A pair of S/812, which forms Serie S along with the S/510, 212/SX, and Carbon Special.
Now's the time to land near-reference performance at unmissable pricing
On May 20, REL announced the end of Serie S, and we were appropriately startled and excited. Startled, because Serie S is the beating heart of REL's product offerings for us, with the S/812, S/510, Carbon Special, and 212/SX bringing near-reference performance to relatively modest, but properly high-fidelity systems. As John Hunter of REL puts it in a recent video on Serie S models, "They're capable of transforming very good $15,000 to $20,000 speakers into things that $100,000 speakers do not want to have to compete against."
And that's why we're excited: Serie S is already so ridiculously good, and REL doesn't do minor updates, so we can't imagine how John Hunter and team are going to best it. Indeed, John, in a phone call, said, "This is maybe the hardest refresh that I've ever been part of."
We tried asking/cajoling/pleading with both John and his colleague Paul Magee for any information on the new series, but they wouldn't crack. All we know right now is, it's going to be good, but is still several months away. It's also unlikely to be the same price, and with great deals coming on Serie S, now's the time to land near-reference performance at unmissable pricing.
Why is Serie S So Loved?
By the time REL got to Serie S in 2014, John knew he had to let other subwoofer manufacturers chase low Hertz and high dB, while he hunted down and killed milliseconds. "Everything else in audio had been blinding fast since the early 1990s, and here we have this one category that was just lagging behind and acting like it was the late-70s," says John in that same video.
Gautam Raja, our content manager, has a pair of S/510 in his system, and though they go very deep, he knows it's REL's speed that allows two 10" active drivers and two 12" radiators to just disappear in his system... until the subs are unplugged. "You lose the whole foundation, yes," says Gautam about killing the subs mid-track, "but what's always surprising is that the soundstage instantly flattens, and the highs get over-bright."
We can't say this enough to anyone skeptical about subwoofers in a stereo system: they are not (just) about bass. But even when they are about bass, it's not merely kick drums and low E's.
Joel Bennett, a salesperson who loves REL, talks to customers about the novelty of hearing—accurately—the lowest audible tones, down to 28 Hz or thereabouts. "Then, I mention that the REL will continue to accurately excite the even longer wavelengths to give you the simple and intoxicating sensation of sitting in the auditorium or studio."
Serie S is special for John Hunter as well, even after developing a whole new reference series, the No.31 and No.32. "What we're doing with S right now, I don't fully understand it," he says. "I kind-of do, and at some point you just shrug your shoulders and go, Woww."
Right now, you can save $1,800 on a pair of REL S/510 in white. It also means that there is no better time to get yourself a six pack.
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The Poor Man's Six-Pack
If six S/510's are out of your budget even after discounts, or you don't want a Manhattan skyline in your living room, here's one of audio's greatest secrets. A pair of the REL 212/SX is known as the "poor man's six-pack" because of the tsunami-pulse of energy it can unleash.
Two 212's bring a total of eight 12" drivers, which means that even a well-placed single 212/SX can bring much of the scale and room-filling immersion of multiple subwoofers. The bottom front-facing active and the down-firing passive bring the "room crawling" bass that changes the perceptual size and shape of your home. The top front-facing active and the rear-facing passive bring you those upper harmonics that six packs are famous for.
Keep an eye out for more offers on Serie S, and talk to us about which of these groundbreaking subwoofers are for you.