Sundown Audio SD-2 8" Prototypes

[sundownz]

I'll be ordering two of these whenever they are ready. Are they specifically made for sealed only?

There is no reason you cannot port them; but I am gearing them towards sealed much more than the SA-8

[jagblazer01]

wow those are some beefy little woofers...might do well in my home theater setup

[Chris Hammer]

Count me in for 1/2 when they release. Home theater

Edited June 7, 2012 by Chris Hammer

[sundownz]

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.

[sundownz]

Okay here it is :

I am really pleased with these little guys

[yUmadBro]

Nice vid they look promising

[CleanSierra]

Any ideas on price point? Ability to dig kinda low in a ported application?

[Ba55h3ad651]

Wow was not expecting that lol

[sundownz]

Any ideas on price point? Ability to dig kinda low in a ported application?

150 or less -- they can be ported, yes.

[sundownz]

I am making one small change for production -- the pole extension is growing by about 1/2" -- I was able to shoot the coil completely out of the gap and scrape the winding on the top plate with about 3x rated power

With the extension pushed out that will become impossible at any power level -- as it would take over 30mm one-way to completely jump over the pole with the taller extension.

Had to push back this production run a bit to fit a few more things in; but I'd expect to see it in November to December.

Specs on the unit played for extended period in my car :

Re : 6.03 ohms (series)

Fs : 45.2 Hz

Qes : 0.63

Qms : 7.31

Qts : 0.58

Le : 6.26 mH

Sd : 30.68 in^2

Vas : 7.74 L

BL : 15.55 NA

Mms : 89 g

Cms : 138 uM/N

Sens 1w/1m : 82.29 dB

Box modelling programs will call for a bit over 0.5 each sealed -- I ran these in 0.25 each and they sound great. Being a very linear driver over stroke your Qtc at higher levels of travel would be about the same as a driver with a lower at-rest Qtc and non-linear CMS and BL curves.

In any event -- the specs are within a VERY small margin of my original test-bench break-in process on them... so the parts will show very little fatigue and change over time after initial break-in. Not a surprise as they were all designed around the much more powerful SA-8 v.2

They would have no issue with a ported box but I feel like their main advantage is performing better sealed than an SA-8 v.2

Also will be doing Klippel testing on this at some point as I've done with the SA-8 v.2 and SA-12 models.

PS: I notice I haven't mentioned one of the details yet... the former is an alloy material similar to brass with a spiral cut to help reduce eddy currents compared to a standard aluminum former.