Professional Series · Datasheet

Professional Series Ported 12" Enclosure Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition · Single 12" Ported enclosure

Net volume
3.45 Cubic Feet
Tuning
32.5 Hz
Max mounting depth
12.000 Inches (Sundown Audio Spec)
Cutout
11.100 Inches (Sundown Audio Spec)
External dimensions
32.00 Inches W × 16.00 Inches H × 23.50 Inches D
Front baffle
Three 3/4" MDF layers, 2.25" total | Woofer Flush-Mounted In The Outer Layer
Buy at Audio IntensityFactory-direct, ships from Tullahoma
  • Alignment: 3.45 cu ft net vented at 32.5 Hz. F3 28.1 Hz anechoic, 5.31 dB passband ripple
  • Driver: Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition D1, 3500 W RMS, 35.0 mm Xmax, 33.20 Hz Fs
  • Build: Front-firing standard box, 2.25" three-layer baffle with the woofer flush-mounted in the outer layer, Sundown Audio logo acrylic, dado joinery, 65.2 sq in front slot port beside the woofer with one bend along the back wall, port and excursion gated at 3500 W
  • Cabinet: 32.00" W x 16.00" H x 23.50" D, 73 lb, threaded insert kit included

Spec of record

Technical specifications

SeriesProline X Professional
Driver-Specific FitmentSundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition D1 (D1)
Enclosure TypePorted | Front-Firing Standard Box
External Width32.00 Inches
External Height16.00 Inches
External Depth23.50 Inches
Internal Volume (Gross)5.25 Cubic Feet
Internal Volume (Net After Displacement)3.45 Cubic Feet
Port TypeVertical Slot Beside The Woofer | Front Exit | One 90 Degree Bend Along The Back Wall
Port Geometry4.50 x 14.50 Inches, 65.2 Square Inches, 36.00 Inches Of Path
Port Area65.2 Square Inches
Port Tuning (Fb)32.5 Hz
Port Mouth1/2 In Roundover On All Four Edges, 85.2 Square Inches At The Face
Port Air Velocity21.8 m/s In The Channel, 16.7 m/s At The Mouth, At 3500 W (17.0 m/s Chuff Threshold)
Design Power Basis3500 W RMS (1.2 x The Driver Rating) For Port Velocity And Excursion
Predicted F328.1 Hz (Anechoic)
Passband Ripple5.31 dB (Anechoic)
Subsonic Filter26 Hz High-Pass, 24 dB/Octave - REQUIRED On A Vented Enclosure
Driver Fs33.20 Hz
Driver Qts0.212
Driver Qes / Qms0.223 / 4.690
Driver Vas14.620 Liters / 0.516 Cubic Feet
Driver Sd457.3 Square Centimeters
Driver Mms466.61 g
Driver BL29.02
Driver Re1.9 Ohm
Driver Xmax35mm (One-Way)
Driver Displacement0.26 Cubic Feet (Published by Sundown Audio)
Driver Sensitivity85.5 dB
Driver Power Handling3500 Watts RMS
Driver Overall Diameter12.680 Inches (Sundown Audio Spec)
Mounting Depth Required12.000 Inches (Sundown Audio Spec)
Cutout Diameter11.100 Inches (Sundown Audio Spec)
Flush Mount Recess13.625 Inches In The Outer Layer
MaterialLangboard Elite 3/4" MDF
ConstructionShopSabre CNC / Two Windowed Braces Front To Back Either Side Of The Woofer
JoineryDado Joinery (CNC-Cut), Flat Panels
Front Baffle ConstructionThree 3/4" MDF layers, 2.25" total | Woofer Flush-Mounted In The Outer Layer
Baffle Layers3
AcrylicGlossy Black Sundown Audio Logo Insert, Outer Layer, Standard
Mounting HardwareThreaded Insert Kit Included: 8-12 Inserts, Drill Bit, 2.5 In Allen-Head Screws, Allen Key, Gasket Tape
Voice Coil ConfigurationD1
Terminal CupProline X ABS/Carbon Fiber Composite | Back Panel, Terminal-Cup Side | 12g OFC Pre-Wired
DampingNone - Ships Dry. Polyfill Detunes A Ported Enclosure
Recommended Power2450-3500 Watts RMS (Sundown Audio Rated: 3500W RMS)
Carpet FinishPlush Black
Weight73 lb
ShippingUPS Ground Parcel, Included In The 48 States
Bundle OptionsEnclosure Only (Bring Your Own Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition)
Warranty2-Year Limited (Enclosure)
ManufacturedTullahoma, Tennessee, USA

Modelled response

Performance in this enclosure

Net airspace
3.45
cu ft
Tuning
32.5
Hz · Fb
Half power
28.1
Hz · F3, anechoic
Xmax at
30209
W RMS · 26 Hz subsonic
With NO filter
9558
W RMS · unfiltered
Port
16.7
m/s at the mouth · 3500 W

01Is this driver right for a ported box?

Efficiency bandwidth product places the motor before anything else is decided.

EBP = Fs ÷ Qes = 148.9
SEALED 0–50 TRANSITION 50–100 PORTED 100–150 0 50 100 150 EBP 148.9
Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition D1 · EBP 148.9
Above 100 the motor is asking for a vent. The Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition D1 reads 148.9, so a ported load is the alignment it was designed around, not a compromise applied to it.

02What the box does to it

3.45 cu ft net against a 14.6 L Vas, vented at 32.5 Hz.

Fb = 32.5 Hz  ·  F3 = 28.1 Hz  ·  passband ripple 5.31 dB
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 +16 +12 +8 +4 0 −4 −8 −12 −16 −20 −24 −28 FREQUENCY · Hz LEVEL · dB −3 dB Fb 32.5
Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition D1 · Fb 32.5 Hz, F3 28.1 Hz
Anechoic, before any cabin gain, with the 26 Hz subsonic filter already applied. The vent takes over below 32 Hz and the cone stops doing the work there, which is what holds travel down at the bottom of the passband.

03Ported vs Sealed

No sealed comparison is shown for this driver.

A ported-versus-sealed chart is only worth reading against a sealed box someone would actually build: the one we make for the driver, or the one its maker recommends. Neither exists for the Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition D1 — we do not build a sealed enclosure for it and Sundown publish no sealed volume for it — so rather than compare this cabinet against itself stuffed and sealed, a box no one would build, the comparison is left out.

04The watts that reach Xmax (in this enclosure)

Travel scales with the square root of power, so there is one wattage that puts the cone exactly on Sundown's published 35.0 mm. The two traces are the same cabinet with the subsonic filter switched on and switched off.

PXmax = 30209 W with a 26 Hz subsonic  ·  9558 W with none  →  the filter is worth 3.2×
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 0 8 16 24 32 40 FREQUENCY · Hz CONE TRAVEL · mm PAST LINEAR TRAVEL · Xmax 35.0 mm 30209 W reaches Xmax here
30209 W · subsonic at 26 Hz, 24 dB/oct9558 W · no subsonic filterXmax 35.0 mm one-way, published
Each trace touches the limit and no further, because each is drawn at the exact power that puts the cone on 35.0 mm. With a 26 Hz subsonic that takes 30209 W, reached first at 28 Hz. Take the filter away and the same cabinet reaches 35.0 mm on 9558 W — the filter is worth 3.2× the safe power. A vent unloads the cone below tuning, so there is nothing holding it once the box stops loading: on a sealed build a subsonic filter is an improvement, here it is required equipment. The unfiltered trace is still rising where this chart stops at 20 Hz, so treat 9558 W as a bound rather than a floor. Every wattage on this page is a MECHANICAL limit, not an electrical one. It is the power at which the cone runs out of linear travel in this cabinet, and nothing more. What the voice coil can dissipate as heat is a separate ceiling set by the driver, not by the box — Sundown rate this one at 3500 W RMS, and that is the number that binds first here: heat stops you before travel does, so treat 3500 W as the ceiling and the travel figures above as headroom. Final wired impedance, amplifier output and how long you hold the level are all electrical questions this graph does not answer.

From the shop floor

Installer's take

I built this box for the SDDN 12 because it is a competition driver that wants real air and a low tune, not a small sealed box. It gets the full Professional treatment: three-layer 2.25 inch baffle, the woofer flush mounted in the outer layer, and the port on the left of the face.

This port stays clean past the coil's own 3500 watt rating, so at any power level this driver can actually take, the coil is what limits you, not the port. The D1 coil is the only winding Sundown offers on this model, so there is nothing to choose between here.

Wire the D1 coil in series for a nominal 2 ohms, or parallel for 0.5 ohms only on an amplifier built for that load; most amplifiers are not, so check the spec sheet before you wire it that way.

Sundown Audio publishes no mounting hole locations for the SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition, so the inserts are not in the baffle when the box arrives. The insert kit is in the box: set the inserts where the woofer's own holes fall, with the drill bit and the 2.5 inch allen-head screws in the kit, and lay the gasket tape before the woofer goes down.

It ships dry. Do not add polyfill to a ported box. Set your subsonic filter at 28 Hz.

Before you order

Questions

Why is this enclosure tuned to 32.5 Hz?

At the coil's rated power of 3500 W the port on this box is nowhere near the chuff line; it stays clean all the way to 3627 W before the mouth velocity crosses it, so the coil reaches its own thermal limit before the port becomes the constraint. Sundown publish a Qts of 0.212 for the D1 coil, with the Qes and Qms behind it in agreement, describing a driver built to move air rather than sit heavily damped. Passband ripple across the tuning holds at 5.31 dB, which is the driver's own alignment rather than a flaw in the cabinet; a motor this lightly damped produces a livelier passband than a sealed box would. Tuning is chosen for in-car response rather than an anechoic curve: a vehicle adds roughly 12 dB per octave below about 45 Hz, and this tuning is where that sum comes out flattest across 25 to 60 Hz.

Why is this a Professional build and not a Performance Optimized box?

Every driver is run through the Performance Optimized wedge and down-fire before this chassis; the Professional box is where a driver lands when that smaller envelope, 30 inches wide and 18 inches deep with a triangular side port, cannot give it what it needs at its rated power. The SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition does not fit that envelope at all: H 15.50, width to 30.0, base depth to 18.00: no combination of port leg, tuning, width and depth meets the velocity, excursion, ripple and path gates. This box is the chassis with the width, depth and port to carry it. An under-ported box does not fail quietly. Air speed at the mouth rises with power; past the chuff line the flow turns turbulent and the port is audible on every note. The turbulence also chokes the port, so the box behaves as if it were tuned higher than it is, loses output near tuning, and lets the cone travel further below tuning than the design allows. This chassis is a full-size front-firing box on a 2.25 inch baffle built from three 3/4 inch layers with the woofer flush-mounted in the outer layer, a Sundown Audio logo acrylic, and a port and excursion budget checked at 3500 W. It carries a 2 year warranty against 1.

Threaded inserts or a kit?

Sundown Audio does not publish the mounting hole locations for the SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition, so we cannot install the threaded inserts before it ships. The threaded insert kit comes in the box instead: 8 to 12 inserts sized to the woofer, the correct drill bit, 2.5 inch allen-head screws, an allen key and woofer gasket tape. You set the inserts when you mount the woofer; one kit serves one woofer. A dual cabinet ships two kits.

Do I need a subsonic filter?

Yes, at 26 Hz, 24 dB per octave. Below tuning a vented box stops loading the cone and excursion runs away toward DC. With the filter in place this cabinet puts the Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition at 34 percent of its usable travel at 3500 W.

Would a sealed box be better for me?

Not one we can show you. We do not build a sealed enclosure for the Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition and Sundown Audio mark it Not Recommended for a sealed enclosure, so the Performance Graphs tab carries no ported-versus-sealed chart: the only sealed box left to plot would be this cabinet stuffed and sealed, which nobody would build, and a comparison against it would tell you nothing you could buy. What a vented box gives up is the region below tuning, where the cone unloads and the 26 Hz subsonic filter takes over; around 32.5 Hz the vent carries the load and cone travel drops to its minimum, which no sealed alignment can do.

How does the front port work?

It is a vertical slot beside the woofer, the full height of the cavity, 4.50 inches wide and 65.2 square inches. It runs 15.25 inches to the back wall and turns once along it for 12.50 inches; the fold costs about 1.5 Hz and the port is cut for it. The channel runs at 21.8 metres per second at 3500 W, 36 percent of its turbulence limit, and the mouth edges carry a 1/2 inch roundover so the air leaves the face at 16.7 metres per second against the 17 metres per second threshold where a slot starts to chuff.

What does the price cover, and how does it ship?

73 lb, 32.00" W x 16.00" H x 23.50" D external. It ships as a UPS parcel; the price includes shipping in the 48 states. Every Professional cabinet is priced the same way, by its size: this one is 6.96 cubic feet outside. Delivery to the 48 states is inside the price; it ships as a 73 lb parcel and checkout adds nothing. Do not add polyfill; it ships dry on purpose.

Is the SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition included?

No. This is an enclosure only, cut for the Sundown Audio SDDN 12" Limited Edition Competition specifically: the 11.100 inch cutout, the 12.000 inch mounting depth allowance and the 3.45 cubic foot alignment all come from Sundown Audio's published parameters. It fits both coil versions; the alignment published here is the D1. Bring your own driver.

Same series, same size

Other Professional Series models