NSV3 SERIES

The Nightshade v.3 is the premium 3 inch coil “ultra-high excursion” subwoofer in our lineup. The 10, 12, 15, and 18” models feature our custom tooled and patented frames (US Patent Numbers D691596, D691597, D691598, and D741841). We only offer the Nightshade v.3 with our custom tooled 18” frame as it is too heavy for the traditional 6-spoke frame to reliably support.

We mate these new platforms to a QUAD stacked 250mm (9.84”) diameter motor structure featuring a hyper-extended pole and extreme clearances (allowing up to 4″ p-p travel before mechanical bottom). The Nightshade features an enormous 45mm (1.77”) thick top plate to ensure the coil is always well within the magnetic gap. This motor drives a 3″ diameter 4-Layer Flat Wire Aluminum Coil with an extremely long winding (3.15” long winding) wound on a thick aluminum former to incredible levels of excursion. We use 100% American made voice coils & build each unit in-house here in North Carolina as ordered.

The Nightshade v.3 features the longest coil of any 3” coil speaker we have made to date. We leveraged the advantage of the huge motor of the Nightshade v.3 so we could take advantage of an extremely long 4-layer coil – the 4-layer coil keeps the mass and inductance down while allowing us to use such a long coil for incredible linear x-max while the huge motor allows us to achieve the level of BL we desired.

Now for a bit of history:

The first generation Nightshade was launched in 2008 and was our first subwoofer line on the market (we only sold amplifiers from 2006 up until that time). It was our answer to the requests by our Team Sundown SPL competitors for a woofer to mate with their amplifier in the SPL lanes. The first generation Nightshade was on the market for about 2 years; during which time we learned a great deal from first-hand experience in the SPL lanes as well as feedback from our Team – all of which lead to the next generation.

The second generation Nightshade came about in 2010 and provided massive improvements in terms of thermal power handling thanks to its much larger coil and its incorporation of a version of our cooling system developed for the SA series. It also provided gains in terms of motor force compared to the first generation and was the first “big boy” motor we produced to incorporate shorting rings. To this day NS v.2 motors are highly sought after thanks to their incredible performance in both daily systems and in the SPL lanes. The v.2 was on the market for about a year and a half up until we launched the Z v.3 line in 2011. The Z v.3 was close enough in terms of performance that we wanted to push the Nightshade to the next level… at this point we began to work on the third generation of the Nightshade line.

We wanted the third generation Nightshade to represent something really special for both Sundown Audio and our customers. We started the development process by looking back to our “Monster” motor prototype from 2008 – which was our first and only motor up until the NS v.3 with a 250mm diameter magnet assembly. From there I added in all of the additional knowledge I gathered from the NS series and Z series development (all the way up to Z v.4 and X).

The Nightshade v.3 carries on the reputation that the Nightshade series established since 2008 and expands the legend to new heights.

Features & Technology:

  • Xmax = 40mm one-way by 70% BL
  • RMS Power = 2500-watts
  • Heavily vented magnetic gap
  • Optimized high-velocity pole vent
  • Innovative high-velocity vented frame spacer ring
  • Black Aluminum 3” voice coil former for superior heat dissipation
  • High Temperature 4-Layer Aluminum Flat Wire Voice Coil (Made in USA)
  • Large aluminum Faraday Ring (Magnet ID)
  • Pole Cap Faraday Ring / Air-Flow Optimization Plug
  • Spring Loaded Terminals
  • Stitched-On Double-XL Tinsel Leads to prevent fatigue and failure
  • Mega-Roll v.2 Surround Technology
  • High strength, custom tooled & patented cast aluminum frame
  • Optimized for small ported & band-pass enclosures

* — These features combine to create the optimized coil ventilation system.