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Equipment: Alpine DVA-9861, IXOS Optical, RCA’s, and wires, Alpine PXA-H701, and an ARC AUDIO 2500 XXK.

First impression: When you first look at the subwoofer the first word that comes to mind is SPL. It is built the way a SPL sub should be. An interesting feature is the tall surround. It almost looks weird. The magnet is beefy. The cone is nice and stiff. The basket is adequate. One thing that I am not sure is if I like the 8 gauge pre-wired terminals. DD claims a decrease in power loss at the VC because of this. A nice install feature is the pull back cover that goes over the mounting screw holes. All in all, it’s a nice looking sub.

Tuning and Installation: I wired the single 4-ohm version the only way you can. I am running the power from bridged channels on my 2500 for 1050 watts output to the sub woofer. The speaker is enclosed in a 0.5 cubic foot, sealed MDF enclosure. The test box is sitting in my front passenger floor board. The box was damped on the mounting surface with B-Quiet Ultimate. The crossover on the H701 was set at 50 Hz. My mid-bass is very capable all the way down to 50 Hz, so why not let them do their job. The subwoofer level control was then blended to my usual reference level.

Listening: For listening material I went to my SQ disc wallet. Read above for what I have. In the days leading up the to Evaluation there were 35 hours of break in time. Prior to listening I put a 40 Hz tone on the sub for 20 minutes to warm it up. I spent over 2 hours of listening to form my opinion. For this test I will give examples of tracks from a few genres.

For Classical I took a trip through my John Williams Greatest Hits CD. There are quite a few heavy drum and low string bass movements in there. First off, the word that comes to mind is defined. The mallet strikes on the kettles and large bass drums have a more defined hit than a boom. For low string bass there was also a defined striking of the bow across the strings. High marks!!

For Hip Hop I have a few. When I played "Headsprung" by LL Cool J it hit every note as loud as I wanted it to. For "Born to Reign" by Will Smith it performed nicely on this track. SPL is DD’s bread and butter and you could definitely tell why with these tracks.

For Jazz / R&B I like great bass guitar and nice snappy drum hits. Ramsey Lewis's "People Make the World Go 'Round" has very nice extended low electric bass. The 1008a exhibited very nice control and clarity without any coloration. Sade's "Lover's Rock" sounded very nice as well.

For Rock I look for nice bass guitar and drum as well. Heart's "Straight On" is a beautiful drum track example. With each hit of the drum I could feel the note in my chest, very nice impact. Breaking Benjamin's "Breakdown" has a nice low growl from the electric bass as well as some nice drum hits. The fullness that this track asks for was not executed well. There are few low rumbles that the 1008a just could not extend down to with authority. There was a definite lack of presence.

For examples of music below 30 Hz I listened to Limp Bizkit's "Behind Blue Eyes", "The Vikings" from Pomp and Pipes!, Alicia Keys' "Piano & I", and the famous "Jurassic Lunch" from The Great Fantasy Adventure Album. For these selections the 1008a was only able to give authority on the Alicia Keys track. For everything else there was a noticeable break-up or zero music at all when the sub was attempting the very lowest notes.

After listening I have come to the following conclusion; the DD 1008a is Sound Quality / Sealed Enclosure capable Subwoofer. It has the ability to give you authority, clarity, and presence at most sub bass frequencies.

So did I find the sub for my front stage? I don’t know on this one either. I want the sub that does it all. This sub was excellent, not perfect. The DD 1008a is a very impressive sub with Near Perfect SQ that does not give any LFE in a sealed enclosure.

NOTE: This was not burned in to DD's specs. To comply with DD's wishes it would need ten times more hours of playing time. I chose to go ahead with the EVAL so that I can keep my deadline for final install.