[68962]

Product: Image Dynamics IDMAX 15" Driver
Model #: "IDMAX15v4D2"
Author: OneSpiritBrain (Michael)
Credentials: Eyes and ears for quality, love for the audible world, love for car audio, passionate love for music production, 6 years working with industrial electricity, and loads of effort put in to being as knowledgeable about car audio as possible.

Introduction:
The IDMAX is well known for it's ability to accurately reproduce sub frequency bass at high output levels. It, along with every Image Dynamic product, is also known to be a quality piece of equipment that one can rely on performing. The IDMAX15 has been in the works for a very long time and it is finally here. On a personal level the IDMAX means a lot to me. It was the first SQ sub I bought after becoming interested in SQ over SPL. I looked for the "best SQ sub ever" and the searched yielded fine results; the IDMAX. It continued to embolden my switch from SPL oriented setups to SQ oriented setups therefor it holds a special place in my heart.

First Impressions:
Holy hell the damn thing weighs a ton...! and the box is huge! Haha no but really the thing weighs 44lbs without the packaging which I'd say weighs at least 10lbs (well exactly 12.5lbs). I am going to commentate the photos which cover most everything so read on.

Posted Technical Specs:

IMP:.. Dual 2 Ohm Nominal Impedance
Re:... 1.4 Ohms DC Resistance
Fs:... 29.9 Hz Resonant Frequency
Qes:.. .65 Electrical “Q”
Qms:.. 1.87 Mechanical “Q”
Qts:.. .48 Total “Q”
Vas:.. 3.67 cuft(104.03 liters) Equivalent Volume
Xmax:. 44 mm Peak Excursion
Sd:... 934.79 cm2 Piston Area
SPL:.. 88.20 dB Sensitivity w/m
BL:... 17.36 Tm Force Factor
Pwr:.. 1200 RMS Power


Speaker Dimensions/Volume:

Speaker displacement:.. 0.26 cuft (7.36 liters)
Mounting Depth:........ 264 mm (10.40 in)
Cut Out Diameter:...... 376 mm (14.80 in)
Screw Hole Diameter:... 394 mm (15.52 in)
Outside Diameter:...... 412 mm (16.22 in)


I'm not going to include the box response curves as one should always use WINSID to calculate curves on a box you build yourself anyway.

Availability:
Got mine on CACO! The Soundworks (AWESOME SELLER)

Price:
MSRP$679

Okay on to the good stuff!

The new box looks sharp! Black satin finish with some brief info on the IDMAX and Image Dynamics

Something I noticed upon opening the boxes was that the spec sheet and foam seals were placed neatly in the box. This testifies to the attitude I believe exists at Image Dynamics where every aspect of what they are doing is important and done nicely and carefully.

There was actually a third box bigger than these two.

Everything used for protection during shipment. Beefy!

Good pic of the unique single layer spyder. Neat material!

I really love the exclusion of chrome and the black basket! I love the sexiness of this woofer.

You see how the wings of the emblem on the cone are aligned with the VC leads. That just screams "I CARE ABOUT THIS THING!!!" to me

Clean glue lines and what seems to be even amounts of glue.

Here is the beautiful 4-layer flat copper wire wound aluminum(I THINK) voice coil. Coil resistance measured 1.4-1.9ohm

Okay so these are the problems I found. Keep in mind these are NOT cookie cutter pieces of equipment and are handcrafted here IN THE USA by people and not machines.

These small little chips are all that I could find, hah!

Okay so the terminal on the left sticks due to the terminal itself rubbing the basket. I would like to fix this. DonH did you do this???? hahahahahaha how neat to ask the man who crafted this thing!

Summary:
I am going to go insane waiting to purchase the rest of what I need to get this guy oscillating! No really though, what a piece of artwork! Truly a sexy woofer. The physical quality is apparent and really nice. I am so glad I made this purchase! Now I just have to deal with waiting until tax season to complete this system...!

Please let me know if I made any mistakes and also if I left something out you would like to know about.

Michael

 

[rexroadj]

Thanks for taking the time to show pics and write up what you have already written.
It does look great! I am very anxious to hear about the new 15 Max!

 

[RNBRAD]

Thanks for the write up. My only complaint is the push pins designed for banana plugs now don't go all the way through. Because of that I was unable to use my banana plugs. It just pinched the tips and they popped off before I could drop the woofer in the box.

 

[BuickGN]

Looks nice. I still wish ID would rate their xmax using the 70% BL or whatever it is that most use. Maybe it's the overhang method, I don't know. But some standard so we can compare to other subs. The published xmax isn't much better than my 15s and mine aren't exactly known as a high xmax sub. This thing probably has 25-29mm one way xmax. Cone area is excellent. If I ever try something other than what I have and it doesn't have the JL logo it had better excel in one area and having significantly more xmax and cone area might make me a potential future customer.

How long until this thing is up and running? I'm waiting for a good detailed and honest review in a sealed or IB setup to get an idea of how musical they are. It looks like they would do well in pairs in a trunk and retain a somewhat low Q. I would love to have a pair of 15s that would give a .5 Q in the trunk and these might do it.

 

[miniSQ]

Looks nice. I still wish ID would rate their xmax using the 70% BL or whatever it is that most use. Maybe it's the overhang method, I don't know. But some standard so we can compare to other subs. The published xmax isn't much better than my 15s and mine aren't exactly known as a high xmax sub. This thing probably has 25-29mm one way xmax. Cone area is excellent. If I ever try something other than what I have and it doesn't have the JL logo it had better excel in one area and having significantly more xmax and cone area might make me a potential future customer.

How long until this thing is up and running? I'm waiting for a good detailed and honest review in a sealed or IB setup to get an idea of how musical they are. It looks like they would do well in pairs in a trunk and retain a somewhat low Q. I would love to have a pair of 15s that would give a .5 Q in the trunk and these might do it.

i wish i could make this full size

 

[edouble101]

Looks like a very nice driver. I am anxious to read reviews. I am sure there will be many

What alignments do you plan on testing this driver OneSpiritBrain? A comparison between sealed and ported would be great!

 

[BuickGN]

i wish i could make this full size

If you had half a brain you could see I'm saying they're underrating their drivers and you would be able to make the image full size. It would be nice to not do that for comparison purposes.

 

[miniSQ]

If you had half a brain you could see I'm saying they're underrating their drivers and you would be able to make the image full size. It would be nice to not do that for comparison purposes.

yeah but you are saying it in every ID thread...THEY ARE AWARE OF YOUR DESIRES.

 

[G POUNDER]

WOW!!! ABSOLOUTELY BEAUTIFUL!! Ordered 2 of them last week and scheduled to arrive on Thursday. Can't wait to hear your testimony as I've got a few questions that need answers and seeing as u may be up and running before me, it would be a great chance to see how they perform. Keep the info coming!

 

[BuickGN]

yeah but you are saying it in every ID thread...THEY ARE AWARE OF YOUR DESIRES.

I said it in one thread and the vast majority of my posts were trying to figure out why there was the discrepancy from old to new. Once we finally got that resolved I mentioned they were basically screwing themselves with the ultra conservative rating. That was one thread. Now I'll probably mention it in every ID thread. I may even start a thread about it.

 

[DonH]

great write up. im very sorry that one of the terminals is hitting like that and sticking. What serial number is this driver? please pm me all details. This should have been caught.

great write up!

also please check my most recent post in the V4 thread about XMAX ratings. i went ahead and posted @85% of bl and @70% of bl XMAX ratings.

 

[BuickGN]

28.6mm one way linear and 935cm^2 of cone area. Thank you! That's some serious displacement for any 15", much less a SQ oriented one.

 

[DonH]

28.6mm one way linear and 935cm^2 of cone area. Thank you! That's some serious displacement for any 15", much less a SQ oriented one.

and its only the begining my friend! ID is on a resurgance!

 

[68962]

Looks like a very nice driver. I am anxious to read reviews. I am sure there will be many

What alignments do you plan on testing this driver OneSpiritBrain? A comparison between sealed and ported would be great!

Actually I do plan on making a removable baffle for the 4ft^3 @27hz box that I am going to build. I will see what I can do for a db meter so I can illustrate the curves. The IDMAX is going in my trunk so it will be a nice real world test for those who go the same route.

WOW!!! ABSOLOUTELY BEAUTIFUL!! Ordered 2 of them last week and scheduled to arrive on Thursday. Can't wait to hear your testimony as I've got a few questions that need answers and seeing as u may be up and running before me, it would be a great chance to see how they perform. Keep the info coming!

Like I said, it's going to be a while before I am able to purchase the rest of my system. I am sure you will be up and running before me unless your in the same boat.

As soon as I am up and running I will be sure to post my thoughts. Of course I will dedicate a thread to the build as well.

 

[G POUNDER]

Actually I do plan on making a removable baffle for the 4ft^3 @27hz box that I am going to build. I will see what I can do for a db meter so I can illustrate the curves. The IDMAX is going in my trunk so it will be a nice real world test for those who go the same route.



Like I said, it's going to be a while before I am able to purchase the rest of my system. I am sure you will be up and running before me unless your in the same boat.

As soon as I am up and running I will be sure to post my thoughts. Of course I will dedicate a thread to the build as well.

Well I'm fortunate enough to have most all that I need except amp and box. Will push them off my sundown for now but prob won't do any in depth review without sufficient power to them as i'm sure proper power will truly show their worth. That being said, I should be up and at 'em in about a week with proper amp the following week so I will definitely post my thoughts as soon as this occurs.

 

[DonH]

We even hand heave the tinsel, hand glue the tinsels etc. everything about our q and max drivers screams attention to detail and i trully do take pride in every single driver i make

 

[68962]

We even hand heave the tinsel, hand glue the tinsels etc. everything about our q and max drivers screams attention to detail and i trully do take pride in every single driver i make

I believe that 100%

 

[DonH]

find a way to get some free air testing done btw measure the cone, its really a 16" haha

 

[04silverz]

Let me start by saying I'm a huge id fan. Owned several variations of v2 and v3 max's and cx mids, and max v3 is my favorite sub ever

That said, receiving a sub with chips in magnet and a terminal which binds on basket is defective and needs replaced. No reason a brand new sub, both version and purchased, should have defects. I don't care if they're purely cosmetic or have an affect on the sound.

I'd be looking at returning that thing or asking for a replacement.

Maybe it's just me, but I've owned dozens of subs and can't think of any that had those issues.

Regardless, I'll be snagging a v4 sometime in the next year or so. Gonna try out Dayton ho 12s for a while

 

[Coppertone]

Just out of idle curiosity, where would one look to buy one of these please ?