are velodyne's the best all round subs ( SPL's )..?

It does really depend what you're after. For high SPL's, seek out subs with high excursion drivers (the ones with stupidly massive roll surrounds) and more watts than you can shake a stick at. The only problem is that subs designed in this way will usually fall short as far as speed and accuracy are concerned. There's plenty on the market so it won't be hard to find them.

Hi there, and I see you're trying to live up to your name.

Velodyne are one of the most respected names in the business (and one of the best). I used to own the SPL1200R, and it is a really good sub.

I am certainly no expert on subs, but in order to give any help, a little more info is necessary.

- What is the size and shape of your room (any bass problems)?

- Will the sub/s be used for music, and how important is music to you (what % of your listening time does it make up)?

- Do you like the sound to be tight, controlled and subtly integrated, or big, room shaking and a little unruly?

- Instead of spending the money on 3 subs, would you consider putting the money into one really good one, like something from Velodyne's DD range (which has really good EQ)?

I have to agree with Cno on both more info and sub.

Can I just add my preference and that is the PV1-D. I recommend this as you like the original PV1 in the first place.  It's also a very good sub and performs well in delivering a tight controlled and smooth bass. I have been tempted to upgrade my own sub for this in the past.

hi there guys , just a few specs on my room and system , the rooms 3.6 meters wide by 3.9 long and about 2.5 high. Am using the SPL1200 R and RX-V1900 with some very lovely New Zealand made Image Loudspeakers in a 5.1 config BDT-300 panasonic player with QED silver bi-wires and monster m2000 hdmi's , Eichmann AC cables and QED reference sub cable , Am using the room in the widest configuration front to rears and its not a dedicated theatre room but make the most of trying to keep things clean as far as obstructions are concerned. i have not heard the PV-1D but imagine it clean with relative depth but when i had the storm 5 and PV-1 i was able to A-B test and the storm was able to better tune to the room and got way more depth and higher spl's ,the PV-1 was awesome too and blew me away with its ability to disipate resonance while maintain control, found cabling the PV-1 a hassle with stressing the QED , a right angle connector be the way to go to fix and hope B&W has adressed but now have the SPL1200R which sits just inside the right front speaker 4 feet from the corner and i must say , Last night i watched "Dark of the Moon" I have not heard anything that has the depth and outright gut wrenching bass dynamics than the 2nd half of that movie , pearl harbor is good reference but it pales i beleive , had the amp calibrated and played at -13.5db with the sub dialled in at 2long blinks and 5 short. really thought the sub was going to blow but it handled everything that was thrown at it. down side is im thinking im losing energy and sound to the large 2.2 meter window that backs onto the fronts and sub , curtains closed when watching bluray's but the window has 10mm peak to peak excursion by the sound it makes , ( only realised after going outside to get the washing of the line ! ) so imagine the sub would sound even better with the slight or large distortion from the energy lost too the window . thanks guys

hi again , would say 80%-20% between bluray and music and the pitch and definition was pretty tight and controlled with the velodyne, speed is important and the EQ helps alot on the sub but as i said i would think the energy loss is having a negative affect , sub sounds best where it is after crawl testing so appreciate your thoughts...Adele sounds great at the Albert Hall on Bluray.

IMO The Velodyne is certainly big enough to cope with that area, and too many subs could overwhelm the room.....I had it in a room 15' x 22' x 11' and it could produce enough bass to hit you in the chest.

Are the curtains fairly heavy ones?

What exactly are you trying to improve and what is your budget?

If you want a better quality of clean, distortion-free bass, then the DD series is excellent, but it is expensive.

The other Sub that impressed me was the Paradigm Seismic 110, and two of them would give great coverage, and sound awesome (have amazing grip, but a little less ultimate depth than the 1200R).

You have an exceedingly good sub at the moment and you need to be careful that you don't spend a lot of money that could be better placed elsewhere in the system.

Anyway those are my thoughts

Cno

hey thanks CNO , the curtains are prettylight thermals and i was thinking about future upgrade but as you say i do have a very very good sub and at the moment i dont think outlaying dollars (nz) for gains might be that wise just now , i was thinking of getting a smaller spl800r for the center and maybe a spl1000r for the rears but space is an issue . as you said and i have thought that when the time comes i may just be better served getting 1 DD+12 or 15 as the reviews are really good and the EQ is supposed to be awesome too , still am amazed with last nights session and " Dark of the Moon " , Oh My God !!! really cant imagine how much better  a DD+15 would sound , stunning i imagine .

thanks again for your help

shane aka bass-boy68

I think you should ask your local dealer to let you trial the subs at home before deciding.  This way you will be able tell which is acoustically better in your room.

The selection of subs you have listed are great and I dont think you will miss out on anything, whichever way you go.

I use x4 Velodyne HGS-18's and wouldn't swap them for all the tea in china ) even  the servo ''breathe' just adds to the atmosphere that there is something special in the room just waiting to be unleashed. I use them with an antimode for each and have found it by far the best and easiest for eq-ing the subs having tried both the sms-1 and svs-eq1 in the past.

Holy Batman ... you must have to go get liver and kidney function tests regularly with the amount of sub sonic waves going through ya... how are they configered? have heard that running a sub to your center speaker can give great results ,i'd love to be able to rig up 4 DD+ subs in my fantasy theatre . please tell me more about your setup.

When you say you are thinking of getting two more subs, do you mean two more SPL1200's?

If that's the case, at around £1800 each x 3 = £5400 that'll get you a Paradigm Sub 1 or a good chunk of the way toward the Sub 2.

The Sub 1 has bass extension right down to 12Hz (7Hz on the Sub 2), and at 3400W peak amplification (9000W on the Sub 2! ) should do the job for you.

Both come with a perfect bass kit (microphone based EQ), and are widely though of (particularly the Sub 2) as one of the best subwoofers available.

As mentioned above, rather than more subs you'll be better off pooling your budget into a single higher quality one, and unless you have a very well acoustically treated room, I would avoid using subs in a stereo configuration. Outside of the Sub 1 and Sub 2, I would second the recommendation for the Antimode - amazing little bit of kit for the money!

There are benefits to a bigger more expensive sub and 2 smaller not so expensive subs.  Why would using subs in a stereo congifuration be worse than a single subwoofer just because the room is not treated?  That makes no sense at all.  Whatever problems the room has it will effect both options.  If anything the opposite would be true as the dual sub setup will offer a better response which is exactly what room treatments are used for.

You are getting confused here between stereo subs and dual subs. Duals subs, yes, can flatten in room response, if they are set up correctly, because they are being sent an identical signal, and can therefore help counteract the varying peaks and nulls around the room. 'Stereo' subs are completely different, here you are sending the low frequency information for the left channel to one sub, and the low frequency information for the right channel to the second sub. A third sub then handles LFE and the low frequency signal for the remaining speakers.

In an untreated room this can completely mess up the frequency response as each sub is playing different bass signals at different points, and even with good EQ each seating position will have varying peaks and nulls for each sub. You are therefore better off sending all bass frequencies to all subs, whether you have one or four, than running them in stereo.

12 Hz and 9000W - all out of a lovely 13A mains socket! How does that work?