Velodyne uld12e1 worth fooling with?

scottyboy76

I can get one that has been used normally, not abused, obviously needs a refoam, prob for 50 bucks.

Something to do getting it back to work and see if I can get it to work in my 2 channel, if not replace my psw10

Just wanted to make sure that there was not some known fatal pitfall with this old horse.

seabeerob213

what does ordering a new drive from velodyne look like? im sure hey have very similar ones in their current line up.

ViperZ

ULD series is the first feedback-based Velodyne. You want to make sure that the sensor inside the speaker is working, so be very careful when refoaming it. Velodyne carries no replacement speakers for these subs.

I restored my ULD-15 literally from a pile of parts. New bottom board in the enclosure, refinished the enclosure, replaced the speaker (took me several months to find a replacement speaker on ebay - I think I damaged the sensor in the original speaker while refoaming), rebuilt and fixed the amplifier... So basically built a new sub. Was it worth it? It is one of the most musical subs I have ever heard. I know it's 15", but it's sealed in a proper sized enclosure, so speed-wise it keeps up with my Maggies to provide a perfect bottom end for those panels.

scottyboy76

Sounds like maybe a job for northwest speakers, not sure what the sensor you speak of is, but after last night, I feel like if it can be f?>&ed up I will do it.

I have refoamed a few speaks with no problems,but this sounds like a diff deal and maybe one of those areas where it might be a little past worth putting real money into getting it back into shape, and a little past my abilitys, but its gonna be almost no money to acquire, maybe nothing if i tell her i want it so its still tempting.

But its a big old end table furniture type 15 inch velodyne, so its so tempting, I think I will try to find some info on the web showing me about the sensor and refoaming, prob not a lot out there as old as it is.

Thanks for giving me your input and relating your experience with it, that was very informative.

ViperZ

ULD-12 is 12", ULD-15 is 15", and ULD-18 was a monster 18", although IMHO it can't keep up with the smaller two.

Regarding sensor - there is a distortion/ feedback sensor (accelerometer?) sitting somewhere inside the speaker, I think under the dust cap. It is basically their very first implementation of Servo (ULD = ultra low distortion). So there will be an extra set of wires going to the amplifier from the speaker. Those tiny wires going to the sensor cannot be damaged when refoaming, and obviously cone has to be perfectly straight for the sensor to work.

ULD-12 was the only one of three with built-in amp, 15 and 18 had separate amps. There is also F-series Velodyne - the front-firing version of these bottom-firing subs.

Here is my ULD-15:


I'd say, ULD-12 is well worth $50 + say $50 for refoaming (and it's way better than PSW10).

scottyboy76

Ahh, so maybe just a matter of not roughing it up too much when refoaming.

Thats it, only diff is the finish color is more like the speaker sitting next to yours.

Boy that one is shining, looks very nice.

Thanks again.

By the way, some of the things I found while first looking this thing up was discussing some type of module that is connected between the sub and the source equipment.

I will look it up again, as its kinda fuzzy, i have been looking up a lot of diff gear the last couple days.

ViperZ

ULD-15 and 18 came with a stand-alone amps, so maybe that's what you're talking about? I think ULD-12 has a stand-alone controller, but amp is built into enclosure.
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1110776/any-velodyne-uld-12-experts

My ULD-15 was black, but surprisingly, all I had to do was sand the paint off the real veneer, and then stain it in mahogany.

EDIT: I found that there was an optional Velodyne crossover p/n 80-110FIN that you would insert between preamp and power amp. Funny that I ended up with Paradigm X-30 (more modern) crossover to fine-tune my ULD-15, even without knowing that that passive Velodyne x-over existed.