Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go review: Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go

As a powered subwoofer for your car, the Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go 6 installs easily and delivers a reasonably powerful bass thump. But this sub gives you more bang for your buck in that it works as a semiportable speaker system for an iPod or other MP3 player. In the latter incarnation, it adds pairs of 6.5-inch woofers and 1-inch tweeters to its subwoofer output.

Design
The speakers and subwoofer for the Velocity 2Go are housed in a big aluminum case with rounded ends. At more than a foot and half long and almost 10 inches high, you won't want to take the Velocity 2Go everywhere. But the size is reasonable for mounting it in the trunk of a car and occasionally taking it out when you want to supply music for a house party. Although the unit looks bulky, it's rather light, and its handle, which conveniently folds down flush, makes it easy to transport for short distances.

The woofers are mounted in the glossy black plastic front panel of the Velocity 2Go. The cones of these speakers are exposed, which could lead to damage, although they get some protection from the tweeters, which are protected by grilles and mounted on aluminum arms that partially cover the woofers. When the unit is powered up, the Velocity 2Go name gets a blue backlight in the center of the front panel, a nice touch. Unfortunately, you can't turn it off.

Dials set in the back of the unit let you set the gain, or volume, for just the subwoofer or the whole speaker set. Subwoofer controls include phase and frequency dials. These dials are set flush with the surface and built so their settings can't be accidentally changed. Although we understand that Blaupunkt intends for you to control music volume through either a car stereo or MP3 player connected to the unit, a more accessible volume knob on the Velocity 2Go would be helpful. Other controls include switches for power and to put it in subwoofer or full speaker mode.

Features
Blaupunkt engineered a lot of flexibility into the Velocity 2Go, with ports and power sources for use in the car, outside, or in your home. The packaging includes a car adapter, suitable for wiring into your car, with connections for audio and power. This adapter plugs into the back of the Velocity 2Go so you can quickly take it out of your car and put it back in. Blaupunkt also sells a dock for the Velocity 2Go that you can mount in your trunk. This dock includes all the proper car connections and will hold the subwoofer in place.

The unit also includes a minijack for an MP3 player on top, along with an AC adapter cord, so you can get power from any wall source. Better yet, it has an integrated battery pack that you can fill with rechargeable batteries. The Velocity 2Go will charge the batteries when it's plugged into a power source, then you can take it out and use it with an MP3 player at the beach or in a park. Blaupunkt leaves few options out, also including RCA in jacks on the back of the unit, letting you plug in just about any other audio source.

The frequency and phase dials let you fine-tune the subwoofer when it's in your car, while the two gain dials let you adjust the volume of the subwoofer or the full speaker set. The power and mode switches include an easy auto setting. Auto mode for power senses when the car is turned on, and turns on the subwoofer. For speaker mode, the auto setting determines if it should just be used as a subwoofer or the full speaker set. In our testing, this setting worked well. Plugged into our car, only the subwoofer activated. When we plugged it into a wall socket and hooked up an MP3 player, it automatically went to full speaker mode.

Performance
We installed the Velocity 2Go in our Chevy Aveo test car, using a Sony head unit with dedicated subwoofer outputs. By powered subwoofer standards, it's not a very big unit, and that showed through in its performance. It didn't deliver an overwhelming bass kick, but it did a great job of enriching the output of the four standard speakers in the Aveo. With a little tweaking, we could get it to vibrate the car, as well, but we noticed distortion entering the picture at high volumes. With it tuned for moderate output, it did a very nice job of adding bass we could feel when we tested it with different types of music.

Using it as a full speaker set, with an MP3 player as its audio source, it sounded good, but not spectacular. The speakers give it decent range, but there's not a lot of separation, due in large part to the speakers being less than a foot apart, much like a boombox. Its big advantage over a boombox is its very strong amplification. The unit puts out a lot of volume, even too much when the gain is cranked up.

In sum
As we're partial to subwoofers that enrich music rather than set off the neighbors' car alarms, we like what the Velocity 2Go brings to our car audio. The flexibility is also a very nice feature, and its dock is almost a necessity, because if you mount it any other way in your car, it will be more difficult to take out. We also like that you can use it as a portable stereo in conjunction with an MP3 player, although it is a bit bulky, and the front panel doesn't look like it's suitable for too many outdoor activities.