As the dB Drag Season has come back around it was finally time to test the 10″ x 4 Sub-Woofer Box that we got the 150.1dB with the entry level 10″ Sony’s. We had fitted the Digital Designs DD-510-D4 Sub-Woofers almost four to five months prior to this test and had only run them in on light music. From what I could tell they sounded quite good even though they were tuned higher to my personal preference since it is a ‘Burp’ box but in saying that the high tune suits Darryl’s musical taste to a tee. Since we had...
It has been a long time coming that New Zealand would begin to be recognized once again around the world in the arena of dB Drags and SPL competition, That time has come! (“Terminator” 1985 by Wayne Harris {USA}) Over the past few years a die hard, yet small band of people have gathered together to compete for their respective classes, and strive to carve out a name for both themselves and the scene as a whole. While time goes on, faces change, and audio evolves, yet one thing remains, there will always be the “passion for the beast” that is SPL....
After doing the SPL tests with the four Digital Designs DD-512-D4’s it was brought to my attention by Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell that we have not yet tested two of them for a comparison. This got the brain ticking over and after a long conversation (Ask anyone that knows us, Ashley and I can talk!) with Ashley the decision was made to run with the same design that was netting us results with the four DD-512-D4’s, but this time with only half the box. As I do I setup the car the way I always do before testing, checking and double checking...
As a lot of people are getting to know now, we at ABTEC have been doing a lot of dB SPL Testing using Entry Level Sub-Woofers. We have tried testing Entry Level Sub-Woofers from Sony, JBL, Digital Designs and this time around we decided to try four of the Pioneer TSW-309-D4 Sub-Woofers. Over this time ABTEC3 has been taking a bit of a beating from the Sound Pressure Levels but I’m sure the little Vitz will continue to happily put up with a lot more for quite some time too. I went through my usual check list as I do...
Since we get a lot of questions regarding Car Audio Sound Systems Set-up’s we thought it would be a good idea to put up this basic guideline for you all to read through & also to shed some light on the subject at the same time… Use A Sound level Meter: If you are serious about Car Audio, use, borrow or buy a sound level meter. A sound level meter can save you lots of money in the long run. The reason for using a sound level meter is because once you have your system complete, it may take a big...
Being the end of the year it was time for the ABTEC dB Drag Soundoff & Sounds Alive Grand Final. It had already been an interesting year for the Car-Audio/Sound-Off Scene with people continuing to beat their personal bests and a lot of these people had also been doing some very impressive upgrades to their systems. Which is always good to see since sometimes the smallest of upgrades can make a massive difference. As competitors turned up Darryl fired up the BBQ and as the next hour went on you could tell everyone had a good feed as we were...
Since the last dB Drag Event for the year has just past and we had a slight improvement with our results in ABTEC3 I thought I’d do a little Update… As a lot of you know or maybe not know (I can’t be to sure if this is or isn’t your first time to read my blogs) we at ABTEC have had a little project of getting Entry Level Sub-Woofers into 150+dB SPL range in our Toyota Vitz RS. It started with some Sony 10″ Sub-Woofers, then some JBL 12″ Sub-Woofers but then we ran with the DD-512-D4’s and to...
Its that time of the year again, Christmas season is in full force again and all the masses are out and about doing their last minute shopping. So in the spirit of the silly season Ashley ‘MAD BASS’ Burrell went out and brought a Santa suit for one of us to dress up in… As you can see as soon as the Santa suit went on the camera came out and started shooting and everyone had a few laughs along the way. I think Santa is pointing out what he wants to give everyone for Christmas here! I’m not sure...
Most Sub-Woofers have a reasonable lifespan, even after a lot of life shortening abuse I’ve seen Digital Designs Sub-Woofers still pound away where other Sub-Woofers would been burnt out and lifeless. This blog is about a coil/cone/basket replacement on a seven year old DD-3512-D2 Sub-Woofer that looks like it had lifetime of said abuse! You are most likely cringing at the sight of the ripped rubber on this old DD-3512-D2 Sub-Woofer, I remember when I first saw it I kept thinking “Wow, that’s had a hard life!”. Since the Cone and Dust-Cap were never going to be used again Ashley ‘MAD...
When it comes to SPL (Sound Pressure Level) results, anything over the 150dB mark is a phenomenal result no matter how you look at it and getting a result above 150dB requires a lot of time, testing and in some cases money. In most cases people go out and buy high-end Sub-Woofers designed for SPL that usually net good results but come at a high cost to your pocket! We at ABTEC set a little challenge to ourselves, this challenge was to prove that you can get results over the 150dB mark with Entry-Level Sub-Woofers! It took a lot of testing with different...
