Quick question about the Tempest-12 kit vs. the Karma-12 kit. What are the differences and would someone with say an Onkyo tx-706 reciever & PS3 hear the differences between the two? Thanks Aaron
Hey Aaron, Your equipment is definetely good enough to hear differences between designs. Whether the differences matter to you is subjective. There aren't to many details about those kits yet. I believe the sensitivity of the Tempest will be higher. Hard to say though. Of course, the Tempest is $100 more. If you're doing 3, or maybe even 5 or 7, yikes! Can add up.
I'm leaning towards the the Karma-12 due to the lower cost. I'm sure these will stomp my av123 "X" series speakers. I'll wait for more info before I pull the plug though. Hope there will be impressions of these designs soon. I love the idea of DIY speakers and subs. Everything about the DIY Sound Group is awesome. Thanks for the reply.
Ya, it'd be nice to hear more about the Karma and get some impressions up. Impressions about all these kits would be nice. Soon hopefully. They're shipping now, so it won't take long and people will be rocking out to MDF cabs because they couldn't wait to listen before painting
gah, looks like it uses the delta 12 woofer... makes me second guess my Delta Pure 10 inch decision. would be tempting to get if it was a better set than the Delta Pure. although I dont' think I'd ever be able to max out that 300 watt rms power handling with my receiver lol
Hey wormraper, Good point! I think you should pm Erich or Bill and press them for details on this build. I know the Karma series is supposed to be very budget minded, so it may give up some things in the cross over to make that price point. Looking at the woofer spec sheet from Eminence, it looks very similar to the Delta 10a. Actually is 0.5db less effecient. Takes a little larger box, but goes a few hz lower. It's going to be very similar performance based on the woofer alone. In your case I'd still think about your vertical limitations though, and be leaning towards sticking with a 10" design. But for others, the Delta 10a models might not serve much purpose. Erich knows more about the details of all these details, so I'd ping him about this if I were you.
Both speakers are going to be good. It really does boil down to how much you want to spend. The Tempest uses a stronger woofer, and some bigger inductors in it's crossover, so that's where the extra cost comes from. Granted it was a different speaker designer doing each model, but in the end, it really comes down to the price difference of the woofers and what compression driver is used. The higher priced models obviously use better woofers that cost more. This is basically the same thing many other companies do. Polk for example has about 3 speaker categories with 3 pricing structures. Eventually I might have to come up with a name for each category like I did with the Karma Series. The Karma Series would be the lowest priced speakers. Now I need to come up with the mid priced series and the high priced series.
Aaron we keep running into each other on DIY forums! Haha! I'm now kicking around these or the Deltalite-12 Kit. I have a feeling these might destroy your X-MTM's ... (that's what you have if I remember right). Hope you're doing well my friend! Scott
Man Scott I haven't been on hear in a while. Just noticed your post. Funny stuff. Yup I'm sure either of these designs will destroy my x-mtm's. I'm 100% convinced diy is the way to go, without a doubt. Hoping to get rolling on the fusions sometime soon. Now that these designs have been out for a bit, does anyone have a comparison between tempest 12 and karma 12?
Lots of people have built the Tempests but I haven't seen any build logs of the Kharma 12 yet. I'm sure someone has built them, but they must lurk because I haven't seen so much as a forum post about them.
I have been interested in the Tempest kit since reading Jeff's comments on the P.E. forum. I am attracted to the large woofer and also the high spl of the design. I know little about compression drivers and wave guides. I'm a solid two channel music guy who digs R & B and well recorded live music. Currently listening to Paul Carmody's Classix II and like them very much. I think I will order one kit and run it mono for starters with a vintage Sony receiver I have. If it pleases me I'll build another. Thoughts are welcomed.
If not running subs, I'd check out the alpha 12 (zephyr) and the Dayton DS 12" design by Bill Waslo. Compared to the classic 2 you'll have so much more SPL I would bother with the extra 3 or 4 db you'll get from the tempest. But check them all out, or get subs
