REL T9x - Let's be real guys! 🧐 ... Watch this before you buy a T9x subwoofer (Review and DEMO) 

WATCH MY FINAL VERDICT VIDEO ON THE REL T9X : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EEaFcA8r7TY.html Please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video, please don't dislike the video And subscribe. - MDT

Your room is literally an echo chamber with no sound absorption at all. You should not be testing any audio equipment until you fix it.

REL makes best music listening subs out there , very very musical where removing of the dry wall is not a priority . Magic is in the upper parts of Subs performance where it is so much more useful than below 30Hz where other sub brands focus and there is sooo much less real music happening there .

Thanks for the upload. A couple of things: a) Room setup/ sound treatment would be the easiest way to improve sonics. For instance, from what I can see of you room you are trying to listen to music in the middle of the shortest length of the room. Your TV and speaker/ cabinet should be on the shortest wall shooting length ways down the long side of the room. This would also remove your bass trap (hall way) from the stereo image. After that you could look at sound deadening as the room is on the smaller side (est. than 4m x 6.5m). Easiest first step would be a large rug - This would also soften the aesthetics of the room too. You will find you can increase the volume of your system then and be less likely to 'over excite' the room. b) Preferably with (a) in place - Your sub could go where your dehumidifier/ air con unit is. This would allow the sub the 'longest' possible firing position (corner to corner) on the long side of the room. c) some stands for your monitors will prevent them resonating into the cabinet they are sitting on which amongst other things will give you a better stereo image, particularly if you take care in their placement (equal distance from the wall and toed in). :) Good luck

You do know the REL comes with a white finish as well, which would match your stereo speakers? Readers should note that in the UK you can ask your hi-fi dealer for a discount. I paid less than £1000 for mine from a high street famous name. You need a carpet or rugs to stop that echo, It takes experimentation to get the whole system dialled in and easy to make mistakes. You are right about the intensity of the blue light which illluminates the wall - if using a projector this is not ideal.

My room is smaller and I'm using a T9i currently. Absolutely no issue.

The room is so small, speakers need air to breathe. I can understand the issue you're facing, I haven't tried the high level input, I still enjoy LFE. I had a HT1205 and T9x is a day and night difference in bass tightness and impact.

Literally everything is wrong about your set up for music. Don't blame the Rel before sorting everything else.

Mate listen, your allways going to have a problem as long as you have a laminate floor. The floor is the problem not the REL subwoofer and also your not getting the beast out of your monitor audios because of your laminate flooring. You can't polish a turd, and you can't polish an acoustical turd of a room with DSP! Your room is a acoustic nightmare. Is that a suspended floor as well?

I feel you need to put some soft furnishing in your room. To help absorb bass issues. And is the T9X too big for u. I guess the T7X or T5X may go better. These are my opinion. Thank u for sharing your experience.

You probably know this, but you could use an A/V receiver with Audessey or Dirac Live to DSP it for you. Any DSP delay would be equal for each channel, and these systems automatically take distance into account. You could still use the high-level input, me thinks, because it the receiver would simply EQ it as part of the front channels (you have it close enough to the fronts that I doubt you’d get an error message). (REL also allows you to use the LFE input at the same time as the high level with A/V receivers…that would be EQ’d too as the “subwoofer”). Of course the downside is you have to use an A/V receiver….or spring for an AV processor and a dedicated power amp (if you’re not using one already). There’s a Pioneer receiver for $1200 with Dirac Live that everyone on RU-vid is raving about.

I have a similar sized room with minimal room treatment. I also have the T9X, well to be accurate, I employ 3 T9X subs. Because the gain/volume doesn’t have to be as high, as when using a solo sub, you aren’t so likely to excite parts of the room, plus you get smoother distribution! Other manufacturers employ ‘high level’ connectivity, but Rel claim the fastest response time. Yes, Rel have plenty of competition and there are viable less costly options out there. At the end of the day, you pay your money, you make your choice. As regard DSP. It is just one more signal processor in the signal path. I’m a purest and a minimalist and would prefer to keep the signal path as clear as feasible. DSP can, when done well, clean up the sub 300hz frequency response, but only for a specific area, like the listening position. Stray far from that post and peaks and nulls, manifest themselves.

Bass room treatment is your friend; may be by putting some bass absorber in the corners. Your room sounds reflective as well through your recording. You have to absorb all that resonance at 50 Hz. I am not sure that DSP would fix the resonance. May be in your room, you would also be better serve with a couple of Rel t5's instead of the T9.

Add room treatments. A big old rug would do you wonders

Optimize your room setup and then listen to your system. You said it yourself, you have a standing wave problem, but somehow that is the fault of the subwoofer. Counterintuitively you could add another sub to cancel out some of your room modes.

Maybe buy speakers that cost more than your sub. There's a start...

My listening room had similar problems with bass standing waves causing some nasty peaks at certain frequencies. I solved most of these problems with sealed limp membrane pressure bass traps. I used rubber sheet for the membrane and the design equations to calculate the thickness of the membrane and the depth of the trap for each standing wave frequency. I did also used some wide band velocity traps for upper bass and treble absorption. The end result isn't perfect but it's a colossal improvement compared to my original untreated listening room.

No sound treatment, no carpet, wrong size room, wrong placement, and playing from a compressed source.

The problem might be that your seat is too close to the speakers. The room might be too narrow for the T9/x.

you are totally right. The solution given by the rel engineer is that you need to move around the sub to find the best sounding, meaning a location where the there is a balance or less room gain effect to the bass. But how could that be, because its a room, and no matter where u put it, there will always be a room gain. And it sound silly to have spend more money to have room acoustic treatment just to suit that subwoofer into your space. Another way they mention is to reduce the crossover slowly. if the room gain happen at higher bass frequency, this crossover might help to curb it down, but what if the room gain happen at 30hz? or even 50hz like what u have there. lowering down the crossover is just not going to help. Said if you have no choice but to lower the crossover down to 50hz, its like almost cutting off all the frequency from 50hz to 120hz...u basically hear nothing exciting from the sub. The tonality just aint going to be there. In my case, i have the room gain at multiple freq like 30hz and 110hz. so what am i going to do? crossover definately wont going to help, right. so luckily my source is a computer, therefore i am installing the EQ sofware to adjust it from there. But what if the source is from an unconfigurable source...that problem will just stick there forever ... Conclusion DSP is really very important. Rel sub do have that texture in the bass, but without getting the major issue solve, that is still a useless subwoofer at the end.

I'm no expert, but I really feel that a room your size (that is about the same size as mine) you would have done a whole lot better with a T5X or even better a pair. It would have saved you some cash as well. I really think it's way too big for the application. Just my opinion.

What you are gonna do with the room node at 50-55hz... well.. treat your room.. move the sub around to try and cancle the node.. Sad that a good sub get's put down by a bad room and not enough research on how to fix your problem ;)

Even though REL recommends having the subs positioned near the corners preferably behind the standmounts and to be honest I can see why especially after doing several sub crawls but its only after i purchased a partner for my Rel Ti series, that I found they gave me a lot more flexibility and thats not just with positioning but with the integration also. I now have them both positioned near the corners behind my sweet spot (basically out of View) and the best compliment I receive is when friends ask me "how the hell does those small standmounts sound so huge" 😁

The 50-70HZ problem will likely be caused by the 8ft UK ceiling height. Its a common issue with ceilings that height due to the physics of the dimensions and sound waves. Other than Placement and DSP you are totally correct. Deep Treatment would be required to help with a more even response. A room that size your talking minimum 40cm deep bass traps

Mate, guess what I did?! Mind you, I have the t9i’s, so I got 2 of them. They helped a lot. In your room, I would recommend two t7x’s. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. I still prefer DSP free subs though.

This guy is breathtakingly dim 😮

I think that you might have needed to raise the crossover rather than lower it. Hear me out, your dip is likely due to there being a gap between the Rel highest frequencies and the lowest frequencies of the Monitor audio Studios. By raising the crossover, you would narrow the gap. After doing so you might have to adjust gain.

Easiest test is a couple of area rugs to absorb some of the sound. Maybe, maybe not. Finding the sweet spot/settings is sometimes a challenge. Enjoy the ride. 😊

Always try moving it a few inches from the wall or closer to the wall till you find what sounds best

Surely this is a room issue with specific frequencies, not a subwoofer problem for highlighting it ? I.e Fix your room and you wont get any frequency spikes ? And surely even if you don't and go with a DAC (Adjusted with the appropriate changes for your room) going into your Amp and sub this is not going to affect your latency. I use a RME-ADI-2 DAC and it introduces no noticeable latency. I have a REL 5Tx and It has transformed my system completely even with small spikes that you highlight. I have always seen Subs as a band aid to speakers which should do a better job, but there are very few speakers out there which go low enough to not require a sub at all. In terms of alternatives I also have several other sub brands like SVS and they are so laggy and out of time for money I am definitely glad I went with the REL. Everything with HIFI seems to be a compromise you just have to pick the right combo which gives you the right compromises.

If you want to use minidsp you can without introducing relative delay to the sub. Just add it to the chain so everything goes through it (for example between source and dac). In fact this is the only way to do it as it works in the digital domain. Any delay introduced by it will affect both speakers and sub. This is a non problem.

If you are going to critique any piece of equipment you need to set it up the way the manufacturer recommends or it won't sound correct. RELs are made to be placed in a corner. No freaking Yamaha ( mass producer of all kinds of electronics and a myriad of other products ) sub is going to be better than even this entry level REL. I hope you explain what speaker level connectors actually do in your other video, REL implements it in a way that is correct ( can't speak to the other examples you mentioned ). I'll leave it at that but could have way more to say concerning this video.

You really should invest in some sound absorbing panels before buying any more equipment.

Did anyone ever looked inside at the bracing and cabinet thikness of the TX series?! Can´t find any information online...with so many REL subwoofers around it´s strange because it´s only removing a few screws 🤷

Put your woofer where you sit, and then get on your hands and knees a find a spot where 50 - 60hz is the quietest; put your sub there.

Room placement is key, DSP isn't gonna help you.

Great points/counterpoints regarding DSP/non-DSP. I search out and enjoy these vids from common folk perspectives...myself, I am leaning towards 2 lesser quality subs (than Rel), with DSP, and DiRac for my AVR. I also only have 3 possible spots to put 2 subs, room treatments aren't gonna happen, so I think I need all the software assist that I can get.

I cant see any problem with this sub. You have problem with your room. Try to set your speakers on short wall and then try it

don't know if you are aware of this, bu having a rectangular room and positioning the speakers on the long side of the room can make you end up in the spot where the bass is just too strong. so using the short walls would enable you to find more comfortable bass. I tried this with a pair of tower speakers. the result was going from too little to too much, however it is good when you have a sub

Sir, do you know nothing of room acoustics and what one must do to adjust for them? First I'd suggest a lovely thick oriental rug on your floor. A big one. Next a couple ceiling panels and bass traps in your corners. More cushy furniture will help too. Speaker placement is not even almost enough! A big thumbs down on your poorly considered video. Please watch a few RU-vids on adjusting for room acoustics. You may find it lifechanging.

Why does your room have only one wallpapered wall? Did you spend all your money on the sub?

Love your videos, I'm looking to use a subwoofer for music only. I have one in the car and it makes a huge difference. I've ordered a powernode and a pair of LS50 Meta's, when they arrive, i'll probably add the SB1000 pro based on your recommendation, thanks again !

I am not certain however, moving the sub to a different location or possibly traps may help?

I mean.. that's quite a big sub for a small, untreated room with hardwood floors and no rug. Do you have curtains?

Heard the Rel subwoofer back in the day - wich is a nice sub, but i ended up purchase the Morel sub-10x. Endgame subwoofer for me.

I have a pair of larger RELs G1-MK2 so I am very familiar with the SW. What is your xover point on the subs? On mine, in a crappy room (I had not much to choose from in this house) I have the crossover set at 27hz. I've used an SPL meter and I can assure you the REL isn't adding anything in the 50hz area. I'd bet the REL i's down at least 12db there based upon a 27hz setting. Your issue is your mains don't play low enough. Your speakers have 4" drivers and are down 6db at 50hz. My subs are paired with 3-way speakers with 8" woofers. You can't easily integrate 4" drivers with a REL sub or any high quality sub. Buy bigger main speakers or set the REL crossover lower (I'd try 35hz) and see how that sounds.

you could cut out (trim down) that part with the DSP EQ section of your audio streaming software (Roon, JRiver Media Center)

Nice review, but I don't know why you refer to the high-level input as "high pass". High-pass is a filter that allows frequencies above the set high-pass frequency to pass and at the same time blocks the low frequencies from passing, therefore it is a feature that relates to satellites or subwoofers that offer a high-passed output to feed active satellites or power amplifiers that drive satellites. What this REL subwoofer has, is a High-Level input, i.e. an input that will accept speaker-level signal when your amplifier doesn't have a subwoofer output or pre-outs. Also this REL subwoofer, like most regular consumer subwoofers, despite the label on the dial, doesn't actually have a "crossover", it only has a Low-pass filter, and in a two-channel set-up where you feed the sub through the high-level input, or through line level input from a preamp, you can only adjust the low-pass frequency of the sub. The satellites do not get high-passed (unfortunately) unless your amplifier has that feature.

I think when looking at their specs your room would be considered small. A medium room is around 400 sq ft. Or 37.2 sq meters.

I know the problem, i have that problem on 40hz, 15db higher than 50hz i have ht1205, but without minidsp it's really no hearing, i tuned with REW and minidsp, my room is 8.60 meters, and guess what, 40hz is also around that length, with minidsp it sounds very tight deep and in time 😁💪

1. That's too much sub for your room. 2. Rel recommends that the sub be in a corner. Yours isn't there. 3. Did you use the High level inputs? Do that because that is what you do to get the fast response.

All I see is you need a much smaller sub that is far too big for your room

Is it ported block the port up and turn it round facing the wall you might want to put it out of phase. for music listening the Wharfedale sw150 is a great subwoofer £150 get 2 10 inch driver seal design

what was the model of Yamaha sub you mention you tested last year?? thank you

It's not the right sub for that room or those speakers. It was doimed to fail before you even started

I actually get the situation you are trying to depict. You didn't state whether you tried all possible locations in the room though. This scenario applies more towards 2-channel stereo setups. At $1250USD(current cost of this T9X), they'll typically start off with one sub. Everyone's room is different and in your case, one sub without any DSP functionality did not help achieve "integration." So how the heck can someone reduce the 50z or other peaks in their room with no DSP? Obviously this may be different for people using AVR receivers with built-in DSP or stereo systems with room correction / DSP capabilities. Here's a simple thought: If I spend thousands $$$ of dollars on gear, I'd try to learn the basics of even just simple measurements to understand what the system is doing in my space using something like a UMIK-1 for $100. I too was in the market for compact subs due to space constraints and compared the RELs vs SVS subs. The newer SVS subs with built-in app-controlled DSP give one more flexibility. It's not perfect but if I can flatten the signal using the limited DSP, it's a major win before having to go into more complicated solutions like separate room correction / DSPs.

No response and my comment deleted? Really bro?

Can you review the Tekton 4-10? It's cheap for what you're getting. As the name implies, it has four 10" woofers. 😳

Hello everybody I own this subwoofer and I absolutely love it the best sounding subwoofer I have ever heard in my life I has subwoofers for as much as $4000 but this is my favourite one thing was wondering I noticed the light on the back never turns off which means I think the subwoofer never goes on sleep when it's not in use does it mean I have to turn it on and off every time or can it be left like that please help me with this thank you.

You should move your couch closer to your TV and speakers

Hi, I would like to advise you on few things. Put a pad or small square shaped carpet under the Rel subwoofer as you have hard flooring right below that passive radiator. Then make sure you connected the cables to the exact terminals that Rel recommends on their web site and videos because according to the type of amp or receiver you have you the terminals you should connect to could be different. And finally speak to Rel customer services they give great advice on these kind of issues.

You‘re wrong! You need better Speakers. T9x is to much for your tiny room man…🤷🏻‍♂️

You need the right tool for the job, not to blame something for being specialized. The direct connexion is really the best for me.

Just received my pair of freshly built XXLS400 sealed 12-inchers from BK Electronics in a gorgeous veneer in the color of my choice. Shipping hurt me a little because I live off the beaten path (I'm nowhere near the UK), but overall I probably paid about similar money to this REL for two 12-inchers with impeccable fit and finish. I'm still setting up the room after a floor reno so I've literally not been able to fire them up yet but I'd be shocked if a single one of mine wouldn't beat this REL. Just going to print out four custom flexible TPU pads per sub on my 3D printer to anchor them against the hardwood a bit better and I'll be good to go. Bonus is that these don't look like "boy racer specials" like some SVS SB 2000 (non-pro) which I was considering first. No hideous metal grills here. I bought sealed on purpose - I want that tighter more musical presentation.

Have you ever tried British made BK Electronics woofers? They are supposed to be really good quality for the money, I have got one, but I have never compared it to anything else.

I just must not have the ear you do. I just dont hear it. I have a T7x. Not sure if the smaller driver makes a difference in this example but it sounds great the me. Thinking of getting another to make a pair. The light I do wish you could disable but its nothing a peice of electrical tape can’t fix.

I wonder if that peak in the higher range is why it’s supposedly so good for “ music “?

Are you sure the passive radiator is not tuned to 50hz? Maybe that’s the issue.

I’m stunned by the venom and rage in these comments

looks like you have the yamaha receiver, so i wanted to know for the REL hilevel connection, did you connect the neutrik black wire to the speaker tap (-) terminal or leave it disconnected ?

Huh? It's connected to the front outs of a surround system? Did you set the fronts to "Large", or are they rolled off? You connect the LFE out from the surround system to the REL T9x LFE IN (RCA) AND you connect to the front speaker outputs too (as in also). Yep.

Even though I've done a complete home theatre overhaul, if there's one thing (or rather two things) that I wasn't gonna part with, was my rel t5i subwoofers. Absolutely love how they fill my entire room up with the low-end and that's almost all parts of the room! In fact I've made a video and i happen to have a little walkaround and you can pick up of what they sound like from all parts of the room... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xvdqI5qZa6g.html

Not a good set up. Not doing REL any favors here. Very amateurish camera work.

SVS SB3000, all of sound profiling built in, sadly no high pass

Speaker-level/high-level connections won't solve for phase issues caused by the speaker crossover, so you'll still need to be able to configure phase in a more sophisticated manner than the REL will allow you because it only gives you 0 and 180 of phase. I believe this is unacceptable for a product at this price-point. There are much better options that do more and cost less. I've posted a similar comment on other REL reviews of the Tx series but with REL you're paying for their marketing budget and brand name, not performance much less value.

Dude, you're reading my mind :D Still debating which sub would be good for 60% music and 40% movies :D Thought about T9i for £550 with full UK warranty or perhaps? What are your thoughts, please? I know you have or had Dali Opticon 6 so need something to match them and my Yamaha ASA3000/CDS3000 amp/DAC combo

This is an entry level in rel

What is the Yamaha sub model ?

I've had one. Very good sub. But....surely overpriced.

Love when people expect the sub to fix all their room acoustic issues,lol.

Rel is analog subwoofer in the world of digital (dsp) subwoofers. As such has limitations as such it’s engineering needs better construction to get the sound they get where dsp subs can getaway with way worse construction. To me it’s more directed towards hifi users not Home theater people. AVRs are capable with room correction and don’t need high pass. HT predator 1510 is interesting though even though doesn’t extend low.

I Have Monitor Audio gold 200 and SVS SB16 Ultra , Parasound Halo 6 Integrated + chord qutest DAC for stereo. Sound is very good and sub is really fast . But in HT system SVS really show up . SVS sb16 ultra is 2,5k brand new but picked one years old on ebay for 1,4k . Rel is nowhere worth 1400£ in my opinion 500-600quid meybe only for music because in HT sub is very weak and not going LOW

So I understand there are subs that are overpriced but what sub do you recommend for 8 inch sealed that is almost as good as the tel. Sq is priority for me not so much spl

Move the REL.

Ur problem is that wooden floor...!..sit it on a rug and do another review

You sre going to test subwoofers all your life long. Room + liquid garbage music = awful results

I was disappointed when I heard the rel t9x, for the price I'm sure you can do a lot better. If you shop around you can match the performance for half the price

Why t9x? Why not t7x? I went down in size and had better sound and less spiking. Otherwise you need room treatment.

I agree with you, REL Tx line is way overbranded... REL is written on the sub twenty (20) times... really! And it does in fact move/crawl/walk around the floor. I had T7x and the JL Audio E110. The JLA is simply better than the REL Tx for music and much better for HT. In my opinion,, REL TX line is overpriced and overated!

Didn’t BK electronics used to make Rel subbys

This is a small sub with small woofers that doesn’t get loud or go low, but it’s tight? How is this impressive? I never saw the appeal of REL.

Room treatment from specialist, I think. Maybe better stands for the speaker?

You really need DSP in that crappy little room. Wow you Brits like your near-field listening.

Love ya

At last someone says it loud. A "subwoofer" that plays from 45Hz. Bollocks! It's an active woofer in fancy cabinet with internal amplifier. If it doesn't play loud at 20Hz it's not a SUBwoofer. So much "vooodoo" in audio industry and those REL overpriced products are perfect example.

I think you set set up properly before you try to make a video my friend, being a musician doesn’t qualify you to make this video, your way out mate

I bought my T9i new in 2016 for £899. Fucking couldn't believe they are wanting £1299 for a new T9X now. Jeez man. Happy with my T9i great video buddy

Ooh dear!!! Heat sink is nice !? Lol

I think that the combination of RU-vid and your mic isn't a great way to make your point with these kind of things, and then I'm not even talking about the equipment that people at home have to reproduce what you're hearing in real life. I have for example 2 big Infinity studio monitors with 15 inch woofers and I built an active subwoofer using a Rockford Fosgate 12 inch woofer so I have a considerable amount more bass here in my room than you have in your room and I can't hear the difference when you play the single tone with increments of 5 Hz in the volume, here in my room the volume stays exactly the same. There are too many variables, especially with this sort of subjects regarding sound there's just no way that anyone watching this video is hearing the same thing as you do in real life in your room with your audio setup, that's not even possible if someone has the same room with the same audio setup because you only have one mic, then your software does something to the audio, then RU-vid does its thing, then you have all the variables of the setups that people are using to listen and watch your video. Can you see the problem and the point I'm trying to make?

Rel Like To Call It A Sub Bass Speaker