REL subwoofers are highly praised for their ease of setup, exceptional sound quality characterized by tight, fast bass, and reasonable pricing, making high-end subwoofer performance accessible to a wider audience.
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these are the rel subwoofers we have the
t5x t7x t9x and also the older
generation t9i in the special red finish
now the question here is which one of
these is the best one for you and your
system and we'll answer that in this
video but before we go on if you don't
know well i find rel to be one of my
favorite subwoofers of all time and here
is my reasoning as to why number one i
find rail subwoofers to be very easy to
set up compared to other subwoofers in
the market one of the reason being that
it has a speak on connection essentially
allowing you to connect it directly to
your amplifier yeah
yeah
ever had those situations where your
preamplifier or your integrated
amplifier doesn't have a subwoofer out
or doesn't have a pre-out well you don't
have to worry about that with rails
level first because you can connect it
directly to the speaker binding post of
your amplifier or integrated amplifier
and that leads me to my second point of
why i love rel so much is that it just
sounds really good and you're thinking wait
wait subwoofers
subwoofers
they sound better one sounds better than
the other well the quality of the driver
the quality of the amplification the
quality of the build in the cabinetry
just like any speaker design is the same
thing there's a quality difference and
that transmits to
a performance difference and it's really
no question to rails build quality
everyone knows about how great their
build quality and sound is but then you
may be asking well how does bass sound
any different in terms of quality like
what am i exactly supposed to hear differently
differently
well if you ever experience bad
subwoofer with a good subwoofer bad
subwoofers tend to have a little bit
more slower bass sloppy bass whereas
real good subwoofers have tighter bass
fast bass lightning fast really good
grip and good tone and texture to it and
you may be thinking well this guy's
delusional that's none of that is
scientifically proven well technically
speaking we have very good hearing more
than any microphone in the market can ever
ever
do for us in fact it was proven by this
study from mcmaster university that
humans can detect 50 milliseconds of
difference in the low frequencies
compared to you know 50 millisecond
delay in high frequencies so what that
means is that you essentially as a human
being is more prone to time delay or you know
know
a little bit of time
no disalignment in the base region and
this test was actually replicated by my
research team at university of toronto
as well so
basically what this means is that as you
and i as human beings and if especially
if you're an avid audiophile that is
listening for certain things then
definitely you're gonna notice a
difference in the bass region i mean 50
milliseconds that seems ridiculous of
noticing anything but it is a fact that
we are very much sensitive to low
frequencies timing rhythm and that's
just how we are tuned that's how we
listen and so of course that's going to
impact how you listen to music and how
you enjoy music
and that's why i like rel they're fast
subwoofers they're quality subwoofers
their drivers have really good excretion
uh you know characteristics and sound
characteristics and it has that speak on
connection which is a little bit
controversial because it's not you know
it's not it's more of an audiophile
thing not actually a technical thing and
the idea here is that not only does it
allow you the convenience of connecting
it to your integrated amplifier or
amplifier like i mentioned before but it
takes on the entire characteristic of
your system
right because everything from your dac
your streamer dac preamplifier is all
going into your amplifier section and
then powering your speakers so whatever
is powering your speakers your amplifier
is powering also your subwoofer so
you're taking in the entire you know
systems characteristics sound
characteristic and sound you know
quality and i found this to be true
because it makes the system sound more
seamless meaning you don't feel like
it's a separate subwoofer
there like you don't notice a subwoofer
until you turn it off and that's kind of
what you want with a subwoofer you don't
want to know that the subwoofer is there
if you're hearing boom boom boom boom
from your subwoofer then
you're doing it all wrong that's not how
subwoofer should sound it should be a
seamless crossover like it's coming from
your speakers
that's how seamless it should be like it
should seem like you don't have a
subwoofer in the room
but it's all coming from your speakers
and conventionally speaking this is
actually harder than you think with
subwoofers and if you've set up a
subwoofer i'm sure you're aware
depending on where you put the subwoofer
in your room either to the side to the
front or to the back of your room things
change quite quickly and you have to
change settings on the subwoofer and the
sound outcome is quite different and
drastic so you need experience believe
it or not to set up subwoofers properly
well rel makes it extremely easy because
they're not that sensitive to how you
place them they will sound good
regardless and the third and the most
important reason is the price the price
is reasonable yeah price category for
each individuals each individual
scenario in different systems and we'll
talk more about that in this video but
but
take it from a guy who used to sell
high-end speakers in a high in retail
store setting and set up really
expensive subwoofers and really
expensive systems
subwoofers can be really expensive and
quality subwoofers will run you big
money and don't get me wrong they are
very much worth it because it will give
you really great you know sound performance
performance
it changes the sound so drastically to
the point you take a really good system
to a
freaking amazing system
but rel with their previous ti series
they were already competitive they were
really getting close to the high-end
market subwoofers without big money
and easy to set up
but with their introduction of the new
tx series which is what we have here
today they really step up the game and
has closed that gap even further now i'm
not gonna say that they're there yet in
terms of like yeah you plop this down
and yeah you're gonna have sound that's
like rivals a 20 000 subwoofer not quite
that's why they also have a higher end
lineup but
this lineup for the majority of us is
like 90 95 there 90 95 there and it's so
easy to set up so easy to use and it
sounds just great so
there's that so those are the reasons
why i love rel and i personally use rel
and those are the personal reasons as to
why but let's talk about how
these subwoofers all differ because they
all differ i mean the t5x t7x t9x aside
from their size also have a little bit
of different technology different you
know drivers in there and also it's
meant for different use which is not
something that's often talked about so i
tested these three subwoofers with many
different speakers that came in here for
the last about eight months
long time
and here were my findings starting with
the t5x now t5x is the most affordable
and the smallest of the lineup and you
would think huh so this is the budget
option this is for the people with the
least amount of money no not quite in
fact the t5x outperforms these t7x and
the t9x in some regards and that is speed
speed
and because these speakers are smaller
than the t7x and t9x they don't dig as
low meaning they don't extend as low in
terms of base region but mind you all
three of these do dig low enough
i mean
you don't need all the way down to 20
hertz unless you listen to pipe organ
most of the instruments that we listen
to in our music passages are already
within the frequency of what rel
provides giving you extra extension from
what you have already or supplementing
it with your speakers so unless you have
a speaker that already has a full
extension with no drop off whatsoever
then a subwoofer like rel will elevate
your base performance in your system
absolutely so at a quick glance you may
look at the t5x and be like well it
doesn't extend that slow but that's not
a really big factor it extends low
enough in my opinion for musical
passages for most of us sorry
sorry
pipe organ players out there but what's
really important and why i find t5x to
be one of the better ones out of the t7x
and t9x actually is the speed
you see t5x is very fast in comparison
to other subwoofers in the market and
it's even faster than the t7x and t9x
and the while the difference is not huge
between the t7x and the t5x there is
quite a bit of a difference between the
t5x and t9x in terms of speed and what
does that get you well when you pair it
up with speakers like panel speakers
like magnapan or modern logan or
speakers that really vibrate at very
fast paces
that has speed so you often hear me you
know review a speaker and say this
speaker is fast
well to complement that fast you know
type of sound you would want a t5x you
want tight fast bass lightning fast
that's the t5x
and it's the best option for magnet pan
speakers in my opinion
but you have to also account for your
room size as well because you have to
understand it's not infinite output that
these subwoofers will have also you have
to account if you want one or two
subwoofers because that will give you
more output and more dispersion pattern
as well my recommendation as always is
to have at least two subwoofers in your
system for the best possible experience
so with the t5x is fast and that is the
major thing and you would pair the
speaker up with mostly bookshelf
speakers in this case or panel speakers
that are known to be faster and quicker
so again bookshelf speakers that has
about you know
50 60 hertz roll off some even go deeper
these days but t5x is where i would stay
with bookshelf speakers and panel
speakers so that's what the speaker is
for but you have to also count remember
for the room's size and for the t5x i
would say small to medium sized rooms is
the best fit and that makes sense for
people who have panel speakers or
bookshelf speakers that are relatively
small then you'll be in a small medium
room anyways
that is what i suggest when it comes to
larger rooms now we're getting into the
territory of the t7x and the t9x now the
benefit of the t7x is that it's the
middle child of the t5x and the t9x and
while it digs lower than the t5x it's
slightly slower but we're talking about like
like
fast double first year so they're all
fast they're all good
but this is the middle child so this is
the middle compromise if you so will so
it will go perfectly with mid-sized
towers like the candles from k-leash
that i just reviewed
or speakers that are mid-sized but
doesn't have that quite extension or
needs help in that extension for the
full response in the base region octaves
so that's what the t7x is for and of
course it outputs more meaning it can
get louder than the t5x so if you're in
a medium to large size room see there's
an overlap there so depending on what
size room you're in medium or large and
depending on what speaker you have
that's a choice you have to make
if you have fast bookshelf speakers then
you would go with even if you're in the
middle sized room t5x in my opinion but
if you have small towers like the
candles then you would go with a t7x in
a medium sized room as well
medium large size room with
tower speakers or a little bit larger
bookshelf speakers
i will go with the t7x for extra output
and matching that speed
now next in line is the t9x and this is
the bigger brother this is for large
size rooms i would say even medium-sized
rooms depending on the speakers you have again
again
it's two plays here it's your speakers
and your room that you have to consider
now with the t9x you would pair it up
with something like the poke r700 and i
know i said that you don't really need a
subwoofer with the poke r700 and that
still stands i still don't think you
need a subwoofer with that speaker
because it has tremendous bass
but if you were to hypothetically speaking
speaking
you're looking at big towers that
outputs really tremendous amount of bass
but you want that little bit extra
extension into the lower region or want
to have a little bit more impact for the
room filling pressure especially if
you're in a large room even big speakers
may not fill the room with base energy
and pressure like you would want it
so this is what would help you increase
that scale of sound and make that
speaker even dig lower and ultimately
giving you an ultimate bass performance
so that's what the t9x is for so again
you see here the size matches smaller
speakers t5x and a small medium room t7x
in somewhere between medium to large
size rooms with tower speakers but
smallish slim tower speakers and the t9x
for the ultimate extension with
big towers or big speakers that extend
down low in large size rooms so these
take care of that
and that's what i love about them
because they have an application for
each individual speaker and again these
are all fast subwoofers it really
depends on that little difference that
makes a big difference because again
we're able to detect very small
differences and rel knows this
rel likes to do one thing and one thing
only they don't make electronics they
don't make speakers they make subwoofers
and they want to make the best of what
first they can and that's their art and
that's what i appreciate it because
you know there's a lot of companies
making many different things and while
that's nothing wrong with that
i appreciate a company that is fine
tuning their art to perfection and their
key of perfection is really what makes
this company great and make their
suborder and product great and it is
because of companies like rel that know
that these small differences matter
making big changes and getting closer
and closer to that high-end properly set
up subwoofer performance for a lower
price for the mass right and easy to set
up for people that just don't have the
time or the dedication to set up
subwoofers perfectly
so these are really good subwoofers
that's easy to set up
really getting close to the high in
price you know subwoofers high performance
performance
so that's why i love them
and when i have them properly set up
they sound really darn close to that you
know high-end performance and rel also
has higher end subwoofers but those
require more dedicated more intensive
care in setting it up than these
subwoofers these subwoofers are for
more generalized getting great
performance right out of the box easy to
set up you plug them in and boom you get
the performance
for a relatively lower cost if you want
that extra little bit like the extra
five percent or even 10 percent that
we're talking about we're talking about
even rel several first higher end ones
that require more intensive setup
and it depends on the situation right so
we've seen t5x working better with
bookshelf speakers or faster panel
speakers than t7x or t9x so it's not
always about the price it's not always
about chasing the bigger subwoofer or
bigger output or the lowest extension
it's about the quality of bass and what
fits in your situation in your room with
your speakers and that should be the
focus what complements your speakers
your system the best so now time for
bonus questions now one of the questions
you may ask is so are you saying that
should i choose t5x if i'm in a small to
medium sized room with bookshelf
speakers even if i have the money to buy
the t9x yes in fact i will get two t5x
because that does a better performance
if you can get only one i would say then
i would choose a t7x in this case
because you get more output
fast enough for a bookshelf speaker
but if you have a panel speaker that's a
different story i would still probably
go for maybe the t5x because it's the
fastest but again depending on your room
size i would either choose t5x or t7x so
put it into context you have to consider
your speakers and your room again now
the next question you may be asking is
what if i have bookshelf speakers in a
large size room do i still go with the
t5x and my answer is no
again two things to consider your
speakers and your room first thing here
is room your size of the room is large
t5x just wouldn't have enough output for
a really large size room i'd say it's
more safe to go with t7x or t9x i mean
if you don't have the output then what
does that matter right so you need to
have that output the
next you know fastest is t7x and t9x and
they're still very fast subwoofers so
you need the output first and then you
consider the speed matching with your speakers
speakers
so in this case t7x or t9x two of them
is my choice now if you're wondering
about rail's build quality in terms of
the driver design in terms of how fast
it is you know how is it so fast you
know it's made of paper but anyways
there's more details on that in the
description below i'm really enthusia
enthusiastic about wells over first
because they just sound really great but
lastly i'll leave you with this if you
are someone that has not loved
subwoofers before and you're thinking of
trying it try it because well has 60-day
home trial and so why not at least try
it my suggestion to you is try it
because i was believe it or not someone
that didn't use subway first and didn't
believe you know i needed subway first
because one of my audio buddies i listen
to him and he doesn't use subwoofers to
this day and he just doesn't say we just
i don't we don't need it we don't need
it and that's fine that's him but i
never tried it because i listened to my
friend but one day i set up a subwoofer
for my client uh when i was working and
i heard the difference before and after
and i actually tried a subwoofer in my
system and at the time there was an
older rail subwoofer and it just blew my mind
mind
it was so musical
and it can enhance the system like no
other component so having a really good
subwoofer can really benefit your system
so at least just try it 60 60 day home
trial this is a great chance this is a
great time to be in hifi especially in
subwoofer and speaker market because you
get to try it at your own home
without any consequence so
try it
that's pretty much it i'll leave you
with that thought and i'll see you guys
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