What's wrong with Velodyne?


I have two Velodyne subs. (HGS-12 and older one) and both have worked great, sound great, etc.

However, my experience with dealers is that they think very lowly of Velodyne and politely recommend staying away from them. One dealer used to carry them and dropped them, another well-established dealer said he though many other brands (some he didn't carry) would be better.

Is something going on here that I am missing? I don't think it's just dealers trying to sell products they carry.
bundy
You can't get Velodyne's high end subs at low end stores like Circuit City.
Always cracked me up how manufactures start off with those strict and stringent distribution and marketing strategies to the hi-end stores - and how they put the screws to their dealers to stay withing rigid guidelines - so as to keep their products in some upper echelon product image in the minds of the consumers. It's like, "we don't sell our products in chain stores, only high end salons!"
Yeah let the economy slide a bit, or sales figures start to slide a bit, and every manufacture starts dumping their stuff at Best Buy, Costco, and any Flee market that will take it! Er, seems as such anyway.
I remember lots of so called high end product lines that eventually made it into the average Joe's chain store.
In fact, I remember years ago when Krell first came into a high end store I was with, with owner and rep in-tow. They told us if we ever sold any products sideways, sold any floor models even, or even had the appearance of having any sort of "sale" on Krell products, that we would be ousted as Krell dealers! Yeah, the second we said we didn't want to go with them, they changed their tune REAL fast, and started offering us all kinds of flexibility and discounts!
Amazing what a little negotiating and outside influences can achieve when the tough get going...
Maddadtexas, back on 3-24-08 you started a thread "subwoofer selection help????" and named the JL Audio F113 as one of the subs you were possibly looking to buy. The next day you ordered the SVS online. I don't know why you would have named the JL Audio F113 as one of the subswoofers you were interested in since you had owned it already along with the DD15. The JL Audio is not easy to forget once it is in your system.
I actually bought both subwoofers. I bought a used JL Audio from a home theater shop here in town that went out of business and used it until the I got the Velodyne SMS-1 to set up the SVS Sub (which was really an impulse buy). Actually at one time in our family room we had a DD-15, a JL Audio F113, and the SVS PC13 Ultra, oh yeah, and the Magnepan's too. I didn't have any of them on isolation platforms, and they probably actually sounded different because the drivers of each of the subs affected the sound when each one was on due to proximity.

My wife made me choose one and get rid of the others. I loved the DD-15, I got if from a guy I work with who was moving, he ended up taking it back (same price) when I told him that I got the JL Audio (and SVS actually), I was going to keep that, liked it a lot until the SVS came and finally got set up with the SVS. The JL Audio now resides in my brothers home theater room, which is quite large, and it does an amazing job of moving air in there.

The great thing about Audiogon is being able to buy and test many pieces of equipment, with little cost, if bought correctly. I tried out a McIntosh C2200, and a ModWright 9.0 preamp after I bought my current Cary SLP98p, to make sure of which one I wanted.

I do the same thing with speakers, but I always seem to come back to the Maggies. I will prob break down and buy the 20.1's sooner or later, but I won't sell the 3.6's until I have the 20.1's in the system and decide if they are worth the extra money. As I am sure you know, the room, and mine is imperfect to be sure, has so much to do with the sound, that sometimes and upgraded component doesn't give any improvement in performance.
Since my subwoofer selection procedure is so interesting, I am thinking about getting the Definitive Technology IWSub Reference and the matching amp (if I can find one on the second hand market) and trying out one of the Rel T series subs. Use the Rel connected to my preamp only for music and to work with the Maggies, and the Definitive in wall for LFE only. I won't move the SVS though until I am sure I like the new set up. But I bought the SVS new, and after only 8 months I don't want to sell it and take a big loss. It is a great sub, but I think if I use another sub for LFE only it would be overkill with the Maggies. It's big too, so would prob have to go on Craigslist, or pick up only here on Audiogon. Although, one of my neighbors who we just put a theater in for almost bought one, but found a couple of Sunfire's instead, maybe he would be interested....