REL Acoustics Storm manual Advanced Setting Up

ADVANCED SETTING UP

It is an unfortunate fact that most listening rooms are not perfect. Most suffer from various problems, particularly in the bass. This is why the majority of sub-woofers will not work effectively in most systems - they simply overwhelm the system, causing boom and a poor bass performance. All REL sub-bass systems incorporate special circuitry which we call the Active Bass Controller, or more simply the ABC. The ABC will ensure, when set up accurately, that a REL sub-bass matches into your system precisely. Of course, should you choose to set the controls for a more fulsome bass, or even a totally overwhelming bass, so be it. The REL will oblige!

If your listening room has a rather boomy bass, it may be advantageous to deliberately reverse the phase control on Storm so that partial cancellation of the bass occurs around the crossover frequency between the REL and your main speakers. This will require some patience and care over setting up. But many listeners have reported that what was previously a lost cause, has been totally cured by this simple expedient. Listeners who have had to make do with very small main speakers with a deliberately tapered bass response to offset their poor listening rooms are the ones most likely to benefit from this option. It is impossible to predict the sound experience within a room. We at REL realize this and go to great lengths to offer you, the customer, the means to control the sound within your system. Bass frequencies are often the most troublesome to predict and control. It is one of the reasons why some audiophiles have either given up on trying to reproduce very deep bass within their system or put up with an overblown bass. REL offers the listener the means to control their system sound.

If you are one of the very fortunate few with a superb listening room, then keep your phase switch in its normal position and ignore this advice.

However, this switch also allows you to ensure that any phase reversal within your power amp can be corrected (where the main speakers should then be connected deliberately in reversed phase). Doing this will ensure correct absolute phase of your system.

One of the most frequently reported benefits of owning a REL is the improvement in imaging and depth at ALL frequencies. Many theories exist as to why this should be, but with many listeners, this has been their most pleasing and substantial benefit of owning a REL. Strangely, it often occurs most obviously with those listeners who previously have had the least interest in deep bass! This effect is most pronounced when the REL has been adjusted for the flattest, i.e. not a pronounced bass. It certainly disappears where the listener has it set up to give a deliberately over-blown or boomy bass.

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