fire pinch Posted December 27, 2003 Share Posted December 27, 2003 Hi all, I decided to write a little preview before writing my true review. This one will be more about subjective comments and little objective datas. How it is The Tumult is in a 2.75 cubic ft box (external volume), which give me a Qtc in the 0,6s. Not finished yet, it is made with 3/4" of MDF, front baffle double walled but it is in my point of vue heavilly braced. When the woofer pump a lof air, the cabinet vibrate just a little and stay sturdy, to my big surprise. The sub is powered by a QSC PLX 2402 amp, which can deliver 2400W into 4ohms bridged (1 KHz, 1% THD). The air leaks I succedeed to remove some air leaks around the woofer by unscrewing it and srewing it again, but still, there is a quite big air leak around one screw. Still that air leak is less noticable that all of those I had before. I can listen to the subwoofer at a quit loud volume before hearing it. So its why I want to write a review later, as I think that this air leak can downgrade the subwoofer performance. I'll buy another gasket and I will apply it under the Tumult gasket. Distortion level First at all, I really didnt expect to have such INSANELY low distortion from that sub. In that price range (1500-2000$), I really dont know of ANY sub which can surpass it in sound quality. During the Christmas day, when the familly was there, EVERYONE just couldnt beleive how much good it sounded. The thing which surprise me the most, is justly the level of distortion. Compared to other subwoofers that I know and heard, the distortion is none audible until it reach almost Xmax!!! To detect any distortion when the woofer excursion is high, you have to be really beside the woofer and god, I tried one time and I will never do it again. Why didnt I try that? Because I wanted to know how much far I could blast the woofer and once I saw the excursion suprassing 2" peak to peak, I began to be more cautious so I turned up the volume a little and a little and a little... UNTIL HOW MUCH??? I DIDNT KNOW!!! Well, I said to myself, no distortion yet, so why not pushing the sub farther?? I was affraid... So I began to saw my amp clipping!! YESSS my 2400W amp, not 1000W or 1600W, 2400W began to clip, I began to see the red clip LEDs flashing. Of course, before, I decided to set the "clip limiter" on. I couldnt beleive that the bass was so clean again, and this is when I put my ear near the woofer that I could hear the cone stressing. But in that time, the woofer pumped so much ear that I became a bit deaf of one ear during a few minutes. So for the moment, I dont even know when the woofer can bottom out, quite dangerous if we can say for the woofer!! In fact, I knew one time... I succeded to hear the woofer voice coil hitting the back plate a LITTLE (little sratch) so I rapidly turned down the volume. This was during a DJ Daniel Desnoyers song, where there was a LOTS of rumble (very low frequencies behind the track which were played in BURST). So for the moment, what Im doing when I want the max from the Tumult is turning up the volume until the amp clip or If I hear any strange noise coming from the woofer. In simulation softwares, with 2400W of power, the woofer should never pass 70mm of excursion p.p anyway so maybe its why I have some trouble to really bottom it out. The Xmag of the woofer is certainly like 75mm peak to peak (68mm for Xmax p.p). *UPDATE* this can be because also of those air leaks, which reduce the effeciency of the subwoofer. Tightness, accuracy, and dynamics Any kind of musics, that Tumult can take. Ive fired some rock and roll, hard rock, techno (boom), alternative, slow rock, classical, this sub can keep with anything. Really fast transient response, the Tempest and the VTF-3 (at home) as examples are slower compared to it. It would really surprise those who hear for the first time a 15 inchers. It kicks as fast as my floorstanders, each time you hear a kick drum, the sub just reproduce it whitout letting any traces behind. In other words, very articulate. As a stright comparison vs the Tempest and the VTF-3, they just couldnt touch it. The difference is often heard when in a song, you have the kick drum + the bass at the same time. With the Tumult, you can hear the bass and the kick drum very distinctively and clearly, like they should be heard. The kick drum thumps rapidly and dynamicaly in your body while the "main bass" is just at the good volume and very "even/natural sounding" behind. With the Tempest and the Hsu, this is about the same thing, as they are subs which are very good in accuracy, but the transition is like softer and not as DYNAMIC and distinctive. But hey, we are talking about different woofer techology and also, different type of enclosure. The Tumult beeing sealed can help for those quick attacks but also, the woofer itself, with its very low distortion, really helps too for having high level of dynamics and lightnening clean impacts. Frequency range Despite the Tumult is sealed, I got surprised by its frequency response. This is certainly due to my room which doesnt boost alot the bass between 30-50 Hz but which boost it more around 20-30 Hz. I have good extension from it until about 18 Hz then it drop off quite fastly after. Because of the main air leak, and maybe some others, I couldnt play any 16-25 Hz quite loudly. So I cant judge now the claims of some other people who mention that at 20 Hz, its simply amazing, you just feel the air and you dont hear the woofer at all. This is true for the moment, at low to moderate SPL (until 100 dB), but passing that, its frustrating, I cant tell. Power Hahaha... Yes, it does have power as you can guess And this is very strange when I take some reading with my SPL meters: the Tumult release more energy than my Tempest at the same SPL!!! At first, I thought that I got more SPL than my Tempest at a certain volume but it wasnt the case. Its maybe the way the Tumult works, having more dynamics and clean impact, Im biased for this... or having more mid-bass impact? Can be possible... and I expect this because the Tumult sounds more even between 40 and 80 Hz while the Tempest is more bumpy around 30-50 Hz. For performance numbers, for the moment, Im able to get a good 110 dB @ 20 Hz. I wish I could place a higher number there but I cant judge too much how clean is the sound, always becasue of those air leaks. However, I menaged to get a continuous 119 dB @ 40 Hz! (add 2 other dBs at the best spot, it is again on a piece of furniture. Air leaks around higher frequencies are less noticable and therefore, the distortion is more easily audible so I could push it farther. Anyway, those performance numbers and the SPL curve response will come in the review, which will be for the most part objective, and it may be a bit subjective too if I detect any major differences or if I think that I should write other things. When I say this, I suppose that for the review, the air leaks will be gone. This is all what I have to say for the moment... if you have any special music request for testing, as I didnt specify any kind of singer or music group to be the most general possible, feel free to ask me. Because I dont know too much what most of you listen to, I preferred to not include any kind of music groups in my preview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted December 29, 2003 Share Posted December 29, 2003 Pincette a Feu, Maudites fuites d'air,tout comme la vache folle venue de nos voisins il faut les boucher au plus sacrant.J'espere que t'as de la bonne colle au sirop d'erable. Mon petit Soleildefeu Signature est proche a 31.5hz.Comme je le vois ce Tumultuex haut parleur est gourmand,nourrit le au Krell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabulousfrankie Posted December 29, 2003 Share Posted December 29, 2003 Sounds like a great sub...besides the air leaks. I think it would be interesting to see FR plots of the VTF-3, Tempest, and Tumult. Another cool thing would be to get all subs calibrated and play popular bassy dvd's and record what levels you're reaching with each sub...only if you can put all subs in the same location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fire pinch Posted December 31, 2003 Author Share Posted December 31, 2003 Before the end of this week, I will begin to finish completely the sub. Ill buy the wood veener tomarrow and everything I need (a new gasket too). So... what Im thinking now is that it can get more powerfull than now. This is a quite big air leak around the woofer! I didnt expect to have an air leak with the Tumult gasket. But well, I said to myself, why not trying with the Tumult gasket alone, and well see after. Now I see!! Once the sub will be really finished, I will post an objective review, this will be the review with charts which compare the Tempest, Tumult and VTF-3. Unfortunately, I dont have anymore the VTF-3 on hands, BUT I have again the maximum power it is able to do at some frequencies. I must fouiller / search for these notepads.txt, where I stored all the informations in that mixt-minded hard drive! I had another idea too... to bring the Tumult in some stores with my SPL meter and some papper / pencils, and to bench the subs. That would be SOOOO COOOL!!! I know greatly some people at one dealer, where they sell Paradigm subwoofers. If they can have the Seismic line in stock now or soon, it would be even more interesting. Ive talked last month at those people and they seem to agree of my offer. When I'll be ready and that the sub will be entirely done, I will call them again and I'll see what I'll be able to do with them. For a guestimate, the sub should be finished at least for next week, but maybe this week too. It depends of how much time I have and for now, Im not too much buzzy, which is a good news. ============= OH!! And for the Krell amp yeah... but I think that this PLX2402 is really enough. For the moment, I have to turn the gain all the way UP, completly, but because of those air leaks, I think that they reduce somewhat the efficiency of the sub. OHH! and another thing that I have to add too... A friend came to my house yesterday, and I cranked up the sub until I could reach its limit. So I cranked it up until I could hear some sort of distortion. Crankin, cranking, crankin DOHHH!! the voice coil hited a bit the back plate OMG, turn down the volume!!! This is CRAZY how this sub sounds so clean, deadly clean until the voice coil hit the backplate!!! We can call this an awesome quality, but we can call this a fault too... how can you know that you have maximum the sub can do without noticable distortion? I guess that this is a question of time, to be more familiarized and accustomed to the sub! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fire pinch Posted December 31, 2003 Author Share Posted December 31, 2003 ---------------- On 12/29/2003 12:11:32 AM TheEAR wrote: Pincette a Feu, Maudites fuites d'air,tout comme la vache folle venue de nos voisins il faut les boucher au plus sacrant.J'espere que t'as de la bonne colle au sirop d'erable. Mon petit Soleildefeu Signature est proche a 31.5hz.Comme je le vois ce Tumultuex haut parleur est gourmand,nourrit le au Krell. ---------------- LOOLLLL!!! Comme tu es si poétique avec ce jolie soleil de feu... oh et ce sirop d'érable Je me demande si ca coute plus cher au gallon qu'un gallon de colle! LOL! hmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 No French! Only English and Binary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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