Hello,
I've flown in both cabins and actually find the back of the 2nd cabin (row 12) is more calm ... less passages by the cabin crew (who don't know how to walk lightly in a plane ... STOMP STOMP STOMP) and in my experience I haven't been bothered by noise from the Tempo cabin.
As Falco said, the cabin crew start at the rear (row 12) when they go into the 2nd cabin (or at least they're supposed to apparently).