Velodyne ULD 15 repair

I had a Foundation series sub for 5 years that I sent to Velodyne for repair about a year ago. All I sent was the board and they also upgraded the chips to their latest iteration. It was relatively inexpensive($150 or so), the repair was done promptly and the service was exemplary. I can't recommend them highly enough.

It was partly based upon their continued excellent service that prompted me to purchase a DD-15, their best 15" sub to date, IMHO. I remain very happy. They continue to be one of the best, if not the best subwoofer companies in the world.

They have always been very helpful the few times I have had to call them over the past 25 years, and even their current offer as described above by chiefwej indicates the caliber of company they are. To gratuitously slam them over an isolated experience just because they don't act as YOU might wish them to act is ridiculous. They have consistently gone above and beyond my sevice expectations and their products' longevity and awards speak for themselves. No, I'm not connected to Velodyne in any way - just thought I'd lend my 2 cents to the discussion so that some newbie wouldn't get the wrong idea about Velodyne.

I think everyone is missing the point. I like my ULD 15's and I'm very much interested in keeping them if I can find someone experienced in serviceing them. I have the ULD's modified at a very low x-over frequency. This allows me to control the deep bass without changing the sound of my bi-amped full range speakers. The ULD's have great deep bass control down to 18hz. Very few subs can do that in a two channel system.

What exact problems are they having?

If the foam is shot, you could try contacting Madisound, or even the guys who specialize in speaker surrounds on Ebay, and see if they have any leads on the size you need. The relevant dimensions are the overall diameter (15" I assume), and the diameter of the foam "roll" - probably about 1"?.

The most common amplifier problem with these is overheated/shorted output transistors. The symptom of that is the fuse blows instantly when you turn the amp on - whether or not it's connected to the sub. Any electronic repair shop should be able to replace them, but it won't be all that cheap as it's a somewhat involved job.

The servo circuits can be fried easily if the servo cable is removed while the sub is playing - a serious design flaw. If that is the case, you may be out of luck.

That's about all I know. Keep in mind if the driver itself is fine, you can run these as "normal" subs with any powerful amplifier - you won't have the servo control, but it should sound as good as a similar non-servo unit.

For what it is worth, I had a ULD-12 without the amp about 3 years ago and I call them about getting a new one....After about a week of figuring they desided they could build me a new amp with spare parts for 150.00.....I can't say enought nice things about them.....I have two ULD-15 now and have not had any problems.....I guess everything will wear out someday...But my ULD-15's keep playing....Good Luck with your repairs

I own a ULD-15 with a walnut finish. Brought it used 12 years ago. The driver failed (buzzing sounds) I re foamed it but it still buzzed. Then the Velodyne company, and everyone I asked refused to accept the repair job. (It's the accellerometer they are afraid of)

I found an alternative (better sounding) driver, fits the ULD-15 series 1. I've enjoyed it for about one year so far. Its called an Adire tempest 15. I saw your post in the spring time but didn't want anyone to know how great my tempest sounds until I could get ahold of another one. (still looking for another ULD-15 "enclosure" for the my second tempest). Please sell me yours! I ordered 2 new tempest's today from creative sound who with some other dealers got permission to start selling (on a pre-order basis) the final batch of tempest's from the former USA factory. Adire is trying to re-start their business in Chile with new versions and higher prices on the tempest ($230). But selling the old stock subwoofer "tempest classic" at ($139 thats why I pre-ordered 2 more today).

As for the original velodyne ULD-15, I was in love with it, spent many late night listening sessions. Thought nothing could beat it. Then when I had to replace the driver with the ADIRE Tempest 15, I knew it would need 2 things to make it right (by the way this driver fits perfectly in the Velodyne enclosure). I wired the tempest's dual 8 ohm voice coil in parallel (now its 4 ohms). I bridged my hafler dh500 amp to drive the tempest (it only needs 250 watts but can handle much more) presently mine is 800 watts in bridged mode. The Tempest has long excursion and is design for a frequency response of 18 Hz to 250 Hz.
To get that response I used an old McIntosh MQ101 eualizer(inverts the natural bass role off to create a flat response down past 20 Hz). There are other simular products like the Marchand Basis "they are called linkwitz transforms". I also use a cross over (boxed my old DBx 120 and got a used Marchand XM-44)
I get rich, deep, powerful bass.

I sometimes listen to the ULD-15 with the Adire Tempest 15 for 5 hours on the weekend (no listening fatigue). The orig Velodyne driver was pretty good but wasn't easy to listen to for 5 hours.

The Adire Tempest "classic" can be pre-order until June 30, or July 4 at certain dealers. They will go fast (read the reviews, or any info on the Adire Tempest).

Good luck, and remember me if you decide to sell that ULD-15 enclosure.