5 Way horn project - big boy system!

[Hornucopia]

Next step? Computer connected sound adjustments?

 

[speedysteve]

Next step? Computer connected sound adjustments?

Do you mean active depending on music? Nope not for me...

 

[rakeshpoorun]

Hi Steve,

I was wondering whether you are in position to make 200Hz, 250Hz, 400Hz and 550Hz tractrix horns and what corresponding prices would be. I am thinking of resurrecting a long defunct project of mine...

Thanks

Rakesh

 

[speedysteve]

Hi Steve,I was wondering whether you are in position to make 200Hz, 250Hz, 400Hz and 550Hz tractrix horns and what corresponding prices would be. I am thinking of resurrecting a long defunct project of mine...

Thanks

Rakesh

Hi,

Have responded by Private Mail

Regards,

Steve

 

[Hornucopia]

NOW we know what Steve does at weekends!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27483035

(Press the photo to 'Play')

 

[speedysteve]

NOW we know what Steve does at weekends!http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27483035

(Press the photo to 'Play')

 

[speedysteve]

Been quiet here as not been doing anything to the system apart from listening to it.

Recently I did invite a couple of chaps round who had some interesting power amps.

Whilst the Topping TP60s certainly produce enough sound on sub and mid bass, and I preferred them to a ~20w KT-88 power amp, I've long thought they might be bettered.

Anyway, one amp was a many watted Behringer Inuke PA amp, the other a massive and heavy Chord offering.

The long and the short of it is that the inuke was a flipping revelation!!!

The Chord was good but not £7K RRP good. The inuke was better on the subs.

So I got me an Inuke and its great.

Modded the impossibility loud cooling fan and its a keeper.

The bass has never been so fast and commanding.

Hideous though it is...

The other thing is that I'm trialling a pair of 400hz tractrix horns for a while.

They sound nice enough. Not as airy as my 550hz.

More evaluation needed.

 

[Hayward]

Been quiet here as not been doing anything to the system apart from listening to it.Recently I did invite a couple of chaps round who had some interesting power amps.

Whilst the Topping TP60s certainly produce enough sound on sub and mid bass, and I preferred them to a ~20w KT-88 power amp, I've long thought they might be bettered.

Anyway, one amp was a many watted Behringer Inuke PA amp, the other a massive and heavy Chord offering.

The long and the short of it is that the inuke was a flipping revelation!!!

The Chord was good but not £7K RRP good. The inuke was better on the subs.

So I got me an Inuke and its great.

Modded the impossibility loud cooling fan and its a keeper.

The bass has never been so fast and commanding.

Hideous though it is...

The other thing is that I'm trialling a pair of 400hz tractrix horns for a while.

They sound nice enough. Not as airy as my 550hz.

More evaluation needed.

I have thought about the Inuke Steve. I was close to pulling the trigger on one a few months ago to run my bass. I loved the MF a370 on the mid-bass so much I didn't want to swap it out! However, I tried an Exposure VIII there and it works very well, so I kept it. Good to know that The Inuke is a good solution though, it would certainly be less expensive to run even if it's looks are er, challenging!

 

[speedysteve]

Yes, prob a lot to do with the damping factor. >145 into 8ohm. Valve amps rarely exceed 20. One Chord power amp I found info on is quoted as 102.

Only working on 20-90Hz the Inuke seems to be fine, bags of get up and go and stop on a dime as needed. I dread to think what it would sound like above performing all duties.

Here it is





Crown do some nice ones too - some even have no fans! More expensive though.

The Inuke DSP's have X/O and delay func too. Can't see how to work that volume wise with the other Najda channels though...

also the 400Hz in play

 

[pure sound]

Have you ever tried any LeCleach profile horns in this system Steve?

 

[speedysteve]

Have you ever tried any LeCleach profile horns in this system Steve?

No - not yet, but funny you should mention it, as I will be doing so on the S2's shortly - once more adapters are made

 

[speedysteve]

Tried a pair of Le Cleac'h 550's.

Prefer the Tractrix 400's to them...

 

[anubisgrau]

Tried a pair of Le Cleac'h 550's.Prefer the Tractrix 400's to them...

why? would you care to comment...?

 

[speedysteve]

Yes, I believe the lower freq suits the Vitavox driver better. All to do with getting nearer the driver throat exit angle.

Now a 400Hz Le Cleac'h might be another thing. They'd be too big to fit in my system though.

The perfect match might be 250 or so, but either in Le Cleac'h or tractrix.

They'd be way too big.

That said trying the 400's against my 550's I like both. Slight tonal diff. The 400's are nice though...

Might get a pair.

 

[speedysteve]

A little update:

I'm a firm fan of the 400Hz Tractrix horn on the Upper mid Vitavox S2 channel...

Also I've been thinking for a while now to try a 12" Eminence Kappa in the Mid bass horns.

I do enjoy the sound of my wide throat short exponential with the excellent JBL 2220's but I have to try 12" and now is the time...

So I will extend the existing horn.

A bit of Hornresp shows that the ideal for the Kappa 12 would be



Then I modeled the adapter piece I will make to fit the existing horn and lengthen it to the 110cm mark.

I will use segments of 21mm birch ply - same as rest of horns and thanks to Hornresp export I get the cutting guide



Err the correct cutting data is (can't seem to remove the above for some reason)



The Kappa's are on order and the rings will be cut and glued tomorrow!

This is how the modded horn will look schematic wise

and the modeled acoustic power



Looking forward to trying 12" mid bass...

 

[Hornucopia]

This is getting like the Physics/Chemistry questions on Univ Challenge!

WhaaaaT? Glad SOMEONE understands this! (-:

Shows the advantage of computing though; imagine Klipsch doing it all by ear.

 

[pure sound]

Looks very like my Bertha horn. That's 120 cm long & 70x70 at the mouth. Same driver too. Works well.

 

[speedysteve]

Yes Guy I remember that one. Having kinda cheated with the very low Q of the 2220, thought I'd try the more proper approach. We'll see if the 12" has the advantages you'd think it would...

Here's the schematic

 

[pure sound]

I ended up setting the back chamber volume by ear (as much as patience would allow) but feel that there ought to be some means of electrically determining that optimum volume by looking at how driver behaviour changes as the volume reduces. I imagine the resonance frequency increases but some other parameter must also be varying & be measurable such that there's an obvious optimal back chamber volume. But I don't know what it is. It'll be dependent on the loading afforded by the front horn too.

 

[speedysteve]

Yes, I did the same. Bit of back and forth with sand bags and then I used expanding foam to get a light but voluminous solution.