Any DIY Tempest owners? (1 Viewer)

[DavidAM]

I just purchased an Adire Tempest sub and a plate amp from Parts Express (the 250watt amp with 6db boost) and am curious if anyone has any experience with the Tempest sub in their home. What is the best size box to build? I was going to build the 21.5" square box from the plans on their site, but was just curious if anyone else had better experience with a different size box as that is pretty large. I will live with it if its the best size, but if I can go smaller without a loss in performance, I'd like to know!

 

[Nathan J]

I have the Tempest with a 250 watt amp also. My enclosure is about 7.8 cubic ft after bracing and driver displacement.

So far, It blows away anything that I have ever had in my home(which isnt much) but, there arent many subs that I have heard that sound better...especially for the money.


I would recommend building a fairly large enclosure for it, and tuning it to somewhere around 20 hz.

If you dont have it yet, download WinISD. Also, you should post this question in the DIY section of this forum...there are alot of people there that will give you some good advice.

Good luck.

One other thing....you might want to consider using a sonotube.....you could always stick it in the corner...it may blend in better in your listening room than a large box sub.

 

[Fong]

heh you should really have this thread moved to the diy section (this thread doesnt really belong here i dont think). you'll get more help there.

anyways, i have one in a 12 cu.ft sonotube. yes, it is a beast, but i love it! she goes subsonic with authority, and it was fairly easy to build. the hard part is to get your initial design. since you're using a tempest, i recommend getting lspCAD from the adire site. they have specs on several drivers, including the tempest. for my configuration (ebs alignment) i found that tuning to 16.5hz gave the best results. hope this helps

 

[JakeMcM]

I have the midq design its about 22inches wide 25.5 inches tall with feet, I the Rythmik 380 watt plate amplifier and the filter set to 14hz and holy cow its quite the performer, I don't know much about the design because I got it made for me but I know that the design I chose was a good compromise between the tight punchy musical base and the low rumbling high output sound effect base, there is a model above and below that I think the High q geared more for HT, and the other one geared more for music. I chose inbetween because movies have music as well and I do listen to cds but I am not sure how much real difference there would be between these three designs. If you want to stay around this size make sure you go with one of the sealed alignments, the ported ones have to be much larger I think like 40inches tall. The guy who made mine, had one of these for himself and it extended like below 10hz I think, pretty crazy if you ask me considering about what he had to pay for it.

I would stay with the larger enclosure if you have the space. Enjoy, sorry for rambling its late.

 

[Dustin B]

Smaller with no loss of performance is strictly prohibited by Hoffman's Iron law.

The Tempest can be great sealed or ported, but either way it needs to be large to very large.

I have a 260L sonotube based Tempest tuned to just over 16hz with a 250W plate amp. I'm very happy with it.

 

[DavidAM]

Thanks for all the input guys. I didn't realize there was a DIY forum, I guess I should have posted in there. I am having my uncle build the box for me so it will be professionally done, I just have to give him the measurements. I was planning on going with the MID Q design on the adire site, but just wanted to make sure people with firsthand experience didn't have any other suggestions...which it seems you guys do! My system is used for HT and music so I am looking for the best comprimise between the two. Keep the opinions coming guys....I'm all ears.

 

[Ronnie Ferrell]

My system is used for HT and music so I am looking for the best compromise between the two.

If this is true, then you have already chosen the best enclosure to build, the 122L sealed Mid-Q Tempest from Adire's site.

That is what I went with and could not be happier. Here are a few build photos if your interested...

http://www.meettheferrells.com/tempest_project/


Ronnie

 

[JakeMcM]

midq is a good compromise between ht and music

 

[DavidAM]

Great...thanks guys. Like I said, my uncle is building it for me and he is out of town, so I should have it in a week or two. I'm sure I will go with the MID Q design, but just wanted to make sure it was the right desision before I have the box built. What is this sonotube stuff I've started reading about? Are they better or should I stick with the MID Q? I'm just discovering the DIY forum so there's tons of info there and I'm still going through all the posts. And for the moderators, feel free to move this post to the DIY forum as I'm sure its more appropriate there.

 

[Michael R Price]

If you plan on using the sub for movies, you should probably consider a vented design more... they extend deeper at a cost in sound quality and size. (It's arguable just how big that cost in sound quality is.) This is not to say a mid-Q sealed box wouldn't blow you away... just that having extension to 15-20Hz rather than 25-30Hz would probably sound a little more "awe inspiring." Haven't listened to a sealed one, but the Adire Alignment (215L/15Hz) sounds really good for music despite its vented design.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I'd agree with Michael and how the vented enclosures add some free spl for just making the box slightly bigger and spending $30 on ports.

I've had sealed and vented, and I generally like the sound and feel of the vented. I have a 3.5CF tempest tuned to 24hz and an 8CF tempest tuned to 15.4hz. To be honest, I like the sound of the smaller and higher tuned tempest slightly better for what I use it for. It gives some nice punch and pressence to HT and rock/hip hop type bass.

If you like to listen to classical music and prefer smooth audiophile bass then I would get the bigger enclosure.

I find that sealed and tight sounding bass is fine, but it doesn't impress as much or have the mid bass presense like the smaller/higher tuned enclosures. The big enclosures tuned very low may be able to play a lot deeper compared to the smaller/higher tuned enclosures, but it lacks a hump in audible and chest pounding bass. (By hump, I mean louder in the frequencies that are more common like in HT and music)

It's all about preference, and I'm just someone that is willing to sacrifice some of the ultra deep frequencies for some mid bass kick. However, Since it's your first tempest, I have a feeling that you'll be happy with the 122L sealed.

 

[TimForman]

I have the MidQ design. It's great for music but I found I wanted more for movies. It looks so good I didn't want to change the enclosure so I just added another sub. Now it's perfect!My HT page

 

[Allen Ross]

link

 

[Owen Bartley]

I have a 210L 19Hz tuned Tempest and its awesome for movies. It does well with music as well, but I mainly use it for HT so I can't really give you much help on the music side. I would pretty much go along with the other opinions and aim for the compromise mid-q design. I hope it turns out well and you're as happy with yours as I am with mine!

 

[Aaron_Smith]

I have the 122L sealed tempest per Adire's instructions and it sounds fabulous. Excellent bass for music and all the impact I need for movies. No real extension below about 30Hz in my room; if I had the space and wanted something better suited for HT, I'd build a ported version. Haven't heard one but I would think that the bass from a ported tempest would be earth-shaking, considering how glorious the sealed design is.

 

[JakeMcM]

I don't know if I'm assuming too much but since you know the person doing this for you I would go with the Midq and try it out for a while, if it isn't enough you could always just have a different enclosure built and you already have the amp and the driver.

The Midq is my first DIY tempest, I imagine that how happy you'll be depends on what you will be listening too, your pereferences, and your previous experience w/other subs. To give you an idea I went from a Sony 8" sub from a HTIB ($350 for the whole setup, receiver and all) to the Midq Tempest. The improvement for obvious reasons is astounding, now when I watch movies all I listen for is the bass, and I tend to shy away from movies that have wimpy bass. I hope this is only for the time being because I find I don't pay attention to much else (I only got it a week ago)

One more thing to consider with the lower extension of the vented enclosures. I don't know if this even works or how common it is but I think that I may try to use some bass shakers in the seating because to my understanding you don't hear the subsonic bass you feel it. The way I figure it going this route will give you the added punch in the mid to low bass and also the feel of the sub sonic bass. Juat a thought and maybe some other people have actually tried this and compared this combo with just a sub that extends very low below (15hz)

 

[Ryan T]

I have the 230 L sealed Tempest and It's awesome for music! It also holds it's own for HT but my friends 15" ported DVC can outplay mine at around 20 Hz. If box size is a big concern you might want to look into the Dayton 15" DVC. It's got nearly the same performance as a Tempest but works better in a smaller box.



Ryan

 

[JakeMcM]

hey when your tempest gets pretty close to 20 hz do you have a harder time "hearing" it. There is no substantial dip as far as response goes with my meter, but it does start to get harder to hear about 25 or so. Want to know if this is generally normal or not.

 

[David Lorenzo]

That's normal Jake. Most humans can't hear frequencies below 20 hz. At that point the sub is just pressurizing massive amounts of air that you feel. The feeling of high amplitutude 16-20 hz bass in movies played at reference level is something that has to be felt to understand. It's something that bass shakers just couldn't accomplish, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

 

[Kevin_Johnson]

I just finished building both the mid Q sealed and ported designs out of sonotube. I just didn't know which I'd be happier with, and I figured building two enclosures wouldn't be too much harder than building one. This is a music only system, so I splurged on the Hypex HS-200 sub amp. Now I've never had a sub in this system before as my main speakers are flat to about 50Hz, but each of these subs add quite a bit. I started by trying the Tempest in the sealed enclosure. I was blown away by how much I had been missing. Everything integrated quite nicely; I was not "hearing" the sub as a separate source of sound. I listened to some bassy techno and was very pleased. I then threw the driver into the ported enclosure. It's immediately apparent that the ported goes much deeper. The gain on the amp went down, making it seem more "effortless". I have to admit that I don't notice the ported losing anything to the sealed in the way of sound quality, it's just a bit different. I was listening to techno, Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead to test, but then a jazz loving friend of mine came over and decided he preferred the ported as well. Neither design has the midbass punch that some of the others may, but they are both very flat in room, and that's really what I had wanted. While both are nice, it's going to be the vented for me. I'll hopefully be posting pictures before long. Everything's just primed now.