Product Reviews

I recently had the opportunity to have an extended test session with a Mach 5 Audio IXL-10. My original setup consits as follows: 1999 Mercury Cougar coupe/hatch Eclipse CD7000 w/ ipod adapter Rainbow CMX 265 Kick Bass components, Powered by a PG ti600.2(150x2) Elemental Designs 16Ov.2(2.3 cubes @ 27hz) powered by a USAmps MD.1D(1000-1200rms @ 1 ohm) Kicker Hyperflex 0/1 guage power/ground wiring. Electrical system is stock. Seeing as I have never tested any driver smaller than a 12 before I was very hesitiant to proceed with this testing. Mostly because I am admittedly a self proclaimed "Bass Head". And going from a ported 15 to a 10 seemed a fairly extreme change. So I …

Ok, so I'll start from the beginning. I bought this sub a few months ago, near the beginning of January. I bought a 12" Q, Dual 2. The people of Fi: Being local, I got to meet Scott, and one of his workers. Scotts a great guy, down to Earth, and just extremely outgoing and friendly. He answered all my e-mails, even though the poor guy must get like 200 of them a day. He showed me around the warehouse, how they assembled the subwoofers, and even put part of mine together right in front of me. I left the warehouse extremely satisfied with Fi as a whole, but how good are they at making subwoofers? I'll explain in this review First Impressions: The sub is pretty beef…

I've recently started buying all the equipment for my build and I just wanted to thank Jacob at Sundown, Nick at Fi, and Rick at Raam for the unbelievable customer service and response to all my questions. If you are ever torn between a product from another company and one of these guys, you would have to be crazy to go with someone other than them. Check out this email Rick sent me after I ordered an extra item that I didn't need. >> Thanks Kevin, got the order, will ship out in a few hours:) Just to >> make sure, you do not need the glue for the RAAMmat, only for the >> ensolite which is an incredibly good product, far better than every >> ot…

I always like listening to lower-power woofers in the 2-300W range, because these smaller drivers show that especially when musical accuracy is concerned, you don't need the multi-kW behemoths that are becoming commonplace these days. Just 300W and a small sealed enclosure is often times all you need to realistically reproduce most anything you can throw at it. For this review, I wired the voice coils for a combined 8 ohm load, with an Xover point of 50Hz @ 24dB/oct. The enclosure was slightly under 1cF, sealed. Aesthetics: You normally don't expect much in the way of build quality for subwoofers in the SD-1's price bracket. I was pretty surprised on opening the packaging…

After completing my sound deadening venture about two years ago I still wanted my car quieter. Less exhaust, less road noise, and just an overall quieter interior. So I set out in search of what to use and basically found three products, Second Skin's Luxury Liner, Vertex Mobile Sound Products' Vertex Barrier, and Cascade Audio's VB-4. I started looking at the specs and comparing them. Both Luxury Liner and Vertex Barrier measured the same thickness and weight (0.375" thick, 1lb. per sq. ft.), while the VB-4 weighed the same as the other two but was thinner measuring in at 0.250" thick. All three are of similar construction, a thick vinyl mass barrier with a thicker decou…

First things first, I'm sure everyone knows this is a prototype and not the actual production driver. Mechanically it is an exact copy, however aesthetically, the proto is lacking some eye candy in regards to what the final driver will look like. Many know I am affiliated with SI and will take this review with a grain of salt and that is fine. In my opinion, your own ears should be what you use to make your decision, but I can tell you, that every driver I have owned since I have owned a Mag has not impressed me in ways the Mag has, and this includes all generations. Upon seeing the driver at my doorstep and picking up the shipping box, I was delightfully surprised with…

Check out my review of Second Skin's Damplfier Pro. http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/i...showtopic=16639

Right now, I'll just let everyone know exactly what I told Mark previous to him sending the final specifications to the buildhouse. I am in love with this driver Mark. Low frequency authourity during movies is very good and blends extremely well with my BIB CSS FR125S drivers (completely transparent). It suits my listening habits very well. I have only tried it in a sealed enclosure, but I do not feel I would gain anything for my own personal tastes going with a vented enclosure. Power handling wise, I don't think I could approach the driver's limits with what I have (1300W @ 4 ohms), the driver is a beast. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it would be one of the best SQ 10…

First of all, I'd like to thank Nick Lemons for giving me an opportunity to audition this latest version of the Mag 12"... Chad Hicks and I auditioned this driver in my '94 E-150, under the exact same test conditions used for other listening sessions we've done. Power was provided by a PG Tantrum T1200.1, set to 800W @ 4 ohms. In use, the woofer needed nowhere near that level of power to reach its full potential, IMO. Enclosure used was 1 cubic foot, sealed. The woofer was lowpassed @ 63Hz, 24dB/oct. INITIAL THOUGHTS: The build quality is very good, something that doesn't surprise me given my previous experiences with SI products. The pressed paper cone and poly dustcap …

I'm fairly impressed so far with this subwoofer. A few people heard it today, and couldn't believe I was running a single 12. 1st off, if you're looking for a nice, civilized subwoofer, this isn't it. When you want something just to break doors down and steal your oldest daughter, this could possibly be the subwoofer. While comparing it with the DD 9512 directly, it has better musical abilities than the DD, and doesn't give up much at all in pure loudness to the DD. I'll have them both on the meter later this week, so I'll know exact numbers then. My 1st impression after setting the gains to give the sub a clean 1500rms, which is rated power was that this thing needs more…

I have been listening and listening and listening to the new Mag for a few weeks now in our '94 Civic hatchback with the woofer in 1.3 cubes sealed off two channels of a SAZ-100.4. I wrote the following first bit after I spent 4 or so hours with the driver. The more I keep listening the more I feel like I should update the review. So what I'm going to do is keep this thread open and keep adding to the original text. What you will see is not reply's, but the text will grow as time goes on. I'm not going to lie though, a lot of the material I use for testing subs isn't in a lot of people's CD libraries. Having said that, I will post the album title and artist of the…

I have received a number of pm's and emails from friends and strangers alike asking to hear more about the CSS SDX7 after I wrote about them on AudioJunkies.com. Just to give you a little background, Bob from CSS sent these to me with a pair of Extremis' in the hopes that I would be able to supply some measurements for both the SDX7 and Extremis. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and haven't captured any FR, THD, IMD, etc. But what follows is my opinion based on a few excerpts from earlier posts I made. Almost forgot...you can get the SDX7 from www.creativesound.ca for $100. I imagine they'll be available from Kyle at acoustic-visions.com in the near future as well, bu…

These amps are incredible, the output and clarity are just above and beyond any other none Zapco amps that I have used. Plus the DSP processing that is built in makes it really easy to tune the set up just right. I hooked my laptop up to the 360 and was able to tune both amps. The setting included, gain, eq, time delay, crossover setting, output level, input level and actually more than I can remember right now. The coolest part is that i could sit in the drivers seat with my laptop and adjust everything all at once. Instead of having to make countless trips to the trunk. The other great feature with the Zapco amp (not just the DC's) is they have a balance line outpu…

first off i know this thread is a little teaser w/o pics... i need to go buy a camera... pioneer p880prs ive own only one other pioneer deck which was the p8mp... a little old but the only pioneer that had the 4x60w internal amp and a 6.5 pre outs, before that i was a huge fan of alpine the 9813, 9833, 9855... all in all the pioneer p880prs completely blows everything ive owned out of the water... its extemely user friendly, the white OEL display is sharp and is clearly visible in day-light, its probably one of the cleanest h/u up to date in my opinion. and the eq is awesome... my only complaints are like most pioneers the face plate protrudes outward about a few cm and …

Setup Info: 2 Assasain 8's Sealed box w/ .5cubes each Memphis 500/1 amp Memphis 4AWG amp wiring kit Jensen VM9312 headunit Had the system for a month now but I just got a hold of a camera and finally took some pics of the setup. I absolutely love it. 2 thumbs up to Ascendant Audio! Likes: Very good SQ for a daily driver, I know they could sound better if the box would have been ported but space was a limitation and they still sound great. I didnt nor do I ever plan entering any sort of sound competitions so I wasnt looking for a system to blow my brains out, but for the size and quality I couldnt pass them up. Dislikes: None so far? I mostly listen to modern rock and …

Okay I promised Mark I would do a full review on a set of Mach5Audio MLI-65 6-1/2

Ok, first off, all pictures are in my album, so I wont repost them(saves time). I Bought the sub a few weeks ago, to replace my 4 mtx thunderr 5500 10", powered by a saz-1500d. The shipping box was ok, standard cardboard box with the styrofoam pieces in it to hold the sub. I would have hoped for a better box, as I've heard and seen horror stories with that type of box, but oh well. Build quality seems very nice, not much excess glue, all joints well glued. 2 problems I have with the build quality, small to some, but annoying to me. First is that the terminals are extremely close to the basket, less than a millimeter apart on one side and about a millimeter on the other. M…

Ok folks, here it is! The Mach5 Maw12 vs. the rD Classic 12 showdown! I want to thank Mark from Mach5 and Kevin From Low-hz, with a shout out to Steve from rD, for providing the subs. It ahs been fun, and it has been a learning experience. Nothing better then playing with new toys. Ok, on with the setup. The vehicle is a 2004 Chevy Silverado extended cab. There is a yellow top under the hood, 1/0 Memphis wiring throughout, and a factory 105 amp alternator. The Big 3 has been done as well, also in 1/0. The source unit is a Clarion DXZ955MC, with the HPF set to 125 and the LPF set to 80. The amplification is provided by a Memphis Memphis Belle, MCH1300, which will provi…

Here she is: It's in a 2.2 net tuned to 32hz. Powered by an MD2, set to get about 1200w. Pretty **** beefy when I first saw it, like a chubby kid back in those elementary school days. Quality looks excellent. Dropped in it, I've let it play 20hz tones here and there for a little over 10 hours now. Been listening to it gradually and it's been pleasing. The low-end is defining not lacking and for what it's worth, I think it's a low-end monster. So the suspension's loosened up a bit, but still a bit stiff (it was very stiff brand new). I was surprised by the output of this thing. Compared to my 2 12" RL-p's in 1.5 sealed with 1.5kw, they definitely keep up in terms of ou…

PART 1: Ported Set-up: Eclipse cd8455 head unit Eclipse Ea4000 amplifier Memphis MC60? co-axials Sundown SAZ-1500d 2 10" TC sounds Oem woofers (4 ohm dvc) Woofers were in a 2.37 cubic foot box tuned to 32 hz with 24 sq inches of port. Mids were in kicks. Customer Service: What can I say, I called Heather multiple times, she even put me on the phone with the design engineer who was on the phone with me for nearly an hour. So I would have to say the customer service was good. Although an automated tracking number with purchase would be a nice feature (no waiting for the company to email the information, the shipping company does it for them. The Fun Part So aft…

Summary: Ok to start off let me give you a quick overview of my situation. I am a HUGE Incriminator Audio fan but as most of you know, their products are fairly difficult to come buy since they have been out of stock for some time now. I have been searching for a DP for about a year now with no luck. I had read about the Sonic FX Q in the past but had never seen or heard much about them. They are considered almost identical to the DP, so naturally I was interested. I came across this sub in the classifieds at ROE for an amazing price so I pounced on it. Now to start off the actual review. At first glance this sub has a decent profile. Not overly beefy but by no …

Right off from Atomic's page. No T/S :/ * APSPL 12, Available in DVC 0.7, 1.0, 1.4 and 2.0 ohms * Rigid Die cast aluminum basket * Organic long fiber non-pressed cone body for accurate tight bass * Curvilinear Kevlar reinforced cone body * Extended neck joints on cone, coil and spider strengthen the integrity of moving structure for high power capacity * Butyl rubber surround heavy duty and forever lasting. * Compressed mounting ring gasket * Vented coil for extra heat dissipation * 2-1/2 inch high temp aluminum voice coil * Extended, machined cut one piece back plate * Powerful 1 inch thick 90 oz high energy magnet Summary: This is a very powerful little driver. Its rate…

12 Inch: Fs:26.9 Hz Re:8 ohm series QMS:5.520 Qes:0.317 Qts:0.300 Mms:162.846 g Cms:205.967 Sd:0.053 Vas:82.157 L Spl:89.7 db 1w/1m BL:23.978 TM X-max:26 mm peak to peak Sub diameter:12 1/2 inches Mounting:11 inches Mounting depth:5 5/8 inches Driver displacement:.11 cubic ft. Power:500 Wrms / 1000 peak Summary:This is one amazing sub!!! Words can not explain how happy I was with my LI. The LI was my first sub and what a first sub it was!! As soon as I got this first thing that I noticed was the build quality! Very well built sub. I had it hooked up to a bahn A8000T ( I know I know) in 3.7@28Hz. Lets just say this much, as hard as I tried I could not get this sub to miss …

Free Air Resonance (Fs): 35.2 Hz Electrical

Let me first start off by thanking the guys at Fi. Scott, Shawn and Nick are awesome guys to deal with. I would have no problem recommending them to a friend or dealing with them myself again. They got back to me extremely quickly whenever I had questions. It just blows my mind that someone like Scott can work an eight hour day, then come home and continue to help his customers. On to the goods, I have a pair of DVC 1 ohm 12