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- Newsgroups: rec.audio
- Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!sgiblab!ampex!dna
- From: dna@ampex.com (David Altekruse)
- Subject: Re: HSU subs
- Message-ID: <1992Nov7.003741.5653@ampex.com>
- Sender: usenet@ampex.com (News Poster)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: dcr-s4-21
- Organization: Ampex Corporation, Redwood City CA
- References: <1992Nov05.204437.7565@bmerh85.bnr.ca> <lflcrfINNhaj@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
- Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 00:37:41 GMT
- Lines: 49
-
- T.S.Reddy writes:
- >
- > Check out this month's Audio magazine for a sub shootout between
- >Velodyne, Hsu research and a few others. Their feeling was that the Hsu's
- >were excellent value for the money but the Velodyne F1500 (?) was the
- >best overall.
-
- It isn't clear to me that Audio's statement about the Hsu being excellent
- value is really true. Let's compare it to the Velodyne F1500. Audio
- magazine drove the Hsu with 60 Watt amp, as I remember, but said it really
- needed a lot more power to drive it to full output at lower frequencies.
- I don't have an extra high-power amp floating around, so I'd have to spend
- another $500 or so for an amp.
-
- The crossover supplied with the Hsu is a simple passive low-pass filter.
- No high-pass is supplied. This won't work for me since my speakers
- (MG-III's) will bottom out if I supply them with lots of low bass.
- In fact, one of the advantages of adding a subwoofer to almost any system
- is to free the main speakers from having to try to handle the very low
- frequencies. This advantage is lost with the Hsu low-pass only configuration.
-
- The Velodyne F1500 comes with an active low-pass and a passive high-pass
- filter. An active subwoofer crossover which is inserted ahead of the main
- preamp is surely a better way to go than Hsu's passive crossover inserted
- at the output of the main amp. Hsu does sell an active crossover for $350.
- (I talked to Dr. Hsu last week about this and he said the active crossover
- wouldn't be ready for a couple months yet.)
-
- To configure the Hsu 10" subwoofer pair similar to the Velodyne 15"
- F1500 subwoofer costs more like $1600. Plus shipping. No discounts. Mail
- order direct only. No auditing in a store. On the other hand, there are
- lots of Velodyne dealers in this area and some of them sell offer discounts
- on Velodynes. So I would expect to pay rather less than the $1500 list for
- the F1500.
-
- Is the Hsu worth more than the Velodyne? I don't know, I never heard
- one. (No Hsu dealers, remember?) The servo'ed Velodyne clearly produces
- much lower distortion at higher volume levels. (Refer to the Audio magazine
- article.) Another advantage to the Velodyne mentioned in Audio is that
- it automatically limits maximum power to the speaker. The Hsu doesn't
- have this capability and leaves it to you to scramble for the volume control
- as the Hsu 10" speaker reaches its excursion limit and severe distortion.
- The Hsu does come as a pair, however, and that might offer some sonic
- advantages. This wasn't discussed in the Audio magazine article. They
- did state, however, that they like the Velodyne the best of the 4 sub's
- they auditioned.
-
- - David Altekruse, dna@ampex.com
-
-