Velodyne DD15 - worth repairing the plate amp?


The amp in my 2008 Velodyne DD15 is dead as a door nail. 

How good is this old marvel compared to today's offerings?

Worth investing another $500 (to have amp repaired, incl roundtrip shipping, tax, etc)? Or just use as passive sub?

How does it compete to modern subs, for example SBS SB-2000 or SB-3000 (both under $1k pre owned)?

kraftwerkturbo

Lot's of talk on this!  IMO the Velo DD series is hard to beat without spending thousands, so I say fix the amp.  EBC Electronics in NJ does a fine job on them for a fair flat rate.  Since this is a servo controlled design, no off-the-shelf plate amp will do...all advice to go that route should be disregarded.  Turnaround time is the only drawback.

https://www.ebcelectronics.com/velodyne-dds-subwoofer-Repair-Service.html

Buy a new servo controlled Rythmik subwoofer.  I have owned Velodynes in the past. 

@oddiofyl   Every Velodyne sub of that Era will fail.   I sent my Dad's plate Amp on his HGS 10 to EBC in NJ about 5 years ago and it's been great since.   

If this were the case I would expect far more original owner failure conformation. I replaced an M&K Volkswoofer with a Velodyne ULD-18 in 1983 followed by their F-1800 in 1995, HGS in 1998, DD in 2003 and two DD-12 Plus in 2011 still in service. My only service issue, Velodyne replaced $32 infrared receiver in my second owner out of warrantee Plus, minus the labor and threw in a new remote control for free.

@gotolondon2 ...if you are using the DSP on the Velo, you should stop. I could only get that sub to sound right the old fashioned manual way.

What did your dealer say about remedying this issue?

@kraftwerkturbo  FYI, REL are -6dB Sub-Bass Systems. They're extra low frequency output is rolled off to a point so as not to excite a rooms standing wave bass modes. 

DSP implementation varies greatly. 

I didn’t do anything other than set it up manually.

Also, just because you had no issues with the plate amps in the Velodyne’s doesn’t mean that isn’t a very common issue. That is the same reason I will not give money to JL Audio. Too many plate amp issues. I realize not everyone has an issue, but if you use these a lot, as I do, they will heat up and fry.

Just ‘Google’ it.

With subwoofers bigger is better with regard to longevity.  Small subs require huge excursions to do the lowest notes and that requires a lot of power and means there's a lot of pressure in the box.  These things both result in higher failure rates than with bigger subs.  Velodyne selling 10 inch, sealed subs that play flat to 20 hz is inherently problematic.  

I'm not at all bothered by my amp failure.  It's 17 years old, that's a pretty long time for electronics.