MicroVee Listening Tests

Courtesy of Pandora.com

Fourplay
I used to dismiss this band as bubble gum jazz mostly because the radio only played their bubble gum song selections. There is much more to Fourplay, however, which isn't surprising considering the incredible list of jazz musicians in this band.  Luckily Pandora exposed me to some of their finest works which the MicroVee happily provided the bass thump for.

On the song "101 Eastbound", Nathan’s East's bass exhibited solid depth and punch.  You can’t truly appreciate this song on a system that is bass deficient.  The Velodyne MicroVee ensured that wasn’t a problem.  The bass line in "Bailrun" is so funky in this song and the MicroVee simply loved to accentuate it which complimented my speakers nicely.   The little Velodyne sub really added a rich texture to the music which seduced me to just sit back and listen.   The MicroVee provided plenty of bass fill in the song "Cinnamon Sugar"  to make my EMP speakers sound like fullrange towers.  It wasn't just thumpy bass I was hearing as I found the blend between the MicroVee and my 41-SE/B speakers provided a good amount of tightness while also preserving the attack and decay of the kick drums.

The Beatles – I Want You
This song doesn’t slam with bass but the bass the MicroVee was playing helped round out the overall system sound making the EMP 41-SE/Bs sound larger than their diminutive size would imply.  The MicroVee was proving it could play nice for all musical situations I threw at it.

Emerson Lake & Palmer
The piano solo at the beginning of the song "Trilogy" wasn’t tarnished by the MicroVee at all.  Instead it supplemented the bass of the lower keys of the piano nicely when called upon.  Once Greg Lake's bass kicked in and Emerson switched to synthesizers, the MicroVee pulled no punches and happily flexed its mighty little woofer. 

Wailing Souls - Ghetto of Kingston Town
The Velodyne Microvee really shines on Reggae music and this song exemplifies the bass capabilities of this little sub.  Although the bass didn’t extend to the lowest octave that much larger subs could delve into, there was still plenty of clean extension with good tactile feel lacking an overly bloated sound typically heard in 3 piece desktop systems of lesser design.  

ATB - Renegade
This is not my type of music but I added a "Bass Up!" channel to Pandora to really test out the Microvee.  The bass in this song shook my office but had a slightly boomy feel to it which could be more program related than a deficiency in the subwoofer.  I could tell there was more depth to this song than the MicroVee could belt out but the amount of bass it produced for its size was truly astounding.  After about five minutes of sampling songs on this station, it was time for me to permanently retire it.  The MicroVee proved itself well here and my ears simply didn’t want to continue this torture.

For the most part I was pleased with the performance of the MicroVee during my listening sessions.  Although it wasn't always as articulate as I would have hoped for, it always provided beneficial bass extension to my desktop system.   Fiddling with the level and crossover frequency really helped to achieve a better blend making it sonically disappear so that the bass appeared to be coming from only my speakers.