass line material in big-assed 5.1 music recordings from Linkin Park to Sting, and holding delicious grip of atmosphere and feeling of normal bass material, this woofer can reach heavily down into the fear register.When pressing upon your body, those frequencies cause a lot of concern in sane people.The effect is subtle but effective.Movie fans don't know why the fi lm is so exciting.It's in the middle of a big ship in deep space and it comes in quantities to pull gently at your chest, if not quite as mad as the REL Stentor.
It is covered in velvet and is like a demolition ball.I pulled out the heavy, shiny 12in disc from the old Laserdisc vault because the petrol tanker sequence in the original Toy Story was a favorite of the chap who brought the R-505 round.It still looks pretty on my Denon player.The rears of my system didn't like it at all, as when the truck arrives at the empty gas station, it has to be one of the largest scale toys in cinema.You could have been pinned to the tarmac on your back, too.
The R-505 is the first sub from the new REL organisation.It also honours the brand's heritage by delivering a superior sub-sonic listening experience.It's small and cute.I always recommend to buy two.Adam Rayner is a musician.