REL high level input vs Primare I35

[crisis]

Just taken delivery of a REL T7/x and decided to follow RELs advice of hooking up to the high level inputs from the speaker outputs of my

Primare I35. Although I'm sure I need more tweaking first impressions are positive. I then thought it might be wise to check Primares website to see if this is ok with their amps. Kind of got this the wrong way around.....

It says

"Standard recommended practice is to connect the red subwoofer cable to the positive speaker terminal of one channel, the yellow lead to the positive speaker terminal of the other channel, and the black lead being connected to whichever of the negative or outputs is most convenient.
Note: our recommendation is to always connect the black wire to the ground collar of an RCA plug or the ground post of an XLR and connect to any unused input on the amp or preamp, rather than using the negative speaker output.
However, certain amplifiers’ speaker output topologies, including some from Primare, prevent the use of this connection scheme, particularly with a single subwoofer, resulting in the standard high-level connection scheme not providing the correct signal to the subwoofers.
In those instances where the standard high-level connection scheme is not an option, the most obvious alternative is to use low-level connection from the pre-amplifier output of the integrated amp or preamplifier, allowing for excellent performance."

 

whoops.

 

 

it goes on -

"Below are listed the recommended connection schemes for Primare amplifiers:

I15/I25/I35/A35.2/I32/A34.2
One sub-bass system: use stereo low-level pre-amp output connection."

 

So I assume they are recommending a mono channel level input... Thing is it currently sounds very good and I am inclined to continue using it as i have it set up with the only concern that it might damage something. Also I would assume they know what they are talking about so what is actually the problem if it sounds good?

Any thoughts?

 

 

[almikel]

On 16/10/2024 at 10:13 PM, crisis said:

So I assume they are recommending a mono channel level input... Thing is it currently sounds very good and I am inclined to continue using it as i have it set up with the only concern that it might damage something. Also I would assume they know what they are talking about so what is actually the problem if it sounds good?

Any thoughts?

Hi Phil,

 

if it sounds good - stay with it!...

...if you were damaging something, you would hear it!

 

Rel have built their reputation on using the high level "speaker input" to their subs as being the best option for great integration between mains and sub.

This approach can introduce issues with some amps - specifically amps that use "bridging" in the output stage, where the negative terminal of the amp speaker output is not connected to the earth/neutral of the amp's power supply.

 

I disagree with Rel's approach - IMHO a low level connection between mains and sub with an appropriate Xover is preferable to achieve the best integration between main speakers and subs...

...but it you're happy with how it sounds - all good!

 

cheers,

Mike

[crisis]

I posted on a Primare FB site and someone provided me with the solution. REL have a recommendation for D class to use the high level + and use a line out RCA to the sub for the -. Works perfectly.