The effect of the Velodyne Digital Drive Plus on music
Contents
You can use the ‘mute’ button on the remote control to mute the subwoofer’s contribution and turn it back on. At first you think ‘nothing is happening’. Instinctively, you are waiting for a powerful, deep bass, but it soon becomes evident that the impact is quite different.
The soundstage opens up, as if more space is created in the music. All tones get more brilliance and are a bit more saturated in colour. Especially with acoustic instruments, this effect is clearly audible. A saxophone becomes darker and richer in sound, an oboe gains resonance, a piano becomes fuller and deeper in sound, cymbals gain a bit more depth in the rushing of the sound.
It is not about the bass
On some tracks, you will experience the presence of the subwoofer in how deep the bass reaches. The way you experience the pressure of the bass sound and its deepest depth is different with the subwoofer on or off. Arvo Pärt’s ‘These Words…’ on a new ECM recording is a case in point.
Deep, restrained, rumble on the big drum, recorded in a church, so with lots of aftertone, rolls into the living room like a distant thunder. So much weight and depth in the sound is delivered by the addition of the subwoofer, it lifts the experience of the music in this recording to a much higher level.
If you think this is true for dance music or hard rock too, it is not. You get punch and slam in the bass from your stereo speakers, a subwoofer adds more texture and depth to the sound emanating from your speakers. In spatially recorded orchestral music, it shows in the palpable mass that bass instruments get.
Seamless integration
The sound characteristic of the Spark speakers is not affected. It is as if a small upgrade has been performed on the same speakers. The integration is truly seamless.
Adding a subwoofer always brings one big challenge: the timing of the bass. You add a large speaker unit with a massive magnet, in a different place in your room from where the stereo speakers are. The question then is how badly the timing of the music is smudged.
With the Velodyne Digital Drive Plus, this is very well controlled. The subwoofer is fast, despite its large unit and smearing is not noticeable. When measuring, the timing relative to the speakers must also have been measured at the listening position and corrected. This timing aspect probably determines how seamless the integration is experienced by the listener.
After weeks of listening, a worrisome thought crept up on me: I now understand why two subwoofers is a better idea. I quickly put the Velodyne back in the box before that thought took post in my head.
Conclusion
The Velodyne Digital Drive Plus is a relative expensive subwoofer, but it has excellent automatic software. Hats off for how well automatic audjustement works.The effect of a well-tuned subwoofer is subtle, but addictive. It is undeniable though that you have added one more big cabinet in your room, which has a power cable and two signal cables attached to it. For most living rooms, that is something to mind.
I enjoyed reading your review 🙂 That’s a just about how i remember them, great subs, can’t go wrong with them.