This review marks the end of my subwoofer journey. This is ‘it’ for me – there are perhaps subwoofers that go deeper than the REL Habitat 1 (some of which I’ve tested), but none that combine the Hab’s ease of connection, discreet installation and just general all-round ‘rightness’. For now, at least, the subwoofer game is over, and someone else will carry the subwoofin’ baton now.

As the name might suggest, the Habitat 1 is designed for integration into the domestic habitat. I’m not one for ‘Wife Acceptance Factor’ (I find the term somewhat sexist and derogatory, and my long-suffering wife has to put up with a room filled with bits of hi-fi and a hallway filled with cardboard boxes so frequently that the term has no functional meaning, chez Sircom), but a subwoofer can be a big, square box too far in the domestic-harmony stakes. The last one I tested ended up being in the ‘perfect storm’ position, making it almost impossible to access the last third of the room without knee damage, and being the cat equivalent of an aircraft carrier for launching animals into shelf units, with disastrous – yet entertainingly predictable – consequences. A blanket ban on anything that low and square ensued. And yet, the additional bass depth and imaging improvements to the mid and top that a sub brings to the party is sorely missed.

The Habitat 1 solves these problems. It’s a box, the length, breadth and depth of a small central-heating radiator, and is designed to be bolted to a wall, so it looks like a radiator with a speaker grille. The top panel has a set of basic subwoofer controls (high- and low-level settings, roll-off point of the speakers and a phase switch), to blend performance with a speaker system and all it needs is a nearby 13A plug. Where it gets clever is it also comes with a little white box that connects to the system, and wirelessly talks to the subwoofer. So, that other great no-no in audio – the long black cable draped across the floor – isn’t a problem. The ‘Longbow’ wi-fi controller also has a toggle switch to pair sub to hub, but it will auto detect line-level, LFE or speaker level outputs. If your DIY skills are up for the task, the mounting bracket template means you should have the sub on your wall inside of an hour (remember to attach the IEC cable before you ‘offer up’ the Hab 1, or you’ll be scrabbling round the skirting board, and swearing may occur), and you’ll integrate speaker to sub soon after. There is an optional floor mount if wall hanging is out of the question.

There is nothing to this layout that hasn’t been covered at length in any review of a subwoofer, in a hi-fi or even a home cinema magazine. There is a slight advantage to having the controls on the top of the subwoofer, for ease of access during set-up, as long as you don’t have a small child who thinks every knob is theirs to twiddle, that is. The ‘Longbow’ wireless connection plugs into the LFE output or the speaker terminals.

It’s likely the best positions for the sub are either roughly in line with the speakers, or in line with the listener, but the speaker position is probably best. While we at Hi-Fi Plus aren’t big on the whole home cinema thing, if your TV is free-standing on a dedicated table, the Habitat 1 can easily fit behind the TV, and helps bring out the sound here, too (it works wonders with soundbars).