Every component of the 2012 subwoofers has undergone an upgrade in performance.

Composite Spider

 DD Audio's years of continued loudspeaker research has led to the introduction of a new suspension system on our Made is America subwoofers, a new damping system that is more linear, exhibits less hysteresis, sounds better and suffers from less breakdown than traditional cloth/resin dampers or spiders. The proprietary DD Audio spiders are made with  composite sandwich techniques enabling our speakers to be pushed to even higher performance standards. 

The compressed and thermo-molded layers of the new  composite spiders have a high degree of initial internal stiffness, which undergoes very little change over time.  This degree of initial, high internal stiffness allows DD to design an optimal level of compliance at the beginning of a product life cycle which greatly diminishes the break in period of past models.  The stiffness out of the box is closer to a fully broken in model and stays at this level of compliance longer than cloth/resin type dampers.

The compression molding technique has an extra benefit of varying stiffness in the damper geometry over the roll expansion, greatly enhancing the linearity of the suspension.  Precise levels of compliance can be dialed in for any geometry and application.  The result is even more equal response over the frequency bandwidth, less noise artifacts, less power compression and an overall increase in sound quality.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

 This new DD Audio  spider technology virtually eliminates the long break-in period needed for a subwoofer to loosen up the  spider(s).  DD Audio subs will sound better right out of the box, play deeper, more linear and stay sounding better over the life of the sub.  Our Quest for TRUE TO THE SOURCE just got that much closer. 

The composite spider is currently being used on the W-6.5, SW6.5, 1008/1508/2508 and all 35/95/Z Series.

Frames:

The 35/95/Z Series 12/15/18 inch frames change to a more open air design with larger suspension mounts to accommodate the new 235mm(9.25") diameter composite spider.                                         

The 1500 Series 8" steel basket was retooled last year to allow 66mm of excursion like the larger diameter speakers. The 8",10",12",15" and 18" steel frames were re-tooled on the bottom to accommodate the 2.5" size voice coil on the 2500 Series motors.  This frame change allows DD to keep the same parts, same geometry and same power handling as the 2011 cast frame 2500 Series. The price point now moves down allowing a wider range of customer applications to take advantage of the powerful performance capability the 2500 Series has always exhibited.  

 

Coils

The coils have thicker radiators top and bottom to pull more heat away from the coil windings. The lower radiator thicker cross section also helps to lock the wire in place when the coil temperature rises above the softening point of the glue, keeping the wire from shifting under high G-load.

Our exclusive coils have 2-layer aluminum sections on the radiators and center section of the former.

Cones:

The 8" through 18" cones were retooled this past year to reduce the height of the cone.  This allows extra clearance to the spider for high excursion applications. 

The X-11 Synthetic Fiber Blend(SFB) cones are the lightest, most rigid and technically advanced pulp ones in the world.

The water resistant coating(wet-look) switches to spray coating for less added mass.

Motors - Free Flow Cooling System upgrades:                                               

The top plates in all series have been integrating back zinc plating to increase the heat flow from the voice coil to the metal plates making them more effective heat sinks.

The back plates are having additional vent holes drilled through the back plate into the voice coil gap area.  These vents, along with the lower cross drilled vents through the pole piece, reduce the back pressure and heat buildup below the voice coil.

EROM Surrounds:

 The 12", 15" and 18" EROM surrounds have been and retooled with changes to the upper and lower surface geometry to increase the linearity of the forward and rearward excursion.  The new geometry allows a material change from 3 layer to 2 layer lamentation lowering the moving mass while maintaining compliance.