SD-1 quick listen impressions

[stratusrt01 0]

Well, got to hear my first set of SD-1 10's yesterday.

Let me be the 1st to say that when I initially saw them, I was a sceptic and was wondering what the hell Jacob was thinking. But, I still wanted to give them a listen and see what they're all about. To my surprise, I was shocked and amazed by those little subs. I expected them to sound good, but what I didn't expect was the amount of output that a pair of $100 10's on 300 watts would have. I was amazed. With no real tuning time, just sticking the woofers in the box, hooking them up to the rear channels of a 100.4, and letting them rip. Needless to say I was impressed. Impressed enough that I picked up a pair of SD-1 12's to test out completely, not just for a few minutes.

Then on my way home, I started to think about it. I got into car audio in 1988, when IASCA SQ comp was the only game in town. We didn't have huge amps, 1500 watts was unthought of to have in a street driven vehicle, only manufacturer sponsored demo vehicles had that much power. Subwoofers all looked like the SD-1, there were no 2500 watt rms subwoofers, we wouldn't have thought there would ever be. Most people were running 200-300 watt setups for bass. If you have 600 watts, you were king of the streets. And they were loud. Hard to compare numbers from back then with the termlab numbers, but I competed in 0-50 watt class and during testing, hit 144db sealed up in 1992 with 2 Kicker Comp 12's and an Autotek 7050XX.

This may explain why I like this woofer. High sensitivity, high Q, great sounding woofer that'll get loud on low power and sound great doing it. Kind of a flashback for me. Expect a more detailed review of the SD-1 12's soon, as I build a couple boxes and give them a good listening to under a lot of circumstances.

I would say IMHO, if you are looking at other low priced speakers, give the SD-1's a chance, you may be surprised, I was.

[sundownz 197]

Thanks for the review Rich I am looking forward to hearing more about your 12s when you make the box for them.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Yes please, pictures and review for the review section!!

Glad to hear a good review on the SD-1, the specs on the 10's look nice. Would love to test them in a small ported tuned way low.

[sundownz 197]

Yes please, pictures and review for the review section!!

Glad to hear a good review on the SD-1, the specs on the 10's look nice. Would love to test them in a small ported tuned way low.

Hint... they throw down hard ported, tuned low Rich was kind enough to build a box to my specs for the SD-1s tuned in the 30s.

I also tested them in a double flared box my brother built tuned dead on at 30 Hz and a bit larger than the one Rich made for me and the extension was even lower. That box was a bit large for my application, though, as I stuff my trunk full of amps every day

The SD-1 is a keeper. I will be running two of the 10" SD-1s on a daily basis in my primary car if that tells you anything.

[audio-neon 34]

Yes please, pictures and review for the review section!!

Glad to hear a good review on the SD-1, the specs on the 10's look nice. Would love to test them in a small ported tuned way low.

Hint... they throw down hard ported, tuned low Rich was kind enough to build a box to my specs for the SD-1s tuned in the 30s.

I also tested them in a double flared box my brother built tuned dead on at 30 Hz and a bit larger than the one Rich made for me and the extension was even lower. That box was a bit large for my application, though, as I stuff my trunk full of amps every day

The SD-1 is a keeper. I will be running two of the 10" SD-1s on a daily basis in my primary car if that tells you anything.

How do the sd-1's like iso mount, say 20 hz tune??? I really want to do something low for a daily setup.

[sundownz 197]

How do the sd-1's like iso mount, say 20 hz tune??? I really want to do something low for a daily setup.

They love low tuning, and with isobaric mounting the box requirement would be extremely small. I'd say 25 Hz tuning is as low as you really need to go for any car application, though

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Yes please, pictures and review for the review section!!

Glad to hear a good review on the SD-1, the specs on the 10's look nice. Would love to test them in a small ported tuned way low.

Hint... they throw down hard ported, tuned low Rich was kind enough to build a box to my specs for the SD-1s tuned in the 30s.

I also tested them in a double flared box my brother built tuned dead on at 30 Hz and a bit larger than the one Rich made for me and the extension was even lower. That box was a bit large for my application, though, as I stuff my trunk full of amps every day

The SD-1 is a keeper. I will be running two of the 10" SD-1s on a daily basis in my primary car if that tells you anything.

What about something along the lines for HA, something really low like 22hz?

The 12 specs to be a sweet one in sealed, but can't tell until tested.

[sundownz 197]

Below is the box Rich built for the Civic:

* Talk about prevision fit, the trunk arms actually contact the carpet But not enough to hurt anything, it closes smoothly.

* Wider shot.

----

This way I can still utilize the whole trunk and not worry about smacking my woofers with boxes. I can even stack a think package on top of the box!

[stratusrt01 0]

just add 1/8" to any subwoofer cutout Jacob gives you............lol

[sundownz 197]

What about something along the lines for HA, something really low like 22hz?

The 12 specs to be a sweet one in sealed, but can't tell until tested.

WinISD shows the 10" SD-1 woofer to be flattest tuned to 25 Hz.

Increase the box to 1.5 ft^3 and drop tuning to 22 Hz and you get an F6 of 25 Hz with the 10" SD-1.

The 12" SD-1 has an F3 of 38Hz in a large sealed box (3 cubes). It would actually do really well IB in a ceiling install for a home setup. It would also lend itself to isobaric sealed installs in the car, and for those who like more upper-end "boom" a smaller sealed box works fine as well.

Qts is a tad high for porting IMHO, but people port woofers with much higher Q all the time these days. It would be incredibly loud ported as it tends to peak hard in moderate sized enclosures.

just add 1/8" to any subwoofer cutout Jacob gives you............lol

LoL, yes yes... my mistake

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Yeah I think the SD-1 12 ported is great for someone who does not want to spend much cash but wants a decent street beat type of install on lower power.

[stratusrt01 0]

OK, I put the 12" ones in a TTB designed T-Box that was built for Lanzar Optis. I figured they would be OK in that box, but nothing spectacular. Both are High Q subs, with similar Fs, so I figured I'd give it a try. Hooked them up in my office on a 300 watt Bash plate amp, and gave them about an hour of playtime.

At least in this type of box, response is very flat from 26-70hz, which is where I crossed them over. Output was awesome, they were knocking pictures off the walls in my office. I'm going to try to take a couple videos if I can get my wife out of the house for a little while again.

All in all, these woofers have my blessing for low power, low budget setups, you won't be disappointed. Don't let their meek appearance shy you away like they did me.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Any specs on that box to give people an idea?

[stratusrt01 0]

1.75 cubes tuned to 34 or 35 I believe, can't remember off the top of my head.