REL Acoustics HT/1205 MKII - Subwoofer

The HT/1205 MKII sets a new performance standard for affordable home theater subwoofers. Eschewing electronic gimmicks in favor of carefully balanced priorities; right-sized, solidly braced, and beautifully finished cabinets. A gleaming new amplifier design effortlessly delivers 500W into an all-new 12" (300mm) CarbonGlas™ driver. The new, sexy black lacquered top plate features a subtle REL logo floating on top, while the expensive, grained black composite cabinet has a professional look.

Rethink what is possible
HOME THEATER PERFORMANCE

The HT Series is specifically designed to meet the challenge of creating pure, exceptionally dynamic, and affordable powered home theater subwoofers. The HT/1205 MKII is the ideal combination of a lightweight, modern 12" CarbonGlas™ driver (300mm) paired with a powerful, cool-running 500W Class D amplifier for extraordinary dynamics. In-house, we developed specially tuned home theater input filters that produce extremely flat bass up to 20kHz.

We set out to build the loudest and relatively compact 12" unit available for pure home theater use, and at a truly attractive price. You'll be the judge of how well we achieved this goal, but the critics are already lining up to write reviews. We believe the HT/1205 MKII is destined to become a modern classic with its slim cabinet dimensions, finished in an attractive yet purposeful black-grained aluminum look and topped with a beautifully polished 12mm thick top that serves to dampen vibrations on the cabinet's critical upper surface.

For REL owners who already appreciate our Reference, S-Series and T/i subwoofers designed for both 2-channel and theater use, the HT/1205 MKII is designed to complement the .1/LFE output of their system to produce extremely high output for chest-thumping home theater special effects.

Exterior design
The beautiful new cabinets are custom-built; they feature new textures, proportions, and finishing touches never before seen in the category. The shorter, more elegant cabinets borrow proportions from our new Reference models. Over the years, our experiments have determined that this translates to a faster, deeper bass presentation, all while looking stunning. Your eye is immediately drawn to the top panel, whose surface is finished entirely with 5 layers of hand-polished black lacquer. A discreet REL logo floats within the top layer of lacquer, while the body of the cabinet is clad in horizontally grained composite. The whole thing feels expensive, bespoke, and tastefully understated. Plus, you can stylishly pair it with both the T/x Series and S Series in large, fully immersive REL HT/3D™ configurations.*

Drive like you mean it
The HT/1205 MK II's driver is a 12" (300mm) CarbonGlas™ structure as it always has been, but all of its components have been strengthened. It's improved in both large and small ways, allowing it to deliver the highest possible performance. Lightweight, stiff, and quiet, the combination of fiberglass primary cones with real carbon fiber hubcaps results in an affordable yet piston-like cone. Larger, more powerful magnets produce more energy. Improved suspension designs control the HT/1205 MKII's output to the limits of both the amplifier and the driver. The result is insane output, while the HT/1205 MKII remains fast and smooth.

Now listen to this!
Amplifiers do the heavy lifting in a theater subwoofer. We turned to a truly top-tier amplifier supplier to build our latest project for us—they didn't disappoint. They included thicker boards, improved power supplies, and did everything necessary to create a brutally powerful amplifier with remarkable longevity. Plus, MOSFET power modules rated at 800 watts mean this amplifier is only cruising at its rated power of 500 watts. It produces truly impressive sound. While theater gets all the headlines, the big secret of the HT/1205 MKII is that it sounds sublime in music applications. Big and robust, it's sure to become an instant classic.

PerfectFilters™: Where it all begins – Amplifier

REL input filters are renowned throughout the audio world. They combine ultra-fast crossovers, boost filters that extend the flatness of deep bass, and explosive-sounding built-in limiters. This compact set of analog circuits is REL's secret sauce for both music and movie sound. Refined in this second generation, the sub-filters are much higher frequency, making the thinning of the air in an explosion sound much more realistic. Additionally, our latest circuitry includes an all-analog subsonic filter that starts at 8 Hz to minimize the effects of soundtrack infra-noise that extends well below the driver's resonance point. The result is incredible power delivery with the ability to reproduce all the way to the driver's limit without distortion.

Wired for sound: HT-Air
Wiring for sound used to mean long sets of cables strewn across the floor. With our optional HT-Air™, great sound just got "unwired." The cable has been replaced with a small transmitter and matching receiver that sends an incredibly fast 5.8 GHz wireless signal up to 60 feet without digital compression. This cost-effective circuitry includes the same LSIC chip that powers our cutting-edge AirShip II, without the expensive analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The HT-Air is perfect for .1/LFE signals using RCA connectors, which is the primary mission of the HT/1205 MKII.