My first DIY finished -- Adire Alignment Tempest (1 Viewer)

[John Parris]

Well guys, you're the ones that inspired me (primarily) to do this, so I thought I should let you know, that my first big DIY project is complete. Tempest/PE 300-794 set to the Adire Alignment...
Many thanks to everyone who ever helped me and all the DIYers out there... I'm really pleased with it so far.
I'll answer any questions you may have. Feel free.

 

[Brett Loomis]

Assuming build quality is accurate and air-tight, how does it sound? Does it hit hard, low and what sub do you have to compare it to?

I am very happy for you, as I just purchased the Tempest and the PE 300-794 AMP and my box is being built by a custom carpenter friend of mine right now. I am doing the 214L Adire alignment and should be ready/done by Thanksgiving weekend. I can't wait.

Let me/us know how impressed you are and how far you've pushed it with good LFE like U-571 or equivalent.

Brett

 

[Dustin B]

Pics?

 

[John Parris]

Brett-- Ive tissue tested it all the way around several times... I don't think there are any leaks. Hits very very low (Took the deepest bass from Event Horizon without a blink) and i've got the amp turned down half way to keep it balanced in here... I have suspended ceiling tiles and lots of other things causing rattles that I need to fix, but overall, I'm VERY pleased with the sound. I dont currently have a sub to do a side-by-side comparison... but from memory (keep in mind this is subjective) I like it better than everything I've heard for a similar price (~$400). This includes a number of subs, including the JBL PB-12, a couple of Klipsch subs I've played around with, and a friend's Paradigm sealed sub. For movies, it hits lower and gets louder than anything i've heard ANYWHERE near this price range... for music, bass is a lot tighter than I expected, though still a bit loose compared to a sealed box... not enough to make a difference for me, really. All the music Ive tried sounds gorgeous... jazz, blues, some jam, techno, drum n' bass, some modern rock... I just finished it this evening, so I'm going to do some more tweaking and testing tomorrow.
Dustin-- it's still naked wood... not very attractive. I did keep track of it's progress with my digi. camera, but I have no place to host pics :frowning:

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

You don't really need pics, especially if you went conventional design per plan and it's still bare mdf.

That's nice that you like it, I was amazed as well with my tempest when I first got it. I went from never owning a sub, to dual tempests which was a nice jump.

 

[Chris Carswell]

Why would you tell him you don't need pics? Who are you to say what he can & can't post? He just finished his 1st sub & want's to show everyone that helped him out that he did it.

 

[Brian Bunge]

Chris T,

This is the second time I've seen you say something like this to someone. First you told someone that his speakers looked plain. Now you're telling someone not to bother to post pics is he didn't do something out of the ordinary.

As I posted before, not everyone has access to a professional wood shop and someone that can cut truncated pyramids for them. Anyone that has taken the leap to build a sub or speakers (or any other DIY project for that matter) for the first time has every right to share their pictures. That's what this forum is all about.

If you can't be supportive and encouraging about someone's projects then I suggest you not post anything at all. There's no excuse for being mean-spirited.

 

[Dan Hine]

I did keep track of it's progress with my digi. camera, but I have no place to host pics

All pics are great but I especially like to see pics of the construction along the way. Seeing someone else's approach can often times give us better ideas or allow us to tweak out own construction methods.
John, I'm sure someone will come along with some webspace to host your pics on for awhile.

 

[Chris Carswell]

I would be more that happy to host a few pics for you John. Send me an email so we can talk.

 

[Dan Hine]

See there, John? Chris Carswell, what a standup guy. Although he still owes me a reply to an email...

 

[Chris Carswell]

Jeeeess Dan, Give me some time to catch up with my mail I has doing a little R&D with our "situation:

 

[Brett Loomis]

John, great feedback on the Tempest AA!!! I am dying to get mine finished and put it up against my Klipsch KSW-15, (not that it will be much of a contest at all from what I've heard!) and see what this sucker will do.
Regarding posting photos, here's what I did and I didn't have a clue about this earlier this year. It is so easy it is embarassing.
I used www.ofoto.com to host all my basement theater pics during the build process through to the finished project. The nice thing about this site is you can add text to each photo very easy to describe the pic or detail info. Just go the site and sign up, create a password and start uploading pics to the site.
See my link below for my entire basement HT build process hosted by www.ofoto.com.
Good luck John and we look forward to seeing your sub, even if it is bare MDF!!! The most important thing is that YOU built it and it performs great!
Brett

 

[Cam S]

Guy's, PBase.com is a great way to post pics for free, and it's super easy to setup. Glad to hear all went well with your sub John, and I look forward to seeing the pics.

 

[John Parris]

Thanks for all the support guys!
I'll have pics up soon-- this weekend hopefully. I'll try the sites you guys mentioned. They're a little embarrasing, honestly. I made a lot of mistakes (first-time, right?) along the way, but it still sounds great, even if it looks really unprofessional. I definately didnt have access to the right tools where cutting was conscerned... but I managed with what I had.
Funny (well sort of) sub-related story:
Today I go out to radioshack and pick up a SPL meter (time to do a REAL calibration, finally). No problems there, except one of thier sales people not knowing what a sound level meter WAS much less if they had one in stock . So then I go on a frantic search all over town for Avia or Video Essentials... can't find it anywhere. I get home and call Best Buy, and a trainee tells me they have one copy of Avia in stock. Great. I hop in my RSX and speed over there. No Avia. Doh. Ah well, ended up ordering it from Amazon for a lot cheaper... so it goes. Should be here next week... never having a real home theater sub in here makes tuning by ear pretty difficult, so I'm looking forward to Avia.