Velodyne Digital Subwoofer

 

Velodyne Digital Drive Plus 18 subwoofer

Subwoofer innovation is moving quick, with robotized room adjustment and framework combination now a reality. A rush of new items has showed up in the beyond five years, all utilizing various ways to deal with tackling the issues of advancing subwoofer reaction in listening rooms. Subwoofers—including the Digital Drive 18+'s archetype, the DD-18, and the Revel Ultima SUB-30—first handled the issue of room enhancement by showing the room reaction on a PC and having the client change virtual sliders. All the more as of late, JL Audio's Fathom f113 and Fathom f212, eliminated the client from the arrangement interaction: JLA's naturally self-changing firmware schedules utilized adjustment receivers, inside signal generators, and processors to enhance these subs' recurrence reaction for a solitary room hub, with no realistic showcase or client input. A further advance forward was given by Bowers and Wilkins' DB1 subwoofer, which required the audience to take a progression of eight estimations, later which the sub consequently determined, adjusted, and charted the outcome. Velodyne's DD-18+ now makes the innovation a stride further with the expansion of robotized room pay. While the sub's interior hardware can change naturally, it likewise offers physically changed, menu-driven adjustment that diagrams any room-reaction changes in the DD-18+'s result on a PC screen progressively. Offered the opportunity to audit Velodyne's most current 18" subwoofer with these elements, I seized the opportunity. Depiction While there's a solid family similarity between the DD-18+ ($5799) and its archetype, the DD-18 ($4799), which I surveyed in the June 2004 issue, the DD-18+ outwardly overwhelms when the two are set one next to the other. This is on the grounds that the DD-18+ is 6.5" more profound, 19 lbs heavier, and has 28% more inward volume. It likewise includes unequivocally tightened sides, 1"- thick dividers of MDF, a huge inner window support to which the single drive-unit's engine is fastened with huge screws, and ¾"- thick propping boards to limit vibrations. These enhancements are said to allow the DD-18+ to play 4.5–6dB stronger than the DD-18, with lower bending. The magnet alone of the DD-18+'s 18" drive-unit weighs 39.7 lbs. The driver includes a 3" measurement, six-layer, custom-injury voice-loop and further developed hotness dispersal. The cone is made of a fiberglass-over-Rohacell froth composite that is stiffer, lighter, and more grounded than the substantial paper of the DD-18's cone. The huge encompass helps the cone handle the long journeys expected to imitate strong bass homeless people. The driver is equipped for 1.3" journey—more noteworthy than with past Velodyne subs. The sub's 1250W RMS, class-D enhancer, while appraised at a similar power as the DD-18's speaker, is professed to be more productive inferable from Velodyne's exclusive energy-recuperation framework. Not exclusively does the DD18+'s DSP hardware empower the computerized leveling, it likewise controls drive-unit mutilation, utilizing a servo-circle accelerometer, which requires 3000 estimations each second—undeniably more than the simple gadget in the DD-18, which estimated just 16 times each second. My audit test was done in a shocking facade of Black Gloss Ebony. Every DD-18+ is delivered with four metal spikes/coasts that screw into the bureau base and are gotten with metal locking rings set off by felt washers, so as not to scratch the completion. The equipment and associations are strong, effectively open, and should endure forever. Controls The DD-18+ has an apparently perpetual number of associations and client choices. It tends to be changed with its three front-and three back board controls, with the 34 buttons on its controller, and with an enormous number of virtual controls showed on the two screens of its Windows arrangement program. These incorporate a Frequency Response and Parameter Screen (7 boundary settings, 4 parametric channel settings, 3 EQ Optimization Selection and Initiation choices), and a Preset Screen (10 settings for every one of 5 presets). The Digital Drive Windows Setup Program User Interface is nitty gritty in a different 38-page booklet, the most extensive subwoofer manual I've seen; it gave incredible assistance. The DD-18+'s remote oversees many capacities all alone, as recorded in the vitally proprietor's manual, given on CD-ROM. When the power switch on the DD-18+'s back board has been turned on, the remote's Power button flips the sub among dynamic and reserve modes. Different buttons are relegated to listening capacities (Volume, Night mode, Presets), winding down on and the sub's front-board LCD show (taken cover behind the grille), and improvement controls for Auto EQ and for EQ arrangement utilizing a TV screen. The last incorporate six sound presets, each with a form EQ recurrence lift and default volume level (Theater, Rock, Jazz, Custom, Games, and None, which eliminates all evening out). Presets 1, 2, and 3 are set at the production line and can't be changed, while preset 4 can be changed by the client. The Night mode brings the DD-18+'s volume down to 30% of the default mode. The Light control flips on and off the DD-18+'s LED show, which shows the volume and status of the Auto EQ process

Concealed alongside the presentation under the DD-18+'s grille are some significant controls. From left to right are a USB jack for associating with your PC to run the EQ programming, a smaller than normal XLR jack for the alignment mouthpiece, an IR port for controller signals, handles for volume and hybrid recurrence, and an Auto EQ button. The LCD show is noticeable through the grille. On the back board are the on/off switch, and info connectors for mono RCA and XLR inputs for the low-recurrence impacts (LFE) channel from A/V processor; sound system RCA and XLR inputs from a sound system preamplifier's assistant fundamental results; a smaller than normal jack for a trigger on/off signal; and an IEC gulf for the separable power string. 313velo.bac.jpg Turning on the DD-18+'s fundamental power switch places it in Standby until it recognizes a sound sign. The sub's intensifier is then turned on and its DSP processor booted up. In the 12V trigger mode, the DD-18+ will not react to the remote's power-on button until the 12V trigger is actuated. Also, the DD-18+ will react to run-time orders through its sequential port from control frameworks, for example, those made by Crestron. My survey test had a minor error. Its back board offered six attachment type (input style) XLR case associations both for its two adjusted information sources and its four adjusted results. Dissimilar to RCA single-finished interconnects, adjusted XLR interconnects have various connectors at each end. Since suspension mounted XLR jacks customarily use pin-type jacks for result and attachments for input, adjusted links can be snared just a single way. making it unimaginable for me to utilize the DD18+'s fair information sources. I advised Velodyne of this issue, and they quickly sent me XLR connectors that changed over the four XLR attachments marked Output to the appropriate pin-type XLRs. They guaranteed me that this issue was amended for the DD-18+'s subsequent creation run. Velodyne's Digital Drive Plus Software Program Automates Integration The DD-18+'s Digital Drive Plus adjustment and room-streamlining programming is viable with the Windows XP and 7 working frameworks. It tends to be run in three distinct modes—Self EQ, Auto EQ, or Manual EQ—all chose through Windows Interface Setup Software on the proprietor's PC (see Sidebar "Velodyne's Windows Setup Program for the DD-18+"). One of the room-streamlining schedules is run during establishment. On the other hand, the client can align and tweak the DD-18+'s reaction by interfacing it to a TV screen and utilizing the Velodyne's remote pointed at the subwoofer. The sub's front-board show will give additional data. Arrangement The DD-18+ was delivered in an enormous, twofold container lashed to a bed, weighing 178 lbs taking all things together. I pushed the case up a short stairway, unloaded the DD-18+, then, at that point, slid the sub into my room's right front corner until it was around . This set the sub around 10' from my listening position. My experience of different subwoofers has driven me to presume that this is the best situation in my room.