Velodyne DD10+ subwoofers
However you look at it, bass is a bit of a bugger. Everyone has a very different idea of how it should sound, and getting decent bass in smallish rooms can present the music lover with something of a challenge. Received wisdom (of the historical sort) suggests that large drivers and large cabinets are required to get the full effect of low bass. Modern engineering and growing understanding of resonance, driver motion, cabinet effects and all the other issues has enabled increasingly good bass to be produced by seemingly impossibly small transducers.
Then, of course, there’s the sub or no sub conundrum, and pushing the envelope even further out, are two subs better than one? My preferred listening genres tend to classical and jazz. That having been said, recreating the live experience in my listening has always been the goal, as lifelike a presentation as I can wring out of the equipment. The added complication is that as a practising musician (organ being my main instrument) my interest has often been in how different organists register the pieces they’re playing.
Many have said that as bass is omnidirectional you can place a sub anywhere in the room and it will work or words roughly to that effect. I have tried that approach in the past with other subs, and while to a degree it holds good, there are quite a number of instances where it falls down. Works for two pianos is one, where you actually need a good deep articulate bottom end on both sides of the soundstage. Jazz combos where you have the acoustic or electric bass on one side and the low brass on the other and there are other instances as well, not forgetting electronic music where low bass can be placed in almost any location.
The one sub approach also falls down if you have a large listening space where the system has a lot of room to breathe, and the sub’s location can be painfully audible almost to the point of distracting from the material being played. With this in mind Velodyne suggested I try a pair of their DD10+ active subwoofers.
A second subwoofer
Now, I am not into the home theatre stuff here, simply two-channel audio, so I’m viewing this exercise and review firmly on the basis of two-channel recordings. I should perhaps give a quick description of the subwoofers s themselves, Velodyne’s rather gorgeously-styled DD10+ is no lightweight either in the weight, nor cost arena, it’s a serious affair. I got to use a pair finished in deep gloss piano black that were seemingly without any knock on wood cabinet resonances. The connections are all on the rear panel and include XLR balanced in, through and out, RCA phonos similarly, and speaker level as well. There’s an option for S-video, ethernet, video output and a 12v trigger. Controls are limited to line level control and speaker level control. There is also an RS-232 I/O bus connection for setting various parameters.
To give some idea of the flexibility available, the DD10+ manual (itself a model of clarity despite being as comprehensive as it is) stretches to over 40 pages. Most of what you need to do can also be accessed from the rather simple remote, and tweaking things from your listening chair is a real bonus. The whole ensemble is topped off by a calibrated digital mic, stand and video, audio and XLR cables. What more could you wish for?Set-up using the RS-232 interface, the supplied calibration mic, and then accessed on-screen via the video output is extremely simple with each setting clearly noted, and the range of options easy to navigate. Although there is a wealth of digital processing available, it’s really not complicated to use.
Being a luddite I started with no DSP on at all, and simply tuned the subs by ear. The one thing which was immediately clear was the effortlessness with which the two DD10+s handled low end material. Although I have had much larger (single) subs in for review before, the combination of two at low volume gave the bass such an ease of presentation that right from the off there was an enhanced sense of realism about purely acoustic recordings. Somehow the recording space and that low mother earth feeling pervaded the presentation and gave an added realism to what was being played.
Sound quality
I have some master tapes of the Bruch String Quintet, recorded in Mells church way back in the 1980s. This appeared on the Naim label as a CD. The Allegri String Quartet played this, with the addition of viola player Patrick Ireland. The playing is sublime, and for this work, at that time, this was possibly the first commercially available recording as the manuscript had been lost back in the 1930s. However, it wasn’t so much the music, but the gaps between, the moments between takes, the echoes of the chatter between the musicians pre- and post playing. It was here that DD10+s had the ability to fill in that bottom end, that almost subliminal low energy which is found in large buildings. Their presence was keenly felt when they were turned off and despite my main speakers being no slouch in the bass the Velodyne subs really do fill in that indefinable something which makes the recording sound all-the-more lifelike.
But there’s more to subs than revealing an atmosphere. From time to time we need them to play music too. Béla Fleck’s Flight of the Cosmic Hippo is a go-to when anything with low bass is needed. The depth of that bass guitar can really make lesser speakers struggle, and dialling in the DD10+ subs added immeasurably to the weight and clarity down there. The playing is particularly deft, and some systems will lose the definition of the fingers sliding on strings, the first millisecond of the string being plucked before it’s let go, the decaying resonances as they fade away. Here the Veoldynes excelled. While their driver cones may not be the lightest in the world the servo circuitry ensured that their movement was totally faithful to the signal being fed to them, and I think this was probably the best I have heard this played.
The New York Scene (Marty Paich Big Band) contains a number of tracks with low brass and deep bass; here the DD10+ subs gave absolute clarity to each, and rather than the squashed together in the middle feel that some systems impose on this music, the subs opened things out so it was abundantly clear where each section was. There was no confusion over where the brass and where the bass player was. Playing the same tracks with just one sub (centrally placed) and also with no subs on left me with a decidedly short-changed’ impression – one I’m going to have to get used to when the DD10+ go back. On top of that the drums came through with far more dexterity, with those nice low ‘oomphs’ which you get (even with a rimshot) fully informing the musical presentation.
With more modern fare in Jane Siberry’s When I was a Boy (9 26842-2) coming into play the overall feeling was that support from below was a very important facet of her music, and playing the same tracks (especially Temple) with the DD10+ subs off left a distinctly underwhelming impression. It was one of those situations where the bass was a bit fuller, deeper and the top end seemed to have more clarity as a result, but everything collapsed a bit when they were turned off.
I then turned to the digital set-up procedure, noted how I’d had the subs set, and went through the process with the microphone etc. It doesn’t take long and yes, it does make a lot of my initial trial and error (a lot of error initially!) redundant. I’m pleased to say that the calibrated result was between the settings I’d chosen for classical and jazz, slightly nearer the classical end. Running through the same track list again was an interesting experience. The tonal colours were very slightly different (though that’s a slightly dangerous statement to make given the time lag between the two) but on balance I have to defer to Velodyne’s set-up procedure. Overall it just had the edge on my settings, and was more relaxed, more insightful and just a shade more engaging.
Having run my second system with two subs for a very long time, going back to one sub is definitely a retrograde step. Manually setting up two Velodynes such as these is a very big step up from where I was. Using the digital set-up is actually better than I had anticipated, and would be my preferred listening arrangement.
Radio 3 broadcast an appraisal of the various versions of Saint-Saens Third Symphony (The Organ) on Saturday, 17th February. As an organist myself I have played this piece in concert in the past, so I know it both as performer and listener. I caught it on the radio while I was driving. I’ve since listened to it again at home both with two, with one and with no DD10+ subs. The revelation of how this piece sounds with two of these Velodyne subs puts it beyond compare. One or no sub simply doesn’t cut it. If ever there was a clear reason to argue for two subs, listen to that broadcast on repeat and hear the difference.
A few other comments: placing the DD10+ subs very near my existing speakers produced the best results. Locating them elsewhere in the room wasn’t creditable despite moving a lot of furniture around and playing with settings. When wound up they did impart massive slam and heft but at the gentler end they are remarkably dexterous and convey the more intimate details of the lower end aural spectrum with remarkable clarity.
Conclusion
This review has been a long time coming. A lot of time was spent switching between one and two DD10+s, finding optimum placements, going through the digital set-up several times in different scenarios etc, but my overriding conclusion is: two subs are far better than one. If you can afford two, and can fit them in, buy two. If you can’t afford two at this price don’t buy just one; buy two slightly smaller ones for the same money.
The Velodyne DD10+ really are the business and their capacity and capabilities should not be underestimated. Lastly, the various pre-programmed settings (for jazz, classical etc) are very well thought-out. The nice people at Velodyne have done such a good job I’d be hard pressed to come up with another sub (or pair of) which just does the job so very well and enjoyably.
Conclusion: I don’t think (well, I know!) I’ve ever heard my system sound as good as it does with two DD10+ subwoofers in place. Highly recommended, and in the context of a high-end system, must-haves in my book.