sundownz

The Flatlyne woofers are under-hung -- which means the coil is quite small compared to a "normal" woofer with comparable x-max capacity. I would stick to what IA suggests for them for this reason. They can probably take a little extra but I wouldn't be one to push it with an under-hung driver.

I expect the molds to be completed around the 15th -- so hopefully samples of the real thing by months end

After listening tests I decided to leave them alone as-is other than a few minor motor mods for production (won't change T/S significantly). As these are not thermal-monster woofers I was afforded bit more flexibility with the former material (aluminum is typically the choice thermally) -- I didn't want to go to a material with a significantly different amount of thermal expansion compared to the winding material (SS or Ti) nor did I want to use a polymer material as I did want to retain a fair amount of thermal conductivity in the former (despite it's conservative ratings I'd be kidding myself if I thought everyone would run exactly RMS)... so I went with an alloy which has about 80% of the thermal capacity of aluminum and also some natural reduction in eddy currents -- then I added a spiral cut to it to further drop down eddy currents beyond the material change itself. I feel like it's a great compromise for a woofer of this type Here is the coil itself : It is no worse for wear after all my abuse thermally -- but I did physically damage it as mentioned above. This possibility is resolved by the taller pole extension

They are hanging out in customs still -- it is quite possible we'll have them first few days of next week. When I get any further word will update.

We should be close to on target; either this week or next is expected -- as always dependent on final customs inspection.

ETA is next month as of now; once it's firm I'll open pre-ordering.

I am making one small change for production -- the pole extension is growing by about 1/2" -- I was able to shoot the coil completely out of the gap and scrape the winding on the top plate with about 3x rated power With the extension pushed out that will become impossible at any power level -- as it would take over 30mm one-way to completely jump over the pole with the taller extension. Had to push back this production run a bit to fit a few more things in; but I'd expect to see it in November to December. Specs on the unit played for extended period in my car : Re : 6.03 ohms (series) Fs : 45.2 Hz Qes : 0.63 Qms : 7.31 Qts : 0.58 Le : 6.26 mH Sd : 30.68 in^2 Vas : 7.74 L BL : 15.55 NA Mms : 89 g Cms : 138 uM/N Sens 1w/1m : 82.29 dB Box modelling programs will call for a bit over 0.5 each sealed -- I ran these in 0.25 each and they sound great. Being a very linear driver over stroke your Qtc at higher levels of travel would be about the same as a driver with a lower at-rest Qtc and non-linear CMS and BL curves. In any event -- the specs are within a VERY small margin of my original test-bench break-in process on them... so the parts will show very little fatigue and change over time after initial break-in. Not a surprise as they were all designed around the much more powerful SA-8 v.2 They would have no issue with a ported box but I feel like their main advantage is performing better sealed than an SA-8 v.2 Also will be doing Klippel testing on this at some point as I've done with the SA-8 v.2 and SA-12 models. PS: I notice I haven't mentioned one of the details yet... the former is an alloy material similar to brass with a spiral cut to help reduce eddy currents compared to a standard aluminum former.

In the summer amps can be hot enough not to turn on from sitting in the heat. I have two amps in the back of my Jeep next to the glass; the top unit has a case temp of 140+ degrees on the surface just sitting there facing sun. Under a trunk lid can be even hotter. As far as a "huge issue" -- we shipped 100 amps from run #2 and there are about 4-5 people total that reported any issues with heating. The thread on CACO is mostly the same people posting. I resolved two of them when then customers came by the shop -- I have the only amp I've ever had my hands on to date that has an actual proven heating issue @ dB-R right now to see what the cause is.

Interesting idea -- but, of course, each speaker would need to be wired for power and ground as well to make that work. So we are back to wiring things up.

I was working on finalizing all the patents for a bit; but tooling is under-way now.

Okay here it is : I am really pleased with these little guys

Unlikely any time soon -- that is a specialty item and not early on our list of development.

I just installed the pair in my car (TWO SUBS) in 0.5 ft^3 sealed and took a nice listen... I am really quite impressed. Brandon, Thomas, and I all agreed that per box volume you will be pretty hard pressed to get this combination of output, bottom end, and sound quality. I need to get a little video... it was shaking my visors, rear view mirror, etc... obviously nothing insane but the output did surprise all of us. Currently on my 200.4 bridged @ 1 ohm (turned way down) -- I wired it this way as I plan to test the new 1500D v.3 in my car soon as well as the new 125.4 on the fronts. The only 8" out there that I know of that will out-perform these sealed is a JL Audio 8W7 (which is a GREAT woofer... my favorite JL product period)... but it does call for a MUCH bigger box to do it (0.875 ft^3). The JL has more x-max (19mm vs 14.5mm on ours) and models out with a lower F3 point but at the expense of about 3x the cost and over 2" more mounting depth. If you put three SD-2 8s in the same 0.875 ft^2 as one 8W7 you would come out about the same price and end up with more output -- just depends on what you can fit as far as face area for woofers.

Dropped my crossover to 50 Hz @ 24 dB -- I was stacking ~80 on the amp and ~60 on the HU before... dropped HU crossover completely and dropped amp to 50 Hz. WOW what a difference in mid-bass... love it ! I may drop my tweeter to -3dB after more listening as it's mounted so high in the door -- will try to get RTA first.

We have Josh Fernandez and his Father up here doing some work to the rear door mids and highs setup. We came into contact with Josh through this article : Sixteen and DRIVEN | Driven Lifestyle Magazine We were pretty impressed with him and his work so we came up with an idea to have him come visit and put in some work on the van! They have been hard at work all week and I expect it to turn out very well : There are more progress pictures on Josh's phone that we will add once a full build log is made -- but I wanted to update to show we haven't left it totally sitting un-touched

The pricing is not changing across the board for 1500/2500/3500 so power difference is minimal. The big gains come from width reduction, fan added, and even more reliable / consistant designs.

I am building a set of like these on Z v.3 motors with the NS v.3 spider stiffness / the Z v.3 tall roll surround (re-building customer 15s into 10s) : * Dust cap isn't glued yet; just chilling out for now but that is how it will look. * Yellow NS v.3 spider * The terminal tabs are bent just right so the leads won't hit the cone or the adapter. Also put a small piece of tape across the adapter as an insulator just in case they do happen to get bent for some reason. As these are one of a total of five of these ever made and only a total of ~40 or so planned I don't have anything fancy for an insulator and just use a bit of tape (I have also yet to see the leads get bent down as they are oriented very carefully). A few people asked me about it so I am explaining in detail

Most people buying a woofer like an SA want a ported box sound. They work well sealed in 10s, 12s, and 15s in an objective sense but I rarely recommend it as most people will end up wanting more output.

I've already started production; I am just making sure all the details of packaging and whatnot are ironed out before taking any orders. Production time start to in the USA is about 90 days so that puts them in September. I made a tiny motor modification on production as well by extended the pole out further to get a few more tenths of a millimeter of x-max. Other than that and the nicer back plate finish with our logo etched in production will be basically the same thing that I have in my car.

I essentially have what 90% of people that buy the set will have -- a basic install, with some minimal dampener, typically in factory spots. As you can see -- no crazy install tricks... but the result is still great sound When I get a moment we'll also do an in-car RTA of it just like this as well.

Here are some photos of putting them in : * The door is already very solid so that is a plus for sure! Crossover is installed on the door itself as well. * Added some Audio-Technix dampener on all the large flat spots and also behind the mid. Also installed the wooden adapter ring for the mid to the door. * Some dampener directly behind the mid. * Made a raid guard out of a few pieces of dampener and some aluminum tape -- this will keep large amount of direct water off the mid. Ambient moisture is really not a concern for the treated paper cone but we don't want water dumping down on it. * Mid fully installed. The tweeter is right in the factory location -- nothing special to show there! I am super pleased with the performance in this price bracket

I got the set installed yesterday with the final mids in my VW Golf -- sounds fantastic. Much less fatigue than the prior prototype set -- I had it up to my max listening level all the way back from the shop (15 mins or so) with very minimal listening fatigue. I am very pleased with how the set is working out. Both the mid and tweeter are much smoother than the prior set... the prior set sounded good but I found it fatiguing at high levels over long periods of time. The prior set being what I was working on April of 2011 (which I don't think I posted pictures of)... that set used a woven fiberglass cone and a bit different tweeter design. I did post a shallow set that was very similar which we put in Nick's CRX; but I had a "standard" depth set in my VW. Little more on my setup... I run them in stock locations with a handful of Audio Technix dampening material on the door (it's already solid unlike most doors so no holes to seal up). I'll get some photos up when I get back to work too... I have an SAX-200.4 on the comp set and my 3x SA-8 v.2 woofers -- so PLENTY of juice on tap. With a correctly configured HPF I do not see any problems running a nice, powerful amp on them like I am doing -- but our official rating will be much more conservative as it has to be flexible enough for inexperienced users. As of now I have zero EQ work done and I am very pleased; but I do plan to run an RTA and see how the response looks and maybe apply a bit of EQ if I see any major trouble spots due to the vehicle itself (the set itself is super flat out-of-car). In summary... I am pretty much 100% happy with the performance at the price these are coming in at. I anticipate the price being right at $199 from a dealer even with the mid upgrades we did (so I hit my under $200 target) -- at this price range I think they will be hard to beat if you are looking for a set with a very smooth response with low fatigue.

Turned out nice!

The prototype has arrived :

Here is the tweeter plot with off axis included.