# The Original Production DIYMA12 Review



## drocpsu (May 3, 2005)

As per dang's advice, I had to copy this over to here to be qualified for the drawing...so here it is, along with my updates since the review:

So I got my DIYMA 12s (well...only one of them is mine) today and got them in my car ASAP! First things first...wow! This thing sounds great. I have it in a 1 cu ft box getting 400 watts, so it's not an extremely high powered setup. The sub sounds great. Bass is tight and controlled, and deep! This setup drops much deeper than my Oz Matrix 12 (another excellent sounding sub!) did in the same box. I listened to it for about 45 minutes with a variety of music and all I can say is that I'm very pleased.

However, I am having one issue with the sub and can't figure out what it is. On harder bass notes (or even just when its turned up louder), I'm getting some sort of mechanical noise. It's not a pop, but sounds more like a tapping of some sort. I Can't figure out what's causing it. Any help would be appreciated.

So second impressions after my drive to work:

Overall, the sub sounds great and seems to have a pretty flat response (though I think I have 50hz eq'ed down a little from my last sub... I think my car has more cabin gain right around there) in my 1cu ft box. However, I think in the larger box, it may slightly lose some emphasis in the upper-bass range. The difference in poewr handling and sensitivity is noticeable compared to my Oz Matrix Elite. In the same box, with the same wattage, it's not as loud as the ME was. IT sounds excellent though.

On the bass line to "Money For Nothing" (which is a pretty simple bass line), the sub is smooth and blends in excellently with my front stage. You almost forget it;s there as the bass is really pulled to the front of the car.

The sub has no problem keeping up with the complex bassline of Government Mule's "What Is Hip". Never lags behind and is very fast and transient. I haven't listened to it with any really fast electronic basslines, so I don't know how it would do in that situation.

The DIYMA drops much lower in the "Phantom of the Opera" ending bass notes than the Oz did. That song drops really low in the last 20-25 seconds of the song, in case you've never listened to it. Very impressive. I could really feel the bass on that song like I wasn't able to before.

The kick drum in The Eagle's Hell Freezes Over "Hotel California" is smooth and hits like a kick should. No rumbling or slowness with it. The initial attack could be improved with better midbass though .

Overall, I'm very impressed by this sub. It sounds excellent out of the box. NPDang, hats off to you! However, in a lower powered setup like mine, I really feel like I need to get a bigger amp now to really run this sub at it's full potential. Also, I haven't to see if I'm still having the mechanical noise issue, but I'll check again after I get home tonight.

Update since then:

As I mentioned in Chu's thread, I ended up resetting my gains and have eliminated the sub popping. I set them lower, on a higher volume setting on my HU. I think it may have been due to my amp clipping. I had to send my car to the shop the next day, so I got pretty limited play time after that, so I'll update this review once I get it back tomorrow and get more listening time in.

The new gain settings also seemed to have eliminated my problem with the bass slightly lacking with 400 watts. It's now just where I like it...smooth and transparent during normal listening, but with just enough kick in the kick drums to give them good emphasis. Now also loud enough to satisfy my bass cravings when I have them.


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