Из журнала Essential HiFi & Home Cinema
"Does REL’s new digital interface lessen the impact of its new sub? Rob Tribe takes a listen
REL Stampede
TRADITION WITHIN THE HOME CINEMA MARKET
is a relatively new thing, after all home cinema has not
been going that long in the UK – if you’ve been in the
market place for 15 years, you were in at the very beginning.
One company that was there when man first brought LaserDisc
back from the US was REL. Since 1990 it has been producing
such impressive subwoofers that not only has it scooped all the
top accolades, it has become so traditional in decent home
cinema systems that it could put up a sign that says ‘REL –
quality bass since 1830’ without many people questioning it.
NXT, one-box solutions, mini-sub/sat systems all have their
places, but speakers were perfected many years ago and
although such developments may make them easier to live with,
they have rarely made them sound any better. REL knows this
well, and yet this year it has decided to make a big change to its
range of room shakers by adding a digital interface to them.
Now, to you and me this really means they are easier to operate,
to REL though it is like someone has asked them to reinvent the
wheel, but this time it better not be round.
That the company has got it right was evident as soon as
we got the all-new Stampede up and running. This sub now
marks the entry point of the ST range, and although physically
smaller than the Strata III, it offers better performance.
In fact its size is one of its plus points; it is not so small that
people won’t take it seriously but it is tall and thin rather than
squat and fat, making placement within limited spaces easier.
It’s a good looker too, and although it only takes one dial to
control the whole thing, it is an attractive brushed steel dial
that sits next to a useful blue LED readout.
When you’ve got it in the right place, and REL recommends
close to the main speakers, preferably in a corner, it is time to
set it up. The digital control makes this a more precise operation,
and what makes it even easier is the remote control which
covers all the major parameters you may want to tweak. Unlike
a lot of other subs, REL designs its models to take both a high
level signal and an LFE signal, and if you follow its setup
procedure you’ll connect the sub to both the main speaker
outputs on the amp and the LFE output. This allows the
subwoofer to compliment your main speakers perfectly when
listening to music in two channels, but also to handle the specific
LFE signals when your amp is processing any multi-channel
format that makes use of the .1 suffix.
Set up properly, the sub is ready to rumble – literally. It is
tight and controlled which is exactly what is needed when
dealing with low bass, and such is the precision of the new
digital interface that if it does start to flap when faced with
something extended down to the depths, the remote makes
it easy to dial out the offending noise. There are also four
memorised settings so you can get it tuned for your favourite
types of listening material, no matter how diverse they are. But
the highest praise we can give to this subwoofer is that it is truly
musical (often a fault of home cinema oriented subs) and with
both 5.1 material off DVD and stereo CDs, it added a fullness to
a system that sounded full and rounded to start with."
Краткий перевод: "Лучшего сабвуфера вам за эти деньги не найти"
