posted a thread on ca.com, thought i would mirror it here. excuse the copy paste, if you have any questions/pic requests, lmk, and ill do my best!

Alright..

I got the oppertunity to purchase a damaged in shipping M5 spl15 from Mark himself for a STEAL. As it was damaged in shipping, it obviously needs a recone (actually, i am turning this one and another damaged in shipping spl 12 into custom 18's, so..) so i tore it down tonight, without causing damage to the softparts. and thought some of you may care (i have seen a few posts/questions in the last few days wondering about the quality of the m5 stuff) Before i start with the pics- yes i am a mach 5 "fanboi". Marks prices and service is hard to beat, and he really is a stand up guy. With that said, i am going to try and be fair and point out the good with the bad. any questions you may have, i will gladly try and answer, but, if i cant, you can surely ask Mark, as he is always happy to help. On with the show.

The first thing you see when you open the cardboard box it comes in is this-

a wooden crate. It looks very nice, however, from what i have experience with.. its not that strong. now, these were "damaged in shipping" items, so they are (hopefully) the exception. here is some pics of the damage-

now this one- was my personal driver to start with, it was NOT damaged in shipping, and the crate did have a bit of damage-

Now, as I said.. these were damged in shipment items, so, i dont think this is widespread, however, i would take a good hard look and see what, if anything, could be changed to help this, if i was Mark.

Now we have them unpacked (in order- 12, 15, and 18)

nice, eh?

Moving on-

the driver is very stout in appearance, with little glitter, or glamour. this is a serious sub. cosmetics are an afterthought.

(a 12 and a 15, fwiw)

the dustcap is a hard plastic, with teh m5 logo screen printed on it. not nearly as flimsy as some other brands i have used.

now i did pull the 15 apart, and i did it without destroying the softparts.. lets see them, shall we?

simple paper cone, nothing fancy. fairly thick, and very stiff. perfect for teh intended application. I must note that on the 15 the surround was not completly glued down in 2 spots. it was attatched completly, but the edge wasnt pressed down. under severe stress, this may have been a problem. however, neither of the 12's had this problem, and Mark assured me that this was not common (and i believe thats true, but to be totally fair, i had to note it.)

lol you guys, making posts, and screwwwing it up for me:p:

anyhow...

as you can see the driver uses a spider spacer. the 15 does, the 12 does not. i like it myself. and this one is AWESOME. it has a thinner "lip" down on the bottom of the thing that goes into the basket.. makes a recone a BREEZE i would imagine. at any rate.. nice.

12" with no spacer-

15" with spacer-

the coil is a copper, round wound unit, fairly stout. i know everyone preaches the virtues of flatwound alum for an spl driver, but i assure you.. this coil works VERY well. 5kw has been put into them, with no failures. this driver WILL take teh power.

overall the glue job is VERY good. very neat/tidy in appearance, and not lacking anywhere.

the motor is well put together as well, with only slight excess glue (not bad at all, very minimal) on the outside.

the gap is FAIRLY wide, although i have not taken measurements yet (and probably wont post tehm anyways) a tc lmt coil will not fit in it though:p:

The spiders are VERY stiff, and very nice. it is actually a spider pack with 5 spiders (by my count) glued together. the leads are decent sized and semi woven through.

and i personally love how it doesnt get soldered to the terminal. it bolts down. love it. (between this and the spider spacer.. its a beginning reconers dream for sure. very easy)

speaking of terminals.. I noticed perhaps the biggest improvement over the 12 was teh terminals.. gone are teh absolutly HORRID screw terminals (that any adult sized hand cant grip worth a fuck) replaced with simple, effective push terminals. THANK YOU MARK. NOW DO IT TO ALL YOUR SUBS.

left is the old ones, right is the new ones.

for those of you wondering on the damage-

If you think the triple joint glue joint is nice from the outside, you should see how pretty it is on the former, driver is put together freaking bulletproof

yes. it is. that's teh end of the pics i took tonight, and i do hope that this puts some of you at ease as to teh quality of parts (if you had any doubts) and construction. very solid. i have to say, these beat the build quality of the tc sounds drivers i have had by FAR. also ties up 9if not even edges out) the fi stuff i have had (although ive NOT had alot of there drivers to compare to, tbh) now does taht mean that the other brands quality was "bad"? absolutly not. the m5 stuff is just beyond impressive. this may be priced as a "cheap driver" but the tests done on it, my own personal experiance with them, and all the reviews posted on these, prove them to be anything BUT cheap.

Now, dont get me wrong.. this driver employes no special tech, no secret parts, none of that. its just a speaker. a loud one. and Mark is the first to tell you that. When you have nothing to hide, its easy to be honest:D

in conclusion, buy one, or jesus will kill a puppy.

Triple joint pics or ban.

hold. while i go shoot that pic.. here is some pics of the raw spiders0

here it is next to a stock tc sounds 10" spider.. not how thin and see through the tc one is.

Alright.. tore teh driver down more (cut the cone and such off, to get more pics)

here she lies.

the dustcap is a thinck plastic, that is glued on very securely.

pics of glue joints-

One thing i can safely say- i wish the bottom of the former was rolled. its not. i bent it pretty severely cutting it up for pics here. its a small gripe, but a gripe none the less!

'Tis a hoss of a driver, I like the SPL-12 a great deal.

Seeing that thing come apart makes me cry a little inside.

Seeing that thing come apart makes me cry a little inside.

I REALLY wish that it hadnt had a broken basket.. im actually seriously considering just ordering a recone for it.. I have a frame..(a flame orange one:D)

Nice thread. It's just too bad you had to destroy speakers for it lol.

Did you say something about custom 18s?

Nice thread. It's just too bad you had to destroy speakers for it lol.

Did you say something about custom 18s?

yes sir. i am making a set of custom 18's using this motor, and the standard spiders... trying to get the standard coil as well (really, i am wanting to use as many m5 oem parts as i can)

That pinkish purpleish glue on the motor parts is very tell tale of the buildhouse used, not a big deal and I never minded it since I don't reverse mount. Anyway, good SPL driver, huge coil and looks good.

That pinkish purpleish glue on the motor parts is very tell tale of the buildhouse used, not a big deal and I never minded it since I don't reverse mount. Anyway, good SPL driver, huge coil and looks good.

umm.. not really. you DO know that more than this buildhouse uses that pinkish purpleish glue..right? right? and thats even forgetting the fact that mark isnt closed mouth about the buildhouse. he will tell you where they come from. im sure its nice to have no secrets... ii can think of a few brands taht cant say that.. can you bose?

That pinkish purpleish glue on the motor parts is very tell tale of the buildhouse used, not a big deal and I never minded it since I don't reverse mount. Anyway, good SPL driver, huge coil and looks good.

umm.. not really. you DO know that more than this buildhouse uses that pinkish purpleish glue..right? right? and thats even forgetting the fact that mark isnt closed mouth about the buildhouse. he will tell you where they come from. im sure its nice to have no secrets... ii can think of a few brands taht cant say that.. can you bose?

I do know other buildhouses use the same glue, but Jinleda seems to be a little more sloppy with it, my BMs looked like that SPL 15, some of the glue on the magnets and top and bottom plates. It's not like it matters, it's obviously purely cosmetic and you at least know they used enough of the glue. As for saying where they are built, what does that matter? I honestly could care less if a company lets me know who built them, as long as they are quality, who cares?

That pinkish purpleish glue on the motor parts is very tell tale of the buildhouse used, not a big deal and I never minded it since I don't reverse mount. Anyway, good SPL driver, huge coil and looks good.

umm.. not really. you DO know that more than this buildhouse uses that pinkish purpleish glue..right? right? and thats even forgetting the fact that mark isnt closed mouth about the buildhouse. he will tell you where they come from. im sure its nice to have no secrets... ii can think of a few brands taht cant say that.. can you bose?

I do know other buildhouses use the same glue, but Jinleda seems to be a little more sloppy with it, my BMs looked like that SPL 15, some of the glue on the magnets and top and bottom plates. It's not like it matters, it's obviously purely cosmetic and you at least know they used enough of the glue. As for saying where they are built, what does that matter? I honestly could care less if a company lets me know who built them, as long as they are quality, who cares?

you uh... fell off the stupid truck, huh? if mark freely tells you where its from, there is no need for glue to be a "tell tale sign" go with the rest of the blind children to the si forums, and leave us here alone, eh?

Edited August 8, 200817 yr by visitor

That pinkish purpleish glue on the motor parts is very tell tale of the buildhouse used, not a big deal and I never minded it since I don't reverse mount. Anyway, good SPL driver, huge coil and looks good.

umm.. not really. you DO know that more than this buildhouse uses that pinkish purpleish glue..right? right? and thats even forgetting the fact that mark isnt closed mouth about the buildhouse. he will tell you where they come from. im sure its nice to have no secrets... ii can think of a few brands taht cant say that.. can you bose?

I do know other buildhouses use the same glue, but Jinleda seems to be a little more sloppy with it, my BMs looked like that SPL 15, some of the glue on the magnets and top and bottom plates. It's not like it matters, it's obviously purely cosmetic and you at least know they used enough of the glue. As for saying where they are built, what does that matter? I honestly could care less if a company lets me know who built them, as long as they are quality, who cares?

you uh... fell off the stupid truck, huh? if mark freely tells you where its from, there is no need for glue to be a "tell tale sign" go with the rest of the blind children to the si forums, and leave us here alone, eh?

Ok, then it isn't a tell tale sign, it's a common thing for Jinleda built subs to exhibit, that better?