Velodine vs DIY (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Beck]

Hey,..I happen to give a guy a call today, that has a very nice system. I hadn't seen him in a while, and not since he moved his theater to his basement. He told me he had got his hands on a Velodine 12" servo sub, and I needed to come over to see the new room. I'm up for that,...anybody have experience with these subs? All things being equal, how do these subs stack up against the DIY works of art?
>>>--->

 

[Ryan T]

I've listened to some velo subs before. I don't know how much the servo 12 is but I will bet that if you spend the same amount of a DIY sub there would be no comparison. I have a Tempest and I have yet to find a sub that can outperform it from any store around here. If you have room for a bigger sub than the velo then you should be able to blow it out of the water with a DIY sub.



Ryan

 

[Frank joe]

hi , i own a velo frs 18'' servo sub. i must say i dont think anything in a 1,500 -2,000 price can touch it. it completly fills my room with bass that pounds my couch. and this is on a cement floor with just in-door out-door carpeting. you dont mention which velo sub you are looking at. i did hear many before making my choicg for the velo. and i am very happy i did.

 

[Rudy H]

If you have the space, a quattro of tempests, each in a 4cf sealed box, powered by its own 250watt plate amp, will smoke the velodyne in every category except space-useage.
I imagine 120db's in room @ 20hz would be rather easy

 

[Dustin B]

Won't take a quattro of them. A single Tempest (can be built for less than $500 total easily) in the right allignment will beat an 18" Vel. A pair will more than handily outgun one. From Dan's mouth:

The Monolith is a big beast of a sub! We're finalizing the documentation now, but here's a quick description:

- One Tempest
- Two PR-15 passive radiators
- One HS500 720W plate amplifier
- BIG cabinet: 36" tall, 20" wide, 26" deep

Really optimized for serious home theater duty, this bad boy is a bit more than twin Dharmans in terms of output. Means it's about equal to twin HGS-18s (a Dharman is equal to an HS-15). Not cheap, around $800, and not small, but something to whomp just about any commercial subwoofer out there.

Dan Wiggins
Adire Audio

And an EBS ported allignment (which will be even bigger than that sub) should come very close to it's output capabilities but only require a $150 250W amp instead of the $500 720W amp Dan is putting with that kit and not need the $200 in passive radiators. Although I'm sure that kit could still take on a 18" vel with only a PE 300-794 powering it.

 

[Michael R Price]

What's the size of the Velodyne amp, 3000 watts? A Tempest will have more output with 1/10 the power and at 1/5 the cost. It'll just take up more space.

 

[Craig Woodhall]

I agree with the above two guys, DIY will walk all over the Velo.. Velodyne make great subs but for 1/2 the price, you could almost get twice the performance!

Craig

 

[Brian Bunge]

And if you need a space saving sub, Adire's new 15" sub that is being talked about in this forum along with the Hypex amp and an LT circuit should destroy the Velo as well.

Brian

 

[John E Janowitz]

Regarding the Velo/DIY comparison, I have a comparison on the website between the FSR1800 and the Power15 subwoofer. Both were measured by Tom Nousaine for max SPL at 10% distortion. The info is on this page if you'd like to see the full measurements:
http://www.stryke.com/power15-res.htm
In terms of output, the results speak for themselves:
Average SPL 25Hz to 62Hz
Velodyne F1800 - 112dB
Stryke Power15 - 117.8dB - 5.8dB more
SPL at 16Hz 10% distortion
Velodyne F1800 - 102dB
Stryke Power15 - 110.5dB - 8.5dB more
SPL at 20Hz 10% distortion
Velodyne F1800 - 106dB
Stryke Power15 - 110.1dB - 4.1dB more
the Power15 was actually tuned somewhat lower than it should have been, hurting the output at 20Hz, where it still did 4.1dB more than the velodyne. Keep in mind that adding a second woofer, and doubling power will give a 6dB increase in output, and on average from 25-62Hz, the Power15 was capable of nearly 6dB more output. This is equivalent to having a pair of the Velodyne subwoofers to equal the output of the single Power15.
If I remember correctly, the Vel subwoofer was around $3000. The driver and PR's for the Power15 can be purchased for $653, and you could get any number of high power amplifiers for around $1000 to power it. For about half the price of the Velodyne sub, you will have twice the output capability with a DIY sub.
John

 

[Kevin Beck]

Thanks guys,...
>>>--->

 

[Mike Strassburg]

Kevin,

Just to give you an idea of what a dual Tempest will do. These are max SPL's I tested last week:

16Hz - 110dB
20Hz - 117dB
31.5Hz - 127dB
45Hz - 124dB

All that out of a $900 sub/amp. Time for you to start making some MDF dust....Mike