I've read so much about the benefits of RELS 6 Pack Array. To be honest I thought it was hyped up BS. Not to mention the imposing nature of 6 Carbon Specials kind of turned me off. Finally my curiosity overcame me. I called Tom at ONEST AUDIO. I never met Tom (a friend recommended him) I must say he was a pleasure to talk/work with. What I really appreciated about Tom was he doesn't come across as "the expert". He just shares his knowledge. I came right out and asked what do you think? He didn't say oh its going to be great! He said if you want to do it let me know. It took less than a week and 4 more Carbon Specials were delivered. Great transaction!
I got them all stacked, the connecting cables were delayed (FEDEX) 2 days so I got to stare at the imposing "stacks". Yesterday the connecting High/Low level Cables arrived from REL. Clay at REL gave me several tips. Firstly you want to individually set each High/Low Level and Crossover. The whole concept is the for the 3 per side to work in unison, not attacking each other. It takes methodical incremental adjustments. Bottom Left (anchor) last count was 18 adjustments and the right side will NOT be identical to the Left. Its a daunting process! While your doing it your thinking this was a mistake. BUT once you get them in SYNC its a "I get it moment" I used a pad with a diagram of the six stacked. As I made adjustments I would write them in and highlight the last added change. If you don't do that you will loose your mind!!
I went back to the single pair and as you can imagine huge difference! Still getting my head around this. The midrange is special, snapping of fingers, drumsticks popping off of each other, the stick hitting the skin. Its almost as if the bass is providing more delicate nuances.
With Knee Replacement surgery tomorrow I doubt I'll be doing much listening. I frantically wanted them set up and dialed in as closely as possible before the surgery. I could only imagine coming home and staring at them without knowing what they sound like!
Dear John T,
First of all, and most important - I hope you are well and that your knee is getting better and better for each day
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Second, congratulations to your amazing sub investment, setup and integration. Very very impressive indeed. It is always nice to know there is more people out there that is (a little bit crazy) just like me, and invest in a 6-pack of subs to support the front speakers. Well now, I don’t have the REL’s, but sure enough the Martin Logan BF-210’s which is not stackable from M-L in the first place… I have made myself a special rack to stack them three by three on each side back of my M-L ReQuests. (Some of you on the WBF might have seen some pics I’ve posted earlier in another thread). The sonic differences with and without is huge.
My each 3-stack works a little bit different than the REL subs. My 3-stack tower works like one big sub, where the top sub is the control sub for each tower. There within is the hi/low pass, time/phase, volyme, then yet another volyme control for the +/- 25hz level.
Now:
It is a little bit more complex setup, then just a 2-channel, which is complex enough, but is a complete 2-channel setup AND a 7.4 surround setup where even two more subs are included in the back of the room on each side back of the listening position, the M-L BF-212.
The two back subs have ofcourse their own controls which have to be set individually, which in turn add some more parameters to take in count.
To control all this I have the Krell Evolution 707 3D preamp / surround processor as the main hub for the entire system. However.. just under the 707 is the two minor Krell KAV 250p preamps that works as indivdual volyme fast controls for the sub system. One preamp for the front L & R channel signal, and one preamp for the L & R LFE back sub signal.
The LFE signal going into the front towers is controled in the 707 processor itself.
Do you all follow… ? -It’s not even tricky yet, haha.
Yes - my subs can handle both L & R and LFE signals simultaneously ofcourse.. and it is here the tricky part comes in… to match everything together so it works perfect for the 2-channel setup AND the 7.4 setup, without sounding weird in any or the other.
For matching my ReQuest in 2-channel mode and extend the sound of the ReQuests the sub towers meet up the ReQuests at 42Hz. L &R signal coming from my 707 preamp is going directly to the amp driving my ReQuests, AND into the KAV-250p, which is preset to halv volyme on the control as a reference level, and then out into the left and right sub tower. On the then top control subs, I can now adjust the phase and time, volyme and frequence to integrate them for the ReQuest extension. This was quite an undertaking task, but no rocket science…
The major brain damage came when trying to integrate 5 more speakers and two more subs, where half of the controls lays within the processor itself, and using another external preamp for the back subs with it’s half volyme preset reference level, and try to time phase every speaker to the listening position. I could break the Internet trying to explain that integration, haha… and I would probably bore you out with all nerdy talk of frequence and phase and distance tweaking, but please ask me if there is anything I missed telling that might be of interest.
That my friends took me over six month of serious everyday spare time in the hifi bunker. Then when I thought I got everything playing very very well, I hooked the computer and the test microphone up to the subs to compensate for the room acoustics… Ohhh my GOD… -then it was another three month of fine tuning in the system.
Now you might wonder… How’s the sound? Is it working or is it just a subwoofer mess all over the place…??
All I can say… I can spend 10-12 hours strait in here without being tired in my ears.. I can listen to low volyme and hear everything very very well.. I can play voice and guitar, classical music, and it sounds like they performs right infront of me in the room… OR… I can play Metallica on a volyme best suited for large arena events with a sub and bass preasure that makes my hair stand and my pants and tshirt sleeves swaying freely with the atmospheric bass preasure…
Sooo yes - It is working very very well, but as you said John T, it was a major undertaking to integrate it all.
Well - hope you all enjoyed me explaining my system setup ..
Here is some pics.. Enjoy.
/ Jk
