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Equipment: Alpine DVA-9861, IXOS Optical, RCA’s, and wires, Alpine PXA-H701, and an ARC AUDIO 4150 XXK.

First impression: When you first look at the subwoofer the first word that comes to mind is weird. It is small and looks basically made. Then there are a few marketing features on it. The surround is rubber and cone is poly. The dust cap is bulbous with a RE logo on it. The basket has a basic design and is stamped. The mounting flange is also basic with a dense foam barrier for reverse mounting. The terminals are basic also. With its dual 4 ohm VC's I would have liked dual terminals on each side. The motor is small with chrome (why?). All in all the design is basic with a few shortcuts.

Tuning and Installation: I wired the dual 4-ohm version for a 2-ohm load. I am running the power from one channel on my 4150 for 160 watts output to the sub woofer. The speaker is enclosed in a 0.5 cubic foot, sealed MDF enclosure. The test box is sitting in my front passenger floorboard. The box was damped on the mounting surface with B-Quiet Ultimate. The crossover on the H701 was set at 50 Hz. My mid-bass is very capable all the way down to 50 Hz, so why not let them do their job. The subwoofer level control was then blended to my usual reference level.

Listening: For listening material I went to my SQ disc wallet. Read above for what I have. In the days leading up the to Evaluation there were 10 hours of break in time. Per RE Audio the Break-In time needed for this subwoofer is only 4 hours. Prior to listening I put a 40 Hz tone on the sub for 20 minutes to warm it up. I spent over 2 hours of listening to form my opinion. For this test I will give examples of tracks from a few genres.

For Classical I took a trip through my John Williams Greatest Hits CD. There are quite a few heavy drum and low string bass movements in there. First off, the word that comes to mind is muddy. The sub-bass notes in each of the tracks were never clearly defined. The sub-bass "spilled over" into the other instruments and made for a very confusing musical experience.

For Hip Hop I have a few. When I played "Headsprung" by LL Cool J it had very nice authority and extension, however had some added coloration. For "Born to Reign" by Will Smith it perform this fine also, but exhibited some noted coloration. The SPL on both tracks were nice but without good SQ.

For Jazz / R&B I like great bass guitar and nice snappy drum hits. Ramsey Lewis's "People Make the World Go 'Round" has very nice extended low electric bass. This was the best track for the RE8 during the entire evaluation. The RE8 exhibited nice control, however there was a slight bit of unwanted presence during sustained notes of the electric bass. Sade's "Lover's Rock" had great authority however sounded bloated.

For Rock I look for nice bass guitar and drum as well. Heart's "Straight On" is a beautiful drum track example. The RE8 did ok with this track. Breaking Benjamin's "Breakdown" has a nice low growl from the electric bass as well as some nice drum hits. The fullness that this track asks for was executed adequately. The authority was good but not exciting. There are few low rumbles that the RE8 extended down to but not completely.

For examples of music below 30 Hz I listened to Limp Bizkit's "Behind Blue Eyes", "The Vikings" from Pomp and Pipes!, Alicia Keys' "Piano & I", and the famous "Jurassic Lunch" from The Great Fantasy Adventure Album. For these selections the RE8 was able to extend most of the way down but did not completely extend.

After listening I have come to the following conclusion; the RE8 is a SPL subwoofer. I wasn’t impressed with the SQ of this speaker at all. It never blended with the rest of my speakers. It sounded very out of place. However on a positive note I was very impressed at the amount of authority it gave with only 160 watts. The target market of RE Audio is SPL. It definitely meets and exceeds that demand.

So did I find the sub for my front stage? You can make your own determination on this one, and then wait for my comparison and see what my final decision is.