# Sundown Audio SD-2 8 - another review



## req (Aug 4, 2007)

Hey there.


being one of several guys to get these things - i am first and foremost, flattered that i get the opportunity to do this.

so, before we even judge the product based on its physical merits - i would like to say that Jacob (the owner at sundown), is one hell of a guy and really must stand behind his product to put 20 of these (or so) out into the world for review. I merely replied to his thread asking for testers, and then speakers were at my house. I have not been paid for this, i dont even know if i have to send these speakers back to him haha. whatever the case, +1 for having real life beta testers for a product. very cool.

SO - onto the first impressions.

unboxing video - 

sundown audio sd-2 8 subwoofer unboxing - YouTube






i noticed three boxes. its a little overkill - but at 34 pounds for two of them - the packaging was awesome.



shipping update said:


> Department number:	SD-2_8D4_x2_For_Review
> Service type:	FedEx Home Delivery
> Packaging type:	Package
> Number of pieces:	1
> Weight:	34.00 lb.


also, notice that the baskets on these things are not standard off the shelf (OTS) parts. from what i understand, jacob has been custom tooling a lot of his parts - and that alone is impressive.

the suspension was way stiffer than i had expected for a 300w driver, and it looks like there is quite a bit of excursion. personally, i prefer cone area over excursion - and at best a combination of both - but if these things act similar to the SD8V2 (see image below) that i had previously installed in a friends car - i have a good idea of the performance!


SD8v2 D4 pictured here that i installed in my friends 2012 ford focus hatchback.









i also noticed the magnet slug was large in diameter - instead of being double stacked. when stacking magnets - the additional motor strength (BL in this case) added is 1\2 of the strength of the first slug - or there abouts. the problem is, larger diameter slugs are more expensive - so another +1. although, i would imagine that the slug used on an 8 is not large to begin with, i think its better for a large diameter, than adding more to the overall depth.

then other features, like multiple woven tinsel leads, a stitched on surround, custom tooled parts just make drivers like this even more appealing. the basket also has some venting below the spider instead of a pole vent. that means you dont have to worry about choking the pole vent in an enclosure that is the exact depth of the speaker.

good stuff on the visual inspection! both drivers got to my house with a sticker and looking brand new! here are a few pictures - just via my cellphone. i will be working on some enclosure stuff in the week to come!






























and yes, i have a new 122" projector screen in my new living room. that is a post for another thread.


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## Boostedrex (Apr 4, 2007)

glad to see you got a hold of a pair of these Andy. I'll be looking forward to your input on them. Put them through the wringer and let us know!


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

thank you sir 

i spent the better part of the night calculating almost exactly 1 cube + displacement (.07 as per the website) and this is what i came up with. its .75 inch thick wood, and you should be able to buy sheets of 2'x4' instead of a 4'x8' and have minimal cuts (as long as it is actually 24" wide).

so it should be real easy to make.

hopefully i will get off my ass and do it :surprised:













also, a friend of mine bought two image dynamics ID8V3's - and i will be able to compare these two sets of subwoofers against each other! at least it should be a real good sound quality benchmark. i promise i will post some kind of relative stuff tomrrow


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## neo_styles (Oct 18, 2012)

I think it'll end up being a one-sided fist-fight between the IDs and the Sundown, but I'm interested in your verdict. The differences in construction more than point the favor towards the Sundowns.


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## JCJetta (Mar 28, 2013)

req said:


> also, a friend of mine bought two image dynamics ID8V3's - and i will be able to compare these two sets of subwoofers against each other!


Subscribed. This is relevant to my interests, especially with the IDs being compared.


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## 07azhhr (Dec 28, 2011)

WOW. Those look very impressive. With so much surround there is not much cone area left.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

so it turns out i made a cut sheet for this design, and its so close to fit on a single 2'x4' sheet that it does not fit lol. i mean i need 25x50 or so to make it work. so it looks like i will have to source some scrap wood from the garage... hopefully i have two pieces large enough to use.

sigh  

ill post the cut sheet later. i gotta go to a barbeequee its 80 degrees out!


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## miniSQ (Aug 4, 2009)

req said:


> so it turns out i made a cut sheet for this design, and its so close to fit on a single 2'x4' sheet that it does not fit lol. i mean i need 25x50 or so to make it work. so it looks like i will have to source some scrap wood from the garage... hopefully i have two pieces large enough to use.
> 
> sigh
> 
> ill post the cut sheet later. i gotta go to a barbeequee its 80 degrees out!


do it out of baltic birch...tru baltic birch, not the crap from HD. comes 60x60...you could build two boxes Or you may be able to buy a half sheet...


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

yea but that will cost me a ton of money lol. this is not something i will be running from here on out, i have two (four really, two are for the house) custom built incriminator audio flatlyne 18's waiting for a build 

then i might put these in my wifes car with fiberglass and what not.


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## Gary Mac (May 12, 2009)

Req- how much clearance do I need for the surround on that thing? I'm thinking of putting it in a stealth enclosure behind a rear panel in my truck, i don't think i want to make sure I have enough room between the enclosure and the panel.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

hmm, i will measure it for you.

the surround looks to be around 9/16" tall at rest from the rubber mounting gasket... so i would say 3\4 of an inch to an inch and you should be OK... also - downfiring in trucks is always a good idea from what i hear.


sorry about the delay in enclosure building - i just bought a house, i had to drive from virginia to new york and back (1000 mile trip) this weekend to get my car inspected and go to a family wedding, the weekend before last my mother in law was here for a week, and the week after this coming weekend my parents, brother, and mother in law are going to be here again... jeez. hopefully i can put it together this week or this weekend!!

stay tuned, sorry for the delay >_<

for waiting so patiently, i will take pictures of all my subwoofers and post them for everyone to look at tomorrow


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

ok so i bought the wood last night, but i didnt get a chance to start cutting yet. i had to spend most of my time trying to clean up my garage because we just moved in and there are tons of boxes and crap all over the place.

as i promised, i took pics of my subs, well, almost all of them. not pictured are three more incriminator audio flatlyne 18's and a pyle 12 hehe.





































left to right;

incrimnator audio flatlyne 18 (i have four)
image dynamics idmax12d4v3
ground zero nuclear 10 (i think its a nuke, its blown - this is the first sub i ever owned - like the actual one)
sundown sa-2 8's
image dynamics id8v3

my parents are also bringing down two no-name 8's (they were a subsidiary of audiobahn iirc) that i have in NY two weekends from now, so i should have three pairs of 8's to try in this box.

so just keep waiting haha.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

ok, so an apology for the delay in this review!

i finally got time time away from my family and got around to building the box. i did some work and the subs are in the car!




























i did not spend much time listening, i had to whip out the laptop and do some adjustments with the P-DSP. 

remember, i am comparing these subs to my INFINITE BAFFLE IDMax12's. thats quite a bit to stand up to. i do admit, that sometimes i miss sealed boxes because there is as much or maybe more output then IB... but i guess thats why im going to 18's very soon.


ill keep you all updated - but so far these things are totally awesome for being little 8 inch subs


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

so a little drive to work this morning - zero time alignment, minimal EQ, no phase - i am very happy with these guys! i have them on two channels of a mosconi AS200.4 at 2 ohms - so 400+ watts each - and they are barely moving with dubsetp on the way to work.

first thing i did was play some sine sweeps off the IASCA CD. its really fun to watch the cones doing 0hz + with the volume cranked. just checking to make sure they were in phase with each other and no wires got swapped * after they got up to 60hz or so my wife came out of the garage and started knocking on my window in the driveway telling me that it was way too loud haha. not a bad sign *

i have heard mutterings of how stiff the suspension is, and a break in period to loosen it all up a bit gets them sounding even better - so im going to be listening to bass-heavy muisc at first and as they loosen up i will then switch to rock and so forth. 

so far, these are for sure able to be mistaken as more than a pair of 8's, and i am liking what i hear as well. im not going to make any SQ judgements on dubstep - but there are some real weird transients, and nothing was out of place. they were working real well with my exodus anarchys.

let me have a few days with them to see how it goes... so far, i am impressed.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

ok so yesterday and today were some nice drives to work! 

i have not had the IDMAX's in for a few weeks because i just bought a house and i have been moving things and all kinds of stuff, and then i sold them to buy my 18's.

they are in the 1 cubic foot enclosure recommended by jacob - and minimal EQ, and 180* phase shift was all it took to bring them up front. i believe i have them crossed from [email protected]\oct. my midbass kicks in at [email protected]\oct. ill have to double check those numbers, but off the top of my head thats what i remember. they should have about 600w EACH at 2 ohms from the mosconi AS200.4, and they can get moving. i played the sweeps on the iasca disc to make sure they were in phase with each other and to get an idea of their SPL. i will say they can get low, but they do roll off in the lower frequencies - i am assuming due to cone area - but for 8s?! i mean, i easily would compare them to a pair of 10's or lower end 12's! so i dont think i can complain about that haha. my RTA is at tintbox's house (i left it there on accident) ill see what i can do about getting it back and putting some graphs up.

it is real nice dropping the 8's back there. i actually had to re-adjust my rear view mirror while i was driving to make sure the 8's were playing because they do blend very well with my exodus anarchies! the anarcies are no slouch, and thats why i have been able to deal with no subwoofer for a few weeks 

i listened to some songs i know have some great midbass\bass kick drums - zz top greatest hits and a perfect circle 13th step.

Amazon.com: Greatest Hits: ZZ Top: Music
zz top's greatest hits is a blast to listen to if you have a good system. some cool left\right guitar pan stuff and a great kick drum frequency. specifically sharp dressed man is awesome. the sd8-2's performed real well with rock music like this, there are no really fast transients to make them struggle there, but they blended well and made me smile. im not going to try and describe the "taste" of the sound for you or any of that stuff. i will say that compared to other subwoofer setups i have listened to, these are continuing to impress me - being that they are little 8's .

Amazon.com: Thirteenth Step: A Perfect Circle: Music
then i remembered a perfect circle's 13th step. the album is awesome if you like 90's rock\alternative type music with a touch of tool\deftones. specifically, a lot of money had to have been spent on the recording engieers - they did an awesome job with it. the song The Package has such a full midbass\bass kick its awesome with a good sub and midbass combo. just the drums in general are so much fun to listen to. also, track 3 "The Noose" about 2:50 there is a transition for the drums, its like they put them out of phase for the first half of the song or something, then at that time frame they come into focus and its totally awesome. the sd8-2 made my day yesterday 

both these discs have the same kind of bass sound to them. nothing crazy fast - just real robust and full. in order to get it right, your sub and midbass need to really work together - even with the midrange to pull the sound up forward. if your subs are crossed too high or are sloppy, then it will pull back and disconnect from the rest of the stage. good starting points, and great music to boot.

i will spend more time finding things that really stand out. i drove my friend paul (who has heard every itteration of my stereo since 2007) to the store yesterday. he didnt know i had put those 8's in the back. i put on 36 mafia's late nite tip - he gave me a funny look like "i know you sold your idmax's" and then the bass dropped. his eyes popped open like WTF and then we got to the store and i showed him the pair of 8's and he said "thats all that is??" ... i noticed with this track that the extreme low notes (iirc below or around 30hz) were a few db down from the rest of the bass track - but it is much more than i would have thought a pair of 8's were capable of. i am compairing these to a pair of IDMax12's infinite baffle lol - they are doing a good job so far!

-andy


btw - my thoughts for this review are going to be put here as i hear things and make mental notes. im going to switch to a lot of music i listen to (and i will listen to the iasca disc and chesky disc along the way), and then with pandora ill try and listen to stuff i am not so accustomed to. jazzy stuff maybe classical. but i want to push them a bit with stuff im familliar with at first.

thanks guys


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## Midwestrider (Aug 10, 2007)

Req
How would you rate the SD8's to the ID8v3 in a sealed setup?


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

i am waiting for my RTA to get here (letft it at tintbox's house ~3hr drive) to post any stuff about it... and i wanted to get a few weeks with the SD8's first anyway. i plan on swapping to the ID's this weekend.

ill let you all know how i feel when i make the swap 



but, since im here - i have been listening to symphony-X the last few days - and they have some really cool drums. im serious when i say that these subs are real great for rock and metal. i didnt think they would be, but its really transparent.

fact is, when i play something like 36-mafia's late night tip, i can really tell that they struggle on the super low notes - i mean of course - they play them... not like any 8 i have ever heard before, but just the lack of cone area makes it noticeable for me. when i had IDQ15's, it was much smoother - but obviously these shouldnt be able to keep up with two 15's on a ~30hz note, but they are not far away! thats what surprises me!

so to recap - great subs! fast transient response - great with double kick pedals... or maybe its my exodus anarchies lol - because they blend great. the super low notes they struggle with, but they are no slouch!

so far i forgot that i was reviewing them a few times. i am actually very satisfied ^_^


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## quietfly (Mar 23, 2011)

nice review!


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## Midwestrider (Aug 10, 2007)

Sounds like a quartet may be the ticket.


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## Midwestrider (Aug 10, 2007)

Sounds like a quartet may be the ticket.


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## NHgranite (Sep 24, 2011)

Hopefully not too far off tangent, but do you think TWO of these fine 8" subs could be mounted in a sealed corner box for a '02 Jetta sedan?

I'm asking here because Req is driving a *similar* VW (although it's a hatchback). 



Thanks again. Nice review.


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## bardo (Oct 12, 2011)

I have two of these I need to do something with still...


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