Super solid, very defined bass. Nice cabinet looks. Upgradable outboard 400 watt power amp. WAF (wife approval factor) is good. Well built electronics and speaker unit..Very good resale too.

Poor internal cabinet bracing. Would have been nice with selectable crossover point but the stock 85hz one is OK for me..

I have owned numerous subwoofers in my 35 years of audio history. I just keep coming bacl to Velodyne, particularly the older models. Velodynes newer models, like the SPL series are crap! Shortly out of warrenty mine failed and cost a MINIMUM of $200 for them to look at it!! Forget taking it to a repair shop, they try to get the repair manual from Velodyne and are put out to dry and wait endlessly. I purchased a real nice ULD 15 model, rebraced the cabinet inside and WAM had an excellent sub woofer with it's own 400 wat power amp. II had a Velodyne CT 150.before and it was pretty good as well with a bit more flexability as this one. However the sound from this 1991 ULD model is very defined and articulate- quite honestly the best bass I ever remember experiencing. The outboard amp is set to 85hz but can be upgraded I am told.
So forget their disposable made stuff made today, spring for the much better made vintage Velodyne sub like this one . Old HIFI mag reviewers really loved this sub as well.

Customer Service

Just plain BAD!!! They will not suport their better, older designs and are VERY uncooperative in having other repair places get shop manuals. I will NEVER EVER buy another new Velodyne product for this reason and others. My SPL12 sub amp broke just out of warrenty and the cost of them to repair started at $200 sight unseen. My 17 year old ULD Velodyne beats that all together. To bad such a GREAT sub company has gone bad like they have now.

Similar Products Used:

Other Velodyne, Cerwin Vega, Polk, NHT

Super solid, very defined bass. Nice cabinet looks. Upgradable outboard 400 watt power amp. WAF (wife approval factor) is good. Well built electronics and speaker unit..Very good resale too.

Poor internal cabinet bracing. Would have been nice with selectable crossover point but the stock 85hz one is OK for me..

I have owned numerous subwoofers in my 35 years of audio history. I just keep coming bacl to Velodyne, particularly the older models. Velodynes newer models, like the SPL series are crap! Shortly out of warrenty mine failed and cost a MINIMUM of $200 for them to look at it!! Forget taking it to a repair shop, they try to get the repair manual from Velodyne and are put out to dry and wait endlessly. I purchased a real nice ULD 15 model, rebraced the cabinet inside and WAM had an excellent sub woofer with it's own 400 wat power amp. II had a Velodyne CT 150.before and it was pretty good as well with a bit more flexability as this one. However the sound from this 1991 ULD model is very defined and articulate- quite honestly the best bass I ever remember experiencing. The outboard amp is set to 85hz but can be upgraded I am told.
So forget their disposable made stuff made today, spring for the much better made vintage Velodyne sub like this one . Old HIFI mag reviewers really loved this sub as well.

Customer Service

Just plain BAD!!! They will not suport their better, older designs and are VERY uncooperative in having other repair places get shop manuals. I will NEVER EVER buy another new Velodyne product for this reason and others. My SPL12 sub amp broke just out of warrenty and the cost of them to repair started at $200 sight unseen. My 17 year old ULD Velodyne beats that all together. To bad such a GREAT sub company has gone bad like they have now.

Similar Products Used:

Other Velodyne, Cerwin Vega, Polk, NHT

Fast, deep and musical bass with authority and control. Easy placement.

Subs at this age requires re-foam.

The constant dilemma of an sub in an 2-channel tube setup is coherence. I have given up numerous times on SET amps simply because I cannot find an *inexpensive* sub to complement the system. I think the closest I have came to is the REL, which IMHO makes the best subs on earth. My choice, however, is this (old) ULD 15 made by Velodyne. The cabinet construction is top notch - you just don't see any corner being cut. The servo amp is better than most more expensive sub amps you'd see out there today. The bass is fast, musical and tight, deep with authority. It matches real well with my McIntosh MC240 and the Welborne Lab 300B monoblocks that I own. Too bad that Velodyne, like NHT, now makes super expensive subs that are not as good (NHT SubTwo is still the fastest, most musicla sub I ever heard - fast enough to integrate seamlessly with ribbon and electrostatic speakers). If you see an Velodyne ULD, check it out. You will be surprised by how the ULD series sub would beat out all those $2K crap sub out there.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne; REL; Wharfedale; NHT

Accuracy, power, musicality, impact.

Can''t think of any.

I had been dreaming of this subwoofer for about 12 years until I purchased a used one last year and finally rounded out my stereo system. My wife thought I was nuts until she heard the difference. Last week I thought that the driver was going bad. I found out it was the foundation of my house moving. I turned it down a bit. That was the opening note on Sting''s "Brand New Day" CD. I don''t know how he got that note. Leave it to a bass player, but it really puts a subwoofer through its paces. Take note, lower quality subwoofers will break. This ULD 15 is the ultimate. I have heard most of the high models and this one still is the one I prefer. I used to demo for people when I was working in a high end store. To guy at the beginning of these reviews who gave the low rating, all I can say is: your an audiophile? Sure you are. Unfortunately, I don''t think that the new Velodyne subwoofers are as musical or powerful as the ULD15.

Similar Products Used:

I have a lower end Infinity for my other HT set-up. Great for movies but no comparison to ULD15.

Great accurate high output bass good looking cabinet

They quit making these

I have a home with a raised foundation and it seemed like a lot of the bass was being absorbed into the floor so I turned the sub so it was facing the room and it helped the output of the sub. But if anyone has this sub and wants to expiriment try what i just mentioned. Great sub though. The sunfire sub jumped around the floor like a little monkey the velodyne seemed to have less distortion.

Similar Products Used:

Sunfire True Sub

This sub will impress anybody that listens to it. The servo technology is high tech even with todays standards.

None. It makes a great piece of furniture.

This sub still amazes me to this day. I see no need to go out and purchase another sub. I am curious about the Velodyne home speakers. If they are as well made as this sub sign me up.

Similar Products Used:

Cerwin Vega, Boston Acoustics, and JBL

clean low bass

cable lengths

this is a great sub.the newer subs out there cheat 2700 watts turns into 250 at the driver,or the amp is built in can you say feedback or distortion.velodyne was right on the stick with this one.even its 18 inch brother uses the same 400watts rms amp.same amp smaller driver equals tighter bass,sweet.if you can find one get it truely a greatttt subwoofer.uld-15=ultra low distortion.servo driven is the key to it all.to all you positive owners. my hats off to your reviews.

Similar Products Used:

sunfire

An oldie, but a goodie. Low, clean bass.

Needs high input signal

Bought this used. Mine had to be "re-broken in", since it probably sat unused for a few years. I say this because it improved noticably after about a week of use.

This was the top of the line not too long ago, and it can still hold its own! Fills out the low end with clean, precise bass. This one can go below 20Hz, and even thought it has 400W rms, it won't blur your vision and crack your plaster, if that is what you are looking for. It is very musical in my opinion, it blends with music seamlessly.

I had to turn up the gain on the ULD slightly over halfway to compensate for the lower preamp output of my home theater receiver. The Velodyne service rep said the ULD was designed before Dolby 5.1 became so prevalent.

For all the newcomers: Sunfire, M&K, B&W, PSB, Polk - I heard all of you, but I still like my "coffee table". The Velodyne ULD-15 is an oldie, but goodie, and I don't think that it has fallen by the wayside. It's only used as a Home Theater sub, and most subs detract from music anyway, so why upgrade? It shakes the walls enough with DEEP and CONTROLLED bass for HT. I know that this is not a subjective review. I just want to tell the SunFire SubWoofer owners that I've talked with, that this bass is plenty and strong enough, but it's a tad big.It was going to be a 4, but 3.5 is more like it, because of the newer advancements of Home Theater (meaning smaller boxes, but same bass).

ULD-15: Best subwoofer I have ever owned. Loaned one out to a friend while I'm in the middle of a move, and may not be able to get it back! He was worried that he might "over drive" the amp or speaker; I said, "not to worry, have at it!" Sorry to see that it is no longer manufactured. Considering a smaller Velodyne for a bedroom sound setup.