But why would you want a face full of bass?
By now, our Six-Pack Saturday event is over, but here are the original details so you know why Upscale Audio and REL Acoustics got together one recent Saturday to feature no less than three REL "six packs." That's an impressive 18 subwoofers across three rooms.
(First, yes there was food and drink, and we don't mean packaged cookies and some orange juice. See the photo below for the beautiful spread we had at the last event. The bar will stock beer and wine.)
That sorted, why would you want to hear six subwoofers on one system? Won't that be a booming, reverberating, building-shaking mess? The answer is yes... if you're using what most people picture when you say 'subwoofer': boxes with giant, heavy drivers designed just to go deep and loud. When you use RELs, the answer is not just 'no,' but includes such unlikely words as delicacy, grace, lightness, and air. As REL recently wrote about six-packs, "It’s not just about the bass, it’s also about the space."
The Lightness of the Line Array
We've often talked about how REL subs are specifically designed to be quick. The focus on the speed of input filters and lightness (with stiffness) of the cones, rather than brute force means that REL subs keep up with the finest loudspeakers. They can resolve attack, mid-signal body, and decay with the best of them. Lesser subs are simply too portly to process that first impulse, and not refined enough to fully resolve what the pro-audio people call "reverb tails."
REL's speed and refinement are ample with just one sub, and multiplied with each one you add, as you divide the cone travel for a given signal across multiple drivers. The bottom subs in the stack are now freed to do "room crawling" bass, with the middle and top subs handling more of those harmonics and detail. The sheer size of this united wave of bass is able to convey the scale and attack of real instruments in large spaces. Still think it's overkill? Just pause and add up the sound-producing surface area and (cubic) volume of a jazz quartet, or even just the drum kit. Compare that with the total driver surface area and cabinet volume of your speakers. Looked at this way, six subwoofers are not overkill, they're merely a good start.
The result of the six-pack experience? The immersion and scale (especially image height) of a multi-hundred-thousand dollar rig for a fraction of the cost. "In the entire audio kingdom," writes REL, "nothing can do for a super system what a line array does."
Which REL Subs Are We Packing?
Our main demo room will feature a line array of the REL Carbon Special, which is the Skunk Works edition, as it were, of the Serie S. Our second demo room will have the S/810, the Serie S big boi that matches the larger speakers we sell. Our home-cinema demo room brings frightening scale and impact with HT/1510 Predator stacks. Totaling it up, that's $27,000, $20,000, and $12,000 in subwoofers alone, but don't forget we're talking about an immersiveness that can exceed that of loudspeakers in the $100,000+ range.
If you're convinced, we actually do not recommend you just slap six stackable RELs into your cart. Before you stack, you need to be at an endpoint on your system journey and, ideally, already have a pair of RELs installed and dialed in. After all, what if you buy six S/510's and then upgrade your loudspeakers to something better matched by the S/812 or the No.31? What if you're better off with a pair of No.32 than a six-pack of Carbon Special? Only after you've answered all of these questions should you consider adding extra pairs of subwoofers. Yes, you can stop at a four-pack for a while, but it's that final top pair that really brings the magic, so two-subwoofer line array pairs are not considered worth the money and effort.
REL models that can be stacked come with fittings to connect them together, connections to daisy-chain the signal, and are heavy enough not to be knocked over. Apart from the three below, you can build line arrays from the No.32, No.31, and S/812. It's worth mentioning here that the REL 212/SX is the "poor man's six-pack," bringing many of the line array's benefits to a more compact package with far fewer power cords.
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REL Acoustics Carbon Special $4,499 |
REL Acoustics S/810 $3,399 |
REL Acoustics HT/1510 Predator $1,999 |
Choose a Factory: Fyne's Facility in Glasgow
Fyne Audio has opened a new factory in Glasgow, doubling the company’s UK production capacity. The facility covers nearly 50,000 square feet with over 20,000 square feet of warehousing, manufacturing, and engineering facilities, with room to expand.
Fyne is a relatively new company, but is clearly growing into a brand that's here to stay and is set to become a future classic. Its products are firmly on Upscale Audio staff-favorite lists and are even being seen in employee home systems. With both heritage and contemporary designs, all using modern materials and technology, you are sure to find a Fyne just for you.
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