REL’s Mid-Century Miracle
The PL-1 and PL-2 subwoofers
$2,499 PL-1, add $399 for Premium Wood grille.
$3,299 PL-2, add $499 for Premium Wood Grille.
Cart $299
If you’ve been around long enough to remember the iPad launch, do you remember what most people said when they used one for the first time? “I didn’t know I needed one of these, but I do.”
The REL PL-2 subwoofer is like that. Just so you know where my bias is, to be fair, I use REL subwoofers in four of my six systems. 19 in total. (Three six-pack arrays, and their new S/850 by itself.) We all like bass, but not everyone has room for the big box.
Bam, that’s where the PL-2 comes in. Now, if you’re just looking at specs, the PL-2 is down 6dB at 24 Hz, but listening to a pair of PL-2s in REL’s showroom in Northern California (with a modest but excellent system set up to perfection in REL’s listening room, by John Hunter), it’s clear after about 15 seconds, these are real RELs. After listening to their tracks, I’m left to my own devices for the rest of the day to investigate music I know. Having been in this room numerous times, I’m very familiar with this system.
Listening begins with a pair of PL-2s on their Planar Carts – inspired by one of Hunter’s trips to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, allowing a wide range of placement options. Ideally, close to the walls, to make room gain your friend. Don’t let the printed spec fool you. Like BMW and its renowned 6-cylinder M Edition engines, REL always publishes specs that are more conservative than what they deliver.
Should the cart not be exactly your cup of tea, they also make a wall-mount system that helps you mount one or more PL subwoofers up off the ground. More about that later.
Why not in-wall?
When I ask Hunter why they haven’t chosen the obvious path for this product, he smiles and says, “Because every room rattles. That, and as many of you who’ve done your own home renovation projects know, wall studs aren’t always set 16 inches apart.”
So rather than build another in-wall sub, REL chose to make the Planar, or PL series. The PL-1 uses a pair of 6.5” main drivers, and the PL-2 uses an 8” main driver. Both use a 10” passive to augment bass response. The PL-1 has a claimed low frequency response of -6dB at 31Hz in room, and the PL-2, 24 Hz.
Speaking of setup
The 45-pound PL-2 comes with everything you need to install on your wall. Like REL’s top subs, it can be connected to line-level outputs from your preamplifier, or via REL’s Speakon connector to speaker outputs. However, in the interest of compactness and keeping the system clean, they have built the PL-2 with a built-in AirShip Direct wireless system, and that’s how I listened to them all day. If you’re not already familiar with REL’s wireless approach, they’re incredible with zero audible delay.
Only about 6 inches deep, and about 26 x 19 inches in size, your audiophile subconscious might be whispering, “uh-oh, lifestyle product. Why PL-2? Hunter says, “We have a smaller PL-1 that is just the ticket for medium-sized floorstanders and quality stand mounted monitors. It’s crisp, fast and has beautiful balance in smaller rooms and systems. But your room at home is huge Jeff, so we wanted to share a system that could work properly with larger gear like that users like you are used to.”
Having been to the REL room a number of times, and sharing Hunters’ vision of what sound should sound like, it’s much easier to teleport to REL for a couple of days, rather than trust the subs to transit. Suffice to say it’s set up to perfection, albeit with nothing over the top in terms of gear, so the presentation is very real-world.
It’s a combination of new and old, with a Conrad-Johnson PV-12 preamplifier, Premier 5 stereo power amplifier, and a pair of Franco Serblin Accordo Essence speakers. Digital is supplied by a HiFi Rose DAC/streamer.
More listening
Going back to a favorite audiophile classic, Dave Grusin’s “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow,” is so much fun because the acoustic bass playing is so plucky and quick, it accentuates the strengths of the PL-2s. The two here at REL’s sound room are up against the wall, sporting the latest wood-slat grilles (which designer John Hunter says add to the overall sonic picture and prefers you leave on) and looking more like something you might see at Design Within Reach than an audio salon.
Giving the bass a back seat (for a second)
A big part of what REL brings to the table is the quality of the bass they serve up. Adding a REL, any REL to your system brings a level of musicality, depth, and texture to the presentation you might not even have known was there in the first place. You need to go no further than to unplug a REL sub (or subs) once they’ve been fully set up and integrated into your main system to see what you’re missing. Using their Airship all it took was a couple of seconds to tap buttons on the subs and they instantly fell silent. In addition to the loss of sheer low-frequency resolution that’s no longer there, the sense of three-dimensionality that was there only seconds ago is now greatly diminished.
The title track from John Klemmer’s Cry is an unlikely track for showing off a subwoofer’s capability, but when the RELs are removed from the system, this echoplexed, processed sax loses a lot of the spatial characteristics that make this recording so special. And when Klemmer drops down fast and hard on the pads, the sheer energy is lacking if the subs are turned off. Tap the switches, and it all returns.
The Beatles aren’t generally known for powerful bass lines in their tunes, but the compact RELs capture the pace of McCartney’s playing in an incredibly convincing way. The bass line at the beginning of “Strawberry Fields Forever” stays firmly anchored, while revealing plenty of tone and texture – never a one-note bass presentation. That’s what makes it so musical.
Should you think that a mere 8-inch driver and a 10-inch passive is not a real REL, the program material only needs to change to some old-school hip-hop. Tracking through Public Enemy’s Yo! Bum Rush the Show reveals all the cred you need to prove these compact subs can deliver.
#itsnotjustaboutbassbruh
Remember that one? What REL always delivers is detail in the lower registers like nothing else we’ve ever experienced. The new PL-2 has an uncanny way of disappearing in the room, especially considering the fact that it is against the wall. You might find yourself thinking, “This can’t possibly work,” but it works brilliantly.
Even listening to cuts from Thomas Dolby, the Crash Test Dummies, or Parliament, all tracks featuring loose, whumpy bass lines to begin with, it’s impossible to hear where the main speakers end, and the sub begins. It just feels like the Serblin speakers go way deeper than they used to. That’s subwoofer success. If you hear it as a separate entity, you’re doing something wrong.
Moving on to the more spirited and sophisticated bass playing on Jaco Pastorius’ self-titled debut, it plays even further to the RELs’ strength. Hearing the deftness with which these monster bass riffs are delivered is one thing on my reference six-pack array of REL carbon specials, but to have this small box not only nail the essence of the track but also a lot of the weight and drive is incredible.
Heading down a long list of EDM tracks, really exploring just how deep this small sub can go, reveals surprise after surprise. Again, this is a real REL through and through. We hit some 100–105dB peaks during this presentation, though it felt like more. The lack of distortion these subs deliver is incredible.
Getting heavy with Sleep’s “Dopesmoker” again highlights the REL’s ability to add texture, depth, and feel to the region between mid and low bass. With the subs engaged, the presentation opens up, and more layering is present on the highly distorted guitars, giving them so much more presence.
And if you’ve ever seen Sleep perform live, you know the body-compressing, wall of bass they deliver. With the system turned up, the RELs push me back in the chair with ease. Fantastic.
Commitment?
In case permanent attachment makes no sense (and hey, it’s 2026, who wants to be permanently attached?) REL supplies a cool trolley that is stylish AF. Hunter makes a point of mentioning here that the wheels on said cart have a bit of resistance, so you can make minute placement adjustments for better integration, should you choose to use your PL-2 in this regard. Either way, you might just want one to figure out where you will put your PL-2 if wall mounting is your thing.
That said, if you can mount your REL Planar subs on the wall, you’ll achieve even better bass response and easier integration, combined with more of the feel you get from the larger models. To show me how wall mounting transforms the nPlanars, Hunter flipped my seat around where he had mounted an identical pair of Planar PL-2’s to the rear wall of the room. Impressive as they were on the carts (close to the wall), the two PL-2s wall-mounted on the other side of the room delivers even more. Returning to all the tracks from earlier in the day further develops the bass’s character. The way low frequencies swell up from the rest of the system reminds me very much of the six-pack arrays I have in two of my own reference systems.
Making it look easy
Adorable as the PL-2 looks, the engineering and execution required to make it as elegant as it is required REL to pull everything out of their knowledge bank and take a step forward.
They come standard with case-matching cloth grilles, or for an upcharge, they can also be fitted with the wooden slats you see on REL’s latest premium subs. Hunter interjects how much is involved to build and randomize the wood slats. “This is all handwork, and an individual grille takes about 7 hours to make – start to finish. We were very specific as to how the strips are selected and the assembly process.” Equal care and attention is paid to every detail, from the module controlling the volume control down to the wheels on the cart.
If you’re already a REL fan, you know that attention to every single detail is standard procedure.
The REL Planar subwoofers are a very unique product, designed and optimized to maximize space, and to offer augmented low-frequency response where you might not have thought it possible. They succeed on every level. And, you can take them with you when you move! -Jeff Dorgay. (Photos courtesy of REL)
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