RSL Subwoofer 10e Review

Michael Rogers

April 2024

I have been testing a pre-production model of the Speedwoofer 10e on loan to me for the last two months. I have listened to around 220 hours of music and watched several movies and TV shows utilizing the Speedwoofer as the sole subwoofer in two systems. I am not an expert audiophile, but rather a lifetime musician and budget listener who is focused on sound quality and value.

The home theatre system is a 5.1 Energy Take Classic set, swapping in the RSL Speedwoofer 10e, run by a Denon S500-BT receiver in a roughly ~700sqft living room. The primary listening space and system for music is a ~400 sqft finished shop built around a sound system of a pair of Pioneer SP-FS52 towers, the RSL Speedwoofer 10e, run by the RSL iA255.1 mini receiver. These are not multiple thousand-dollar systems, and I am sure folks will scoff at the components, but they do represent some of the best sound quality for price that I have encountered and serve me very well as an every-day music enthusiast. The Speedwoofer outclasses the other components so intensely in these systems that I am saving to upgrade other components to better fit its outstanding performance for the cost.

Performance and value for the price?

$300 is astoundingly reasonable for this speaker, and is absolutely worth every penny. I simply can’t imagine needing more out of a sub than this for the modest sized home I am in (the living room is in the 700sqft range). I only wish I had one for both my main listening area and my home theatre system. Two in series, perhaps, for a dedicated home theatre would be wonderful, and while I appreciate that a larger sub can move a greater amount of air with less resistance, I never once felt that that the level of base available before distortion was lacking or underwhelming. I had to tighten several pieces of hardware on the opposite side of my home and be careful with the arrangement of items on shelves when testing how far I could push the volume and depth of frequencies with the subwoofer. What constantly astounded me is how the tone of the sub did not overpower the other speakers, it blended surprisingly well with different speaker combinations and still had the reach to hit notes in the 20hz range that I felt throughout the house while still sounding pleasant.

The build quality is superb, it feels absolutely solid with great attention to detail and pleasant finishes, even on a pre-production model. The surround is generous and demonstrated an astounding amount of flexibility when testing low frequencies. I found that the subwoofer easily went into the 110+ decibel range without any distortion whatsoever, and was capable of producing notes down to the low 20hz range before any recognizable deterioration began to occur, and could repeatedly demonstrate notes in the 15-17hz range before dropping off entirely. While my testing was certainly not scientific (utilizing frequency tracks from a streaming service and measuring with a decibel meter on my phone in two different spaces), the published frequency range seems to be accurate and represents a handsomely usable range from 20hz up, truly formidable for a “budget” 10 inch Subwoofer.

How does the Speedwoofer 10e compare to other subwoofers I’ve experienced?

This subwoofer sounds as good, and in almost all cases better than any of the sub-$400 “budget” subwoofers I was able to audition from Klipsch, Polk, and Dayton, including 12in models. I have not had the opportunity to compare it to RSL’s other Speedwoofers, but I have not found anything lacking for movies or music. I could imagine a desire for more if you had a large, dedicated home theatre, but for an average 5.1 system in a living room for movies or a dedicated 2.1 listening space, the Speedwoofer 10e was a pleasure.

The experience with the Speedwoofer for music?

When listening to music, I at first thought it was almost underpowered as my previous subwoofer is rather boomy and very present and forward in the soundstage, regardless of the style of music. However, once the base notes hit in the music the Speedwoofer filled out tracks in a way that is hard to describe as anything other than magical. The blend from the speakers to the Speedwoofer was in most cases seamless, filling out acoustic recordings and providing beautiful reproduction on Yo-Yo Ma and Chris Thile’s Goat Rodeo album. On very base forward tracks, such as Anderson Paak’s, “Come Down,” the clean sound of the base and beautiful reproduction had me actually dancing in my listening space. I appreciate now the ability of a musical Subwoofer to simply fill out a room with base, instead of dominating the other speakers with it. I have found everything from the presence of 808’s in Polyphia’s, “GOAT” to the baseline in “Gravity” by John Mayer to appear in a way I had not appreciated before while not distracting from the overall blend of the music. It’s just as if that instrument appeared fully in a recording space where it had not before.

But, what about Movies?

In preparation for Dune II, I hosted a watch party of the first Done movie utilizing the Speedwoofer as the sole subwoofer in the room, nestled in a corner out of sight by a couch. The dynamic range of the soundtrack in the movie is staggering, and the Speedwoofer performed so well that one individual stood up in the middle of the movie and exclaimed, “this sounds incredible, where is your subwoofer and what is it?” I don’t think I can give it any higher praise.

Things to change or improve?

My only gripe was the auto-on triggering seemed to be sensitive based on the amount of signal power coming to the speaker. At quiet listening volumes, or when the base was minimal in a song the speaker would not consistently turn on by itself, sometimes appearing half-way through a song. As it was repeatable, I assumed this was probably a product of the low-pass filter on either the receiver or the sub, or possibly an issue as a pre-production model. I have not heard of anyone else experiencing this issue since release. As I usually manually turn on my components, this was not much of a problem for my listening.

Would I recommend this model to you?

Absolutely, I both have and will recommend this after such a wonderful experience. I have sent the details of this sub to several friends who love music as I do, and encouraged them to give it a shot as I’ve never experienced something so quality out of a subwoofer. I have been very impressed with RSL products overall, and their commitment to quality while holding value. Creating such a good Subwoofer for less money than their current award-winning subwoofer line showed a really admirable dedication to making beautiful sound affordable for everyone.

Wow! Not only is this the best subwoofer for the price, it's an awesome subwoofer! I'm running a 2.1 set up with the Vanatoo Transparent One speakers in my home office. It's very important to me to have desktop control over my subwoofer. I added a Rolls SX95 subwoofer crossover thats on my desk. The SX95 allows me to adjust the crossover point and sub level depending on the genre of music and how loud I play it. The 10E can be precise and punchy if I'm playing Dirtybird Radio EDM music or can absolutely rattle my windows and desk pressurizing the room if I bump some E40, track Lemme Go. The 10E is a fun sub. Just buy 1 or 2 and enjoy.

My 10E is lovely indeed, RSL!!!! How can a sub 2x+ $$$ sound musically better (head cocked)? Ordered 3/29, dedicated to music. Arrived Chicago 4/5 perfectly pkgd. Paired via RSL wireless T/R to B&W CM5s, Rega P1 and Auris BluMe HD thru Marantz PM6007…sublime. Still

integrating with The 5s, dialing 10E in w/in moderately-sized room standard ceiling height. Exercising my 10E with Young MC’s Bust It & Principal’s Office, Ray Charles’ I Gotta Woman, EWF’s September, Sade’s Never As Good, Merle’s Workin Man Blues, and Perlman’s Vivaldi 4 Seasons…MAGIC. For a 10” the 10E is not intrusive in size and the build and finish are solid RSL-valued quality. I’m super happy Speedwoofer! Can’t wait till I’ve nailed positioning…it’ll only sound even better. Thanks for making well-engineered, great products RSL!

I've had mine for 6 days and I love it. Replaced a sub that went boom very well but not musical like this one. I now have an all RSL system 2.1 configuration in a bedroom. This is high quality gear worth having. Highly recommended.

I received my first RSL product, the Speedwoofer 10E. Didn't know what to expect. I also have a SVS PB1000. I immediately heard a difference in the upper bass section in music. More define and audible. I was missing something and now I can hear it. My first thought was to get another one. I still need to calibrate and smooth things out, but this one is a keeper. It just blends better with my mains.

I've been enjoying listening to music for north of 50 years and I'm certain I still don't know what a true audiophile is. That said, I learned what sounds good to me a long time ago, The only constraints on how much one can spend on music reproduction are disposable income and the risk of alienating your spouse. Hopefully the following will give others a frame of reference. My room is 9x12 with a vaulted ceiling, using Revel 105s, Rega turntable, Sony CD player, all connected to Cambridge Audio CXA81. The Revels sound really good but like many bookshelf speakers sounded a bit thin. That changed yesterday with the arrival and connection of the 10E. For now, all is right with the world and while I may "monkey" with the settings over time, I wonder if things can sound any better. For all of you currently using bookshelf speakers, regardless of brand or cost, there is more music out there. You've paid for it....you might as well hear and enjoy it.

I've only had this sub a day but I am amazed at how clean and accurate the lows are. I replaced a sony sub that was on my near field set up and all i can say is wow, If you're reading through reviews to decide if you should pull the trigger you should 100% do it now before there sold out.

Still got that new speed woofer smell. I ordered two of these on April 1st and received them today, April 5th. I use them to replace a Polk PSW 404 (10") and Polk PSW 505 (12"). I popped on my new favorite reference song for testing audio gear, inclination by Steven Wilson (Ewen Pearson remix) did some tweaking on my emotiva setup and... WOW! Fuggin' A. For a $300 subwoofer these things kick ass. I have two speed woofer 12's in my basement setup So my expectations were pretty high. I don't have that much room up here in my living room so I didn't set them that high but still for these little 15-in boxes these produce some great sounding bass. Excellent work RSL. I'll be recommending these to all my friends and in the various forums I belong to.

Still got that new speedwoofer smell. I ordered these on 4/1 and got them today, 4/5. I replaced a Polk psw 404 10" and psw 505 12". Fuggin' A! Wow! I tweaked out my Emotiva MR1 and (2) BasX A2 setup to my new favorite reference song...Inclination (Ewan McPherson remix)

My Speedwoofer 10E was delivered today, less than a week after ordering. (For reference, I live on the East Coast.) Kudos to RSL for the prompt order fulfilment and shipping. I unboxed and inspected the Speedwoofer and there was no visible damage (the outer shipping box had a small perforation.)

I purchased the Speedwoofer 10E expressly for listening to music. I positioned the Speedwoofer, plugged in the RCA cable and turned on my equipment. (Marantz PM6007 integrated amplifier with fixed low pass subwoofer cutoff frequency of 150 Hz).

Initially I heard no subwoofer output. Once I figured out that the PM6007 only provides the subwoofer mono audio signal via the RCA connection when the speaker set (A) is active the Speedwoofer started producing bass.

The main speakers are Dahlquist M903 (a 2-way front ported design with a 1 inch dome tweeter and a 6-1/2 inch woofer. (These have good soundstage and imaging but I always thought the speakers were a bit thin in the bass.) The sound is thin no more.

I chose two great selections for adjusting the Speedwoofer 10E's output level and fine tuning the phase control. DSOM, Speak to Me and Breathe. (I set the Speedwoofer's output to a little less than 50% output and settled on 9 O'clock on the phase control (whatever degrees that is.)

Spotify has some good rock music subwoofer playlists. Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz was fun. I wanted to hear how the Speedwoofer 10E performed when backing the full acoustic output of an orchestra. I called up Frederick Fennell and the Cleveland Symphonic Winds, Holst: Suites Nos. 1 & 2. What a treat to hear the tympani and big bass drum reproduced with such authority by the Speedwoofer 10E.

I'm definitely keeping the Speedwoofer 10E.

RSL seems to have done it again. I had my heart set on a 10s mkii after reading so much positive sentiment online involving the company and their quality to price ratio. When this was announced it seemed like a no brainier as I did not need the additional inputs/outputs etc for my 5.1 set up. I had a good but not great budget sub before. All I can say is is wow. What a difference. I can't imagine there's sound this good anywhere near this price point. If you're thinking about it just buy it.

I am thrilled with my 10E. I ordered it immediately the day it went on sale, and it arrived the next day (I am fairly close to their office). It sounds amazing. I am using it so far in a 2.1 setup and it is is lovely. This isn't your typical "budget" sub that just gives boomy bass (I purchased a few of those stinkers from others thinking it just might work...it doesn't). This is clean and tight and loud as needed. It has just the right amount of connections and adjustments for my use. Auto-on+off works great so far. It also doesn't suffer at all with build quality, it is solid and feels much more expensive. Once I got it dialed in to my speakers and receiver, the lower end just blends in. I have an SVS 1000 as well and this one is certainly no step down at half the price now (Awesome!!). It will shake the ground if you need it to, and will also add just enough to fill in where needed. Thank you RSL.