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<str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Stadium</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>III</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>test</strong><br />
By Jas<strong>on</strong> Kennedy<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> is a small dedicated company based in Bridgend, south Wales and committed to<br />
bass. It could be argued quite easily that <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
Overview:<br />
founder Richard E. Lord put the subwoofer or subbass<br />
loudspeaker system <strong>on</strong> the hi-fi map. Before he Website: www.rel.net<br />
appeared <strong>on</strong> the scene the subwoofer was not the Size: HxWxD - 55.8x59x39cm<br />
kind of thing any self respecting audiophile would Weight: 50kg<br />
c<strong>on</strong>sider giving house room to. This may have been Finishes: Black ash, cherry, light<br />
because most of the species were sold with satellite oak, rosenut, walnut<br />
loudspeakers or simply because no <strong>on</strong>e had made a Drive unit: 250mm l<strong>on</strong>g throw<br />
serious subwoofer before, <strong>on</strong>e that could enhance Power: 200 watts<br />
rather than muddy the quality of regular speakers.<br />
The key feature that makes <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> subs so easy to get a good result with is the ability to<br />
adjust the roll-off point of the sub so that it marries seamlessly with the stereo<br />
speakers. <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> subs are not designed to increase the amount of bass produced by a<br />
system but to extend the bandwidth of the existing speakers. For a stereo speaker to be<br />
able to extend down to the 12Hz (-6dB) claimed for the <str<strong>on</strong>g>Stadium</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>III</str<strong>on</strong>g> it would have to be<br />
as big as a fridge, a big fridge at that. The reas<strong>on</strong> the <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> is able to do that with a 65<br />
litre cabinet is that it is actively driven, it has its own 200 watt MOSFET power amp and<br />
electr<strong>on</strong>ic crossover which means that it can boost the output at very low frequencies. In<br />
other words it drives the big ten inch Volt drive unit harder therefore producing more<br />
bass energy.<br />
Another reas<strong>on</strong> for <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g>'s success is inclusi<strong>on</strong> of both high and low level signal inputs,<br />
this means that you can feed the sub exactly the same signal that you send to your<br />
speakers via the high level input. The c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> is made with a three core cable that<br />
hooks up to your amplifier's speaker outputs. There is of course the low or line level<br />
input but this is really <strong>on</strong>ly appropriate for surround sound processors which have a<br />
dedicated LFE (low frequency effects) output.<br />
Sound quality<br />
To integrate the <str<strong>on</strong>g>Stadium</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>III</str<strong>on</strong>g> with your speaker<br />
traditi<strong>on</strong>ally requires that you roll the sub in at<br />
the point your speaker rolls off and then set<br />
output level to match the speaker. However, I<br />
have found that if you set roll off three or four<br />
dB higher than the speaker's roll-off and turn the<br />
output level down a bit you can get a better<br />
result. There are many surprising aspects to the<br />
sound of this sub not least being the way that it<br />
enhances the high frequency performance of all<br />
the speakers I have tried it with. It introduces a<br />
sense of open spaciousness that is hard to<br />
accredit to an improvement in low frequency extensi<strong>on</strong> and power. It must be something<br />
to do with the way that bass defines a space but is not an easy phenomen<strong>on</strong> to explain.
Yet it is not in the least bit subtle and gives the <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> c<strong>on</strong>siderably more appeal than you<br />
would expect an extra octave or two in the bass to produce.<br />
The bass does of course help matters c<strong>on</strong>siderably, it adds a foundati<strong>on</strong> to the sound<br />
that gives the rest of the range something to work from, something solid. This seems to<br />
apply regardless of the bass c<strong>on</strong>tent of the music. There is a tendency to think that <strong>on</strong>ly<br />
your Prodigy and Grace J<strong>on</strong>es albums will sound a lot better with a decent sub but the<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>Stadium</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>III</str<strong>on</strong>g> boosts everything you play. The more familiar and well loved the album the<br />
more exciting the result, even albums like Jeff Beck's Wired, which is clearly fantastic<br />
yet can sound compressed, takes <strong>on</strong> a whole new sense of purpose and solidity with this<br />
sub.<br />
All this is achieved without you thinking wow there's loads of bass, in other words you<br />
are not skewing the balance of your system, the main speakers sound the same but<br />
better. And if you turn the sub off you d<strong>on</strong>'t think where has the bass g<strong>on</strong>e, you think<br />
why is the sound small and relatively flat. You can set it up so that it goes boom and<br />
every<strong>on</strong>e knows there's a sub in the room - which can be fun I'll grant you - but for l<strong>on</strong>g<br />
term musical satisfacti<strong>on</strong> an integrated sound is the way forward, the approach that's<br />
going to reveal more of the music and the venue it's played in.<br />
Verdict<br />
The <str<strong>on</strong>g>REL</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Stadium</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>III</str<strong>on</strong>g> is much more than a way to hear more bass, it's a way of<br />
hearing more of the music and enjoying a truly three dimensi<strong>on</strong>al soundstage.<br />
Once you've tried it there's no turning back.