Sundown has the best Customer Service hands down. Couldn't be more pleased.

[sundownz]

sometimes shit happens. its nice that a company takes their cs serious.

YES -- it does indeed happen. So for those times when it does -- we do our best to take care of it.

We send out 1000s of speakers that are 100% perfect -- one thing I have learned in the business is that silence means everyone is happy So you'll hear the most about the few that didn't go perfectly. That is normal, of course, in any business.

The crew & I have been working every day to increase production reliability of our products -- it's been a huge learning curve with the new platform. The Mega-Roll is extremely tricky to work with by comparison to older surrounds.

In fact... I have been developing a Mega-Roll v.2 primarily for the purpose of increased assembly reliability. We aren't just sitting around passively by any means -- the crew works every day to improve assembly quality and reliability. Every driver that isn't perfect is looked over and learned from.

Bottom line, though, doesn't matter how good you are; how many speakers you build; or how much you check it; stuff happens. At that point it comes down to service. We do our best in that regard and I feel most people are very happy.

This particular case is one of those "one in a million" scenarios -- but I am glad we were able to resolve it in the end.

[Karkov]

Nice to hear. Sundowns are my next subs I have decided.

[hdorre]

Nice to hear. Sundowns are my next subs I have decided.

[jakmagic]

I am currently in the process of looking into a new 15"- 18" driver and have narrowed it down to four as of now. Two are the Zv3 and Zv4. Anyways, I have been reading up on forums and watching different youtube videos of these woofers and when I looked up videos on the Zv4, the first video was of a kid that purchased 4 new Zv4's and he was opening and inspecting them. 3 of the 4 woofers were having the same problem with the surrounds glue failing. The kid did seem to be squeezing them alittle more aggressive than I would have when inspecting them, but I would've thought they could've held through it. I have never owned any of Sundown's products before and was really interested in one of the Z series drivers but maybe if I go that route, the v3 may be the better way to go. At least till the surround reliability of the mega roll is worked out. Its definitely nice to see good customer service when the duds get loose though. Of course that should be a standard for anybody claiming to be a reputable company.

[sundownz]

I am currently in the process of looking into a new 15"- 18" driver and have narrowed it down to four as of now. Two are the Zv3 and Zv4. Anyways, I have been reading up on forums and watching different youtube videos of these woofers and when I looked up videos on the Zv4, the first video was of a kid that purchased 4 new Zv4's and he was opening and inspecting them. 3 of the 4 woofers were having the same problem with the surrounds glue failing. The kid did seem to be squeezing them alittle more aggressive than I would have when inspecting them, but I would've thought they could've held through it. I have never owned any of Sundown's products before and was really interested in one of the Z series drivers but maybe if I go that route, the v3 may be the better way to go. At least till the surround reliability of the mega roll is worked out. Its definitely nice to see good customer service when the duds get loose though. Of course that should be a standard for anybody claiming to be a reputable company.

Between the X & Z v.4 lines there are ~10x more drivers on the market than all of our Nightshade v.1, v.2 and v.3 woofers and all previous Z series (v.1, v.2, and v.3) combined -- so with such a massive launch of an all new platform the overall percentage of any issues is, in fact, quite small... even counting the early first run issues.

[jakmagic]

When Sundown receives their drivers from overseas, do they come 100% assembled then are they just inspected by Sundown? Also if that is the case, are all of them checked, or what is the inspection rate. It would be cool if the soft parts were assembled in the US. I am not too familiar with Sundown products or procedures but I always hear good things about their subwoofers and especially their amps. And like I mentioned earlier, I am slowly getting hooked on one of the Z series woofers.

Also thanks Jacob for taking the time to answer posts.

Edited December 31, 2014 by jakmagic

[bentandbroken]

Not to attempt to answer in Jacobs place, and correct me if i'm wrong, but the very early run of the ZV.4 with the mega roll surround did have an Issue with the glue. Not every woofer of course, but for the first batches the they did not assemble the subs in house. However, as soon as Sundown realized there was a recurrent issue for the Zv.4 series they resolved it by designing a better system for securing the mega roll surrounds. They also switched to assembling the ZV.4s in house, i believe.

I have always been extremely impressed Sundowns products. I have purchased and installed several woofers from various levels and every single one has out performed my expectations. I had a single instance where I was sent a 10" instead of 12" woofer, but as soon as I had the woofer in the mail they had the correct woofer on the way, with faster shipping.

So if you are on the fence about dealing with the company or getting a quality woofer, GO FOR IT, You will not regret it.

[sundownz]

When Sundown receives their drivers from overseas, do they come 100% assembled then are they just inspected by Sundown? Also if that is the case, are all of them checked, or what is the inspection rate. It would be cool if the soft parts were assembled in the US. I am not too familiar with Sundown products or procedures but I always hear good things about their subwoofers and especially their amps. And like I mentioned earlier, I am slowly getting hooked on one of the Z series woofers.

Also thanks Jacob for taking the time to answer posts.

The full answer is -- it varies.

We do assemble quite a few of our larger subs in house; all Z v.3 series, all Nightshade series (v1, v2, and v3), all TEAM series, and all drop-in kits.

* - For the X series we do both; with the majority being done at the factory -- we fill in the blanks in inventory & build custom units in house.

* - For the Z v.4 series we also do both; with the majority being done in-house at this time -- we fill in stock on some higher selling confiurations with factory units (I put any new factory production on hold for a while this year so they have all been done in-house for several months now... but I will bring back factory stock in for the best selling configs for 2015 to help reduce lead times).

As far as the test rate -- we test 100% of every subwoofer & amplifier that comes in from our factory... from the E series subs to the NS-1 amplifiers. Someone tests them all -- this is where our b-stock & yard sale stuff comes from -- things that don't pass the test.

* - I put a hold on ALL factory production for a good chunk of time AND pushed all "old stock" into the Yard Sale while we worked out the metal clamps. So all newer factory units have the surrounds clamped on with metal brackets. I've also re-tooled the Mega-Roll surrounds for 2015 based on the last ~2 years of experience with them (due in stock in February) with a new version that is easier / more consistant to assemble, more linear, more rugged, and with a bit less mass to top it off.

Suffice to say I'm never sitting still if there is a way to improve our products even if it means re-tooling a whole set of relatively new parts that were, overall, a tremendous success... "Mega Roll" based products out-sold all of our other previous "big" subs combined by a huge margin as I had mentioned above. But, to me, even a few small % of problems is too much. I put the same philosophy into everything... our SD-2 8/10/12 and SA-8/10/12/15/18 series got our XL leads in 2014 -- so they have a beefier stock lead than the original Nightshade v.1 & v.2 woofers on drivers ranging from 300-600 watts in RMS rating.

[jakmagic]

Thanks so much for the info, its explanations like that which make people like me have the confidence to want to give one of your woofers a try. Even though your company looks as if its doing pretty well in sales, and one extra purchase from me isn't going to be noticeable in a yearly quarter sales sheet, yet taking your time to answer and explaining detailed information beyond what I expected is very admirable. Again, much appreciation!

[csawatzky]

Just ordered two x12's super excited, heard a lot of good things... Not excited about my alt. Upgrade though haha$$$