Quad L Sub Vs. Strata 5 Demo

[Timbo21]

Just demoed the Quad L subwoofer against the Rel Strata 5.

Although I work with music, I have never worked with subwoofers & have only recently tried some, due to my imminent purchase of a hc system.

I did not test on films, only music, since this was the most important function for the sub for me. I tested with some M & K satellites, but mainly with Quad 11L's.

First was the Quad. It's pretty big with a beautiful finish. Has Lo & Hi inputs, but only one gain for both. Lo pass filter goes in 10hz steps descending from 85hz.
I had high hopes for this, since I will be buying the Quad 11L's + L centre.
First I tried Norah Jones & the results were a beautiful & effortless rich bass sound, which I couldn't fault. However, I followed this with some fairly full on guitar music (not heavy rock) & some dance music. I found the Quad didn't seem
to handle faster bass notes that well. I got some quite LF boom. I'm only guessing at this frequency, but I think the below 45hz ish area wasn't tight at all. I tried moving sub further away from wall - manual recommends 8" - but no difference.
I also found the 10 hz lo pass filter steps quite restricting, since I really like to fine tune.

Then I tried the Rel Strata 5 on the same material, & same positioning & found it
solved all the Quad's problems. I've tried the Stampede against MJ acoustics ref200, which I posted my thoughts previously. From these two demos it seems
to me Rel really are very good with music. The bass is totally tight & reproduces
clear bass guitar notes beautifully. I then checked the Stampede against the Strata, & found the Stampede a bit 'farty' (v. technical) & underpowered compared to the Strata 5. I definitely feel the Strata 5 is quite considerably better than the Stampede, which is in contrast to hifi choice's view.

As I said, I didn't try movies & I feel the Quad could be very good here. I think maybe the Q of it's bass curve might give more lower sub bass frequencies than the Rel (just a guess) (Although Rel's quotes as going down to 18hz, whereas the Quad, 35 hz). Whatever the reality of the frequency response I think the Quad might give you more of a thundering bass for explosions etc. in movies than the Rel? Also, maybe the Quad would do better in a different room?

If anyone else has demoed the Quad I'd be interested to know what you thought.

T.

[russraff]

I think you are correct about the Stampede - I found it underpowered.

If the bass sounds muddy, then perhaps the crossover isn't too good, and you are hearing bass further up the freq range which is smearing bass accuracy. Did you try to use the High level input on the Strata? did you have both the sub and the AMp/Processor apply crossover bass management?How big was the dem room you listened to the Quad/Strata V in?

Russell

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by russraff

I think you are correct about the Stampede - I found it underpowered.

If the bass sounds muddy, then perhaps the crossover isn't too good, and you are hearing bass further up the freq range which is smearing bass accuracy. Did you try to use the High level input on the Strata? did you have both the sub and the AMp/Processor apply crossover bass management?How big was the dem room you listened to the Quad/Strata V in?

Russell

Hi russraf,

Have you tried the Quad yet? I know you said you were going to demo.

In answer to your questions. I wouldn't say the Quad sounded muddy, just uncontrolled & not very tight in the very lower frequencies. The bass was pretty clear in the higher bass frequencies, the problem seemed lower down.
I tried the Quad with MK's where Xover on amp & sub @ 85hz. Then with the 11L's & sub set Xover to 65hz. It was same on both. The size of the room is somewhere around 15' X 15'

[Timbo21]

Didn't try Strata on high level input, but the lo level input was enough to convince me.