RELUser
Standard Member
By the looks of things on this forum, what happened to me (with the Studio III) has happened to others, and likely will continue to happen.
Because these subs have tremendous cabinets, highly capable drivers, and amplifiers made of cheese.
Don't throw these fine subs away! There is a quick and simple solution, and a slower and more complicated one.
As you'll find out if you try, modern REL are not able to repair these amp boards, nor will they release any technical information to help anyone else in doing so. They want you to buy their new subs, of course. You may well have luck getting the board repaired by a third party, but there are at least 2 other effective solutions.
1. Buy a Quake for peanuts and use its plate amp. Yes, I know this sounds insane, but it works surprisingly well. The strength of these subwoofers is in their ARM loading (in the cabinet) and the drivers. It's a direct swap; the connections are the same, the nominal impedance (3.8Ohm) is the same even on the Studio III with its paralleled drivers. You've only 100w of power rather than 300w (Studio III was claimed to be 500W/1000W peak, then please explain why it has a mere 300VA trafo?) but you'll be amazed at what just 100w can do with that cabinet. I used a Quake amp, but perhaps the Q200 or Q400 amp would be even more interesting, at greater expense.
You now have a functional sub whilst you explore a more longer term solution, either a lengthy wait for a repair of the original amp, or something even better:
2. The Hypex FA501 plate amp has 500w of unflappable NCore power, both high-level and low level connections, and on-board DSP. This is not plug and play, and you'll need lots of faffing with a laptop to set it up, but the flexibility to create a customised filter and power is far greater than that offered by the original analogue amp. The built-in adjustable soft-clip is ideal for protecting the drivers (replicating REL's "set-safe" feature) and it runs cool and quiet. I feel the new power and clarity offered by this board is a substantial upgrade over the original amp and lifts the Studio III to a new level of performance whilst preserving its remarkable low-frequency extension and musical timing.
I hope someone finds this information useful in extending the life of their big REL. Modern subs may well be far ahead in terms of pure home cinema power, but there is something quite magnificent about how these heavy boxes play music, and for a "music first" setup such as mine they're perfectly adequate for LFE duties too.
Because these subs have tremendous cabinets, highly capable drivers, and amplifiers made of cheese.
Don't throw these fine subs away! There is a quick and simple solution, and a slower and more complicated one.
As you'll find out if you try, modern REL are not able to repair these amp boards, nor will they release any technical information to help anyone else in doing so. They want you to buy their new subs, of course. You may well have luck getting the board repaired by a third party, but there are at least 2 other effective solutions.
1. Buy a Quake for peanuts and use its plate amp. Yes, I know this sounds insane, but it works surprisingly well. The strength of these subwoofers is in their ARM loading (in the cabinet) and the drivers. It's a direct swap; the connections are the same, the nominal impedance (3.8Ohm) is the same even on the Studio III with its paralleled drivers. You've only 100w of power rather than 300w (Studio III was claimed to be 500W/1000W peak, then please explain why it has a mere 300VA trafo?) but you'll be amazed at what just 100w can do with that cabinet. I used a Quake amp, but perhaps the Q200 or Q400 amp would be even more interesting, at greater expense.
You now have a functional sub whilst you explore a more longer term solution, either a lengthy wait for a repair of the original amp, or something even better:
2. The Hypex FA501 plate amp has 500w of unflappable NCore power, both high-level and low level connections, and on-board DSP. This is not plug and play, and you'll need lots of faffing with a laptop to set it up, but the flexibility to create a customised filter and power is far greater than that offered by the original analogue amp. The built-in adjustable soft-clip is ideal for protecting the drivers (replicating REL's "set-safe" feature) and it runs cool and quiet. I feel the new power and clarity offered by this board is a substantial upgrade over the original amp and lifts the Studio III to a new level of performance whilst preserving its remarkable low-frequency extension and musical timing.
I hope someone finds this information useful in extending the life of their big REL. Modern subs may well be far ahead in terms of pure home cinema power, but there is something quite magnificent about how these heavy boxes play music, and for a "music first" setup such as mine they're perfectly adequate for LFE duties too.