My RLS Experience - long & summarized

[Nikuk 1]

Weds, Nov. 2nd I received the RLS-12" for the demo ring.

I'll start with the summary, because there is alot of typing and I know alot of people don't want to read it all.

In the end, and IN MY OPINION:

The RLS is an awfully impressive driver. The output of this thing is downright impressive. As more then one "well known" engineer has said, You don't need 40 Newton Meters of force to make a driver strong. It also seems that the early estimates (based on driver spec's) are correct - this is not much of an In-Car driver. I was expecting this as well, but was hoping to be surprised.

The LMT motor design itself seemed to come together awfully well. The driver stood up to full power & then some. I drove the driver far over it's thermal rating (which I do not suggest nor is it recommended by the manufacturer), and the whole while the driver sounded CLEAN. There was never a hint of clipping, or distortion. I'm sure it could be distorted with user error or pure abuse, but You'd be hard pressed to get this driver "dirty" in normal, intelligent usage.

I've heard more then two-dozen subbass drivers in more installs then I could accurately count. With that being said, I'll admit that the "two other flat BL topologies" that I've used are about on par with the LMT design.

Car audio - The RLS has earned itself a spot in my top-5 choices overall. The output & general tone is good enough to beat out ALOT of other drivers.

Home Audio - The RLS is nearly dead even with the Uberwoofer that I have, bear in mind that the TC motored Uberwoofer is a 15" driver to boot.

Overall - I wouldn't spend $500 on it, but if it were in the $350-400 range, I'd be all over it.

1st impressions:

Upon 1st inspection she seemed to be in good shape still.

The suspension has definitely been broken in at this point, and she had peanuts stuffed into every crevice (Noah!), but after ridding the driver of those she stood aweful proud.

I was surprised and the diminutive size of the pole vent, the exposed upper end of the coil looked impressive for sure. All things considered, the driver looks good (basket design aside ).

In my truck:

Specifics (box):

I had initially made up two enclosures that would see duty in my Trailblazer & in my house (entry level Home Theatre):

3.0 (net) cu.ft. sealed. I had 2 lbs of polyfill that I would add later on.

6.0 (net) cu.ft. ported with 96 sq.in. of port (35hz tuning). This would also be knocked down to 60 sq.in. of port (27hz tuning).

Specifics (power):

In my truck: Pioneer Prem. 860 deck, SSF Off, LPF set for ~60hz with 12db/oct rolloff; a pair of Orion 1200D's strapped (~1500 wrms). Saturday I managed to upgrade (thanks to my good friend) to a pair of Autotek MM4k amplifiers, strapped (~7k wrms). I had to borrow (2) batteries as well.

Wednesday night I put the 3.0 sealed into my truck with the (2) Orions. Set everything up with test tones, dmm & clamp ammeter (~950 rms actual @ 50hz 0dB sine).

Went for a ~1.5 hour cruise listening to Lil John, Country, Techno (house & break-beat), and some Rock.

Impressions: She's got alot of output, thats for SURE. The low bass extension is damned impressive. My vehicle inherently kicks in some support in the 25-35hz range (shown in SPL competition) and the RLS ate it right up. The upper end rolloff was very decent. I'm sad to say that overall, the driver was "slow".

After adding 2lbs of polyfill to the box, I gave her a 1/2 hour spin. This didnt help matters. The driver seemed "inaccurate", which was surprising to me.

I swapped in the 6.0 ft 35hz box and reset the amps (~700rms actual) and called it a night.

Thursday I put about 1 hour on this enclosure. It's shear output was even more impressive. I can honestly say that I have not heard many 12" drivers with this much output, and I've heard an install or two. The response DID clean up some - which surprised me. But it still seemed a bit off. The subbass did not blend as well with the midbass in this alignment though.

Thursday night I "plugged" the port down to a 27hz tuning and reset the amps (still ~650rms). I have always felt that anything <32ish hz in car is too low (given the environment). With that being said, I only gave this alignment ~30 minutes of listening. I didn

[jntar 15]

Very well written review Nick. Hopfully it will give others a good idea of what to look forward to.

I also hope to get myself a DIY HT setup, seems that this sub may be what I am/soon to be looking for.

[SoundSplinter 1]

Thanks Nick, for taking the time to test and share your opinion on this driver, and of course for your kind words!

[flakko 1]

awesome honest review

[Supa_c 1]

power ratings...pshhh

Only suckers follow those

Nice review Nick, long but detailed. Much better than short and vauge

[ClinesSelect 0]

Very well thought out and informative review.

[80INCHES 0]

wow..nice review

i plan on getting the rl-s 12 and putting it in a large bandpass box and see what happens

80

[noah katz 0]

"... in normal, intelligent usage"

huh?

[puffah 0]

I have 2 rls12 and I am looking for a ported enclosure design. Nikuk you said you had it in 6 cubic feet. Thats the size I have for both of my boxes. Can you explain the size and length of the port you had it in. Was it a slot port? If I wanted to use percision ports ? How many and what size and length. https://www.parts-express.com/brand/precision-sound/285 Would you suggest the ported over the sealed box with this driver? thanks for your time and advice nathan

[Tirefryr 1,742]

Hey man, I see you posting in these threads that are over 10 years old.  Most of the guys who made these posts are no longer around.  Your best bet to get in contact with them is a private message.  They will get an email notification of the message versus replying to a thread which they probably won't get any notification about.  Just some food for thought.  I think you may even be able to email them directly through the forum as well.