sundownz

I was working on finalizing all the patents for a bit; but tooling is under-way now.

Realized that I don't have them on the site or anywhere easy to find at the moment -- so here we go : D2 Model : RE: 3.28 ohms (series) FS: 41.6 Hz Qes: 0.513 Qms: 6.606 Qts: 0.476 Le: 2.778 mH Vas: 3.285 L BL: 17.138 N/A Cms: 83.341 um/N Mms: 175.654 g Sens: 78.476 dB @ 1w/1m BL^2/RE: 89.5 D4 Model : RE: 6.08 ohms Fs: 44.66 Hz Qes: 0.594 Qms: 6.337 Qts: 0.545 Le: 4.26 mH VAS: 4.44 L BL: 21.20 N/A Cms: 80.8 uM/N Mms: 157 g Sens: 80.06 @ 1w/1m BL^2/RE: 73.92

Okay here it is : I am really pleased with these little guys

The first generation Z v.2 use a 4-layer aluminum coil -- specs listed below. Newer Z v.2 use copper coils -- specs posted here : http://www.caraudioclassifieds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50823 D1 specs will be very similar -- D2 specs can be used to design the enclosures no problem. ---------- 10" D2: RE: 3.88 ohms Fs: 51.69 Hz Qes: 0.474 Qms: 7.04 Qts: 0.444 Le: 2.53 mH Vas: 7.31 L BL: 24.01 NA Cms: 43.77 um/N Mms: 216.53 g Sens: 85.12 dB 1w/1m ---------- 12" D2: RE: 3.72 ohms Fs: 37.54 Hz Qes: 0.409 Qms: 6.82 Qts: 0.386 Le: 2.8 mH Vas: 23.95 L BL: 24.07 NA Cms: 66.43 uM/N Mms: 270.43 g Sens: 86.74 dB 1w/1m ---------- 15" D2: RE: 3.8 ohms Fs: 36.83 Hz Qes: 0.376 Qms: 3.8558 Qts: 0.342 Le: 2.956 mH Vas: 60.77 L BL: 25.28 NA Cms: 67.02 uM/N Mms: 270 grams Sens: 90.91 dB 1w/1m ---------- 18" D2: RE: 3.69 ohms Fs: 30.21 Hz Qes: 0.477 Qms: 7.65 Qts: 0.44 Le: 2.62 mH Vas: 126.61 L BL: 24.21 NA Cms: 69.35 uM/N Mms: 400 grams Sens: 90.47 dB 1w/1m

Unlikely any time soon -- that is a specialty item and not early on our list of development.

I just installed the pair in my car (TWO SUBS) in 0.5 ft^3 sealed and took a nice listen... I am really quite impressed. Brandon, Thomas, and I all agreed that per box volume you will be pretty hard pressed to get this combination of output, bottom end, and sound quality. I need to get a little video... it was shaking my visors, rear view mirror, etc... obviously nothing insane but the output did surprise all of us. Currently on my 200.4 bridged @ 1 ohm (turned way down) -- I wired it this way as I plan to test the new 1500D v.3 in my car soon as well as the new 125.4 on the fronts. The only 8" out there that I know of that will out-perform these sealed is a JL Audio 8W7 (which is a GREAT woofer... my favorite JL product period)... but it does call for a MUCH bigger box to do it (0.875 ft^3). The JL has more x-max (19mm vs 14.5mm on ours) and models out with a lower F3 point but at the expense of about 3x the cost and over 2" more mounting depth. If you put three SD-2 8s in the same 0.875 ft^2 as one 8W7 you would come out about the same price and end up with more output -- just depends on what you can fit as far as face area for woofers.

Dropped my crossover to 50 Hz @ 24 dB -- I was stacking ~80 on the amp and ~60 on the HU before... dropped HU crossover completely and dropped amp to 50 Hz. WOW what a difference in mid-bass... love it ! I may drop my tweeter to -3dB after more listening as it's mounted so high in the door -- will try to get RTA first.

We have Josh Fernandez and his Father up here doing some work to the rear door mids and highs setup. We came into contact with Josh through this article : Sixteen and DRIVEN | Driven Lifestyle Magazine We were pretty impressed with him and his work so we came up with an idea to have him come visit and put in some work on the van! They have been hard at work all week and I expect it to turn out very well : There are more progress pictures on Josh's phone that we will add once a full build log is made -- but I wanted to update to show we haven't left it totally sitting un-touched

The pricing is not changing across the board for 1500/2500/3500 so power difference is minimal. The big gains come from width reduction, fan added, and even more reliable / consistant designs.

I am building a set of like these on Z v.3 motors with the NS v.3 spider stiffness / the Z v.3 tall roll surround (re-building customer 15s into 10s) : * Dust cap isn't glued yet; just chilling out for now but that is how it will look. * Yellow NS v.3 spider * The terminal tabs are bent just right so the leads won't hit the cone or the adapter. Also put a small piece of tape across the adapter as an insulator just in case they do happen to get bent for some reason. As these are one of a total of five of these ever made and only a total of ~40 or so planned I don't have anything fancy for an insulator and just use a bit of tape (I have also yet to see the leads get bent down as they are oriented very carefully). A few people asked me about it so I am explaining in detail

Building these for a customer... I wasn't happy with the limits I was facing with the 10" 12-spoke frame so I grabbed some different frames to use for this project ! One picture for now until I get some stuff back from the machine shop... but what is to come : Z v.3 Spider w/ Double Leads and Triple Joint Ring Z v.3 Vented Spacer Ring (from 18" Z v.3) Basket coil cut-out OD expansion at local machine shop Custom made spider riser made at local machine shop Wide-Roll Surround 10" Cone Full Length NS v.2 Coil The customer is planning to use quite a bit of power on these so I wanted to do something a bit special... anyone that knows me knows that I hate making 10s with 3" coils on the 12-spoke and 4-spoke frames!

Most people buying a woofer like an SA want a ported box sound. They work well sealed in 10s, 12s, and 15s in an objective sense but I rarely recommend it as most people will end up wanting more output.

I've already started production; I am just making sure all the details of packaging and whatnot are ironed out before taking any orders. Production time start to in the USA is about 90 days so that puts them in September. I made a tiny motor modification on production as well by extended the pole out further to get a few more tenths of a millimeter of x-max. Other than that and the nicer back plate finish with our logo etched in production will be basically the same thing that I have in my car.

I essentially have what 90% of people that buy the set will have -- a basic install, with some minimal dampener, typically in factory spots. As you can see -- no crazy install tricks... but the result is still great sound When I get a moment we'll also do an in-car RTA of it just like this as well.

Here are some photos of putting them in : * The door is already very solid so that is a plus for sure! Crossover is installed on the door itself as well. * Added some Audio-Technix dampener on all the large flat spots and also behind the mid. Also installed the wooden adapter ring for the mid to the door. * Some dampener directly behind the mid. * Made a raid guard out of a few pieces of dampener and some aluminum tape -- this will keep large amount of direct water off the mid. Ambient moisture is really not a concern for the treated paper cone but we don't want water dumping down on it. * Mid fully installed. The tweeter is right in the factory location -- nothing special to show there! I am super pleased with the performance in this price bracket

I got the set installed yesterday with the final mids in my VW Golf -- sounds fantastic. Much less fatigue than the prior prototype set -- I had it up to my max listening level all the way back from the shop (15 mins or so) with very minimal listening fatigue. I am very pleased with how the set is working out. Both the mid and tweeter are much smoother than the prior set... the prior set sounded good but I found it fatiguing at high levels over long periods of time. The prior set being what I was working on April of 2011 (which I don't think I posted pictures of)... that set used a woven fiberglass cone and a bit different tweeter design. I did post a shallow set that was very similar which we put in Nick's CRX; but I had a "standard" depth set in my VW. Little more on my setup... I run them in stock locations with a handful of Audio Technix dampening material on the door (it's already solid unlike most doors so no holes to seal up). I'll get some photos up when I get back to work too... I have an SAX-200.4 on the comp set and my 3x SA-8 v.2 woofers -- so PLENTY of juice on tap. With a correctly configured HPF I do not see any problems running a nice, powerful amp on them like I am doing -- but our official rating will be much more conservative as it has to be flexible enough for inexperienced users. As of now I have zero EQ work done and I am very pleased; but I do plan to run an RTA and see how the response looks and maybe apply a bit of EQ if I see any major trouble spots due to the vehicle itself (the set itself is super flat out-of-car). In summary... I am pretty much 100% happy with the performance at the price these are coming in at. I anticipate the price being right at $199 from a dealer even with the mid upgrades we did (so I hit my under $200 target) -- at this price range I think they will be hard to beat if you are looking for a set with a very smooth response with low fatigue.

Turned out nice!

The prototype has arrived :

Here is the tweeter plot with off axis included.

I should have the midrange final prototype in my hands on Monday... assuming it is 100% to my liking I will announce pre-order pricing as we have already started to get materials together for the tweeter, crossover, etc.

Response graphs of the mid (with off axis) and the tweeter -- the thick vertical line represents the crossover frequency. As you can see it is very appropriate on this set to get a nice response from both drivers : We will measure them in my car too once the new mid arrives.

I should have the new mids in my hands soon to do testing -- I also got the factory response graphs including off-axis that I will get together and put up soon... then we'll do some RTA in my car; which is a very typical install and nothing fancy.

Not really in the bigger sizes.

There is no inherent reason you can not port them; but they are being tailored to sealed boxes.

I am happy with the mechanical behavior and observed thermal behavior so far playing them in free-air -- specs measured before break-in indicate I MAY have to make some small tweaks to it with the mass and compliance but it's about 90% there.