Velodyne’s MiniVee sub has evolved significantly over two decades and the latest ‘X’ version remains small and perfectly formed. Our trade focused reviewer Richard Stevenson has a listen to the recently launched MiniVeeX.
Introduced back in the mid-2000s, the original MiniVee was at the forefront of driving big bass from a small box. That original packed a 1kW class D amp powering a single 8in Kevlar driver in a sealed box, dug down to below 30Hz and packed a feisty punch, making it a popular choice for those decent LFE with the big-box carnage.
The model has been through various iterations since and joined by even smaller MicroVee, giving the design an enviable reputation for delivering the goods for nearly twenty years. Enter the 2024 MiniVee X, designed to put the sub-market into something of a Twitter. (Sorry, couldn’t resist…)
It’s still smaller than a foot cube and cuter than a Labrador puppy, and the build quality remains substantially robust. The design now mates a proprietary Velodyne 8in driver opposite a similar material 8in passive radiator in a beefy sealed MDF cabinet with a rather lush black or white gloss finish. The amp is an 800W peak Class D unit with XLR, RCA and high-level input to cater for the widest range of installs.
Hot tech that would have been considered subwoofing witchcraft back on the original MiniViee is Velodyne’s latest EQ app, snappily entitled Velodyne Acoustics Auto EQ, and available in both major flavours of smart device OS. It’s a stripped-down affair to EQ the sub to the room automatically with a few manual tweaks, but it is a long way from the depth and complexity of systems found on models significantly higher up the Velodyne bass ladder.
Around the back, it’s far from stripped down in features with RCA and XLR stereo loop-outputs, 12v trigger jacks in and out and on/auto/trigger power options. A 5V USB-A socket provides power to Velodyne’s optional Wi-Connect wireless signal receiver, and there is a 0/180 phase button for quick set-up. Both the volume knob and low pass control are infinitely rotating notched dials with a little blue LED display showing LPf and gain 1-30.
Getting mic’d up
The MiniVee X is provided with a natty microphone and the heaviest most robust mic stand I have yet to see supplied as standard with any bit of AV kit. It makes for a great desk stand, assuming you have a desk in the right place, but there is no tripod mount thread on with the mic or stand, so don’t throw the gaffer tape away just yet.
Small subs are a delight to set up on both the ears and vertebrae, with the MiniVee X cracking out a fine balance straight out of the box, volume dialled without any EQ. Things went a little wayward using the app. While the sub connected with ease, the ‘prototype’ instruction manual supplied with our dem unit subwoofer was several generations behind the app firmware, leaving this reviewer scratching his head at the sonic and app displayed EQ results.
A few calls to distributor Redline and Velodyne later, and we had fathomed the problem lay in an errant manual. The systems require you to measure the sub at 50cm as a scan sweep, from which it measures the room from the seated position and creates a target curve designed to replicate the near-field measurement through EQ. That worked a whole lot better!
SOUNDING SWEET
A few tweaks and moves found the sweet spot in our new 6m x 4m dem room central on the front wall with very little in the way of EQ applied. There are five filters you can tweak manually but at this time no official pre-sets for movie, stereo, night etc. The joy with small sealed subs is they do tend to be very easy to integrate and I could happily love the little MiniVee X as it came straight out of the box, sans EQ. A trickier room would be a different story, I’m sure – yet it’s so easy to move, adjust and tweak in the app, getting in dialled and bang-on won’t be an issue.
And bang-on perfectly describes the MiniVee X, delivering incredible depth for its size and dynamic punch that would embarrass subs of substantially larger proportion. Dialled into other handy review samples, the fabulously potent Marantz M1 streamer/amp and exceptional Q-Acoustics 5040 floorstanding speakers, the MiniVee X slotted in like Keith Moon to Roger and John, bring a potent, punchy edge to the trio. It goes bonkers loud for its compact size and has a fun-loving and raucous side that works as well with rock and dance as it does with action movies in cinema duties.
