Juvenile mistake....literally

[Rdmarsiii]

Twelve or thirteen years ago when I was in eighth grade, I built my first DIY subwoofer(won science fair with it). Not sure if any one is still familiar with them, as they're not around any more, Adire Audio. I bought an Adire Tempest (a stout 15" woofer) and built their alignment design, which is 214 l. The enclosure was 24" x 24" x 36". It has two flared 4" x 11" ports tuned at 15.4 hz. Heavily braced, and built it with donuts. Or I think that's what they're called. Anyways, the Tempest was a dual voice coil woofer, each coil being 8 ohms. I had the 272 watt Parts Express plate amp powering it. Here's where it gets good. I could have sworn I had it wired correct, which I thought series would turn it into 4 ohms. I was bored last night, since I have the whole thing apart. The enclosure is too large to just have sitting around when I have four of the THX Ultra2 subs. I was messing around with my volt meter and was surprised to see a reading of 16 ohms. Rewired it last night to a pleasant 3.9 ohms. Too bad the enclosure is in storage, the Tempest is sitting on my table, and the plate amp is in a closet. I'll get around to it one day I suppose. Just thought it was a funny story.

[CECAA850]

As I recall, those were some really nice drivers.

[Rdmarsiii]

Even though it was running at 16 ohms, that thing would still knock the pictures off the walls. And a shelf that was anchored into the studs heh. I'm intrigued to hear how it'd sound now.

[beeker]

I feel your pain. specially when it comes to woofers. scenario like that would haunt me now from time to time. i guess at that age(me in 990) i was appreciating my realistic 8" woofers i built inclosures for. I learned as the woofer audio addiction pumped in my blood so soon after(now 20yrs later seems soon in hindsight) to only handle my prized $300+each woofers myself only. i had a freind wire up a dvc(expecting he had experience cause he acted like an able helper?) neg2pos other pos2neg that smelled like a rotten egg. he was descent&wealthy enough to buy a new one thankfully. At least you didnt hook it up wrong in a sense of distruction to learn a lesson. you were also im assuming working out of a book from the library as i was in my teens. nowadays knowledge is a fingertip away. gotta say killer science fair project! I recently came acrossed some kind of adire audio and remember the Tempest. If i remember correctly it was a very high end over the top woofer.

[Rdmarsiii]

I feel your pain. specially when it comes to woofers. scenario like that would haunt me now from time to time. i guess at that age(me in 990) i was appreciating my realistic 8" woofers i built inclosures for. I learned as the woofer audio addiction pumped in my blood so soon after(now 20yrs later seems soon in hindsight) to only handle my prized $300+each woofers myself only. i had a freind wire up a dvc(expecting he had experience cause he acted like an able helper?) neg2pos other pos2neg that smelled like a rotten egg. he was descent&wealthy enough to buy a new one thankfully. At least you didnt hook it up wrong in a sense of distruction to learn a lesson. you were also im assuming working out of a book from the library as i was in my teens. nowadays knowledge is a fingertip away. gotta say killer science fair project! I recently came acrossed some kind of adire audio and remember the Tempest. If i remember correctly it was a very high end over the top woofer.

Did your friend not test the connection with a volt meter before placing power to it? I'm so surprised I didn't back then, but then again at that age, I didn't even own one. I suppose I could have borrowed one from my grandfather heh.

Since it was a 16 ohm load when I had mine hooked up wrong, I wonder how much power the amp was actually pushing to the woofer. I also did a science fair project in grade 8, that was labeled 'how does tuning affect the sound intensity of a speaker?' and in grade 8 was measuring the THD in three different amplifiers, all with the same "rated output" and did my results vs the manufacturer's claims. I won an award from radioshack from that. I'm not near as much into amplifiers as I am into speakers though.

So what are you building/built with those expensive woofers?

[CECAA850]

Since it was a 16 ohm load when I had mine hooked up wrong, I wonder how much power the amp was actually pushing to the woofer.

Most likely around 20 to 25 watts/driver.

[Rdmarsiii]

Since it was a 16 ohm load when I had mine hooked up wrong, I wonder how much power the amp was actually pushing to the woofer.

Most likely around 20 to 25 watts/driver.

That makes sense, the Adire tech said that with the enclosure, it should be around 96db efficient. Sorta scares me now, they said that thing has between an inch or two of excursion.

[dtel]

Not sure if any one is still familiar with them, as they're not around any more, Adire Audio.

I remember Adire Audio, they also had a 12" driver called Shiva. I put one in a 5 Cf ported cabinet with there 250 wpc plate amp, it worked well. I toasted the driver after a few years, but still use the amp on a different design.

Adire was easy to deal with, I had a spider come unglued after a couple of months, I called and they shipped me another driver, I sent the broken one back, they said they wanted to see it because they were surprised.

[beeker]

I feel your pain. specially when it comes to woofers. scenario like that would haunt me now from time to time. i guess at that age(me in 990) i was appreciating my realistic 8" woofers i built inclosures for. I learned as the woofer audio addiction pumped in my blood so soon after(now 20yrs later seems soon in hindsight) to only handle my prized $300+each woofers myself only. i had a freind wire up a dvc(expecting he had experience cause he acted like an able helper?) neg2pos other pos2neg that smelled like a rotten egg. he was descent&wealthy enough to buy a new one thankfully. At least you didnt hook it up wrong in a sense of distruction to learn a lesson. you were also im assuming working out of a book from the library as i was in my teens. nowadays knowledge is a fingertip away. gotta say killer science fair project! I recently came acrossed some kind of adire audio and remember the Tempest. If i remember correctly it was a very high end over the top woofer.

Did your friend not test the connection with a volt meter before placing power to it? I'm so surprised I didn't back then, but then again at that age, I didn't even own one. I suppose I could have borrowed one from my grandfather heh.

Since it was a 16 ohm load when I had mine hooked up wrong, I wonder how much power the amp was actually pushing to the woofer. I also did a science fair project in grade 8, that was labeled 'how does tuning affect the sound intensity of a speaker?' and in grade 8 was measuring the THD in three different amplifiers, all with the same "rated output" and did my results vs the manufacturer's claims. I won an award from radioshack from that. I'm not near as much into amplifiers as I am into speakers though.

So what are you building/built with those expensive woofers?

The volt meter would have been my fault. my freind hooked it up opposite polaritys inside the the dual 15" box. I had high white blood cell count when i carried it out and ran power to it...this was 20+yrs ago in 100degree heat. i should have left the box inside i was driving to the doctor and carried it out put it in my car strained to hook it up and left. the 15's each were hooked up to the first actual monoblcks i ever seen. all hooked up in a gta. i learned to do my own work or recheck. there were 2 soundstream spl 160's in the box. when the 1 blu i was devistaed. honestly one of the most terrible days of my life. i should of left the box sit and go thru it before their hotpot time. i considered it but thought good bass would help my medical condition. It hit 150 at a point.