I though I’d start the year off a little different with a Product Review, your most likely sitting there thinking “whats so different about that?” or “You do Product Reviews all the time!”. Well this time round I will writing the Product Review as I run the Sub-Woofer in and as the SoundQubed Sub-Woofers are new to ABTEC and I am actually very interested how it will sound when it is run in!
Out of the box I must say the SQ HDC318-D1 surely looks the part, the weave of the Cone is just thing of beauty and I keep finding myself opening the boot to look at it everyday! Apart from the beautiful Cone, the rest of the Sub-Woofer looks to be built flawlessly from the Basket that allows air to free-flow directly to the Voice-Coils to the Spider-Suspension that is insanely hard from factory.
Once it was installed into the box that usually houses the almighty Digital Designs Z18 it was time to start putting some music through the SQ HDC318-D1 and start the running in process. Because I am running the SQ HDC318-D1 on a Digital Designs M4a, I have set the Bass Controller for it just above 1/4 just for a bit of piece of mind so I don’t over-drive it during the run in period.
The first thing I noticed was that the sound was very similar to a Digital Designs Sub-Woofer yet with a slight warm tone to it, I’m not to sure if that is due to the material of the Cone or overall design but the SQ HDC318-D1 has a distinct sound that started to grow on me even after twenty minutes of listening to it.
Even after only five hours of running time I could already notice it hitting the lows slightly louder and even though my run in volume isn’t the loudest you could still feel the dominance from the 18. I can’t even start to explain how I much wanted to turn it up, in saying that though it was time to turn the bass controller up just a touch which did put a smile on my face.
After ten hours of running time you can really hear the difference in the HDC318-D1 now, its like its finally coming alive with the lows being more dominate than ever! The overall sound is still very smooth too, the more I listen to it the more it is starting to grow on me and I bring this down to it having the kevlar weaved cone.
I have so far played all my usual bass-heavy tracks that I demo to people in ABTEC3 and I must say it is very impressive, I have also played other genres of music through the HDC318-D1 just to do a proper comparison and found that even though the box its in is tuned relatively low it still has a good response with rock music.
As time passed to the fifteen hour mark of playing time the HDC318-D1 has really started to come into its own, I have turned the bass controller up a touch more now (1/3) and keep on thinking what it would be like with two of these beautiful Sub-Woofers in the Vitz! I have finally getting back my beloved window flex back, only slightly since I don’t want to give the HDC318-D1 the full force of the mighty M4a just yet.
Finally I’m at the twenty hour mark of the running in time for the HDC318-D1 and it keeps on getting lower and louder, I have finally got to the point of turning up the bass controller up (1/2) and this Sub-Woofer is just mental but in a good way! Even though it has had a good twenty hours in it I believe it is still not full run in but in saying that it has such a beautiful sound as is!
If I was to compare the HDC318-D1 to anything it would have to be the DD-3518-D1 as they have almost an identical sound to them, the only difference would be the cone material which I must say gives it a unique sound.
Overall, the SoundQubed Sub-Woofers are very bang for buck. Are very appealing to the eye, have a very amazing sound and can handle a lot of power! I will be buying a couple of these to put into a car in the near future!