And now, on to the review....
Ok, so Ive had my new Velodyne DF-661 and Paradigm PDR-10 combo for about a month or so, so Ive come to know the setup pretty well. Everything is driven by a simple Yamaha 100 watt/ch stereo receiver. I have a high pass filter on my computer set at 65hz, and that made the bass woofer on the speakers stop making noises caused by subsonic frequencies. My sub is set to 70hz and the volume is about 30%. My room is 10.2ft x11.1ft. The speakers are positioned according to the golden ratio measurments, and the sub is near the front left corner. Listening material varies from electronic music, jazz, metal, rap, and classic rock.
The first thing I noticed plugging in the DF-661 was how clear they sounded. With that ultra low distortion, I could hear all the details without any audible grain, hiss, anything. Just pure music. The resolution of the details was also very good. The attack and decay response was very fast. Running a 20-20k sweep test reveals the midbass is slightly recessed in some frequencies compared to the mids and highs. The midrange and tweeter integrate perfectly and the extension sounded damn flat up to my hearing limit.
Treble was crisp and sweet, especially compared to my old Klipsch's harsh horn in my old, perfectly square room. The tweeter is also good at high frequency stereo imaging. The treble extension is similar to my klipsch, except a smoother response and integration with mids/woofer. Like the Klipsch, the midrange and treble are quite aparant and "forward" sounding. The detail of the midrange and treble is very excellent. The 6" midrange driver has very fast impulse response and the detail is just great. The midrange seems slightly more forward then treble.
The best way to describe the bass is "tight". Bass guitar sounds natrual. The woofer has nice warmth and body, as well as a "clean" impact. But the amount of impact is not very much. The extension goes down to a modest 60hz, so a sub is deffinitly a must. With bass heavy music, the bass is heard clearly, just not impactfully. My Paradigm sub really helps out with this, but my midbass still suffers a little. Overall, the bass is the weakest driver out of the 3, but integrates exceptionally.
Now on to the soundstage and imaging. As I said before, these speakers are similar to my klipsch in that they are forward sounding. The voice on the velodyne is more in the middle and natrual sounding. The Klipsch seemed to emphasize the voice a little too much. The soundstage overall is pretty small. It isnt much if any bigger than the Klipsch were. But the directional imaging is much more defined. I will hear sounds zip and curve very precicly across the soundstage. The speakers position the sounds very well, just not really large like say a Bose 901. I wish it were a bit larger, because the small stage makes some of the insruments sound too close together.
This is my main review. I will post more details as well as pictures shortly.
