Velodyne Digital Drive Plus Subwoofers First Look

Velodyne’s new Digital Series Plus line was announced at CEDIA as a replacement to the venerable Digital Driver series.  The cabinet is contoured so no parallel surfaces are present with 1” thick MDF wall construction and internally braced ensures the woofer does its thing without the cabinet resonating.  I tapped all around the cabinet of a DD15+ and it sounded quite inert, more so that I recall from my reference DD15 subs.

Auto EQ+ has also been improved from the original EQ system of the DD series.  It uses a CD with low frequency sweep tones with an included microphone to establish a baseline of your systems bass performance.  It analyzers room anomalies and adjusting volume, EQ, phase, crossover etc to optimize performance. 

Just like the original DD series, the DD+ comes in a 10” model (DD-10+  MSRP:$2,499), 12” model (DD-12+  MSRP:$2,999), 15” model (DD-15+ MSRP:$3,999), and an 18” model (DD-18+ MSRP:$4,999).

Although limited information was available, I directly compared the spec sheets for the DD15 and DD15+ to see what major differences were present.  What I found was the amplifier rated power, and voice coil size remained virtually unchanged but there are some obvious differences (dare I say improvements in the DD+ series).

Velodyne DD+ Driver

The woofer of the DD+ series is much less industrial looking than the original DD series and is quite stunning in appearance when you really examine it.  The motor structure is huge and quite different than the original DD driver, while the cone material has also been upgraded to Velodyne’s Fiberglass Rohacell Laminate.  While examining the driver at the Velodyne booth, there were no technical people available at the time of my visit, so I made my own observations as best as I could.  The DD+ driver appears to utilize an underhung designed motor structure where the voice coil is short compared to the top plate of the motor structure.  This is done in order to reduce harmonic distortion since voice coil is held in a constant  magnetic field throughout the entire XMAX of the driver.  This is quite an expensive driver type but shows how Velodyne will spare no expense to ensure the lowest possible distortion out of their flagship DD+ series of products.

Finish options include black gloss ebony, satin cherry or walnut.  The DD+ series will begin shipping this October.  It certainly appears to us that Velodyne has taken a hard look at the JL Audio Fathom series of subwoofers and has put them in checkmate.  As more information arrives, we will update this article. 

In the meantime, visit Velodyne.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.