StuartBooth
26-01-2001, 6:30 PM
Perhaps somebody will be interested. Today I spent the afternoon in the company of some fine subwoofers. Actually, there was a large front projection system there too, but we'll concentrate on the subwoofers!
My local shop only had the REL Storm III, REL Strata III and a REL Q50. We didn't even bother with the Q50!
We tried out some music first of all, notably The Cardigans - Gran Turismo and Metallica - The Black Album.
To nip to the end of the tale here, the Storm III won. I don't want or like a boomy dance vibe bass, I want something that just weightens up the bass notes and is tight and controlled rather than wooly and thumpy. The
Storm was, I thought, more controlled, and actually harder to find doing it's thang during the song ie it seemed to integrate better with the rest of my system (we were using the exact same components I have here at home).
We ended up swapping b/w the Storm and Strata with The Cardigans and I tell you, there is stuff in there I have *never* noticed before. Here again I felt I preferred the Storm which seemed to get into less 'trouble' with certain sections of this stunning sounding disc. Other times I noticed how I could follow the changes in notes in the bass tracks more easily with the Storm too.
At one point my demo-man had me feel the Storm and it was interesting to note how you could feel it tracking the notes quite precisely. I wish they had more of a selection to compare with.
Onto movies and it added the missing weight to Blade, one of a few DD discs that I feel lacks something. dts on the other hand is substantial already on my system, even without a sub. The Haunting though. Whoa! There is a tangible throb throughout most of the scenes in this I tried, which I absolutely loved. Atmospheric without dominating, which is what I was after.
I said earlier that the Storm was harder to find in the mix, and I felt that was a good thing, it dominated less than the Strata whilst still providing all the thud and weight I wanted.
What I did find annoying was during Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan, there was an almost directionless boom throughout the opening battle sequences in both. It may be that a better sub or a better processor/amp setup would control this better, but that's way out of my league. The Storm pips in there on the edge of my budget.
However, I'm going to wait a few weeks as they are getting in a new B&W sub in soon, which the sales guy hopes will be quite something. I'll give the Q50 that I missed this time round a go then.
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Stuart Booth
Somewhere in Buckinghamshire, England, UK
[This message has been edited by StuartBooth (edited 26-01-2001).]
[...takes out extra linefeeds...]
[This message has been edited by StuartBooth (edited 27-01-2001).]
My local shop only had the REL Storm III, REL Strata III and a REL Q50. We didn't even bother with the Q50!
We tried out some music first of all, notably The Cardigans - Gran Turismo and Metallica - The Black Album.
To nip to the end of the tale here, the Storm III won. I don't want or like a boomy dance vibe bass, I want something that just weightens up the bass notes and is tight and controlled rather than wooly and thumpy. The
Storm was, I thought, more controlled, and actually harder to find doing it's thang during the song ie it seemed to integrate better with the rest of my system (we were using the exact same components I have here at home).
We ended up swapping b/w the Storm and Strata with The Cardigans and I tell you, there is stuff in there I have *never* noticed before. Here again I felt I preferred the Storm which seemed to get into less 'trouble' with certain sections of this stunning sounding disc. Other times I noticed how I could follow the changes in notes in the bass tracks more easily with the Storm too.
At one point my demo-man had me feel the Storm and it was interesting to note how you could feel it tracking the notes quite precisely. I wish they had more of a selection to compare with.
Onto movies and it added the missing weight to Blade, one of a few DD discs that I feel lacks something. dts on the other hand is substantial already on my system, even without a sub. The Haunting though. Whoa! There is a tangible throb throughout most of the scenes in this I tried, which I absolutely loved. Atmospheric without dominating, which is what I was after.
I said earlier that the Storm was harder to find in the mix, and I felt that was a good thing, it dominated less than the Strata whilst still providing all the thud and weight I wanted.
What I did find annoying was during Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan, there was an almost directionless boom throughout the opening battle sequences in both. It may be that a better sub or a better processor/amp setup would control this better, but that's way out of my league. The Storm pips in there on the edge of my budget.
However, I'm going to wait a few weeks as they are getting in a new B&W sub in soon, which the sales guy hopes will be quite something. I'll give the Q50 that I missed this time round a go then.
------------------
Stuart Booth
Somewhere in Buckinghamshire, England, UK
[This message has been edited by StuartBooth (edited 26-01-2001).]
[...takes out extra linefeeds...]
[This message has been edited by StuartBooth (edited 27-01-2001).]