We received a rather large and special delivery today, the first REL Acoustics No25 subwoofer in the country is now on demonstration at Nintronics :).
John Smith
We received a rather large and special delivery today, the first REL Acoustics No25 subwoofer in the country is now on demonstration at Nintronics :).
A quick summary of the specifications on this sub bass system - it is a sealed box, forward firing design with an ultra long throw 15” carbon fibre drive unit powered off a 1000W RMS Class D amp board. With an extension down to 15Hz @ -6db on paper this sub should be an absolute beast! But the key to REL has always been their speed and their control of bass, and with this being their first attempt at a 15” drive unit we were all excited to hear what it could do.
The first thing to strike you is it the sheer size of the package when it turns up, triple boxed and palletised for safety it is about as courier proof as a package can be. It comes packed with a Neutrik cable (for high level connection), manual and a glorious remote which has a carbon fibre finish. Unpacking the unit was fairly easy considering its size and weight. From there we got it installed in our demo room, plugged in and warming up.
Visually the No25 is striking, with its curvaceous finish distracting from its overall size and the 12 coats of piano black lacquer makes for a mirror like finish which gleams impeccably. It is certainly the "plus size" model of the audio world and we were confident that it would sound every bit as good as it looks and more.
Nothing seems to be a compromise here and we were left in admiration of how every detail has been addressed to achieve sub-bass perfection. The MDF is sourced from Australia as it was found to sound superior in their testing to MDF of the same thickness from other countries. The cabinets are formed by way of a sophisticated heating and pressing process so as not to structurally weaken it compared to standard cutting and bending techniques. Even details such as the size of the badge on top of the No25 are dictated by performance standards.
The set up is very much the same as standard REL subwoofers, but with one important introduction of two EQ filter bands which can apply upto +/- 6db across the frequency range, which can be set from 20-90hz. All the adjustments you need to make can be done from the supplied remote but also from the rear panel if required. For positioning REL usually suggest using a corner to help the in room response but the No25 needs nothing of the sort and will be happy to dig its way out of any modal issues to give a smooth response.
For our listen we integrated the No25 into a system running a pair of B&W 805 D3 driven by a McIntosh MA8000 and after a little playing around and movement we had things blended perfectly. The No25 underpinned the B&W stand mounts, carrying their bass extension all the way down but with such tight integration that one could be forgiven for thinking that it was all coming from these small speakers. Speed of bass is key and this is why we favour REL subs in particular - so many subwoofer companies focus on the thunderous side of bass which is relatively easy to do but they end up lagging with a slow impulse response making seamless integration within a music system impossible to achieve. The No25 simply excels in all areas - from frequency response to SPL it was capable of handling everything we threw at it with ease and that was with it being straight out of the box.
We will be giving it plenty more burn in over the coming weeks - our final conclusion will follow once it is fully run in, but if it is this sublime now then we can only imagine what is still to come.
We welcome you to come down and hear this impressive beast for yourself. Please give us a call on 01707 320 788 to book your demonstration.
