I haven't killed it yet. I just finished the measurements in my test enclosure and will load it into the car for a little test drive later this week. I don't drive to work any more, so sometimes the car sits for days and days. I really need to get an amp in my wife's new car.

Initial findings, it is indeed difficult to push the driver to the point of physically limited distortion. This means two things:

1. You are unlikely to damage the suspension when it's pushed hard.

2. If you do decide to try and break it by driving it with a ton of power, then you'll just melt the voice coil.

3. The motor assembly / voice coil isn't large enough to push it to the limitations of the physical suspension.

That's OK though, I'll take the excursion limited design any day, no clanging and bashing about.

I'll have some listening reviews by the weekend.

 

Well gang, here goes...

I broke the woofer in on my test bench, as I do all woofers. Fed it a 10V 21Hz sine wave for about 8 hours. This softens up the suspension.

I loaded the driver in a quite large sealed enclosure, My guess is that it was over a cube. Given that everyone here commented on the drivers ability to not bottom out, I wasn't too concerned about physical power handling.

Into the back corner of my WRXs trunk it went, connected to my Xtant X1001 amp. Lots of power...

Here comes the important part folks.

Compared to the other hundred or so drivers I have auditioned, I'd rank the W8-740C in the bottom 1/3 in terms of dynamic ability. It was quite slow to respond, and given that it's just a wee woofer, was limited in terms of output. It sounded very strained when brought up to enjoyable listening levels. Most adults would call this 'loud', but was far from being painful. This is common to a driver with a weak or limited motor structure, as it can't reproduce dynamics, given limited excursion ability.

In terms of frequency response, I was quite impressed. It played good and low, espcially for an eight-inch. That is an impressive feat for sure.

I haven't measured it's maximum output capability as yet, as my TermLab USB hasn't arrived yet. If it doesn't arrive within a week, we'll give up on that part.

The driver was inefficient, but that could be solely because of it's diminuative size. Once I get my meter, I will also measure it's in-car efficiency.

So, what's the verdict. If you plan on a simple low-power system (like just deck power on your mids and highs), then the W8-740C is a great subwoofer. If you are serious about realistic sound reproduction, then there are better options for a woofer. Off the top of my head, the LA Sound 12-inch that I reviewed for PAS a few months ago was tighter, played almost as low, and was significantly more efficient. It probably cost a bit more money, say maybe $120, but to get equivalent output from the TB, you'd likely need four of them, and that would require more air space.

Bottom line, I think the woofer is neat in terms of it's ability to get down low, but it's not accurate enough for me.

There ya go gang.. I'll have a fully published and printed version of this review on my website hopefully by the end of the week. I also have a few graphs that I'll put up.

 

I can change the enclosure to a vented one, there's lots of room on the face.. BUT, that's only going to work against it in terms of dynamic response, linear frequency response and power handling. It will help in terms of efficiency though. Enclosure design is a big trade-off.

Is it cool for $60? Not if you need a bunch of them to get the job done.. We'll see..