Sunfire 8"

[FJF 10+ year member]

With all the buzz about high powered 8" subs lately, I figured you guys might appreciate some pics of this one. I bought it to play around with and I was pretty impressed. I threw well over a kilowatt to it, free-air with sine waves, and the coil did not complain one bit. Well over two inches of stroke with a bit more noise than I like to hear from my drivers but this has multiple spiders so it's what I expected. It was pretty fun until I bumped the knob on my signal generator and caused a bit of over-excursion. Tore the foam surround a bit but it still pounds. I'll probably grab an E8 cone with the high roll surround and get it up an going again. If not, I'll just throw it an a bandpass so the noisy surround can't be heard.
Pictures in the next post.

Finally, someone whose opinion I trust has heard this driver. Thanks for the comments. I was considering buying one, but you saved me the trouble. Its 25lb weight is too much for my needs, though the noise killed it for me from the get-go. FWIW, I played around with a bunch of 8" drivers last winter. They all made noise. WTF? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

Edit: I misread the header as Sundown. That's the 8" driver I was thinking of. Apologies for misunderstanding.

 

[FJF 10+ year member]

Interesting. I'm assuming you're referring to this version?

Ahhh...yessss...the Sunfire. One of the finest distortion generators produced in recent history.

 

[ciaonzo 5,000+ posts]

Finally, someone whose opinion I trust has heard this driver. Thanks for the comments. I was considering buying one, but you saved me the trouble. Its 25lb weight is too much for my needs, though the noise killed it for me from the get-go. FWIW, I played around with a bunch of 8" drivers last winter. They all made noise. WTF? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

I know right? The EPIC is the only 8" I've played with that has a really quiet stroke right up until the end but that's no surprise, most TC drivers run dead silent like that. Each of the LMS drivers that I own have a single spider just stiff enough to support the weight of the working mass without sagging and the surround is nice and soft (pliable). They are THE quietest drivers I've ever held in my hands. Perfection. The suspension doesn't get in the way of the signal (the music, of course).

 

[ciaonzo 5,000+ posts]

Ahhh...yessss...the Sunfire. One of the finest distortion generators produced in recent history.

Haha. To be honest, if I could get the soft parts from an EPIC 8", it would be nice and quiet. It's just a bit noisy from spiders laying one on top of another, making a small sort of rubbing noise. It was definitely made to take lots of power to work well in that tiny cube. In the trunk of a car I think the results would be quite impressive since the tiny bit of noise that was audible, would most likely be soaked up by the back seat. I wouldn't use it in a hatch though.

I'll probably throw it in a bandpass and see how long it lives then recone it with SQ parts.

 

[FJF 10+ year member]

I'll probably throw it in a bandpass and see how long it lives then recone it with SQ parts.

Sounds like a plan!

 

[chasepb 10+ year member]

ok whats the best 8' for spl and talking power

 

[scottyk 10+ year member]

ok whats the best 8' for spl and talking power

Well, this woofer here OP said takes over 1k. That to my knowledge seems to be the most an 8 can take that isn't super-custom built. Besides that, I know the DD 1508's take right about 1k a piece, but not much more then that. Never heard of any other 8's taking more then that