effortless low bass

requires a large box to get the full impact

I bought two of these and put them in separate 7.5 cu.ft. boxes (big!)and am driving them with a Adcom555 II through a passive crossover network. Building a subwoofer is always a compromise ,big box -deep&low sound ,small box tight& punchy (if designed right) Having built 5 subs before this and none had the sound I was looking for...deep,low tight and punchy !the tempest came pretty damn close. It has a very smooth response at all volumes and seems to have no upper limt when pushed (you can shake the house down)also very musical at mid and upper bass. it blows away a top of the line Velodyne at a tenth of the price.

Similar Products Used:

Parts express 15"dayton II

Do-It-Yourself project. Big cabinet compared to retail products.

I built this DIY subwoofer after hanging out at www.hometheatertalk.com and www.hometheaterforum.com DIY forums. I purchased the Tempest driver ($120) and a 250 watt amplifier, the AVA250 ($149), all from Adire Audio as part of a pre-order sale. Designed and built a 5 cu. ft. enclosure as a bottom-firing subwoofer. The single 4" flare port was tuned for 18 Hz. The cabeinet was made from 3/4" MDF from Home Depot. Estimate total cost of $350-$375, but the cabinet has not been veneered yet, which will cost ~ $50 more. This design is small for most Tempest based design, with many other DIYer designing 7-8 cu. ft. cabinets.

The sound from this thing is super! The bass is powerful and tight. Can feel the lows like I can't believe. Drums and bass have a presence that is great. DVDs' have a power that made me go throught my whole collection once again just to find the previously missed low bass. A bass heavy DVD like Titan A.E. is a real physical experience. Measuring the sound output with a Radio Shack meter, the Tempest driver is flat down to the mid 20 Hz range and keeps going to middle teens at -10dB down. I get SPL levels at 110dB in room when pushing the amplifier without hitting any limits.

I would recommend the Tempest driver for anyone thinking of doing a DIY subwoofer. It can be bested by a handful of drivers, but none are in the same league when you includes price. If you aren't sure that you could do something like this, I suggest you lurk in the DIY forums I mentioned above, you would be surprised by the sound you can get with little effort.

Similar Products Used:

none - first sub