DD Audio 9918-D1-ES Customer Product Review

DD Audio 9918s Hit NZ

Well I guess this adventure started off when ATM (Ashley The MaddMan), called me one day back around august last year, he asked me if I was interested in trialling out the new redline series woofers that DD were about to release, ATM went on to say it was a no obligation deal which basically meant if I didn’t like them there was no pressure to buy & I could just send them back, well with a deal like that how could I refuse so I agreed.

A few weeks went by & I got another call from ATM, “Tom would you like to up the stakes a bit?” He went on to tell me that DD were releasing the new 99 series & he could get the very first two off the factory floor from the US, he had no trouble twisting my arm I must admit, I had heard about the old 99 series that use to dominate back in the day I knew they could take a lot of power.

So around four weeks passed until they 9918s arrived, I went to Wellington to collect them personally, my first impressions were…..they are huge suckers & they looked awesome in person, a real sexy looking woofer, I had to give them the lift test……those things are solid as, heavyweights no doubt but the thing that stood out for me the most was how stiff these things were, i pushed down on the cone & it didn’t move at all so I put a bit of weight into it & it barely moved, all I could think of was how the hell can an amp move those things if I cant with the weight I was putting on the cone.

After getting them home & fitted into my wall I was stunned at how good they looked in my car, they really are a sharp looking weapon, I couldn’t wait to hear them so I drove Mi-Rage down to work so I could listen to them without disturbing my suburb, after listening to three or four tracks I wasn’t really digging them at all to be honest, the issue I had with them was they wouldn’t play low, I knew they were new & not run in but I expected more out of them to tell the truth.

Over the next week I clocked up about 40 hours of run in time at about half volume but didn’t really notice any change to the low frequency output, I put the Mi-Rage on the Term-lab to see what it was peaking at, it was around 36-35hrtz, a lot away from where I wanted it to be, I actually called ATM & told him that I don’t think these are the rite woofers for me but ATM wasn’t finished with me yet, he told me to keep going with the run in process, “its only early days mate”
I decided that I was going to increase the volume I was running the woofers in at to try & help free them up a bit so the second week of run in was done between 60-75% volume & all low frequency tracks, I was taking Mi-Rage to work & leaving it play for my whole shift, checking up on it at meal breaks, I also had my Intelli-charger plugged in so the batteries were getting topped off & were not getting drained.

That allowed me to clock up a lot of run in time very fast, I got to around 70 hours run in & I noticed the lower frequency range was stronger then it had been, progress !

The next 40 hours I put on the woofers was done around the 80% volume mark & it paid off big time, it basically took me over 120 hours to run these 9918s in to a point where I was happy with them, after testing them on the Term-lab again the peak has come down to 30htz, that’s what I’m talking about !!!!!!

After having the 99s for about five to six weeks I knew I didn’t want to give them back, they sound amazing & hit lows with authority, I really didn’t expect the run in to play such a big part, I would go as far as saying that a brand new 9918 & a fully run in 9918 would be like comparing a v8 Commodore / Falcon you buy new off the show room floor to a v8 supercar that races at Bathurst, there really is that much of a difference.
Well in the year or so I have had the 9918s I have competed & done a few demo videos, to say they have done me well is an understatement,  as the MiRage sits now it can hit a 150db from 21htz all the way through to 55htz, peaking at 156db 28-32htz (music score), the 99s are musical monsters epic woofers.

To make this adventure even more awesome if you go on to the DD Audio website & look at the photos of the 9918s those are actually my woofers, they used my woofers for the website catalogue photos……enough said !!!
Don’t be surprised if these are not the last 9918s I buy………shots fired!