Just hooked up my Tempest and I'm a little disappointed

Codey

It's not really that loud or deep. Will it sound significantly better after break in ? Or am I just not feeding it enough with my adcom 545 II ?

P.S. It's an adire alignment

VR3

The Adcom is doing fine until those LEDs light up...

Once those LEDs light up, ur taxing it

hoosier21

pretty complicated question and very little info..

Are you sure of the wiring? both channels wired? both VCs wired in phase? How are you feeding the Adcom? y splitters, what crossover? Are you sure you have the correct mass on both PRs? How air tight is your box/drivers? Is this subwoofer sitting where you last subwoofer sounded best? have you tried moving it?

That subwoofer is a beast! I built it myself a couple years ago, you might be using up that Adcom, but the driver is very sens. so maybe it's not the problem. I know I made the mistake of getting a 250.00 plate amp from Partsexpress, I felt like the amp did not have the juice to push all that mass (PR's) and the Tempest.

Russ

VR3

Sounds like u may have a possibly air leak?

hoosier21

Originally posted by Vr3MxStyler2k3
Sounds like u may have a possibly air leak?

Here is my chance to learn something, Sid, what is it in his post that leads you to that?

Codey

The wiring is right, I'm using a y jack with the crossover set to 160hz. I followed the plans to the letter and I'm POSITIVE there's no air leak.

It's sitting where my old one was, and moving it around isn't an option for obvious reasons.

I've been running it a while now and it seems to be sounding better, but far from my expectations.

hoosier21

Get some real deep stuff, music or test tones and play the crap out of it, see if there is any improvement each day it should loosen up.

What about those PR's, weighted correctly?

Codey

What's a PR ?

hoosier21

Passive Radiators, didn't you say you were using the Adire Alignment? you should have two passive radiators, right?

Codey

No it's vented. It's the last one in vented section of adire's website.

VR3

Well,

I have very little knowledge of this...

But a woofers volume comes from trapping the back wave inside the enclosure (right?) - this is why a woofer has NO volume outside of an enclosure except a few higher frequencies...

Well if the back wave (air) isnt being kept inside the enclosure, etc -- and is leaking out, this can cause it to lose volume, no?

(Willing to be corrected if wrong, which I probally am)

hoosier21

Well **** that's a different animal.
Adire calls more than one design the "Adire Alignment" my bad I thought you made the one like I did using a pair of PR's.

Break that bad boy in and let us know how it's going in a day or two.

Russ

rskarvan

Hey sid kid,
Guitar speakers are routinely placed in open back cabinets.
They produce plenty of deep bass.

Your theory is flawed.

Nice try though.

VR3

That is like a baffle design though, isnt it?

Where the back wave/front wave travels along the baffle, the baffle thus replaces the enclosure

Polk Audio uses this in their Car Audio department to replace enclosures...

Oh wait, I have seen what you are talking about....

No idea, all I know is, subwoofers are made to be air tight, when design inside an enclosure where it is *sealed* or vented, the vent is made to release air, not other portions

And, please dont post "Your Wrong" then go away, EXPLAIN...:rolleyes: - I'm here to LEARN :cool:

VR3

I have a good example...

My Black Labs I am making...

These use a labyrinth design - the design is pretty basic, the polyfill absorbs the midrange back wave so it isnt audible in the port/opening...

However, the bass backwave makes it past the polyfill and exits out the large port, thus amplifying the bass...

The bass has to successfully pass through this long port, and has to become compressed as each fold gets smaller or it wont sound right...

The open back guitar is a different design, it is designed to be open back...something that is NOT design to be open back aint gonna work like that...

If you make a subwoofer that is ported and then leave a panel off, its gonna sound funky and not to mention the port would be pretty useless...

How about a sealed bookshelf, would you just take a panel off of that?

I just want an explanation other than your wrong man...

VR3

Codey,
Did you put a caulk ring around the port and woofer?

gatemplin

Good advice from Hoosier. That sub goes very loud and very low. Like 115 dB easy with 250W. It does not sound significantly different when you break it in IMO. Maybe you are only powering one coil (maybe a wire came loose) or maybe the Adcom isn't putting out the power. Are you sure the port lengths are correct? Can you measure the DC resistance of each coil? Just throwing out suggestions.

Because the Tempest is tuned in the teens and most subs are tuned in the 30-35 Hz range it will sound very different. Maybe you just have to get used to the sound.

Codey

Thanks for all the help everyone.

I've caulked everything, and I'm sure both coils are wired correctly. I'm in the middle of watching The Day After Tomorrow, and I think I'm starting to warm up it. It sounds alot different watching movies than it does listening to music.

I'll break it in real good and if I'm still not happy maybe I'll look for a bigger amp.Thanks again.

gatemplin

Put your hand under the sub, when it's cooking you will feel the driver move a lot. It should move like 1/2" each way when it is cranked.

PolkThug

I think you are underpowering the 15" Tempest. Try an amp with 300-400 watts continuous and I think you'll get to where you want to be.

Regards,
PolkThug

goingganzo

yes more power a nice pro amp and also get a bass sweep cd to run a sweep i also have to crank up my sub for music to sound right

Codey

How about one of those crown xls-402s ? They seem like an awful lot of amp for the money.

PolkThug

that would be overkill I think, lot of watts in bridged mode.

Codey

That's about my price range. I don't know of anything else that fits these requirements.

If I got a bridgeable amp like a NAD 2200 or something, could I run the voice coils in parallel ?

Tour2ma

Originally posted by Vr3MxStyler2k3
Sounds like u may have a possibly air leak?

Originally posted by Codey
... it's vented.

So does this mean that Sid was correct? It's "possibly", isn't it?

We can give him partial credit and still flunk him for poor grammar...

Codey

Then to be precise I have two 3 inch diameter air leaks.

I had a 202 before this one. I wasn't really expecting an emphasized boom, it's just that the way people take about this thing I expected to be knocking stuff off the walls. And when it feels like it's going to really start shaking down low, those stupid distortion lights on the amp come on like highbeams.

Maybe I'll try to get this thing. Any thoughts?http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=71543&item=5728327904&rd=1

VR3

Yeah, the Adcom has quite a bit of power...

But not enough to power the low end on a subwoofer..

Hopefully you find a suitable amp...

Parts Express has a 260 dollar plate amp on blow out, 106 dollars - maybe that will do something for you?

Dr. Spec

Depending on the tuning point of the enclosure, the woofer will not "see" those vents as air leaks. In this respect it will act similarly to a sealed subwoofer until near the tuning frequency.

At/near the tuning frequency, the vents (Helmholtz resonators) will damp woofer motion and shoulder most of the output load.

Below the tuning frequency, the woofer will then "see" the vents as actual air leaks and woofer motion will be poorly damped. Bottoming the woofer is easier below the tune point for this reason. Thus the use of the high pass filter to ramp down the response below the tune point; it protects the woofs.........

Tour2ma

Dammit, Doc, why do you have to go confusing us with facts???

BTW... you're needed over here...

VR3

You guys get on my nerves sometimes...

And the fact what I was talking about above is COMMON AUDIO KNOWLEDGE is even MORE ANNOYING.

1) If you/or a company make a speaker, DESIGNED!!!!!!!!!!! To be SEALED OR PORTED then it is TUNED to a frequency, either by port size/depth or cabinet volume!

If even the SMALLEST air leak is evident in that given cabinet DESIGNED for a SEALED (COMPRESSION CHAMBER ANYONE?) or for a PORT, it will throw EVERYTHING off inside that cabinet, volume, extention, EVERYTHING.

Who in the hell cares about open back guitar amps? I am not even talking about that DESIGN, which open back guitar amps with open backs were designed for open back.

With YOUR theory, it is apparent that you believe that if I were to remove the top or side of one of my speakers that they would sound the same, regardless...

Now, I am about 99.99% sure I am right about the above information, and throwing BS comments about open back guitar amps and a vent being an air leak is lame...

:mad: :mad: :mad:

*Looks around for someone willing to explain to why Im wrong or how hes right, instead of this...is someone afraid to have an intelligent conversation around here or something?*

Dr. Spec

Without question, a leak in a vented enclosure will degrade performance.

For example, pull the baseplate on an SVS PB12-ISD and it will piss air out all the t-nut holes. The enclosure won't be able to generate as much internal pressure and the sub won't perform properly.

So - air leaks are not the same as a tuned vent. And air leaks are bad in any vented or sealed subwoofer.

BTW, Sid - sealed subwoofers are not "tuned" to any frequency. Although the -3 dB point can be modeled with a combination of enclosure volume and T/S parameters, etc.

Tour, looks like that thread is in good hands (Ron Stimpson).