Sub-optimal

Well, I may have to go back and give the Transformers movie another star...it seems that after watching that movie, my sub-woofer has decided to go on the fritz.  That's a technical term for it ain't working no more.  In fact, it likes to make noises on its own whether it's receiving a signal or not.  Must have gotten too good a workout from all them splosions and stuff.  It's probably just coincidence, but you have to blame it on something.

The sub is a Velodyne HGS-10 that I got some years back and it's been a great sub so I hate to just throw it away but as with most electronics, it's typically a pain to try to find somebody who can actually fix it.  I orignally bought the Velodyne because it was small and powerful.  At the time, my home theater room was my family room and space was at a premium, so a huge subwoofer was out of the question.  I had heard of the Sunfire subwoofer which relied on pushing lots of air with a smaller cone using a more powerful amplifier.  It was a nice compromise.  The HGS series from Velodyne was their answer to Sunfire and I ultimately went with their sub.

I remember getting the Avia Home Theater test disc and running my system through the paces.  I already knew it sounded good but I was curious just how low my sub would go.  The subwoofer test basically sends a signal to the amp that started at 120Hz and drops to about 20Hz.  The purpose of the test is to help determine the crossover point between the main speakers and the sub.  As I ran the test I stopped hearing the sub around 40Hz, but I sure felt it in my chest and as the signal dropped to around 20Hz, the refrigerator in the adjoining kitchen began to rattle quite loudly.

That was cool, so I ran the test again...and then again, each time with the same result.  Except after the third time I began to get nauseous.  Basically, my body couldn't handle my insides rattling around from the low frequency vibrations.  I figured I had a pretty good subwoofer in terms of frequency response and I think I had the crossovere adjusted properly.

So now the trick is how do I get it fixed.  The nearest service center is in Dallas or Houston, not really easily accessible during lunchtime.  But I really want to get it fixed as I'm not really keen on spending big bucks on a replacement right now.  So my quest begins.