Velodyne CHT-15R Subwoofer Review - Wobbly Legs

When it comes to leisure time, a lot of us enjoy playing a console game or watching a good movie. Gone are the days when the latter means leaving your house for a night out at the cinema. The preferred way of watching a movie nowadays, is at home on your LCD or plasma TV, complete with surround sound. You might be content with your set-up, but the addictive nature of wanting the best picture, and the most awe inspiring sound, will soon have you wanting to upgrade certain parts of your kit. On the sound front, a good set of speakers is essential, but to add that earth shattering bass levels of sound, that shake your booty to extreme levels, you need to look at something above the level of the sub/sat systems that are on the market today. There are plenty of subwoofers available that do a grand job, but to take things to the next level you need to move air, and here we take a look at the Velodyne CHT-15R.

There are many models available in the CHT range, the 8R, 10R, 12R, right up to the 15R on test here. Available in a range of colours, dependent on model, you can pick from black, silver or cherry finishes. The black finish on our CHT-15R is really nice, the quality is faultless. Before I kick off with the review good and proper, I should warn you, the 15R is big, not just in performance, but in physical size. It measures approximately 21x21x18 inches and weighs 75 pounds. If you need something a little more lounge friendly then you should look further down the range. All have pretty much the same features, they just differ in performance levels, especially the frequency response and power ratings.

Back to the CHT-15R, this brute packs 1,000 watts of continuous power and a 4.4 pound magnet on the speaker unit. The driver is a massive 15-inch forward firing beast, which delivers a frequency response down to a trouser shaking 23Hz. This is very very low, and the amount of air that is moved when you get powerful in-movie sound effects is quite worrying. You need to appreciate that the 15R delivers the type of movement and rumbles that you can only really experience in the best cinema set-ups... and I am referring to the cinema that you have to travel to, not a home based affair.

Setting up is really easy, and once you have calibrated the 15R with your main speaker levels, you can sit back and enjoy. The included remote control gives you access to the DSP control unit. You can remotely adjust the volume (which aids in balancing the overall sound to blend in with your main speakers), phase adjustment to further match the timbre to your speakers, mute, a night mode (which tones down the output to keep your neighbours happy), plus it gives you access to various presets. The presets available are Movies/R&B, Rock/Jazz, Classical and Games. I am not a great fan of such things, but I must admit they worked admirably. Switching to ‘Games’ seemed to add some extra punch to explosions and sound effects, whereas ‘Classical’ seemed to trim in the settings, to give a more focused and natural bass response.

If your main vice is movies, then the CHT-15R will not disappoint. Testing with the likes of Fifth Element, showed the tight, yet awesomely low frequencies that were being delivered. When you start to ‘feel’ the sound, you know that your sub is really shifting some air. The film U571 has some really loud explosions, and the 15R brought those into my test room with the type of presence I had never experienced from my home cinema system before.

In summary, if you are serious about movie watching and you want the best subwoofer money can buy, then splash your cash on a Velodyne CHT-15R, you will not be disappointed. Just remember to leave enough cash for some rubber bands to tie around your trouser legs.

Product: Velodyne CHT-15R Subwoofer
Price: £799
Supplied by: Redline Scotland Ltd
Contact: +44 (0)131 555 3922

PureAV Isolator - filter your power

The Belkin PureAV Isolator Surge Protector does so much more than just provide eight surge protected power sockets. Designed for the home theatre market, it is just as suited to computer use, we take a look at what it has to offer.

Nowadays, it seems like we live in a totally wired world, with many manufacturers now striving to bring us an UNwired world. Even if we manage to get rid of most of the wires in our set-ups, it is a forgone conclusion that all of our gadgets, whether home theatre, computer or gadget related, will all need power. Wireless power will never happen, as this is a bit dangerous :-)

There are a lot of surge protector products available, and even from Belkin, you can buy a cheaper product with up to 9 sockets. The PureAV Isolator offers that little bit more, on top of the eight sockets available. For a start the sockets are clearly labeled with the most popular devices your may have, so this makes for easy identification. The unit is also very heavy and well made, a mix of metal and plastic construction that really feels high quality. One of the first things I noticed and liked was that it has built in cable management, so the excess mains cable (which is 3m long) is wrapped around the body of the unit and tucks neatly away.

The PureAV also uses power filter technology (PFT) which isolates any noise coming through the mains channel. You would be surprised, that even with new mains cabling in your house, it can still be quite contaminated with noise. It also protects against electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference. Sounds very techy, and it is, but all you need know is that the high quality components are helping to deliver the cleanest and smoothest electricity to your equipment.

You can also run through two phone lines and your satellite, cable, or regular antenna, so these are protected too. The unit comes supplied with three 1.8 metre cables for telephone, gold coaxial and aerial, so you have those extra leads available from the offset. To keep things neat there are some cable tidy wraps and wall mounting screws, so it seems like Belkin really have thought of everything.

The build quality, the lifetime product warranty, the unlimited connected equipment warranty, and the fact that this product delivers the highest level of protection you are likely to need, all adds up to a very sensible purchase. Yes, you can buy cheaper, but I doubt at this price point you could buy better.

Product: Belkin PureAV Home Theatre Surge Protector
Model: 8 socket (F9G823uk3M)
Price: £79.99
Supplied by: Belkin UK
Contact: +44 (0)1933 35 2000

Griffin XpressCable review - optical goodness

Griffin Technology, better known for their iPod accessories also make a variety of cable solutions. Previous reviews of their products have revealed great quality, so I was very interested to learn if their Xpress Cable would keep up the good work.

The Griffin XpressCable is a digital optical audio cable, coloured white with grey accents to the tips, it measures in at three meters long. So straight out of the packaging you can use it for connecting various audio equipment like a DVD player or your XBox 360.

Also supplied is a pair of 3.5mm mini-jack adapters. These can be plugged onto either or both ends of the cable, converting the toslink connection to a 3.5mm stereo jack. This allows you to take advantage of some Apple Mac's digital audio outputs, such as the Mac Mini, PowerMac G5, Airport Express, not forgetting the later Intel based Macs, oh and before I forget, the iPod Hifi.

So, a cable is a cable, yes? Well, a lot of people say that digital signals are already digital, so a £5 cable will work as good as a £50 one. I strongly disagree with this misconception. The XpressCable is well constructed, the plugs seem to have longer bodies to them, so you get a real solid connection. I have experienced optical cables before that just fall out of my XBox 360, but there was no such problem with the Griffin Cable. Audio delivery was crisp and clean, definitely on par with optical cables costing double the money. If you want a well constructed cable that delivers great audio, without breaking the bank, then look no further... oh and I almost forgot, it is white in colour, so it will match your Mac gear to a tee.

Product: Griffin Technology XpressCable
Price: $19.99
UK Street Price: £12.00
Supplied by: Griffin Technology
Contact: +1 (615) 399-7000