Last week I wrote about the Infinity SSW-212 subwoofer that I found locally on craiglists. As I mentioned in that posting, the day before finding the Infinity I had also purchased a Velodyne F-1200 subwoofer on Ebay for the buy-it-now price of $129. The F-1200 arrived on Friday and I hooked it up for some A/B testing vs. the Infinity.
The Velodyne F-series was introduced in the early 90's as a front-firing option along side Velodyne's (dare I say legendary) down-firing ULD-series. Like the ULD-series the F-series is also servo-controlled. It was replaced in the mid-90's by the FSX-/FSR-series, followed by the HSG-series in the late 90's, and finally the current DD-series. While the basic look and shape of the cabinets has changed little over this time, the technology used has changed dramatically. The early series use lower powered amplifiers, efficient drivers and larger cabinets, while the later HGS- and DD-series models reduced cabinet volume (and size) significantly. In fact after accounting for volume of the driver structure, their is little difference in the cabinet volume of the F-1200 and the HGS-15 (15" driver). To counter the loss of efficiency and extension caused by the smaller cabinets, the newer series use high-excursion drivers and kilo-watt (literally) amps. While the specs for these models look impressive compared to the meager 100W output of the F-1200, and the smaller cabinets might improve their WAF, don't be fooled into thinking that the older models are rubbish.
For A/B comparisons I placed the Velodyne next to the Infinity, both squeezed in between the satellites. Given the dual drivers of the Infinity, the Velodyne actually looks small. After some tweaking I found that both achieved the best integration with the Modulus satellites with the low-pass crossover set at around 85Hz. After a few hours of listening, I concluded that the Infinity was the better sounding of the two. The best way to describe it is "effortless". Both output notes with plenty of depth, and nicely fill out the non-existant bottom-end of the Modulus satellites. However as volume increases the Infinity simply seems to maintain it composure longer. At similar output levels cone excursion of the Velodyne is significantly greater than the dual driver Infinity. Typically excursion is directly related to distortion, which I am guessing is the primary reason the Velodyne sounds as if it is working harder (because it IS). Having said all of that, I must admit that at the levels I typically listen to in my home office, the Infinity's advantage, while still apparent, is not as great.
In favor of the Velodyne is its smaller cabinet, which provides me many more positioning options than the Infinity. Given this advantage I tried placing the Velodyne in the corner of the room and listened once again to many of my test tracks. This definitely changed the way it interacted with the room and how it affected the soundstage, shifting it to the right at lower frequencies (so much for the myth of non-directional bass), and also increasing it is apparent output level. To compensate the low-pass crossover was lowered to around 75Hz, and the level was very slightly reduced. While these changes didn't fully correct the shift in the soundstage, it was greatly improved.
In the end (or maybe this is really just the beginning) I have decided to favor available floor space over absolute sound quality (I know flog me now), meaning I am going to use the Velodyne in my home office positioned in the corner. The Infinity may get some time in either my home theater system or to reinforce the bottom end of my main 2-channel system. That will be decided later. Either way, I plan to keep both around for a while.
Rob
The Velodyne F-series was introduced in the early 90's as a front-firing option along side Velodyne's (dare I say legendary) down-firing ULD-series. Like the ULD-series the F-series is also servo-controlled. It was replaced in the mid-90's by the FSX-/FSR-series, followed by the HSG-series in the late 90's, and finally the current DD-series. While the basic look and shape of the cabinets has changed little over this time, the technology used has changed dramatically. The early series use lower powered amplifiers, efficient drivers and larger cabinets, while the later HGS- and DD-series models reduced cabinet volume (and size) significantly. In fact after accounting for volume of the driver structure, their is little difference in the cabinet volume of the F-1200 and the HGS-15 (15" driver). To counter the loss of efficiency and extension caused by the smaller cabinets, the newer series use high-excursion drivers and kilo-watt (literally) amps. While the specs for these models look impressive compared to the meager 100W output of the F-1200, and the smaller cabinets might improve their WAF, don't be fooled into thinking that the older models are rubbish.
For A/B comparisons I placed the Velodyne next to the Infinity, both squeezed in between the satellites. Given the dual drivers of the Infinity, the Velodyne actually looks small. After some tweaking I found that both achieved the best integration with the Modulus satellites with the low-pass crossover set at around 85Hz. After a few hours of listening, I concluded that the Infinity was the better sounding of the two. The best way to describe it is "effortless". Both output notes with plenty of depth, and nicely fill out the non-existant bottom-end of the Modulus satellites. However as volume increases the Infinity simply seems to maintain it composure longer. At similar output levels cone excursion of the Velodyne is significantly greater than the dual driver Infinity. Typically excursion is directly related to distortion, which I am guessing is the primary reason the Velodyne sounds as if it is working harder (because it IS). Having said all of that, I must admit that at the levels I typically listen to in my home office, the Infinity's advantage, while still apparent, is not as great.
In favor of the Velodyne is its smaller cabinet, which provides me many more positioning options than the Infinity. Given this advantage I tried placing the Velodyne in the corner of the room and listened once again to many of my test tracks. This definitely changed the way it interacted with the room and how it affected the soundstage, shifting it to the right at lower frequencies (so much for the myth of non-directional bass), and also increasing it is apparent output level. To compensate the low-pass crossover was lowered to around 75Hz, and the level was very slightly reduced. While these changes didn't fully correct the shift in the soundstage, it was greatly improved.
In the end (or maybe this is really just the beginning) I have decided to favor available floor space over absolute sound quality (I know flog me now), meaning I am going to use the Velodyne in my home office positioned in the corner. The Infinity may get some time in either my home theater system or to reinforce the bottom end of my main 2-channel system. That will be decided later. Either way, I plan to keep both around for a while.
Rob
![wink.gif](http://soundt.18.<a href="http://www.forumer.com">forumer</a>.com/html/emoticons/wink.gif)
the lows would become more tight and defined.