Speaker Recommendation - Selah Tempesta vs Vapor Cirrus vs Salk etc

npdang · « **Reply #180 on:** 9 Mar 2012, 07:26 am »

Quote from: jonbee on 8 Mar 2012, 04:53 pm

FWIW- this does not describe the cabinets in the Tempestas in any way. They are 3/4-1" thick, have a stout full height vertical brace for the sides, top and bottom, and very effective cabinet damping applied internally to all sides. The curved side panels also reduce panel standing waves substantially, and the non-parallel sides do the same for standing waves in the interior air mass. No cabinet ringing, no chestiness whatever that I can feel or hear. The mids are as clean and accurate as anything I've ever heard. There may be more solid cabinets out there, but the T's cabinets get the job done very well indeed. The reasonable cost of the cabinets leaves $ for things like the very pricey but wonderful Accuton mids and associated crossover parts.

Of course, this is not to say the Cirrus is not a great speaker on its own terms, - I've not heard it, but it looks interesting.

No doubt the Tempestas are a lot of speaker for the money. Just based on my personal experience, I generally prefer AT drivers over Accuton and I wanted to try a more unique cabinet design. Needless to say, Rockport, Magico, Kaiser, etc. were not in my budget

vortrex · « **Reply #181 on:** 9 Mar 2012, 06:15 pm »

I really want to order the cirrus, but it seems impossible to do so. I had a couple emails going with ryan and then he just disappeared when I was one step away from putting in a deposit. I hope he responds to me at some point.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #182 on:** 9 Mar 2012, 07:04 pm »

vortrex,

As you may have seen here or elsewhere, Ryan had some personal matters that he needed to attend to. I'd give him a try again. Hopefully these issues and delays are behind him.

vortrex · « **Reply #183 on:** 9 Mar 2012, 07:13 pm »

I didn't know anything about that. this was just in the past week that we were corresponding.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #184 on:** 9 Mar 2012, 07:29 pm »

Oh, that recently? These personal issues were at least a month back IIRC.

wilsynet · « **Reply #185 on:** 9 Mar 2012, 07:30 pm »

Being predictable and reliable requires a good measure of constraining yourself to well understood, operationalized, routinized processes. While some amount of customization and white glove cradle to grave service is awfully nice, it's hard to imagine being able to do this at both low cost and with high levels of predictability.

Eugene2 · « **Reply #186 on:** 10 Mar 2012, 05:59 am »

"Great customer service for sure, but he "drove all the way from Missouri to Atlanta to deliver them" without checking to see if you were home? Sounds like a vignette from one of those road movies.'
He drove from Missouri to deliver another customer speakers and delivered my pair to his house

I am currently out of town will post pix when I return.

Eugene2 · « **Reply #187 on:** 10 Mar 2012, 06:09 am »

Quote from: stlrman on 8 Mar 2012, 04:17 pm

Eugene, Do they out perform your Swans? What finish did you get?
Can you post a pic of the Cirrus speakers in your set up?
Thanks,
Todd
No they do not out perform the Swans. The Swans are not a fair comparison, in certain ways they equal the Swans, the Swans are a multi driver (19 drivers per side) array with beautiful timing, tone and explosive realism. They retail for 12999 and compete with the big boys as far as I am concerned. The downside is their size, they are wide and tall, too big for my apartment.
The Cirrus are some of the most neutral monitors on the market. Wide and deep soundstage, magnificent tonal presence and they go pretty deep for their size. I am waiting for the Odyssey amp to show up so I can put them to the task.

doug s. · « **Reply #188 on:** 10 Mar 2012, 06:17 am »

Quote from: stlrman on 8 Mar 2012, 04:17 pm

Eugene, Do they out perform your Swans? What finish did you get?
Can you post a pic of the Cirrus speakers in your set up?
Thanks,
Todd

yust so you realize what you are asking, re: comparing the cirrus to the swans 2.6f's:

doug s.

paul canady · « **Reply #189 on:** 10 Mar 2012, 08:29 pm »

Quote from: doug s. on 10 Mar 2012, 06:17 am

yust so you realize what you are asking, re: comparing the cirrus to the swans 2.6f's:

doug s.

A more fair comparison would be my two JL Audio F113 subs with the loaded Cirrus. The JL subs add to the dynamics, depth and presence to the music.

saeyedoc · « **Reply #190 on:** 5 May 2012, 07:38 pm »

Any recent updates, who's received their Cirrus' (Cirri?)?
My top contenders right now are the Selah Tempesta and Cicondare, Vapor Cirrus or Aurora, Salk SS M7, or possibly their new Raal/Illuminator monitor.
2 way vs 3 way?
Pre-built cabinet vs custom veneers?
Established ID company vs fairly new one going through some growing pains?

Anyone know the extra material costs over the upgrade tick for veneers such as the burls from Vapor or Salk?
Selah includes shipping, how much extra is that for the Vapor or Salk?

I think for a 3-way with great drivers in a well built, but mass produced cabinet the Tempestra would be a clear value winner, but for an exotic veneered product, the options seem much closer.
If willing to spend $4300 for the custom Tempesta, is it worth spending a little more for the Soundscape?

vortrex · « **Reply #191 on:** 5 May 2012, 07:46 pm »

I have both the Cirrus and Tempesta on order now. I think the Tempesta will be ready in 2 weeks. I bought the kit and had the cabinets outsourced and built out of stacked birch ply with the same specs as the pre-built cabinets. I heard that my Cirrus are 2 weeks away from veneering, so hopefully they are not too far away from being finished. I'm going to live with both for a while and keep the ones I like best.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #192 on:** 5 May 2012, 07:52 pm »

Quote from: vortrex on 5 May 2012, 07:46 pm

I have both the Cirrus and Tempesta on order now. I think the Tempesta will be ready in 2 weeks. I bought the kit and had the cabinets outsourced and built out of stacked birch ply with the same specs as the pre-built cabinets. I heard that my Cirrus are 2 weeks away from veneering, so hopefully they are not too far away from being finished. I'm going to live with both for a while and keep the ones I like best.

Oh man are you putting together a killer system.

mtruong34 · « **Reply #193 on:** 5 May 2012, 08:06 pm »

I've recently received my Cirrus and posted my impressions on Audiogon in the Vapor Cirrus Review thread under user mtruong34:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1291159371&openflup&149&4#149

saeyedoc · « **Reply #194 on:** 5 May 2012, 08:24 pm »

Quote from: mtruong34 on 5 May 2012, 08:06 pm

I've recently received my Cirrus and posted my impressions on Audiogon in the Vapor Cirrus Review thread under user mtruong34:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1291159371&openflup&149&4#149

I saw your review, thanks for writing that. Do you recall what the material cost (if any) was for the cabinet upgrade and what shipping was?

saeyedoc · « **Reply #195 on:** 5 May 2012, 08:27 pm »

Quote from: vortrex on 5 May 2012, 07:46 pm

I have both the Cirrus and Tempesta on order now. I think the Tempesta will be ready in 2 weeks. I bought the kit and had the cabinets outsourced and built out of stacked birch ply with the same specs as the pre-built cabinets. I heard that my Cirrus are 2 weeks away from veneering, so hopefully they are not too far away from being finished. I'm going to live with both for a while and keep the ones I like best.

Since I'm not in any hurry, I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Did you order an upgraded veneer on your Cirrus? If so, what were the material costs and shipping quote.?
I like the idea of building the Tempesta with the stacked birch rather than just veneering over the PE cabs, what did those run you?

vortrex · « **Reply #196 on:** 5 May 2012, 09:30 pm »

Quote from: saeyedoc on 5 May 2012, 08:27 pm

Did you order an upgraded veneer on your Cirrus? If so, what were the material costs and shipping quote.?
I like the idea of building the Tempesta with the stacked birch rather than just veneering over the PE cabs, what did those run you?

my Cirrus will be the bare ply with veneer on the baffle. I didn't quite pick the veneer yet, still thinking. Ryan said he would do any veneer at no additional cost from the base price. I had asked Ryan his thoughts on the best bang for the buck upgrades and he suggested (which I got):

AM Core RAAL - $300
OIMP with V-Cap bypass - $250

I think shipping was included, I don't see it mentioned in my total cost.

as for the Tempesta cabinets, they were significantly more expensive than the other person who did them recently on this site. not a big surprise, I thought that was kind of too good to be true anyway. the cost for those was $1250. that's custom built to my spec, all speaker holes cut, finish sanded, and also with No-Rez installed. those guys have been great to work with.

in the end the Tempesta will be about $600 cheaper than the Cirrus so it's almost a wash. I am more interested in the 2-way vs 3-way. obviously both will be superior speakers and it'll probably come down to personal taste.

saeyedoc · « **Reply #197 on:** 5 May 2012, 09:40 pm »

Quote from: vortrex on 5 May 2012, 09:30 pm

my Cirrus will be the bare ply with veneer on the baffle. I didn't quite pick the veneer yet, still thinking. Ryan said he would do any veneer at no additional cost from the base price. I had asked Ryan his thoughts on the best bang for the buck upgrades and he suggested (which I got):

AM Core RAAL - $300
OIMP with V-Cap bypass - $250

I think shipping was included, I don't see it mentioned in my total cost.

as for the Tempesta cabinets, they were significantly more expensive than the other person who did them recently on this site. not a big surprise, I thought that was kind of too good to be true anyway. the cost for those was $1250. that's custom built to my spec, all speaker holes cut, finish sanded, and also with No-Rez installed. those guys have been great to work with.

in the end the Tempesta will be about $600 cheaper than the Cirrus so it's almost a wash. I am more interested in the 2-way vs 3-way. obviously both will be superior speakers and it'll probably come down to personal taste.

That's really not too bad, are you planning on finishing the Tempesta build yourself? If so, you're only paying $250 more than the assembled standard cabinet, plus your time of course. Probably still not quite as robust a cabinet as the Cirrus, but you should be close. Does the Tempesta Raal have the amorphous core?

vortrex · « **Reply #198 on:** 5 May 2012, 09:55 pm »

I will finish the build myself. that was my reasoning for going with the stacked ply. in the end it was almost the same cost as the PE cabinets. unlike a lot of people, I have my doubts on whether the sound will be any better with the more robust cabinets. I just didn't care for the look of the PE cabinets. I don't think Selah uses the AM core at all?

mtruong34 · « **Reply #199 on:** 5 May 2012, 10:30 pm »

Quote from: saeyedoc on 5 May 2012, 08:24 pm

I saw your review, thanks for writing that. Do you recall what the material cost (if any) was for the cabinet upgrade and what shipping was?

I was charged the list price for the upgraded veneer and finish as published on the Vapor website. We then negotiated a small discount based on a larger down payment so it's difficult to say how much each upgrade cost me. Shipping was $180 from St. Louis to Houston.