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So first of all, let me say that this is a subjective review, backed by some testings. Don't expect something ultra scientific - just my opinion on this beast.

The subwoofer belongs to a friend of mine. It is a Sundown Zv4 rev.2 15" with NSv2 D2 coil. Here it is next to his Ground Zero Plutonium 15" and next to my humble 12".

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His car is an Audi A6 C4 Avant. He has an OEM 120A alt (which will be changed when possible), one 70ah AGM battery at the front and three 105ah AGM batteries at the back. He has a GZPA 1.10k HC amp, which claims to produce a bit over 10k at 1 ohm.

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The subwoofer box was built by me - 4,6 cu.ft. (130 litres) tuned at 32hz with an interchangeable 8" aero. Double layer mdf everywhere and triple layer baffle.

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And in the car:

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Now for some impressions.

Pictures and videos do this thing no justice! If you haven't seen or touched a sub that big, it literally shocks you. I am very impressed with everything about this thing - the new cooling on the motor, the new surround, the leads.... Let me say that this is the first sundown new platform sub that I have touched with my hands. I can only imagine how big the NSv3 and the Team are...
I won't post pictures of different parts of the sub - you have probably seen them already.

The cooling is a bit noisy (which I think is a good thing because of the higher velocity of the air that cools the coil - Jacob could chime in on that) but the suspension itself is VERY quiet up to very high excursion.

I don't think the leads will have any problems with the power you'd like to throw at it.

Mechanically this thing is top notch - the linear excursion is high enough to ensure high spl levels without much distortion and the hard bottom limits of the motor/coil are pretty hard to reach. You will more likely stress the soft parts before the coil gets close to the bottom - we will get to that part later.

Thermally - WOW! For a "2000" rms sub this thing cools like a champ! Good job on that! I know that this particular one is with a bit longer coil (from NSv2) but you get the idea.

When we first loaded the sub, we expected that it won't require much power and we will have to bring down the gains from the previous setup (GZPW 15SPL tuned at 47hz, wired at 0,5 ohm). Boy, was I mistaken! We only had to adjust the filters a bit.

If the power we gave it was clean - no signs of any smell or overheating. It only smelled when the power was clipped. Keep in mind that the sub was rather new on that moment, so It wasn't broken in completely. From then to now there is a night and day difference.
With this 10k amp, wired at 1 ohm and with this box, we didn't experience any mechanical trouble near or above tuning. The amp would start clipping before we could stress the suspention enough to turn it down. We left the LPF at 40hz with 12db slope.
Of course, we had to use subsonic, but nothing drastic. When the cone exceeds its linear travel, the suspension starts stressing and there is BL distortion, so it gets a bit loud mechanically, but we're talking over 3" p-p. Mechanical limit of the motor is over 4" as you all know - we didn't dare reach it. It's not healthy for the driver either :D

Surprisingly, even with a 32hz tuning and a bigger than suggested box, it played the higher frequencies quite well - was very surprised on that! I wanted to tune this thing at 28-29, but there wasn't enough space for that - we used a straight aeroport and we had to keep an adequate distance between the walls and the mouths of the port. Next box will definitely be slightly bigger on volume and lower on tuning!

On its first competition it did 151,7db at 36hz on the dash - driver's door open and with people pushing the doors. It also did 135,6db at 25hz, 149db at 33hz and 149,7db at 40hz. It wasn't broken in completely, but I can't say how much that will affect the scores.

We measured the power going to the sub on different frequencies using the clamping method, which is NOT the most adequate way to do this, but it gets the work done. There was NO clipping during these tests, therefore the sub stayed cool the whole time and there wasn't any sign of smell, even when measuring at tuning.
I'll just put the numbers we got at tuning (32hz) and at best score (36hz). These tests were NOT done when we measured the system on the competition - when we measure we introduce a bit of clipping to get the score higher.

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System voltage stayed between 12.3-12.8 during the tests.

At 36hz 116.1V x 24.7A = 2867 watts, rising to 4,7 ohms
At 32hz 109.9V x 44.0A = 4835 watts, rising to 2,5 ohms

I repeat, these tests were done with no clipping and without fully charged batteries. The test tones were played for a couple of seconds to ensure that the sub doesn't have any problems with longer playing on that power. The power needed to achieve the scores I mentioned earlier would have been a bit higher.

So yeah, I can pretty much say that on 2000 watts, be it clamped or with a 2-3k amp, this subwoofer will have ABSOLUTELY NO problems (if it is clean, of course). If you keep the power clean and adjust the subsonic properly, you could feed this thing A LOT of power. And that's daily - on burp it could and would handle much more.
I don't even understand how people can listen to this with a 3-4k amp for example - it just begs for more (clean) power! If I could wire this thing at 0,5 ohm on this 10k amp (after getting proper alternator) - I'd deffinitely do it. It's better to keep a powerful amp down, rather than clipping a smaller one. Of course, with higher power comes greater responsibility, so I'd have to adjust the gains and filters accordingly, but overal I don't think I'll have a problem and it will perform better than now.

Do I recommend on going over the rated power? Absolutely no! At least for those who don't know what they are doing. You will void your warranty and may damage the subwoofer.


Thank you for your time, hope you enjoyed my review!

Here's a little "shirt" trick for finale. Wait a bit for the good part.

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Wow man that's an awesome review. I've been debating maybe getting a zv4 or nsv3 12 for the build I'm working on now and have them build it for a 4th order.

2000 Toyota Camry With Sealed Off Trunk

Sky High OFC Wiring

DC Power 270 XP Alt

AQ 2200 Sub Amp

Two DC Level 4 m2 12s

80 Mil Murdetmat

Gathering Parts For Wall Build.

Team DC Audio 2014 Member

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Thanks, bro! This is my first review, so any tips and pointers will be appreciated. Hope the topic will be useful for somebody.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nice review for sure!! 151.7 @ 36 hz on a single 15" and that big cabin is a nasty score for sure, any vids doing some hairtricks? did you meter that thing around 50 hz? would love to see that score since not everyone manages to get loud way higher than peak frequency, specially on that low end monster, nice work Veselin!!

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I´m the SPL Gains topic creator!! wanna get louder?? check this: SPL Gains. Panamenian 2009 & 2010 & 2014 Bass Race 149.9 Champion!

2 15" subs and a 2K wired at 1 ohm, http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/167788-fecupe2001-2-15s-on-a-2k-video-on-page-3/

8 Massive 15" subs and small power, http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/179296-fecupe2001s-8-15s-4th-order-bandpass-wall/

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Haven't measured it, but the score should be way lower. It's a big box, a big cabin, low tuning - it's just not possible to measure high 20hz above tuning in this application... But if put in an SPL box, I think it will perform VERY good.

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  • 7 months later...

Haven't updated this for a while, so decided to share how this thing looks like after painting. Hope you enjoy!

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wow, looks really really good after painting. I didn't catch this thread the first time but those are some impressive scores for 1 sub. That video is only one sub you sure?! LOL

GREAT write up man, I'm glad to hear those results of happiness

2007 Chevy Tahoe (SOLD)

12 ~ FI Audio X series 10" w/BP option

2 ~ DC Audio 5.0K @0.67

3 ~ DC Audio 5.0K @1.0 

2 ~ PPI 3 way sets (not installed yet)

1 ~ RF T400-4, 1 ~ RF T600-2, 1 ~ RF T600-4

4 ~ CT Sounds 5.25" Strato comps  (rear fill only)

1 ~ XS Power D4800

1 ~ XS Power D3400

8 ~ XS Power XP3000

160 stock alt, Mechman 370 Elite, 185 DC Power

320+ Sq. Ft. Sound Deadener

Pioneer AVH-X5500BHS

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/knfjdkghjudfhsgkjdhf/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0

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Yep, one sub :D

But now setup is upgraded, the roof is reinforced with plywood, and he put 370 amp alternator. Voltage is MUCH better now, and it's definitely louder, but the sub is starting to smell real quick. It's quite normal, of course - this is a 10k amp with good electrical (stays 13.7+ full tilt with slight clipping) on a 3" voicecoil that's not even their highest line.

I'm amazed how well this thing performs, you can play it until it becomes really, really hot and so far nothing has broken.

The plan now is to get some nsv3 12's and wire the amp in the dirt (0,35), so hopefully we'll see how much can we gain from this setup without going to a different category. Hope the amp will survive :D

Edited by daimer
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  • 4 weeks later...

I can't wait to run my Zv4 18's

1990 Chevy Suburban (Big Booty Judy)

(4) Sundown Audio Zv5 18's

(1) Sundown Audio Salt 12K

(1) Sundown Audio SAX-100.4

(1) Sundown Audio SAE-50.4

(2) Crossfire ST-1 Tweeters

(2) Obsidian Audio ST-1 tweeters

(4) Sundown Audio Neo Pro v3 6.5's

Saving 2nd Bass

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