output power

size? (I like it though)

Let me start by saying I have the CHT-15 the 2001 model of this sub. It's slightly different being front vented instead of rear ported. I decided to post this review because I can't find anything else on the net about the CHT-15.

Amazing sub, I took the (Similar products used) list home and tried them all, and I loved this sub! It's HUGE though and VERY heavy (83Lbs). It blends perfectly with my system, if it wasn't for the gigantor box in the corner you would swear the bass is coming from my mains. Sometimes it sounds like the sub is in the opposite corner than it's actually in when it gets really going. I have the volume set to .5, yes you read correctly .5 out of 10! And it is just crazy. I could crank it but the goal is smooth bass not rumbles or boomyness. It is still VERY hard hitting. I love it!

Similar Products Used:

JBL PSW1000, Paradigm PS-1200 Paradigm PW-2200, Klipsh 15"

pure power

what weaknesses !!!?

Just let me say this much! I have had JBL subs, wich totally suck! And I am a big JBL fan. I have had Infinity, polk, and definitive. Got bored real fast. So, I decided to go looking for somthing new. This sub had to the last one for a long while. My wife was ready to have my ASS! Well in the last month I brought home and took back three subs before I kept one. The first was the Infinity bu 120, then the M&K, which was a very nice unit. Then finily the CT-150 Which I most definatly kept! This sub is most truly the most incredible sub I have ever Exsperience. NO MORE SAID!!! You can not hardly misplace this sub in your room, listen to it at any volume, with any music. Very tight,clean,chest pounding,room presure changing,wall shaking, neighbor bithing BASS!!! 5 STARS HANDS DOWN!

Similar Products Used:

NONE!

GOOD LOW END ,REALLY KICKS SOME BASS,FULL RANGE OF CONTROLS, SPEAKER PROTECTION CIRCUIT, CURRENT SENSING SERVO A PLUS.

PACKAGING COULD BE A LITTLE BETTER, ONLY CORNER PADDING USED, THE ONLY OTHER WEAKNESS IS THAT YOU CAN'T LIFT THIS BOX UP, I HAD TO DRAG MINE ON THE PLASTIC BAG IT CAME WITH ON MY CARPET CUZ IT WAS SOOO, HEAVY!

VERY GOOD SUBWOOFER THAT HAS A VERY GOOD BOTTOM END, EXTERIOR FINISH IS A LITTLE CHEAP BUT, THEN AGAIN SUBS USUALLY GO IN THE CORNER,BEHIND OR UNDER SOMETHING SO IT'S REALLY NOT THAT IMPORTANT, WHAT'S IMPORTANT IS THAT THIS SUB CAN POUND THE WALL TO RUBLE IF YOUR NOT READY FOR A GOOD SHAKE. MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE RUBBER FEET ON AFTER YOU LOCATE THE SUB OR THEY MIGHT COME OFF IF YOU DRAG THE SUB WITH THE FEET ON. ALSO MAKE SURE YOU GET GOOD QUALITY SIGNAL CABLE TO KEEP ANY INTERFERENCE OUT OF THE SUBS SENSITIVE CIRCUITS. AFTER HOOKING UP MY CT-150 I COULD HEAR NOTES I NEVER KNEW WERE THERE AND WHEN I TRIED TURNING OFF THE SUB TO HEAR THE DIFFERENCE I PROMISED NEVER TO LISTEN TO MUSIC WITHOUT A SUB AGAIN.
FOR MOVIES IT REALLY MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN OVERALL, WHEN I TRIED "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN","JURASSIC PARK", TOP GUN","GODZILLA" AND A BUNCH MORE , ALL I COULD SAY IS...
THIS THING REALLY POUNDS!!! OF COURSE THERE PROBABLY ARE BETTER SUBS OUT THERE BUT WHO CARE IF THERE 2-3 TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE, YOU CAN'T BEAT THIS SUB FOR THE MONEY IT'S WORTH
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OVERALL THIS SUB IS WORTH 10 ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, THE ONLY OTHER WEAKNESS I WOULD THINK IS...HOW WILL YOU PRESENT THIS SUB TO YOUR WIFE WHEN YOU BRING IT HOME? I TOLD MINE IT WAS A COFFEE TABLE!! C-YA!

Similar Products Used:

REL STRATA II W/60 WATT AMP- VERY GOOD AS A LOWER CLASS SUB
BUT NOWHERE CLOSE TO THE CT-150 IN ALL ASPECTS

The CT 150 is the top of the bottom of the Velodyne subwoofer line. At around $730, it is still pretty expensive for most people (me included). However; this is one sub that is well worth the investment.
First of all, be prepared- this sub is physically HUGE. It has the dimensions of a small endtable: 21"x18.5"x20". It only weighs about 72lbs, though, and is not too hard to move around when you're experimenting with placement, especially if you have a carpeted floor on which to slide it. Some advice: don't put the little rubber feet on until you have found the ideal placement. Slide the sub around on those stick-on feet and they'll just come off. It does not have a high-quality finish. The veneer is thin and not particularly well joined at the corners. The switches, knobs, and connectors though, are first-rate.

The sub includes some nice features; a defeatable low-pass crossover, a selectable high-pass filter (80Hz or 100Hz), line- and low-level inputs, 0-180 deg. continuously variable phase control, auto-on, etc.

Sound:

After a quick-n-dirty setup, I was immediately impressed with the CT150's sheer power. In my smallish room, the bass was enough to shake the walls and rattle items in adjacent rooms. For the price, it is hard to imagine getting more impact than the Velodyne offers. Don't stand in front of it if it's playing loud- you run the risk of bruising internal organs!

After connecting the sub as described below and rearranging the furniture to get proper placement, I was even more impressed with the sub. It appears to be quite pitch accurate. Bass was smooth and remained undistorted until ridiculous levels had been reached. The CT150 was fairly tight and quite musical. I have listened to everything from jazz to electronica to folk through it. It did every type of music justice, even music with little low bass content felt more powerful and involving with the Velodyne. Movies through the sub were -literally- the BOMB! Output was exceptionally clean, if not incredibly quick. Then again, there is not much information you'll hear below about 40Hz that requires a fast-playing sub. Don't get me wrong, the CT150 was no slug when it came to reproducing a rapid-fire kick drum, it just wasn't as quick as the real thing.

Bass extension was very good, but not the ultimate. This is the only area where the sub came within a mile of disappointing. While rated response is to 23Hz, which is quite respectable, some of the music I play (Chemical Bros. in particular) goes down close to or below 20Hz. While the sub indeed played very low (and undoubtedly lower than just about any sub in this price range), it politely rolled off the very lowest of bass tones. This will only be apparent on very, very few recordings. You may very well never notice the limits of the CT150's extension.

Placement is EVERYTHING! I tried the sub in one spot first. Didn't sound bad. Messed around with the phase until it was as good as it got. Rearranged the furniture, moved the sub to a corner (with the driver firing into the corner) and BLAMMO! Great sound! Night and day difference from its previous placement. I would strongly recommend facing it into a corner. Use the phase knob! It's there for a good reason, especially when using large main speakers as I do. I know it could be even better, but the limitations of my room don't leave me with much for options. Spend some time experimenting. It will pay off big-time.

Overall, a VERY impressive and great-sounding sub. I don't think you could do better at this price. I gave it 4 stars, 5 being perfect.

Comparisons:

I have spent a long time listening to all the following subs. I have also listened to others not listed here, including B&W, Yamaha, Definitive. The Velodyne was the best in its price range. Can't afford a servo-controlled one yet :(

Infinity BU-120 and BU-2, $400: Both fantastic subs. Very similar sound. BU-120 has a little more oomph. Very tight, clean. However, distorts quickly and noticably at high levels. For $400, the best subs out there. I just wanted more.

Polk PSW150, $599: This price is regular retail. You could probably find it for $499. Don't buy it. It's sloppy and can't play loud no matter how far you turn it up. Not nearly worth the money.

JBL (forgot model #) $299: Not bad for the buck. Decent power. Sound isn't quite as distorted as some other $299 subs. If you don't need that much bass, check out the Infinity BU-1 at the same price; it's a small but very good sub.

Setup:

Because I have main speakers with excellent bass response down to about 40Hz, I decided not to use the high-pass crossover at all. I merely took the main channel pre-outs from my receiver to the low-level inputs of the sub and adjusted the low-pass crossover to the desired setting. If you have large main speakers, I would highly recommend this approach.

If you run pre-outs to the sub inputs, then back to the receiver's main ins, you will be sending everything from 100Hz or 80Hz and below to the sub. The same will happen if you connect the speaker outputs from your amp to the sub and then go from the sub to the main speakers. In my experience, both of these crossover points (80Hz and 100Hz) are much too high; your sub will begin to play deep vocals will tend to sound muddy. If you have smaller sattelite speakers, though, you may not have a choice.

To remove all hint of vocals and upper bass sounds from the sub, I have the low-pass filter set to about 65-70Hz. Because I am not using the high-pass crossover, my mains still produce deep bass at the same frequencies as my sub. You do lose some of the benefits of a sub by running it in this manner; namely, your amp/receiver must still provide the power to drive the bass in your main speakers. Also, your mains will still be playing low bass. When you have this sub in your system you may be tempted to turn up the volume. Don't unless you're sure that your main speakers will be able to handle low bass at high levels without much distortion.

I would further recommend NOT connecting the sub to the subwoofer to the subwoofer output of the receiver/preamp. This will again cross over the sub at higher-than-optimum frequencies (usually 120Hz). Set your receiver or preamp NOT to have a sub unless you are using small satellite for your mains.

System Components:

Harman Kardon AVR85 receiver
Panasonic DVD-X410 DVD player
Harman Kardon FL8550 CD player (may be the Rotel RCD971 soon!)
Infinity Kappa 7.1II floorstanding speakers
Infinity Kappa Video center and surround speakers
Velodyne CT-150

deep powerful bass

very large,heavy(could be a plus if you use it as an end table :) ,no remote, can make your neighbors very angry if you live in an appartment

In my opinion this is one of the best subs under $1000, its great for movies and music. I paid $550 for mine and feel it was worth every dollar. First off I am a college student and live in an apartment so you can imagine what my neighbors think of me when I’m having a party. About a two weeks after I first got it I wanted to see what it could really do so I turned the volume up to 10 and played some deep bass filled music (very loud) and it handled it with no problem. It sounded like it could have handled a lot more power, and was very deep and clean. Until the light bulbs in my ceiling fan were rattled out hitting one of my roommates, then I turned it down and noticed that my neighbor was actually banging very hard on my door. My neighbor told me that her whole coach was shaking while she was trying to watch TV. So I strongly agree with past reviews, keep the volume around 3-4 if you live in an apartment. Any loader and you are just asking get into a fight with your neighbors, unless you are having a party for the whole apartment building of course.

I would definitely recommend this sub to anyone it sounds great with movies/music, if you are considering any paradigm ps or pw series/ klipsch/ or velodyne ct120 or smaller/fr12 or smaller, don’t get it look online and be patient you can get the ct150 at a good price.

Similar Products Used:

paradigm,klipsch subs, other velodyne subs

Tight, powerful, low bass with a high degree of control - this is no K-mart boom box!
Connection options aplenty.

Oh ! My back !! I want a second one !

When you think of subwoofers - one name springs to mind - and that name is Velodyne Acoustics. When I bought this subby, I compared it to the Velodyne VA-1215X, and it blew this thing away - no contest. Not to say that the 1215 is a bad sub - the CT150 just had too much SPL and impact. This is not the king daddy subby of all time, but it's performance for the money cannot be matched. The bass output was tight (have any of you not heard the DTS trailer on this baby ?!), and it was distortion free and effortless. There is no boom or flabbiness about this sub, although I should mention that when I got it home (with great difficulty) and set it up to play, it was a bit slow on the beat with music - but once it is run in, it improves 50% ! I listen to DVD movies 90% of the time and boy this sub delivers the goods - not just the explosions and gunfire, but also the musical score and subtle bass that can be so crucial in drama/thriller movies. If you want to demo this sub - get the Goldeneye DVD/LD for amazing sound. If you have a large room (as I do) I do not think you can go below a 15" to do the job unless you are using at least two 10"s or 12"s. Budget permitting, I would seriously consider buying another CT150 to smooth out the frequency response and increase the performance even further, even after I move my theater into the garage which is half the size of the current room!! Am I crazy ? Note that on DTS material the bass is even tighter and cleaner than with CD and AC3. The crossover bypass is very handy as it removes the crossover electronics from the signal path, so all you are hearing is the raw bass signal from your AV receiver. I have not turned the volume past 5 on this sub and you won't need to either - there is so much power and performance in reserve that you will destroy your room if you are not careful - set it to about 3-4 and this should be plenty. Sure it is heavy but you get alot of subby for your money including both rca and speaker level inputs, 40-120Hz variable low pass filter, variable phase control (0-180, rca and speaker level high pass outputs, auto on/off feature and crossover bypass so you can hook the CT150 up to just about anything out there.
Just make sure that if you want to move this - get help! I just managed it - but I almost threw out my back ! I had to unpack it at the store before I could get it in the car !
Highly recommended, increases the Home Theater experience by 50%. No other piece of audio equipment can give your system a boost like a subby can. Buy, buy, buy now !

Similar Products Used:

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Earth Shaking

None

Recently added this sub to my completely upgraded system which includes:

Receiver: Denon AVR-3801
DVD: Pioneer Elite DVC36 Progressive Scan Changer
Main: Boston Acoustics Lynnfield VR950
Center: Boston Acoustics VR910
Surround: Boston Acoustics Micro 90X
Surround Back: Boston Acoustics Micro VRS Dipole

What a great match with the BA speakers ! The impact is at least double that of the BA sub with none of the annoying flutter I was getting before. Soooooooo smooth. I've just had it hooked up to the new Denon AVR-3801 for a couple of days, so I'm still tweaking the settings a bit. I first tested it using the Haunting DVD since this DVD always seemed to push the BA Sub beyond it's limits. It handled it like a champ. I can only imagine how great it will sound after a little break in time.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustic 100W 10" Sub

Deep Bass, Good Price, Good Controls

A 18" driver with a 500 watt amp might be better!

Saw this on a demo sale, so I took it home to compare with my HSU, and it put out 6-10 db more output under 35 hz and
had a better crossover/input/output panel. So I kept it and it works VERY well in filling out the bottom octave. I haven't seen anything under $1200 or so that could challenge it. Plus the nice crossover allowed me to cut off the sub 60 hz info to my main speakers which allows the amp to run with more headroom. It's musical, powerful, fully adjustable and very flexible. Great subwoofer for the money.

Similar Products Used:

HSU VTF-2, Energy EXS10XL

Deep,cheast-pounding bass,very musical and quick

for some its size,but for me not a problem.

I decieded to pick up the ct150 on reviews done by not only people in these newsgroups,but in many audio mags praising this big beast! WOW,let me tell ya this thing roars...through your walls if it could! Funny, but with all the auditioning i have done with MUCH more expensive subs in the $1000-$2000 range,none of these could put out such impressive distortion free bass as this Vel ct150. Not boomy,great with music and with many more options offered on its rear panal than some subs at twice its price! And if it were $1000 i would still of bought it! I learned an important lesson in the world of subs...bigger is better! And for the money,im laughing all the way to the bank! Bye Rel!

Similar Products Used:

MUCH more expensive subs..Rel,Mirage..boston acoustics.

everything

none of course

This speaker was the most damn awsome thing I have ever heard!! If you would like an awsome subwooer for under a thousand dollars then hesitate no longer and go buy yourself one, you wont regret it!this thing will make your eyes water aand your ass drop!!!!

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dcm 1515