Subwoofer Velodyne Impact-12 v/s Polk Audio DSW 550/660 series

raja2001

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Hi All,

Joined the forum recently and have been spending lot of time reading old thread/feedback from audiophiles - it has been very helpful, thanks to all the contributors.

Want to add a subwoofer to my HT setup (room size: 21ftL * 13ftW * 10ftH, 90% movies, 10% music, AVR: Denon 3310CI, PS3 Blu-ray player) as we moved out of the sensitive apartements to a well shielded home now. Initially started with PSW 110, but then discarded it after auditioning it and reading reviews on this forum and upped my budget to about 30K from 15K.

Auditioned the Velodyne impact-12 and impact-10 and they sounded very impressive, except the actions sequences sounded a bit mixed up on occasions (it is possible that the subwoofer needed more tuning).

Velodynes have freq response starting from 32Hz(10 series)/29Hz(12) with -3dB. In comparision the DSW 550 and 660 from polk seem to have good specs and go down all the way up to 25/20Hz and also come with a handy remote.

The DSW seem to have very good reviews in the this forum. Can you please share your opinion on DSW 555/660 v/s the Velodyne impact series. They are in the same price range.

The owner of the place i auditioned at, highly recommended the velodyne and said he had listened to the DSW series and they dont compare to velodynes. He seemed very honest as he was also selling the polks at the same store.

Velodyne makes only subwoofers and have a very good name .. am yet to listen to DSW series myself.

Thank you
 
I have a DSW 660 and am quite happy with it. Remote is indeed handy and the sub offers ground shaking bass. Only con I noticed at times is that if the sub is placed very close to you (within 3 feet) then you might be distracted with the vibrating sound of the sub at high bass peaks. So I have now placed it along with the fronts on extrememe right almost 6 feet away from my listening position and I do not hear the same noice again. The velodyne impact 10/12 I I am yet to listen but indeed they are good is what I have heard.
 
I have an Impact 10 and I am glad I bought it. Has least distortion in its price range. In some movie sequences it literally slams me to my seat. Impact 12 will be much better. I just auditioned one more option ie KEF C4 but that's certainly not comparable with Velo. I haven't heard Polks so I cannot comment on it, it has got rave reviews too. I suggest you audition both and decide which one you like.
 
Klipsch model has major quality control issues with the amps just randomly dying. Google it and you will find out why to avoid it.

The amp portion comes with one year warranty and rest comes 2 years, you know why ;).


@Raja, Velodyne impact are the best in 20-30k budget. I am planning to get one for myself. Waiting on funds. Already negotiated a decent price with dealer.
 
Thank you haisaikat,sanky,soodgautam,kittu for the feedback.

@soodgautam: i had read negative feedback wrt klipsch on this forum like kittu mentioned, so didnt go with that. But for that i think Klipsch is a good SW, hear good things about it wrt sound quality when compared with polk DSW series.

After reading the good feedback from you all about velodyne and doing some more research online about velodyne & more auditioning with other flavours of audio, bought the velodyne impact-12 series today. Couldnt wait till the weekend :). Heard from couple of other vendors that DSW polk though is good, velodyne is better - didnt have the time to go audition polk, but have heard polks do better with music compared to velodyne, and for movies velodyne SW is better than polks.

Velodyne impact-10 also felt equally good, its electronics seem almost identical to the impact-12, i just decided to go with impact-12 because of the 12inch drive mainly and its ability to go down in the freq respone, read somewhere that it can go down to 25Hz, though specs say 29Hz.

Got it home and tested it with 'Inception' and 'Matrix' movies. Subwoofer still needs to break in (apparently it needs 50-100 hours, i thought 10+ hours should be good enuf), but can really tell the difference in thump with my couch vibrating, am a happy camper so far. The thump kicks in when needed and dont feel it unnecessarily like noise.

Especially with Inception blu-ray movie,bass heavy back ground music sounded great and action scenes felt so realistic. In one of the scenes when the train gets on to the road, my kid jumped out of the couch and i felt as if the train came and hit us.

Overall inception is a good movie to own for audio effects besides being a cool movie. Will try out batman dark knight over the weekend.

thank again

regards.
 
Hi,

very new to the forum, was also eyeing to buy velodyne 12 inch one, where did you buy and for how much, let me know.
 
Klipsch model has major quality control issues with the amps just randomly dying. Google it and you will find out why to avoid it.

The amp portion comes with one year warranty and rest comes 2 years, you know why ;).


@Raja, Velodyne impact are the best in 20-30k budget. I am planning to get one for myself. Waiting on funds. Already negotiated a decent price with dealer.

The velodyne seems to be having very less power compared to the klipsch, velodyne is good but i dont think the entry levels are, the review itself says weak power..

VEL
Woofer: 12 forward-firing coated-fiber cone (9.7 piston diameter)
Voice Coil: 2 dual-layer, copper-wound
Magnet Structure: 5.6lbs
Amplifier Type: Maximum Dynamic Power (MDP), Class D
RMS Continuous Output: 165W
Dynamic Peak Power Output: 275W
Frequency Response (+/- 3dB): 29Hz 140Hz
High-Pass Crossover: Full Range
Low-Pass Crossover: 50Hz 200Hz with a 12dB/octave slope
Phase Control Switch: 0 or 180
Volume Control: Variable
Outputs: Speaker-level stereo (left and right)
Inputs: RCA line level, LFE and speaker level
Power Supply: 120V, 60Hz AC
Signal-Sensing Auto On/Off: Yes
LED Power-Mode Indicator: On (Green) / Standby (Red)
Cabinet Design: Acoustically neutral, down firing
Finish: Black ash wood grain with black gloss trim
Removable Grill: Yes

Klipsch sw 450:
AMPLIFIER: Class D
AMPLIFIER POWER: FTC Rated Power: 200 watts continuous @ 1% THD, Dynamic Power: 450 watts
BUILT FROM: 2009
DEPTH: 19.5 (49.5cm)
DRIVE COMPONENTS: 10" (25.4cm) high excursion, fiber-composite cone, down-firing woofer
ENCLOSURE TYPE: Bass-reflex via rear-firing port
EXPORT VOLTAGE: 220 VAC 50/60Hz
FEATURES: Volume, Lowpass, Phase, Auto Power
FINISHES: Black vinyl
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 28-120Hz +/-3dB
HEIGHT: 17 (43.2cm)
INPUTS: L/R line-level RCA jacks, L/R high level speaker binding posts
MAXIMUM ACOUSTIC OUTPUT: 115dB @ 30Hz 1/8 space, 1m
OUTPUTS: N/A
PHASE: Switchable 0-180 degrees
VOLTAGE: 110/120 VAC 60Hz
WEIGHT: 35.5 lbs. (16.1kg)
WIDTH: 14 (35.6cm)

Also klipsch that i bought came with 5 years warranty. i was not told anything seperate for amp and speaker.
 
How much does the Kiipsch sw 450 cost?I recently went to cinebels at bandra,but forgot to ask them,their place was under renov.......they quoted some ridiculous prices for sw 110 (34k) and sw 112 (46k) was waste f time there.Next had gone to profx to check out dsw 660,he played with it with KEF floorstanders which i liked more than the sub!!At 30-40k range anything better than these..i need a 12inch sub
 
These profx guys always screws up with sub demo, happended the same for me until I asked for a home demo, they did much better at home as compared to the shop demo.
 
How much does the Kiipsch sw 450 cost?I recently went to cinebels at bandra,but forgot to ask them,their place was under renov.......they quoted some ridiculous prices for sw 110 (34k) and sw 112 (46k) was waste f time there.Next had gone to profx to check out dsw 660,he played with it with KEF floorstanders which i liked more than the sub!!At 30-40k range anything better than these..i need a 12inch sub

SW 450 after discount should cost you close to 25k. What makes you say they quoted ridiculous prices for SW110 and 112 ? Have you auditioned them and not liked. Audition the sub with bookshelfs and keep the FS in low decibel so you can feel the sub. You need to audition diff subs with same clips again and again to see which gives the best output.
 
Comparing the prices to the polk,they have the same price in India at least dollar vise $600 or 30k around in India.now the sw 112 has mrp of $600 ends up being at 46k!!........that price you get a SVS SB 12 which everybody knows what it is capable off. Where exactly do you get sw 450 for 25k?I wanted to audition but that place(cinebels) was in a mess......
 
Is the Polk Audio DSW 550 a good sub to match with Wharfedale MS-100 satellite speaker package and a Yamaha V475 receiver?
 
It is not a proper match. The upper 3db frequency for DSW Pro 550 is 125Hz while lower 3db response for MS-100 satellites is 130Hz as per the specifications mentioned on their websites so theoretically loss of 5Hz of the sound spectrum while practically the speakers would not perform best at the edge of their frequency response so it would be approx loss of sounds between 120-140Hz frequency range. If we take 5Hz as error margin.
PSW-125 would be a better match which goes till 225Hz (not +3db value, it is overall value) so you can set crossover at 130 or 140Hz.
Receiver is not an issue, as the amplification is done at sub woofer in case of all powered sub woofers.
 
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It is not a proper match. The upper 3db frequency for DSW Pro 550 is 125Hz while lower 3db response for MS-100 satellites is 130Hz as per the specifications mentioned on their websites so theoretically loss of 5Hz of the sound spectrum while practically the speakers would not perform best at the edge of their frequency response so it would be approx loss of sounds between 120-140Hz frequency range. If we take 5Hz as error margin.
PSW-125 would be a better match which goes till 225Hz (not +3db value, it is overall value) so you can set crossover at 130 or 140Hz.
Receiver is not an issue, as the amplification is done at sub woofer in case of all powered sub woofers.

I checked the specs again and I see a different range on the ProFX website.

DSW PRO 550 NEW
400 W, 10 Bass Reflex Subwoofer

Frequency : 23Hz-160Hz

Crossover Frequency : Variable
Inputs : Speaker & Line level
Dimensions (HxWxD) : 409x393x393mm
Weight: 18.6 kgs

Is it still a problem? If not the polk audio woofer, can I buy the Yamaha YST-SW215 instead? It has got a wider frequency range of 28-200 Hz for the lower frequencies.
 
Congrats on your purchase, i have a 660, and it effin brilliant. The velodyne were great too, i auditioned them both, but since i have a complete polk series(Rti) i got the polk. I would rate polk slightly/marginally better then velodyne, also due to the remote supplied which is a boon. Not sure if velodyne comes with one too. Planning to get one more and complete my 7.2 setup.

In nutshell both are brilliant, and you can just not go wrong with any of them. Wish you many years of happy listening.
 
I checked the specs again and I see a different range on the ProFX website.

DSW PRO 550 NEW
400 W, 10 Bass Reflex Subwoofer

Frequency : 23Hz-160Hz

Crossover Frequency : Variable
Inputs : Speaker & Line level
Dimensions (HxWxD) : 409x393x393mm
Weight: 18.6 kgs

Is it still a problem? If not the polk audio woofer, can I buy the Yamaha YST-SW215 instead? It has got a wider frequency range of 28-200 Hz for the lower frequencies.

The specs on pro fx website are not detailed, check out this link:
DSW PRO 550 wi - Subwoofers | Polk Audio?

Never had a chance to check out yst-sw215 (8inches) in a listening room so no idea about it's performance however going by the specs and price comparision polk psw 125 seems better deal. The frequency response of yst-sw215 is 28hz at -10db as per user manual however polk psw 125 has 34hz at -3db also the price diff is of approx 4k (by mrp) and you get a 12inch driver in polk with similar upper frequency range.
Psw 125 should go well with the satellites.
Take audition of both with some of your favourite music tracks and movie scenes and let us know your views on the two subs :)
 
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