We have a fine tradition in the UK of the genius/nutter inventor. UK inventive genius is special. Yet sometimes a tragic rot sets in when a charismatic company, headed by such a creative genius, gets bought out by a bigger fi rm that wants the brand name but ultimately doesn't understand the product. Soon it is common knowledge that the only versions of certain products worth having were from the previous era of manufacturer. This is rampant amongst electric guitars in particular.

So it was with mixed feelings that I learned that Richard Lord, REL's fabulously entertaining and gentle genius, was no longer to have direct design input into REL subwoofers, and that, indeed, the outfit had been sold to a big far-flung company. Part of me wishes one of my heroes the single most comfortable and spoiled-rotten retirement that any man ever deserved... and the selfi sh part of me was gutted - the most profound and deep-dropping subwoofer brand in my world was plainly screwed.

I have never been more grateful to be wrong. For one, new owners Sumiko seem aware of what they have bought, and in no way are the fl agship Stadium, Studio and Stentor 'ST' subs going to do anything other than continue to be made to the same manufacturing standards. Secondly, this new R-Series of subwoofers is the result of a project that was being worked out from long before Richard Lord was presented with a set of slippers.

The only trick that REL never cracked was how to make a good subwoofer cheaply. It tried with Tsunami and the smaller Q series. However, despite not being cheap, (my test sub bass system is a grand's worth) it is a lot less expensive than the resident £2.5k Stentor and yet comes close to its performance. It also brings a whole new design look to play.

A sealed box with powerful internal 500W class D amplifi er and sexy control box fi xed underneath, this new REL stands upon solid aluminium feet. You get a phono connection for the LFE channel, a separate phono socket for using with a non-crossed-over signal to go via the internal crossover and a Neutrik Speakon. This last takes speaker level signals from the front pair of speaker's terminals and collects all the bass the surround sound engineer neglects to put in the 'point one' channel. As both speaker and signal level operate simultaneously, you theoretically get the best of both worlds. REL was the fi rst to do this and the technique is now emulated by at least one other bassmaking brand.

The control box is mounted underneath, connected by a screw-in multipin, and the knobs sit behind frosted glass. You get a gain level knob for each of the levels of input, so that one's for the Speakon and one for the phono. The crossover point selection, between 25 and 100Hz, is offered on the only other knob. Other than that, there's the phase 0-180º switch.

The grille is huge - as it needs to cover a thick paper-coned driver that can leap a decent distance right out of its box - yet the 500W class D amplifi er manages not to need external fi nnage to cool it.