question on woofer gaskets...

[jonz]

I finally received my tempests subwoofers...I have one question the gaskets on these woofers are very flimsy or fragile...they seem to break off easlily..and I find myself hotmelting them back...how important are they...do they hold down the foam surrounds?Will any harm come to the woofer if they are removed?By the way these subs are truly amazing when used in pairs....

[hunter audio]

hi

my advise will be to paste them back , if it is a foam surround - normal glue may react with the foam - check before you use it to paste the gaskets back

the gaskets provide over all strength - and sometimes adds to the more gluing area to the pasting of the surround

try not to prise them it may damage the surround

suranjan

[ratman542]

Originally posted by jonz
I finally received my tempests subwoofers...I have one question the gaskets on these woofers are very flimsy or fragile...they seem to break off easlily..and I find myself hotmelting them back...how important are they...do they hold down the foam surrounds?Will any harm come to the woofer if they are removed?By the way these subs are truly amazing when used in pairs....

What a coincidence, mine are doing the same thing. I took a close look at the situtation and concluded that the surrounds are probably glued to the baskets good enough that the front-mount gaskets probably don't even need to be there at all.

I know exactly what you mean about using these things in pairs, -I have two myself! So far I'm pretty impressed with mine. I'm not hitting the high SPL's like a lot of the other guys (last measurement was around 109-110), but the tight accurate sound is incredible. The best word to describe these things is "articulate". In my sealed boxes (.8), they hit extremely hard, yet are very warm sounding.

The Tempest 15 is truly one helluva lotta bang for the buck.

Rich.

[jonz]

I don't know why they had to use such huge gaskets....I guess because of the foam surrounds....the gasket has to surpass the surround in height.. I wonder if there's anyhting that they can be covered with..I also notice they are manufactured by Emminence..

Hey ratman what are you powering them with...?


I am trying out a Carver TFM 35 at 350 watts per side parrelled into 4 ohms...I think they can take a lot more....i wonder how they would sound at 700 per....side....?

[ratman542]

Originally posted by jonz
I don't know why they had to use such huge gaskets....I guess because of the foam surrounds....the gasket has to surpass the surround in height.. I wonder if there's anyhting that they can be covered with..I also notice they are manufactured by Emminence..

I never really thought about the gaskets needing to surpass the surround, -no doubt you're right on that one! Yes, they are made by Eminence, -which is nothing to be worried about. Eminence makes a lot of different drivers for a lot of different companies and has a very good reputation as an OEM.

Originally posted by jonz
Hey ratman what are you powering them with...?
I am trying out a Carver TFM 35 at 350 watts per side parrelled into 4 ohms...I think they can take a lot more....i wonder how they would sound at 700 per....side....?

Yet another coincidence! I'm using a Carver TFM-55 (my coils are also paralleled yielding 4 ohms). The "55" is supposed to be good for 500 a side at 4, and so far doesn't even break a sweat, -even driving the Tempests hard. I think the power handling is totally dependent on the driver reaching it's mechanical limit (which would greatly depend on how it is acoustically loaded in the enclosure and any EQ'ing going on). My guess is that they would never make it to 700 in my current enclosure/room setup without tearing themselves to shreds.

Tell me more about your enclosures, I'm very curious.

Rich.

[jonz]

my enclosures are 4 cu.ft. (.9) that what Bassbox pro tells me.
for a final Fs of 29....I want to go lower..and soon I will build new enclosures..possisbly even try a 5 cu.ft. ported just to see for the hell of it.....after all carpentry is my hobby...

Going back to the tempests...these subs rock...in my 275 sq.ft. listening room...with the door closed they hit 115..db......and they were far from bottoming out!

[ratman542]

Originally posted by jonz
my enclosures are 4 cu.ft. (.9) that what Bassbox pro tells me.
for a final Fs of 29....I want to go lower..and soon I will build new enclosures..possisbly even try a 5 cu.ft. ported just to see for the hell of it.....after all carpentry is my hobby...

Theoretically, 5 foot ported boxes should be absolutely phenomenal! Don't forget to check out Adire's boxes also (drawings in .pdf on their website). I spoke with Chris at Adire the other day and he told me that the "Adire-Alignment" would give the best of both worlds (high SPL and flat response). He also added that front-firing the drivers (instead of down-firing them) will help the drivers out a little in regards to maintaining the maximum amount of linear excursion before reaching Xmech. Your 4 foot boxes are a little larger than mine (mine are 3.5 feet). I use both WinISD and BassBox. I am confused about your Qtc figure being .9 though. Both WinISD and Chris at Adire told me that a 4.3 foot box should yield a Qtc of .71 (which is about as flat as you're gonna get). I'd say that your 4 foot boxes are more favorable than you think. Still, the idea of a 5 foot ported does nothing but make me grin!

Originally posted by jonz

Going back to the tempests...these subs rock...in my 275 sq.ft. listening room...with the door closed they hit 115..db......and they were far from bottoming out!

You're doing much better than I as far as SPL is concerned. I have been being very careful though. That big Carver amp of mine wrenches these things around with a LOT of authority, so I've been being rather conservative in regards to listening levels. I'm somewhat concerned that I will end up bottoming them out if I stretch the legs on the big Carver. No doubt about it, your 115 dB is very impressive. My room on the other hand basically sucks (since I have no way of closing it off from the rest of the house), so my room gain is pretty pathetic. Sounds like you "got it right" though. I'm very curious about trying a ported setup with these drivers to see if that works better in my room.

This is somewhat off topic, but how do you like the TFM-35? I have one also (driving my 8's). I use a TFM-15 to drive the top-end (actively crossed tri-amped 3-way). I just can't say enough good things about these rugged great sounding mag-field amps, -I love 'em!

Keep in touch, and tell me more about what else you've got going on with your setup. I'm very curious since yours and mine are somewhat similar.

Rich.

[jonz]

Hi Rich..I don't think you should be worried abouot blowing the Tempests..after all they are rated at 400 watts per coil.and you're running 500 in parallel which comes out to 250 per coil..and each coil is good for 400+... but I guess ultimatly is the box design that will determine what they will take or not..

As for the Carver TFM 35..I love this amp..I have pushed it to extreme levels and it has yet to clip..the only problem I had with it was a "cold solder" joint on the left speaker binding post..and the vu-meter lights..which I relplaced....I also have a QSC 1500 .thta I'm eiger to tryout..this one has 550 per at 4ohms.but what I like about it it could run at 2 ohms..if I ever decide to parallel 2 tempest for a 2 ohm load..efficiancy goes to 98 db.

I will try to paste a screenshot of Bassbox Pro..