The Basshead Review (4 ICON 10"s)

[Godsmack 360]

Okay as all of you may or may not know I am home on leave from the Middle East. I am doing this review in my spare time (which has not been much due to some family issues). Also my digital camera was not around till after the install as my old one needed service and my new one had yet to be purchased. (AKA no pics but the 2 vids at the end.)

All things considered we hace had decent grounds for this review so here we go!!!!!

Equipment

HU: Pioneer AVIC-N2

Comps: Kicker 6.5" componants (tweets on glass mids in doors)

Amps: One 100.4 Sundown Audio amp (comps) and 1500-SAZ also by Sundown audio.

Subs: 4 SSA iCON 10" subwoofers Dual 2 coils.

Wiring: 1 AWG Rockford Fosgate from Batt, and 10 AWG to the subs

Initial info

I opened the main box that contained two iCON's. The subs were seperated by foam and seperated well. Neither the outside of the box nor the subs's boxes were damaged in transit. I expected these 10's to be kinda lights as well, they are 10's. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!! 23.06 lbs for a 10" Sound Quality subwoofer IMO is some massive weight. This being said and its stiff suspension I was aprehensive. The build quality was second to none. A bit of stray glue but nothing to complain about thats for sure. It came with a terrific and thick rubber mounting gasket already on the basket. I was eager to play with these and see what they could do.

Install

The install of these was not as much of a breeze as I expected. In series Paralell they would not run quite right, and when I later attempted to hook them upin series as seperate coils then paralell them together to get a final one ohm load this worked perfectly. The push terminals made the re-wiring of coils one one particular sub that just didn't want to take the hole cut for it just right extremly easy. They also held the 10 awg tight like a mouse in a trap. 10 hrs after we started installing the componants it was time for an initial run.

Runs

The initial run was kind of a let down due to some mechanical problems that I will not get into here as they do not affect the sub woofers performance nor review. Well after fixing the issue, I decided it was time for some musical tests.

First up was "Hey Bay Bay" by lil Wayne. Dear God why my ear drums? the bass from this quartet was nothing short of fantastic. It was as if they were designed to get stuip loud, break the bolts on my explorer, and still sound clean all at the same time. Guess thats why its called the iCON.

Second was some Rap rock, to give it a bit more of a varience. I decided Hed P.E.'s album Only in Amerika and a Rehab song called "Last Tattoo" would fit the bill. Both are very guitar oriented bands, with a rap edge and of course some electonic bass and bass guitar to boot. With the Hed P.E. it seemed to seperate the difference between the two forms of bass and found notes I have NEVER known were on the cd. It truly rocked my world. On "Last Tattoo" there is a part towards the end where it is just syntesized bass. Very unexpected low notes. Well it was at about this time I realized I had left a dollar pack of twizzlers pull and peel in the sunvisor beacuse it fell out and righ on my nuts. While pissed off and sore I couldn't help but smirk. These subs didn't just move them out from the visors pinch, but moved them in style.

Finally it was time for some 70's music. Well Pure 70's has some amazing choices. From Lynard Skynard's (spell help here is appriciated) Sweet Home Alabama, to Eric Clapton's Cocaine I couldn't help but be amazed. Songs with little no bass are now full, rich and alive. Songs with an already heavy bass line are just thrown in the limelight as this subwoofer makes them shine. Cocaine was such strong bass the neighbor had came outside to yell "Turn that rap crap off!!!" but once I explained what music it was well..........he changed his tune. It seriously impressed me.

Now the video footage.

I wanna fudge you By Akon is the song behind both video's. I think they truly show the power these subs can put out even when seriously under fed watts.

Please let me know what you think of the review and ask anything you may want to know.

Subs In Motion

Dance Bitch

Jordan

[johnecon2001 82]

Box? final ohm load?

You were putting around 380w per sub if you ran the 1500D at 1 Ohm. I'm curious to see what they do with rated power.

[///M5 2,833]

Nice work J, surprised you could find the time to put this together! Thank you.

[Godsmack 360]

Box? final ohm load?

You were putting around 380w per sub if you ran the 1500D at 1 Ohm. I'm curious to see what they do with rated power.

42hz

one ohm according to the DMM

And I am curious as well.............Un fortunatly we had a mechanical failure on one amp that was most likely cause by a bad pie3ce of wire. When home next there will be more in store.

J

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Wow, I am glad you were able to build. One question, in the first video, I hear talking, but then it stops. Was there another?

They look great in that box, but what was the total volume and port?

[///M5 2,833]

convict, music, stripper is all you need to know

[johnecon2001 82]

I heard the word strippers.. :/

[yama168 0]

nice build and great video. also thanks for the great job you doing for the country.

[Godsmack 360]

<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i70.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/InkedBass/9ae62ff4.flv"></embed>

Sorry uploaded bad mna

J

[daley05 0]

have you got it metered yet?