Old Velodyne 1215 Needs Driver...Another Brand(??)

[VelodyneGuy]

Hello,
I have old Velodyne VA 12-15...Well taken care of but the cone has finally detached on 12" driver. As long as I keep the impediance (m/s?) the same, has anyone tried using another good quality driver in place of the old Velo Driver?

It sounded great till (obviously) the cone detached. I can't help believing that a decent quality sub (again same impediance) would give me a quick fix.

Thx!

 

[markw]

Try Velo to see if you can get a replacement driver.

The driver, enclosure, passive radiator, and most likely the crossover/amp are designed to work together. Changing the driver will upset that balance.

 

[VelodyneGuy]

Thank you for the reponse... Could you elaborate a bit more on that? I assume that you're referring to not as 'Clean' as Velodyne intended right? Let me add a bit more, I have 3 kids & a start up business. Just not in the budget to trash the working amp & enclosure at the moment without trying.

What are you exactly referring to when you say upset the balance? In your opinion, will it more than likely just sound like a garbage sub? I technically, tried to repair the cone myself (failed obviously -ha) and (on a side note) wasn't too impressed with the look of the paper-coned velodyne driver. ...I know, it sounded good but I thought it looked cheap compared to some of the old Car-audio drivers that I have had experience with many yrs ago.

 

[markw]

Only the speaker itself is bad, right?

PErhsps I worded that poorly.

Call Velodyne and see if they can provide you with a replacement speaker for that particular subwoofer. If they can, simply replace the broken speaker itself. Keep everything else.

FWIW, "driver" is another word for "speaker"

 

[VelodyneGuy]

thanks... I am with you on the 'driver' term... Just wondering about your thoughts on 'upsetting the balance'. I always kind of thought that at this level of Velodyne (Entry level that is... it was only about 1000 when I bought it new), the quality was mainly due to the amp and the enclosure.

The VA series didn't have any fancy servo (was that what they called em when I followed audio stuff?)

...anywho, I was just hoping that I could run down and get a decent quality sub with the same impedance and be golden. I am always scared to call a company like Velodyne and see their price tags (ha)

I will contact them and see what they come up with.

thx

 

[davidtwotrees]

This can be pretty serious stuff and people take their speakers and subs very seriously.
BUT.................
I've substituted drivers many times over the years with no ill effects. My first pair of nice Infinity's blew a woofer..........Infinity wanted almost $200...........not in the budget. I bought one off the shelf at Radio Shack for $30. Was it AS good as the original? P'rbly not, but it worked fine for years at LOUD volumes. No amps blew. No crossovers smoked. And frankly, I couldn't tell the difference between the original and the Rat Shack..........
Will you achieve the same specs as Velodyne's team of sound engineers and physicists intended if you swap it out? Probably not. I would deffo try Velodyne and see what they offer in the way of replacements. If they are to pricey, try sound express, or look on ebay for something used.

 

[mnnc]

Hello,
I have old Velodyne VA 12-15...Well taken care of but the cone has finally detached on 12" driver. As long as I keep the impediance (m/s?) the same, has anyone tried using another good quality driver in place of the old Velo Driver?

It sounded great till (obviously) the cone detached. I can't help believing that a decent quality sub (again same impediance) would give me a quick fix.

Thx!

Svs drivers available over on the bay...just to let you know.

 

[walter duque]

If it's one of the first subs they made I might be able to help you since I know the OEM. I will contact him over the weekend and hope to have an answer for you.

 

[Sheep]

thanks... I am with you on the 'driver' term... Just wondering about your thoughts on 'upsetting the balance'. I always kind of thought that at this level of Velodyne (Entry level that is... it was only about 1000 when I bought it new), the quality was mainly due to the amp and the enclosure.

The VA series didn't have any fancy servo (was that what they called em when I followed audio stuff?)

...anywho, I was just hoping that I could run down and get a decent quality sub with the same impedance and be golden. I am always scared to call a company like Velodyne and see their price tags (ha)

I will contact them and see what they come up with.

thx

Speakers have a list of specifications that are called Theil Small paramters. Each of these parameters combine to determine the characteristics of the speaker. Some parameters pertain to the enclosure, some to the amplifier, and others to the speaker. If these specifications are different, the driver WILL perform different. 1215 has a passive radiator, which tunes the enclosure, this tuning works in conjunction with some of these parameters, and a different driver might not work as well.

Can you change the driver? Yes. Is it a good idea? No. Unless you find the T/S parameters for your subwoofer, and find another driver to match (which is going to a pain in the ***, and probably impossible).

You could get lucky, and have similar performance with a random driver, or maybe even better, but I highly doubt it. Best choices are to A.) Buy a new OEM driver, or B.) Buy a whole new subwoofer.

SheepStar

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello,
I have old Velodyne VA 12-15...Well taken care of but the cone has finally detached on 12" driver. As long as I keep the impediance (m/s?) the same, has anyone tried using another good quality driver in place of the old Velo Driver?

It sounded great till (obviously) the cone detached. I can't help believing that a decent quality sub (again same impediance) would give me a quick fix.

Thx!

You can get the driver refoamed, or do yourself. See if you can find a refoam kit. Sub tuning is very critical. If you substitute a driver with different TS parameters, you more than likely will have no bass. Loudspeakers are resonant devices, and the box, port/passive radiator, require the same weight of cone and springyness of the suspension. Also the electrical resonances have to match.

 

[MatthewB.]

When I upgraded my SVS from the ISD drivers to the NSD drivers, I was stuck with two 12" SVS drivers, what to do? Well my bedroom sub was an older DCM sub with dual 12's that sounded okay (it was afterall a bedroom system) with only 150 watts of power. So I took out the lightweight DCM 12's and put in the two SVS ISD drivers and wow what a difference. The sound was way better and even though the amp is only pushing 150 watts, it makes those SVS drivers pump some serious bass in the master bedroom.

When I bought my DefTech BP7001s one of the subs was bad, so DT sent me a new amp and 10" sub driver, well it was the amp and not the driver, so I still have the 10" DT sub driver in a box. I am thinking of buying a Velodyne 10" sub at Fry's (they have em on sale for 129.00) and that comes with a 150 watt amp also. The only think that's stopping me is I have no place to put the sub. My two HT systems already have more than enough bass and space is limited. But I have no qualms with replacing other drivers in subs. For me it has worked out quite well.

 

[colin.p]

This can be pretty serious stuff and people take their speakers and subs very seriously.
BUT.................
I've substituted drivers many times over the years with no ill effects. My first pair of nice Infinity's blew a woofer..........Infinity wanted almost $200...........not in the budget. I bought one off the shelf at Radio Shack for $30. Was it AS good as the original? P'rbly not, but it worked fine for years at LOUD volumes. No amps blew. No crossovers smoked. And frankly, I couldn't tell the difference between the original and the Rat Shack..........
Will you achieve the same specs as Velodyne's team of sound engineers and physicists intended if you swap it out? Probably not. I would deffo try Velodyne and see what they offer in the way of replacements. If they are to pricey, try sound express, or look on ebay for something used.

I had two pairs of Advents, one the original utilities and a set of "new Advents", same drivers, smaller cabinet. The driver on one of the larger ones went, so I went to Rat Shack and picked up two of their 12s. The original drivers were a weird size, bigger than 10s but smaller than 12s but I got them to fit, with a little hole cutting.
Had them for several years before I gave them away, but I didn't notice any glaring difference from the original drivers. If it upset the "balance", I wasn't too aware of it, there probably was a slight deterioration of quality of sound, but nothing too noticeable.
However, I listened to very loud 60s - 80s rock and was usually under some kind of influence, so you can take that with a grain of salt.

 

[walter duque]

Why don't you call Velodyne maybe they'll replace it for free. Try it you nothing to loose. I blew a tweeter on one of my 15 year old towers, called my speaker company and the next day I had 2 tweeters shipped to me overnight express for free.

 

[VelodyneGuy]

thanks for all the great replies... I especially like the idea of Velodyne sending me a replacement. (I doubt it but worth a try??)
Thx!

 

[VelodyneGuy]

Called Velodyne...replacement driver only $26!! (??) I thought it would be cost far more than that! Woohoo! Thanks again for the help.

 

[markw]

Deja vu?

Called Velodyne...replacement driver only $26!! (??) I thought it would be cost far more than that! Woohoo! Thanks again for the help.

I seem to recall that adcive somewhere else. Perhaps in post two of this thread?

I guess it wasn't the answer you wanted to hear.

 

[VelodyneGuy]

Thank you Mark...It was great advice. I honestly did not think that a company that makes expensive subs such as Velodyne would sell me a new drive for 26 bucks. (??) I am still shocked.

I paid >1000 bucks for it 'Back in the Day'. I was 99% sure that I was going to have to buy some crap driver to get me by.

Thx Again,
Ross

 

[EugenT]

You are lucky... when the coil died in my ULD-15 Velodyne, they simply did not have any left and did not make any replacements... and I couldn't substitute (driver has the special piezoelectric sensor built-in). I got really lucky and found a replacement driver on the auction site...

 

[Sheep]

Thank you Mark...It was great advice. I honestly did not think that a company that makes expensive subs such as Velodyne would sell me a new drive for 26 bucks. (??) I am still shocked.

I paid >1000 bucks for it 'Back in the Day'. I was 99% sure that I was going to have to buy some crap driver to get me by.

Thx Again,
Ross

You'd be surprised how cheap it is to make a driver like the one in your subwoofer.

SheepStar

 

[ptouch95]

1215x detached cone I have one ..

I had the same problem my cone detached and I'm glad it did, Crap.. don't worry about upsetting anything but the neigbors. I replaced it with a Rockford Fosgate 12" p3s, the old magnet was 55ounces and this one is double, it will handle all of what that amp could dish out 400watts rms , it is a compliment to that sub, i feel in love with it all over again, bought it bran new on ebay for $100., one other thing when you put the new sub in replace the wire with something good, only 4inches of wire. When I added the new sub the radiator on the bottom started to rattle violently, I bought a 15" Grill and mounted the feet to hold the grill in place , this thing pumps better today than it did 10 years ago. I want to replace the radiator with a new one but thier hard to come by. 281-889-0070, im looking for another 1215x so I can refurbish it and see what two sound like.