REL Acoustics NEW T9i(Piano-Black)

Introduction to the REL T-9 Subwoofer

The REL T-9 subwoofer is the largest sub in REL’s “Serie T” line. It is a solidly built sub with a 10″ Ultra Long Throw main driver, a 10″ front-firing passive radiator and a 300 watt Class A/B plate amp. In keeping with REL innovation (and tradition), theT-9 has a number of flexible hook up schemes, the most unique being by way of the included high level hook-up cable.

This sub is a REL through and through. That means you get great build quality. But you also get REL’s incredible focus on the important details. REL just builds subwoofers and they do it excellently. As a result, the T-9 is replete with new advancements and trickle down technologies from REL’s Gibraltar and Serie R lines. So let’s dig a little deeper and see if the T-9 really lives up to its family heritage.

REL T-9 SUBWOOFER SPECIFICATIONS

• Design: Down-firing Active Driver, Passive Radiator

• Driver: 10″

• Passive Radiator: 10″

• Amplifier: 300 watts RMS (Class AB)

• MFR: 28 Hz at -6 dB In-Room

• Inputs: Hi-Level Neutrik Speakon, Low-Level Mono RCA, LFE RCA

• Outputs: None

• Dimensions: 14.75″ H × 13″ W × 14.75″ D

• Weight: 39 Pounds

• Finishes: Gloss Piano Black or White Lacquer

• MSRP: $1,199 USD

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• SECRETS Tags: RES, Subwoofers, Audio

The Design of the REL T-9 Subwoofer

REL has four subwoofer lines. They range from the “Habitat1” lifestyle products to the “Gibraltar” subs which are their finest offerings. The T-9 is the biggest sub from REL’s “Serie T” line. The T subs are the most affordable floor standing REL subs and they are generally intended for home cinema applications.

The T-9 is roughly cubic in shape and checks in at just under 15″ a side. Its main driver is a down-firing 10″ “bass engine” with a stamped steel frame and a coated paper cone. REL refers to this as an “Ultra Long Throw” driver and I can attest that it has a generous surround. The main driver is loaded by a 10″ coated paper passive radiator that is mounted on the front of the cabinet.

REL claims their drivers are carefully designed to reproduce low bass, with exceptionally low resonant frequencies and long-travel suspensions. They refer to them as “bass engines”. REL also claims that they keep the moving mass as low as practical in their drivers, thereby making for a more mechanically efficient design. One can infer from these claims that the drivers’ suspensions are highly flexible to maintain acceptably low free air resonance frequencies.

Built-in amplification for the T-9 is by way of a high current 300W Class A/B amp with remote-mounted toroidal transformer. This amp is cooled via an oversized heat sink bank. Three connection options are available: unbalanced low level, unbalanced .1 LFE and a balanced high level input via an included high level cable with a Neutrik Speakon connector that snaps into the back of the amp. I will further discuss this connection in the following Set-Up section of this review.

There are separate volume controls for the low and high level inputs. The non-defeatable second-order variable low-pass filter utilizes Butterworth filtering and is set via an analog dial with a range from 30 – 120 Hz.

REL makes the following claim regarding the T-9 – “REL’s latest input filter design is borrowed from its more expensive sibling (Serie R) and is considerably quicker than previous REL designs. This speed is partly responsible for the slam and attack for which Serie T is known.”

The REL T-9 cabinet is solidly braced and features a high gloss finish with five layers of carefully applied lacquer. The T-9s are available in either black or white finishes. One last point – the sub comes with milled aluminum feet and no spikes. It is plug and play ready.

Setup of the REL T-9 Subwoofer

I evaluated the REL T-9 concurrently with my recent review of the Sonus faber Venere 3.0 surround system. This system included a pair of Sonus faber Venere 3.0 floorstanders, the Venere Center and a pair of Venere Walls along with the REL T-9 for a complete 5.1-channel set up.

I placed the REL T-9 in the front left corner of the room and started out by connecting the mono sub output of my surround processor to the low level input on the REL plate amp. I was going to use my processor’s built-in bass management as one would do with most any other subwoofer. So I set the sub’s crossover to the max frequency (120 Hz) and set the volume to half mast. Meanwhile, the Venere 3.0’s have useable in-room response down to about 34 Hz which means that I could set the crossover as low as 40 Hz in my processor if I wanted. I started with 40 Hz and even tried 60 Hz and 80 Hz while setting the level in the surround processor as well.

I generally liked what I heard, but the sound just wasn’t gelling the way I wanted. The bass was in balance but felt just a little bit disconnected for my tastes (a very common problem with most subs). That is when I decided to try the REL T-9 via its included High Level hook up cable. This cable connects in parallel to the speaker outputs on your amp and is terminated at the sub’s plate amp by way of a Neutrik Speakon connector. The input impedance to the sub is very high so its presence in the circuit doesn’t affect the signal going to your main speakers in any way.

In this case you set your mains to “large”, tell your processor you do not have a sub, then manually dial in a crossover and level setting on the sub’s amp to get the best blend. Since the crossover is controlled by an analog dial with limited graduations on the scale, I was not sure of the final crossover setting, but it was somewhere between 50 – 60 Hz. Of course, this would mean “double bass”, but in practice this connection scenario was by far the best sound I got from the system.

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