REL Acoustics T/5i Subwoofer, 8 inch Down-Firing Driver, Arrow Wireless Port, High Gloss Black

The first thing that impresses me with this subwoofer is how good and solid it feels! The gloss black is gorgeous looking and the unit itself is heavy and super solid. Just do a simply knuckle knock test and you'll see. The knobs feel really nice precise. The SpeakOn cable that came included with the subwoofer is also very high quality. Regarding the look and feel of this subwoofer, you won't be disappointed. But how does it sound? First I want to emphasize that placement and room volume is very important with this subwoofer. It is a smaller subwoofer so don't use it in a room that's too big. The room I use it in is about 14 x 15 feet. I use this unit with a pair of Sonus Faber Venere 2.0 with a Pioneer Elite stereo receiver, using the speakers' high level input. You might want to let this thing break in before doing any serious adjusting; it took about 4 hours of continuous music playing before I played with the settings. I left the volume slightly above half way point and the crossover at about 11 o'clock. I find this setting to blend seamlessly with my front speakers. The bass is very even and not too tight to where it sounds congested. One word I would use to describe the sound characteristic of this subwoofer would be "musical" sounding. I am surprised by the loudness of this unit given its size and power rating of only 125 Wattls. Placing this subwoofer to close to the corner will result in boomy sound. I would place it in between my main speakers for better integration. Yes, it is true that this thing doesn't sound like a subwoofer, but rather make your bookshelf speakers sound more like full range floorstanders. So if you don't push this little guy beyond its limits, it will yield a musical and satisfying listening experience.

I have confession... I own an old REL Stadium unit from the 90s which is huge, heavy, and in theory goes lower. This little cube kicks it's butt. I've always liked the REL subwoofer in that they do not put any crossovers in front of your own speakers. You simply set them to fill in the bottom where your speakers don't go. The RELs we're fast enough to keep up with electrostatics and avoided the one note boom that I hate with cheap units. Ok this REL is 1/8 the size of my older one but is faster allowing amazing detail in the bass. Yes detail. It plays louder than it has any right to yet is never annoying even if set a little more generous than neutral. I'm using in 12x13 room and it is more than enough never running out of steam. No port to cause shuffling burb noises. No it doesn't hit those 16 hz shake the house notes but it is rock solid to mid 30s and makes me happy. Makes me consider upgrading my older REL in my big listening room with a pair of larger brothers

This is my first subwoofer. I do not have a home theater system and always had dismissed subs for 2 channel (stereo) music. However, lately I've been reading recommendations to use them not so much for booming bass, but to improve the stereo image and tonality. My main speakers (Totem Arros) do roll off below 100 hz or so. REW and Roon convolution filters with this subwoofer allow me to create a fairly flat frequency response across almost the entire audible range (although it sounds good even without convolution/equalization). My listening room is approx. 21 x 16 x 7.5 with very thick walls; my connection is directly from the main speaker binding posts through the Speakon cable to the SW. I listen to a wide variety of music.Setup was fairly easy. I put it in a corner behind my A/V cabinet and set both the crossover and gain to around 10 o'clock. At these settings, they integrate nicely with my main speakers. It isn't obvious (to me) that there is a SW in the room. It just sounds like a phenomenal pair of main speakers. I also tried it in the opposite corner of the front wall, but prefer it to be hidden. The nice piano black finish notwithstanding, I really don't want to show off a black cube with wires hanging out the back.There is no continuous phase dial, just a 0/180 switch. I found it has little audible effect in my room. The 180 setting seems to be marginally better for me (my room, my gear) but I had to flip it back and forth many times to decide. There also is no "standby" setting switch (as shown in some online photos, including on Amazon as I write this), so I just leave it on most of the time. The crossover knob is marked only for the min (30 Hz) and max (120 Hz) settings, so for any position in between, you have to guess (or count clicks) to know just where your crossover frequency is set.The Speakon cable is 10 meters long, which is convenient if you want to experiment with placements far from your amp. For anywhere along my ~16' front wall, it is WAY too long. There are no spades or bananas at the ends. The ends are not tinned, either.The other sub I considered seriously was the Totem Storm, which probably would match my main speakers well. But it costs about 2X as much. Also, with a cat in the house, a single down-firing driver is much less vulnerable to damage than front/side-facing drivers. The Rel may be easier to place, too (since there is no aiming issue with the 1 driver).I knock it down 1 star mostly for the lack of continuous phase control and standby control. Also (to nit-pick) I don't like the "Rel" badging all over the device (on the top, every leg, the back panel, and even the driver). Not that anyone will see it in my corner. Another feature missing from this sub is pass-through input/output, which might make set-up more flexible. But then, pass-through would add cost/clutter, and I'm not sure I'd want to run another sub (or mains) directly off this one.

I have two of these little subwoofers hooked up to my two channel music system. I wasn't looking for room shaking thunderous bass. I just wanted to fill the bottom end of my B&W 805S speakers a bit. These little subs work perfectly for this. They are incredibly fast and musical and after a few days of tweaking blended well with my speakers. I used REW to create some convolutions that I use with ROON and the sound is absolutely amazing. Kick drums now have impact in my chest in a way they never could with my speakers alone. Bass is never boomy it just sounds perfectly natural. If I had to criticize anything it would be the cable that it comes with. It is very long and not the best quality. If your subwoofer is close to your amp like me you really need to at least shorten the cable. If you have that long cable coiled up somewhere it is bound to pick up electrical interference. I had hum in my subs until I shortened the cable and bought shorter shielded power cords.