Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems sub choice

Hello Dargo,
I will tell you what I *really* think of Velodyne DD subs regarding their musicality. And this is my own subjective biased opinion, end of disclaimer..

Me and a friend Auditioned the Velodyne DD 12 subwoofer. We spent several hours of tuning the room correction on it and integrating with Amphion Mains. We thought we had it down as good as we could in that setup. We had access to the finest cables and equipment the store had on offer. My friend who was shopping for a sub at that time was not overly impressed with the musicality but wanted a sub anyway. So he was ready to dish out the cash with the not stellar musical performance of it.

Then we went on to audition the Revel B15, it was not even setup when we arrived so we spent 5mins on connecting the cables. We auditioned it with the Revel M22 speakers. And some reciever. You could say that our jaws hit the floor, we didn't expect it just nail the bass and musicality straight out of the box. We laughed because the quality difference was so great even with crappy placement, equipment and cables comparing to the Velodyne/Amphion setup.

From this moment on, listening on Velodyne DD series have never satisfied musicality or integration wise. Revel B15 is a much better and musical sub.

Now, the Meridian SW1600, in my room with my DSP 5200 speakers after flipping the phase switch does integrate and performs imho even better than the Revel setup. I would perhaps vote on 2xSW1600 for optimal placement and in your setup with 3x5200 (vertical).

Regarding Trifield bass, after flipping the phase switch to negative it does output considerably more bass in collaboration with the mains. You will have to experiment, and don't just measure, listen! All my measurents pointed to another phase position but listening together with the mains is where it boils down to.

Good luck

PS. With your setup I would go for 2xSW1600, I would have it too (it would even out my bass performance more) but due to aestethic reasons I have it postponed.

If I could get one more feature on the SW1600 I would like to have 360 phase dial. Even if I would not use the extra degrees in my setup it could certainly be beneficial in analog/DSP setups for integration.