Velodyne CT-100 Subwoofer

Introduction

Velodyne is a company well-known to make good Subwoofers. In fact, they are still making really good Subwoofers for Home Theater and Music. This particular model, had an MSRP of $500 new, but my dad bought it for me at about $50 locally. Really this is a steal. It’s a powered Subwoofer with a 150 watt amplifier to power the 10′ woofer. It’s a front-firing with a port on the bottom. On the back, there is the crossover knob, the volume knob, phase switch between 0º and 180º, an on switch (it’s auto on/off after that), direct or internal crossover switch, analog input and output, and a speaker level input and output. This sub is pretty much suitable for 2.1 music listening or home theater. In this case, I’m using it as a 2.1 so I’ll review it musically.

A bit of background from me

The first impression of when I got this was “OMG DID YOU REALLY GET THIS FOR ME” because I had wanted to get the sub when my dad was surfing craigslist for used electronics and he showed me and told me Velodyne is really good company for subs. He did keep me informed of the deal with the previous owner. But when I asked about it after getting back from school one day, he said it was already sold to someone. He came home with it (I should have known that someone was him). After that I took the the next 2-3 hours listening to it after setting it up.

Listening impressions

Well I didn’t really critically listen to it until a few weeks in because I wanted to see if it needed to break in as it was previously used. After I was sure it was already broken in, I did my evaluation. Since I didn’t have a reference for my evaluation, I used my dad’s HSU VTF-3R which is quite unfair considering it’s MSRP is $1,150, so I subjectively compared, per price point

Well it turns out it didn’t change much after the few weeks, so it was probably either used frequently, or doesn’t need much to break in. From the start, the CT-100 blended in really well with my Sony SS-K10ED. So much so I though it sounded like the HSU with my dad’s NHT T6 towers. Some similarities with the VTF-3R are the ports. Both are ported, and my dad covers one of the ports on the HSU. According to my sources, the HSU with two ports open means better for home theater, and one port is better musically. Well in general, closed subs are tighter than ported subs, so the CT-100 should not be too tight if I were basing it off that.

However, both musically and kind of home theater way, the CT-100 is the best of both worlds for me at that price range. When I played the Overwatch animated shorts on Youtube, at 720p (my laptop is incapable of going 1080p because the monitor is 900p), the lower ends especially with the gunshots were as good as my dad’s system. This is as close to home theater as it can get for me, and it’s pretty good.

On to the main course, the type of audio I listen to a lot, music. With my Sony speakers I set the crossover to 60Hz because of the how low the Sony can go (45Hz) Musically, the CT-100 is tight and responsive. With my small room, it works wonders for me. The 10′ Sub with 150-watt class can literally move my room at the higher volumes. For bigger rooms like the living rooms and so, you might want to consider bigger subs that can move more air and thus, furniture (haha). However, in my room it’s as I said earlier. Tight and responsive. It matches well with my stereo speakers like it’s one pair of speakers, and it can handle most if not all audio with precision and power.

Conclusion

Musically, and somewhat home-theater-ly, its performs really well in my small humble room. The bass it produces is ground-shaking, partly because I’m next to it. But nonetheless, it impresses. It complements the Sony SS-K10ED bookshelf speakers very well, and despite it’s size and capabilities to the more expensive Subs out there, it does handle itself really well, with tight bass, and all the necessary features for a sub in a 2.1 stereo system setting like mine. If you have a bigger room however, you might want to reconsider, as this small-room bad boy could turn timid. However, in smaller room situations, this MSRP $500 sub may be the one for you, if you may ever come across it in a good condition for about a tenth the price.