Tumult sub is finished!

[fire pinch]

On my "Tumult first impressions" tread, I wrote like a little preview and you can know how it sounds. Except than now, it sounds even better without those air leaks and without that piece of furniture. Moreover, I get more SPL, I just got a peak of 123 dB @ one meter during a song, which amazed me quite a lot , this is my record for the moment, the sub wasnt at its limit but not far. I could do my tests before the night, but I have the taste to give the sub a break, at least for today. Moreover, my parents downstairs watch the Tv and the Tumult piss them off when it is too loud!

But for sure, this changement of location means that Im gonna re-do all my tests again. Because I found that some things have changed.

By the way, where are you all people reading this topic?? Where are all my Tempest topic people?

[Jordan]

I just took some pictures of my system. Not with a digital camera though, I hope they look halfway decent when I get them on here. now I just have to get them developed. Probably tomorrow or Tuesday. By the way, are those klipsch speakers you have?

[formica]

Now that you've gotten rid of that piece of furniture... I'm not sure that I want to know what you're doing without it's contents...

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On 2/8/2004 3:16:34 PM fire pinch wrote:

For the 12 and 16 Hz, I pumped up the sub volume until clipping, it didnt bottomed out to my ear again but still, I could hear some sort of distortion. ... and I dont want to dammage the woofer!

However, the woofer dust cap is pretty warm when you touch it so im gonna wait a couple of time before doing some new testing.

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Actually I had a similar situation and was surprised, since in my case, I did manage to bottom out the sub with music but not with sine waves. Since we are both inputting more power than the sub's thermal limit at clipping, caution is definitely a good idea.

Seeing you still have the tempest... how about a stacked combined SPL? I'll try to get a 12hz value next time my gf isn't home... not sure if I'll go "max" like the other time though.

Later...

Rob.

[Jordan]

Formica,

How hard was it to build your ported inclosure? Would a Brahma 12 now work in a ported tuned around 18-20Hz, or is the 15 still better like Fire Pinch suggested?

[fire pinch]

Wow!!! Sorry to answer so lately!! If size isnt an issue, I recommand that you really choose the Brahma 15 over the 12. The price increase from the 12 to the 15, is quite little and choosing the 15 over the 12 well worth the buy for the performance you will get! And just by looking at the T/S parameters of the 12 and 15, the 15 looks to me like it is more suited for a 18-20 Hz tuned vented box.

Wow that tread was really dead but it is now back! For the new visitors of this tread, the performance numbers you saw of my sealed Tumult arent the true one. Since I placed the subwoofer differently, without a piece of furniture, numbers grewed up by 2 dB at any frequencies. That piece of furniture was really a bottleneck!

[formica]

The burning bush lives !! If the old numbers are no longer valid... shoot us some new ones. BTW, you have to try bubbling paint scene from Matrix Reloaded for a fun sub test. (I watched but havent compared the Revolutions disk yet)

And I agree for home audio where size isnt critical... a 15 drive with over 50% more surface area, will almost always provide more bang for the buck.

Rob

[fire pinch]

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On 4/15/2004 1:16:07 AM formica wrote:

The burning bush lives !! If the old numbers are no longer valid... shoot us some new ones.

BTW, you have to try bubbling paint scene from Matrix Reloaded for a fun sub test. (I watched but havent compared the Revolutions disk yet)

And I agree for home audio where size isnt critical... a 15 drive with over 50% more surface area, will almost always provide more bang for the buck.

Rob

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Yeah the Burning bush is alive!! I wanted to write you an email but I formated again (due to my new cpu and mobo) so I lost all my contact list in Outlook. I saved all the necessary things except the mail adresses!! I kinda remembered yours but I wasnt sure!

Justly, Im gonna be able to watch Matrix Reloaded next month because it will be "en PRIMEUR" at "Super Écran" (Sorry for the english dudes, I dont know how to convert the Super Écran channel in english! lol! Super screen?? It doesnt make any sense! And for the new numbers, well, Im gonna try to test the subwoofer during the evening, I'd have a good opportunity to do it. But like I said, you can expect a good +2 dB pretty anywhere so if at 40Hz I got 121 dB, this is most likely 123 dB now, pretty agressive and violent in a room! Knowing that my Tempest, once all ports blocked could do 3dB less than when the ports are opened, and knowing that when its ports are blocked this is like a LOW Q sealed box, I should expect something like 127 dB @ 40 Hz, at the listening position (3 meters away) if I'd make my Tumult sub vented, with passive radiators! Pretty crazy I can say, for a single subwoofer with a single driver! You know? I have the taste to make one during the summer time ahhhhhhh!! But I find that my sealed Tumult is enough... but but, I just would like it to be better below 30 Hz, where all the deep bass is so enjoyable and painfull for the walls and the house structure!

Well... upgrading to a vented Tumult wouldnt cost me like if I bought another sub. The added cost would be if I choose to go with passive radiators but this is most likely what Im gonna do if I build a vented Tumult. Why? Because... 1- I wont have to wonder about port noise, 2- I would experiment different tuning points. I'd choose an enclosure size so changing tuning points wouldnt make the FR curve look bad. I thought about a 4 cubic ft box... a 5 cubic ft would be better for choosing a low tuning such as below 20 Hz, but with that box size, if change the tuning point to lets say 22 or 25 Hz, the frequency curve would look like more "bumped". I would choose initialy a tuning point of 20 Hz, like the mid-sized SVS cylinders, because I dont want to miss the extra punch, even if not that needed and at the same time, I dont want to loose lots of extension. I think that this is a good choice for that kind of compromise.

Well... Im out for eating! I dont garanty to show the new numbers today, but I will try to do my best. How was the Sound and Vision show?

[Jordan]

Hey welcome back. Acoustic Visions just got some Blueprint driver in. They are good and cheap! Here's the link.

http://www.acoustic-visions.com/~acoustic/products/subwoofer_drivers/blueprint/

They look to be more home oriented. I'm lookin at the 10 or 12 in a small sealed box. They look to be huge.

[fire pinch]

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On 4/18/2004 11:07:56 PM Jordan wrote:

Hey welcome back. Acoustic Visions just got some Blueprint driver in. They are good and cheap!

Here's the link.

http://www.acoustic-visions.com/~acoustic/products/subwoofer_drivers/blueprint/

They look to be more home oriented. I'm lookin at the 10 or 12 in a small sealed box. They look to be huge.

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Yep, they are great drivers for the money! But if you will use it in a sealed box, you will pay for loosing more extension than other drivers. I say this because I tried the 18er in WinISD Pro and I found that it didnt extend well when used in a sealed box. And when I looked at the Blueprints T/S parameters, I found that they weren't so good for a sealed box IMHO. They have quite high Fs for example... In a sealed box, less pricier than the Bluprints 10 or 12, I would look more at the Stryke AV-12 which is at $175. That woofer would give you more low end extension in a sealed box if used properly. http://www.stryke.com/AVseries.html

*Update*: The Blueprints in a vented box can be great, but anything below a 22-25 Hz tuning would let you see that they arent the best drivers for <22 Hz tuning.