hatrix

Well I must say, it's not recommended on the Fi website to use the 18" version in a sealed enclosure. You might be better off with a 10, 12 or 15 (I think the 15 has sealed specs, I may be wrong). The recommended net volume is 6-10 cubic feet, and that's ported. It may still sound good. I honestly have no idea, but work with what you got. Ported enclosures are always going to be the box you want if your desire is SPL. Sealed will give beater SQ though. If you aren't pleased with the output, you know you have other options: Go with a smaller size SSD which is possible with a recone and a smaller basket. or Somehow design a ported box that would fit but I'm doubtful you'd get enough cubic feet in your car for an 18. I drive a jeep so I have no problem fitting a single 18 ported, even when I had it in a 9 cubic foot box. Hopefully I can fit two of them without having to put my back seat down! Probably looking around 14 cubes or so ported. Maybe I can get away with 12.

Oh yea my SSD is very loud on an SAX-1200D. I'm getting another one soon so I can run two 18s You'll be pleased I'm sure once all is rectified.

Yes everything is original on it. Never been reconed or anything.

That's good to hear. I should be hitting some high numbers once I get my second SSD, sell my SAX-1200D to upgrade, and finally get it metered I've felt it around 4 times after my drive to class which takes 40-50 minutes. Always just warm. So I guess I shouldn't be so paranoid. Damn do I wish I could just get a hold of two D1 SSDs.

Haha well thanks. I'm not ignorant at all when it comes to properly powering/wiring and running things. I just wanted to know if the SSD can handle the power. I expect the dustcap to get warm with over rated. I know there's a problem if it's hot though, and I'm sure I'll smell the coil by then.

As far as going beyond my tuning, yes. Doesn't mean you can't over excurt the sub above it's tuning frequency when it see's too much power and the volume is up to high... A SSF won't make a difference. My SSF is set perfectly fine. Anything ~3-5hz below my tuning has significantly less excursion as it should, while still being audible.

I've been dealing with speakers for a long time, so I'm pretty good at telling when a speaker is being pushed to hard. However, that doesn't mean the coil won't burn up from heat it can't dissipate because of to much power. It's not mechanically beyond it's limit as far as xmax goes otherwise I'm sure I would've heard an audible thud and it would already be dead, stuck in place. It's been running on the SAX-1200D for a couple months now, but only recently did I fix the problem that came out of the damn blue with my inline fuse. The inline fuse was only rated at 60 AMPS which I had forgotten. The fuse never blew... but the holder for the inline fuse seems to be shot or something, because wired without it everything's fine, otherwise I see no power at the end of the 4 gauge run.

Of course, I know that. But I'm just confirming, all I need to properly set the gains is a DMM correct ? I can find how to do it correctly myself. The increase in output from my old amp is probably almost double to the ear. It was probably only seeing 200 watts before. It's just what I had. Now seeing over rated, it's louder than I ever thought an SSD could be. That's why I'm trying to get a second one.

Ain't my DD-1 man. I don't have it and neither does my friend any longer. I would still think the sub would be able to handle over rated power.... Fi subs are pretty resilient. So what, get a DMM to reset my gains ? I can't afford to be burning up the coil lol. I have a Sundown Z 18 I could throw in it's place, but it's quieter in the same box than the SSD, so I'd prefer not to.

I want to make sure I'm not going to burn up my coil on my SSD. I bought my sub 4+ years ago (I don't remember exactly), copper coil option only. Back then they were rated at 800rms. I have it wired down to 1 ohm, so it should be receiving 1200 watts+ since I have read lots of times that Sundown amps usually do over rated power. I set my gains using an SMD DD-1. I know these are frowned upon by a lot of people as a waste of money, but I didn't buy it and just borrowed it from someone who did. It helps to set gains so there's no distortion, so I'm assuming nothing is clipping. That's just my assumption though. I set up my headunit, sub amp and mains amp all with the DD-1. Max volume without distortion on a lot of Pioneer HUs seems to be 1-2 below MAX volume. Seemed a little unbelievable to me but it the DD-1 didn't detect distortion on 3 different Pioneer headunits until the volume was at 61. When listening to music daily I'm usually driving the sub decently hard with the volume at around 54-56 depending on what I'm listening to, etc. I do have the remote bass knob hooked up, but it's usually always turned up all the way and is there more for killing bass quickly when I see police and such. The sub moves a lot but I don't think it's being pushed to far mechanically. I can tell when a speaker is hitting its limit, the sound is pretty obvious. I get clean bass without any audible distortion from it at high volumes. Gain is probably a little less than half ? I'd have to look at it again. Now ever since I fixed my problem with my amp not turning on (due to an improper inline fuse on the run from the battery), the cone on the sub gets decently warm after driving 45 minutes or so on my daily drives and bumping the entire time. It's never been HOT where I had to pull my hand away or anything, nor have I smelled any burning coil. I've become paranoid it's going to burn up though, but just wanted to ask if the SSD, older version, can actually handle the power I'm throwing at it without burning up. I'm planning on getting a second SSD 18 soon. It's in the works and will be another D2, so I'll have to wire at 2 ohms. Trying to get a hold of two D1s will be a big hassle, so I'll just upgrade my amp eventually if they seem to underpowered. It would be 720 watts split between the two which is undesirable to say the least.

Yea I know you're probably really disappointed, but this is probably a very very slim fluke that rarely happens to Fi subs. I know my SSD 18 came in perfect condition when I received it. Still have the box too, same as what you received. It was not sideways though. This was like 4 years ago though. The subs changed a bit but shipping shouldn't be any different. This is all on the FedEx, not Fi.

So currently I'm running a single D2 SSD 18. Running off of a SAX-1200D, so seeing plenty of power. This sub was bought 4 years ago or so and the only option it has is the copper coil so it's more musical. I'm looking to run TWO of the SSD 18s, but getting a hold of another D2 is going to make me run at an undesirable ohm load, and I'm pretty sure I can't even run both a D1 and D2 wired together. My amp isn't 0.5ohm stable and I'm not trying to run that sort of load seeing as my electrical is basically stock. What I'm looking for is two SSD 18 D1s. I have a D2 to trade for one of them if someone is willing, and also should be getting a hold of a Sundown SA-15 soon that will be up for trading towards another SSD too + whatever cash would be wanted. They are pretty similarly priced though so whatever works out is what works out. HOWEVER. If someone has a D2 they are willing to trade for a SA-15 and it's all I can find, I'll probably be willing to settle for it and run at 2 ohms for now and I guess trade up for a better amp in the future. Finding two D1s is probably going to be extremely hard... considering I don't have a bunch of money to spend and am only really looking to trade plus a little cash. So I will settle for a D2 is someone has one they are willing to trade for an SA-15 + cash.

Hmm still have the sub ? Looking for any trades ? I'm currently running a single SSD 18" and I'm looking for a second. Might be coming across a Sundown SA-15 soon I'd have to trade but since this is just sitting in your closet I'm doubtful you're looking for trades lol.

Get a bigger fuse back buy the battery because it something shorts out that wiring could catch on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I know man. Gonna be a couple days before I get it proper because I need the fuse holder on each on itself. Pretty sure somethings wrong with mine as there wasn't power at the other end at all. Shit, my car has a small gas leak. I'm more worried about that fire starting than my damn wiring Thanks for all the suggestions though guys. Appreciate the replies. Really glad I figured it out though, thought the amp might have gone bad but was so doubtful since it's from db-r and hasn't ever been abused really. Gains were always set properly.

Oh my god I figured it out. I used to run a shitty amp for the sub, low power something like 200 watts and it was pulling maybe 15 amps or something. I forgot that my inline fuse was switched out for a 60 amp fuse. I just took the inline fuse out and connected the wires with a terminal. Completely unplugged the amp before I did this as I was going to open it up. Didn't even have to, rewired everything to the amp and it's working perfectly fine now. I just don't understand why I never had problems before ? Cause this inline fuse should have at least blown. I'm running at 1ohm and the 1200D has 3x 40 amp fuses. Nothing is any louder or anything. Same as before, just without an inline fuse. Might have just gone bad though at the terminals for the inline fuse, because I wasn't getting any power. Touching the positive to the ground didn't spark at all. Once I got rid of the fuse and holders on each end, connected the wires unfused (I know, not recommended but I need a new inline fuse setup) there was power. I'm not worried about a fire or anything right now. I'll get a new inline fuse, in the mean time it will run as is.

I am just completely stumped with this problem. I'll try not to make it long but I want to make sure I explain everything right. I have two amps in my car. A Rockford P500.2 and the SAX-1200D. Both have their own runs of power wire and grounds. The Rockford has 8 gauge going to it, as nothing bigger is necessary, and the 1200D has 4 gauge running to it. Yesterday I completely redid everything at my battery. I had to get new battery terminals, as mine were meant for a top post battery, and rewired the factory ground and such to the new terminals. That went smoothly, car starts without any problems now (had some bad issues). My battery tested good at autozone. I also redid the ring terminals for my runs of power and ground wire at the battery. Much more solid, screwed onto the terminals where the nut is on the bolt to tighten the terminals themselves. I changed my grounding place, it now runs to the engine block were all the factory grounds are and I'm using 4 gauge wire. So here is where I'm stumped. Turn my car on, Rockford turns on no problem but the Sundown doesn't. The remote wire from my headunit goes to the sundown FIRST, then has another wire running off that to the Rockford, so..... that can't be the problem ? I even ran the remote wire only to the Sundown and it still didn't turn on upon starting my car. The amp IS NOT in protect. It never goes into protect, UNLESS I ran the power wire to the remote turn on. Then the amp turns on, but immediately goes into protect ? It has however been completely randomly turning on and off when wired as it should be. All of a sudden I'll have bass for 20 seconds then bam, nothing, it turns off completely, no power on light OR protect light. I redid the ground for the amp itself, i know it's solid now. It WAS sparking when I went to screw down the ground meaning there was power going to the amp (car was off). My other grounding position wasn't good enough and I know that because it never sparked until fiddling with it and would make the amp turn off and on. I truly don't think it's the power wire... but I don't have a multimeter or anything to test. I'd have to run to the store to get one. I could run the 4 gauge to the rockford to make sure, probably going to be hard to fit the wire though... My only theory is the remote wire just somehow isn't supplying enough current to the amp and something is faulty with my headunit. But why does the rockford turn on no problem then ? And why does the amp randomly turn off and on ? Yesterday when messing with the HPF settings on my amp, I cycled through a couple options and BAM my Sundown turns on. It stayed on for a while as I played a bunch of songs and it stayed on the whole time, I thought it was finally back to normal. This morning I get in my car, start it and the remote knob shows power, everything seemed great. Start going down my driveway and all of a sudden it just turns off. No bass (which seriously ruins listening to music when I only have 5.25"s in the door). I can take pictures of anything anyone needs. Insides, my grounds, etc. Also, to add, my headunit has two RCA outs, and I'm using both. I don't think RCA issues would cause the amp to lose power though, so I don't see it as a possible problem even if there was something wrong there. The amp ran fine for months. I never had a problem until a week or two ago when it started randomly shutting on and off.

Well it actually was HERE today, but apparently I didn't hear anyone knock on the front door or the doorbell ring. It has to be signed for which I wasn't expecting. Dammit now I won't see it until tuesday because its fed ex "home delivery" which is only tuesday through saturday.

Yea It is pretty subjective. I've been running a set of Alpine Type R 5.25, model SPR-13S, for a few years now. They beat anything else I've heard in other setups, but I haven't heard a whole lot. I have them running off of a Rockford P500-2, and they get plenty loud and keep with my SSD 18" on 1200 watts with ease. I definitely like SQ over SPL when it comes to my component sets, and what I have sounds great to me. Of course I always wonder what other speakers are out there that will be better, but it really is so subjective.

Ok I thought so. I figured you were super busy, sorry for the bother man. I just figured it would get shipped same day for the exact reason you said. No problems. It gets here when it gets here. At least the box for it is ready!

I already emailed aaron and got a response about my order saying "awaiting shipment" all day. Figured it would ship out today. I emailed back but haven't had him respond since then. I know he's a busy person, so thought I'd make a thread just in case. I was pretty sure the Sundown E8v3s were NOT made to order, and were pre stocked and ready to ship. My order number is #6042. I might be wrong though since there's an option between D2 & D4.

That I don't know..... Yea I know, really wish I did. My friend is dumb and didn't ask for the exact specs of the entire box when he traded for it. It might very well not have enough port area. But I've been using it for 6+ months and it sounds perfectly fine, at least from the drivers seat Might have crazy port noise in the back...

That it does. The guy who traded it had a Sundown sub in it. It's a Z port or whatever it's called. Not just single slot. It does a zig zag in the box. It looked small to me too. My old boxes port is practically the size of this box. Little sarcastic, but still. I'm not a box expert. I've built two boxes total, my last box however was a very nice box if I must say. Just was for a friend, not me. We built a box for his Sundown Z v.2.

Ok thanks for the info. I just assumed upgrading to a Fi BL would be an ideal choice. seeing how my current sub is only rated at 800 rms and is seeing more power than is necessary. I know it's not hurting it if my gains are set right, but I figured I'd get audibly more output with a BL.

My SSD is only rated at 800 rms, not the 1200+ my SAX-1200D is throwing out. Older model, bought it like 4 years ago with copper coil option.