Velodyne SPL-800 Subwoofer Review

Velodyne SPL-800 Build Quality and Design

Subwoofers have been conventionally known for their deep bass extension and wow factor, essential for today's home theater systems, usually requiring a big heavy box loaded with large woofers to achieve ultimate impact and performance. Until my experience with the Velodyne SPL-800, I was happy with this stereotype about subwoofers as until that point, I haven't heard a small subwoofer that could do both music and movies justice. Enter the SPL-800. Occupying less than one cubic foot, this little giant weighed in more than many other subwoofers over twice its size. It wasn't until I pulled the woofer out of the box that I discovered why. The motor structure (12.7lbs magnet) of the single 8" woofer of the SPL-800 was nearly as large as the woofer basket itself. It was obvious by the powerful motor structure, large voice coil (2 ½"), and, heavy duty butyl rubber surround and extremely stiff cone material, that this subwoofer had one hell of an excursion ability that many 10" and 12" lesser designed woofers could only dream about. I was very impressed with the look and feel of the SPL-800. It had an unusually good build quality that I felt was not typical in most subwoofers of this price range. I found the little blue light on top of the cabinet both intoxicating and useful as it served me well as a nightlight. Moving on to the amplifier that powered this monstrous little woofer, it was apparent that Velodyne was after a powerful, yet efficient design, thus their reasoning behind choosing a 600 watt Class D amplifier.

Class D Amplifiers Explained

A class-D amplifier has an efficiency degree of normally more than 90%. That means that more than 90% of the power which is delivered into the amp from the power supply is transferred to the load, and less than 10% is transformed into heat as opposed to conventional Class AB designs that rarely achieve efficiencies beyond 60%. This means that cost and size may be reduced for needed cooling (less heatsink area), power supply and output transistors. Class D amplifiers convert the audio signal into high-frequency pulses that vary in width with the audio signal's amplitude. The varying-width pulses switch the power-output transistors at a fixed frequency.

A lowpass filter converts the pulses back into an amplified audio signal that drives the subwoofer. The added efficiency of Class D amplifiers usually comes at the expense of linearity and distortion. However, for low frequency applications, such as powering subwoofers, this is much less problematic, and thus the added efficiency, cost and size reduction versus the increased distortion and compromise in linearity represents a good design trade off.

Velodyne SPL-800 Set-Up and Listening Tests

The SPL 800 does not feature filtered speaker level outputs meaning in a subwoofer satellite system, you must rely on the bass management of the A/V Receiver to limit the bass of your front satellite speakers. Or play them full range. This shouldn't be a problem for most people as the majority of today's A/V Receivers have full bass management capabilities.

Standard volume and crossover level adjustments are offered, along with a 0/180 degree phase switch. I would have preferred a variable phase control for optimizing subwoofer and speaker blending, however few companies offer this feature.

I initially evaluated the SPL-800 in my bedroom system in a room about 12' x 10' or 120 ft^2. I placed the SPL-800 near the corner wall behind the left front speaker and set the crossover to 50Hz which is about 5-10 Hz higher than where my RBH 61-LSE bookshelf speakers begin sharply rolling off bass output. I have found it's usually a good idea to set the subwoofer crossover slightly higher than the roll off of the main speakers for a smoother, more seamless blend. What I found in this set-up was that the SPL-800 was so powerful for my room that I had to turn the volume level down to less than ¼ and move it at least 1 foot away from the side and back walls. I ran the SPL-800 through its paces using test tones and bass heavy techno type music to get beyond its "break in" period before doing any critical listening evaluations.

Performance

I began my more critical listening evaluations with some bass intense music from Sade, Depeche Mode, Patricia Barber, Talking Heads and Steely Dan. The tile song from Sade's Lovers Rock CD really hit hard and deep on the SPL-800. I was quite amazed by the bass extension of the SPL-800 so far, and can't recall when I have heard a sub at this size or nearly twice its size for that matter with such authoritative output. The bass was well extended and controlled, although it was not quite as articulate or "fast" as I have heard on more expensive and larger subwoofers. However, the bass never sounded one notey or sloppy. "Only When I Loose Myself" by Depeche Mode is a very bass intense song that contains multi tone extended bass information down to the lower octaves of the audible range. If played on a mediocre subwoofer, it is easy to hear the subwoofer cone break up and/or lack of ability to reproduce the lowest notes. The SPL-800 had no problem pumping out the bass in this song. It never sounded stressed, nor did it run out of oomph at even the loudest listening levels I could personally tolerate in my room. Instead of hard clipping or distortions typical of many subs when driven to or beyond their limits, the SPL-800 seemed to reach its limits with more poise and control. I did start to hear dynamic compression during maximum SPL limits, but it was clearly more preferable to listening to popping or bottoming. Sadly, I have had larger and more costly subs in my listening room for past evaluations, such as the Pinnacle Digital Sub 350 which featured dual 12" fiber cone woofers in an isobaric loaded cabinet that sounded like a helicopter when driven not nearly as hard as the SPL-800. The reason for this was apparent in the Pinnacles employment of lower quality woofers which went into obvious break up modes leading to differing cone velocities causing doubling, which I like to refer to as "helicopter noise". Thankfully, I never heard any helicopters or audible break up when driving the SPL-800 sadistically hard.

Playing various cuts from Patricia Barber and Steely Dan only strengthened my viewpoint on the Velodyne subwoofer. It was a hard hitting, space efficient quality subwoofer capable of complimenting high performance bookshelf speakers in small to medium sized rooms while achieving nearly the lowest octaves of human hearing. In, fact I estimated using Avia test tones that the SPL-800 had very good extension down to slightly below 29Hz with a sharp but steady roll off shortly thereafter. What I had come to realize in my listening tests is that the SPL-800 never seemed to loose control. In fact, it appeared to me that minimizing distortion and non linearity, while being able to reproduce authoritative bass content, was a primary design goal of Velodyne with this fine product.

Velodyne SPL-800 Conclusion

The SPL-800 served my two channel system well for a few months, that is, until I decided to upgrade the system and move it into my master bedroom. Now it was time to give the SPL-800 a real work out, in a room almost double the size, and determine if it was worthy of its reputable name. I recently upgraded my secondary audio system to a full fledged multi channel system, and convinced my wife that moving it into our master bedroom for the ultimate lazy movie viewing experience was a good idea. After all, how can you beat a good home theater system while resting in the comforts of your own bed?

In fact, we soon found ourselves viewing, or should I say listening, to more and more movies in bed then previously envisioned. Thanks to the small footprint sported by the SPL-800, it fit quite nicely behind my front right speaker next to the entrance of the room. I was a bit concerned at first that my placement choice did not directly couple the SPL-800 to a corner wall. After setting and calibrating all of the levels appropriately with my trusty Radio Shack SPL meter and Avia set-up disc, I began re-evaluating the SPL-800. This time I noticed the SPL-800 had a more challenging time to fill the larger room with low end bass. I had to really crank the subwoofer volume level this time and it seemed I did loose much of the lowest ½ octave of bass that was more prominent in my smaller room. The SPL-800 handled most of my DVD movies without appreciable lack of depth that

I was accustomed to with my larger and more expensive reference subwoofer in my living room. The opening scenes from Toy Story 2 where Buzz Lightyear rockets blasted towards an alien planet controlled by Zurg were quite satisfying. Watching the familiar scene in Air Force One where the refueling plan blew up as a result of the sparks when the fueling rod abruptly disconnected with Air Force One, weren't quit as thrilling as I was accustomed to. On my reference sub in my living room, I could almost feel the burning flames that destroyed the fueling craft. However, the SPL-800 reproduced this scene with conviction and unlike any other sub I have ever heard in its footprint.

At this point I found myself wishing I would have asked Velodyne for the SPL-1000 or 1200, but it wasn't really a fair to comparison. The SPL-800 was obviously better suited for space sensitive small to medium sized rooms located in close proximity to a corner wall. I was reaching the limits of its intended application and set-up, yet it still delivered quite nicely. When I set the crossover point up another 20Hz, it helped to provide a bit more slam that I demanded for movie viewing. However, I couldn't help to wonder if this is one of Velodyne's more compact subs, how would their behemoth active servo products perform? Perhaps that is something I will have to ask Velodyne in the future, and maybe they will take this subtle hint to send me one.

Overall I was quite pleased and surprised by the level of performance the little SPL-800 produced in my various set-ups. I was however more impressed with its abilities for home theater than for serious two channel audio, but felt it would serve both quit nicely for someone looking for a high performance compact sub to fill a small to medium sized listening room with quality low tones without breaking your bank account.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Performance
Value