Recently there were a couple questions about Velodyne's Chrysalis line of subwoofers, and it seemed they were not very well known, even though they're sold in the Audioholics Store. I had the opportunity to borrow their most economical model - the Chrysalis Starfire-10 - for a while, so I tried it out in various locations in the house, in three different situations.
First was in the theater room, where it briefly replaced my HSU VTF-3. I grabbed my typical DVD selections for subwoofer listening: Riddick, U-571, Master and Commander, Open Range (Yeah, I know - I haven't graduated to the more recent action features with really heavy-duty bass yet - I'm just way familiar with these, I guess), and did a little comparing. The room is about 3000 cu.ft., rectangular, carpeted, with no windows and two doors.
During the Riddick battle scenes, the bass had plenty of impact during the "anti-aircraft" shots and gun blasts, but a little subdued during the low rumble that washes over you when the ships land. It was the same with the depth-charges in U-571 - close explosions were sharp and tight, but there wasn't much low-freq. heard in the distant charges. Master and Commander was better, but probably a little less demanding. Cannon fire had plenty of punch - even the distant battle scenes, and the impact sounds on the deck were plenty forceful. The lightning storm in Open Range was pretty good, but the low thunder did tend to dissipate a little earlier than I remembered. The gun battle in this movie is not overly charged with deep bass, but again, the Starfire was good and sharp with gunshots.
All-in-all, the performance was good considering the room size, and the competition I was used to hearing was a VTF-3 that plays down to about 18Hz (Also, I recently added the Turbo accessory to it). The low rumbles and thunder were as much felt as they were heard with the HSU, so expecting the same thing from a small sub spec'd at 32Hz in a room this size wouldn't be realistic. So, naturally, I thought I'd try it in a larger room.
My living room has hardwood floors, a vaulted ceiling, and is open to the dining room and kitchen area - something over 5000 cu.ft. - with windows on three walls. I have area rugs and upholstered furniture, but acoustically it's pretty bad. Of course, this is where I do my serious music listening.
A DVD player and stereo receiver feed two tower speakers that are placed on either side of the fireplace in the middle of the long wall in the room. The towers play down to 29Hz so I don't use a subwoofer. OK, I'd like to think that was the reason, but WAF... well, you know ( it works fine - she has her room to decorate and I have mine). Using the speaker-level connections, I added the Starfire to the system, and started playing some CDs (Selections included Steely Dan, SevenMoore, Pink Floyd, and Bruce Mitchell, with a few movie soundtracks thrown in). The sub blended very well with the towers - in fact, so well that I thought the bass sounds were almost identical, but with more emphasis that may have just been the extra volume. So I disconnected the towers, and used their bookshelf companions instead (previously prohibited by WAF in the living room
), and started again. With the low end of their response at 45Hz, the subwoofer would be a little more appreciated.
Even in the larger space, the musical quality of the bass was impressive. It was interesting to compare the range and performance of the towers without a sub to their bookshelf little brothers with one. Although the specs indicated a low of 29Hz for the towers compared to 32Hz for the sub, the Starfire roll-off was a little more gradual, giving some deeper performance that was a little lower in level but still completely audible. For example, the theme during the closing credits of Titanic was much more impressive hearing the very lowest notes of the bass, that all but disappeared with the towers. Since the sub blended so well with the bookshelf versions (where the highs play as well as the towers), I'd be willing to replace the towers with this combination, to get the enhanced low freq performance, if my wife would go for it.
The last test was in my 100cu.ft. office. No room treatments, but with floor to ceiling bookshelves, desk and cabinets, wall decor, etc., it's not a bad listening room. The 2nd zone of the receiver feeds a couple of Behringer Truth monitors that I listen to near-field on either side of my desk. At 75Hz to 21KHz these things cry out for a subwoofer, and this is where the Starfire really performed. The placement must have worked out well, because I'm getting good levels down to about 27 or 28Hz (using the THX test tones), and still relatively flat across the lower band. I played all the same DVD scenes and the same music as before and none of the HT shortcomings were evident here. The Riddick and U-571 rumbles were present once again, and the cannons and gun-shots still had plenty of impact. The "blend" with the Behringers was not quite as smooth as my speakers upstairs, but the sub was still very impressive with music, perhaps even more detailed in the smaller room.
Possession being nine-tenths of the law, the owner may need to come armed to take it out of here.
I'd say the Starfire-10 performs surprisingly well in a medium-large room, but is really more at home in something like a 12' x 18' theater room. Musically, it can probably fill an even larger space, unless your tastes are mainly for pipe organs with deeeep bass. At $299, I'm sure I'll get another to replace the one I'll have to return.
