Velodyne SPL-1200 Series II

Orwellian bass in the 21st Century

By Max Christoffersen

May 2004

Velodyne SPL-1200 Series II. $2999

Some subs are more equal than others.

It's a truism that becomes clearer the more subs you hear. Put simply: there are a lot of good subs out there. And at entry-level you can take your pick of a growing field of quality subwoofers.

Go higher up and the (sub) air gets a little rarified and more refined.

But that's here where you find some of the heavyweights of bass. And it is there that American company Velodyne has carved a niche for enthusiasts wanting high quality bass who have a few dollars to spare.

Money makes the sub go woof

In fairness to all the recent subwoofer contenders, I have nothing against the entry level big bangers - and based on the feedback at the AudioEnz Forums, it seems others have also come to enjoy the benefits of sub bass at the right price. But sooner or later you find a subwoofer where price and performance become second to simple enjoyment.

This subwoofer is not night-and-day better than the recent small buck bangers - it simply feels more equal than the others. And ironically for a subwoofer, it may be a matter of subtleties.

Velodyne may not have been the first company to make subs, but they were the first dedicated subwoofer company to popularise the concept to the mainstream. They also attempted to produce hi-fi speakers but with little real penetration despite their innovative design and approach. Fact is, you don't expect Harley Davidson to make soft drink - and so it is with the most famous name in subs: Velodyne, thy very name speaks bass.

It's a looker

So yet another Velodyne arrives. And the advance word was "be careful with the finish, because you only need to look at it to ding it." While that was the over-anxious advice of the importers speaking, it did make the point that if a high quality piano type finish is your look - then Velodyne have the sub for you.

The SPL-1200 is a looker complete in its wrap around high gloss finish that is something of a departure from the almost traditional approach of the past. Also missing is a port. The SPL is a sealed box with no chance of chuffing as the 300mm cone pushes ever harder to move air.

Where subwoofing is concerned, there is no replacement for displacement - that may be a saying among those driving big rig cars but it's true also of subwoofers. You can have it only a couple of ways - a big cone moving relatively small distances or smaller cones moving huge distances - it always comes down to the displacement of moving air. And so to the owner's manual to check how much air Velodyne claim to move and what they're using to move it.

Predictably, a high-excursion cone (no peak-to-peak travel specification given) is employed, as is a 1000 watt Class D amplifier power. Special features include a driver displacement (over-extension) control circuit; auto-on and 'high excursion EPDM rubber surround with an oversized spider for linearity at high excursion.' The voice coil is a healthy 75mm, while the engine for all this high excursion is a handy 162 ounce magnet. The SPL-1200 is magnetic shielded making placement near TV screens interference-free and is complete with phase control and five-way binding posts.

And so to the music. I had just come away from Australian guitar player Tommy Emmanuel live performance in Tauranga and had to enjoy again the bass extension of Initiation, a tribal aboriginal inspired acoustic piece with some serious bass to match. Well - the SPL-1200 scared me. The very deep bass on this track is designed to be primal and threatening and it did just that. Next was Acoustic Alchemy's Best Of and the opening track Mr Chow, which is a full-bodied bass track with that sense of liveness that is so rare in music.

Simply, the bass had body with no sense of slop common with ported designs. The Velodyne went very low and crossed the line into tactile bass with ease. It's a gut shaker - and all done in style.

On the down side, I heard a click of power supplies engaging several times during a programme. Something was switching the Velodyne on and off. So in this sample, it appears the auto-on function is hyper-sensitive and during long scenes with no bass will turn off as it senses no signal. The volume control appears to be quite coarse leaving minimal room for level setting.

Bias aside, the Velodyne did what you expect a Velodyne to do. Few do it quite so well - but then not everybody is able to make the claim of being better, or maybe just a better equal than the rest.

For your nearest Velodyne dealer