New horns, the experiment worked.

[djn]

Hi All, I am a long time lurker and have not posted much. Now I have time on my hands and am enjoying hanging out here.

A friend of mine, Dan, designed and built a pair of 249hz Tractrix horns for his JBL 2445 compression drivers with TrueXtent Be diaphragms. We listen to them at his house last Saturday and we were blown away. Mind you, this was just pure listening: no measurements yet.

I thing we had some fairly good and experienced ears in the room and the consensus was that they kicked serious butt. OK, so much for the emotions.
To my ear (and others can chime in) they have the biggest sound stage if ever heard. I’ve heard big sound stages before but at a certain point, the imaging falls apart. There is a lack of coherence. Not in this case. This was an experiment......that worked!!!

With the TrueXtent there is no need for a tweeter. Dan was running them on a pair of JBL XX woofer cabs with the E145 and top to bottom, the sound was clear, detailed, uniform, and dynamic. It was truly one of the best systems I’ve ever heard. I was shaking my head the whole way home.
In attendance was me, Dan, Brad, Rick, and George. And we all were amazed at how good they sounded.

Going in to this project (I didn’t do anything except throw my constant support Dan’s way) I thought we would be messing with the throat for days on end, but the first rattle out of the box was damn near dead on.
So, Dan then brought the horns to my house because someone on the LHF has Dan’s diaphragms for testing. I have the JBL 2441s with Radian dias, JBL 2430 scoops with 2225 woofs, and the Big A$$ Heil on top.

I did not expect the Radian to sound nearly as good as the TrueXtent but damn! With the Heil, they sound great. You can see by the pics that the horns are way up above my listening position. Didn’t matter. In the bigger room, the dynamics and soundstage only increased. It is like being at a live concert but better. The imaging is fantastic as well.


I thought, the horns at Dan’s house sounded good, but think now that in my house, they sound better than anything I’ve ever heard......that is saying a lot for me...I am picky.

Anyway, here are some pix of the monsters. Anyone in my area is more than welcome to come listen. I can garunty that you will walk away impressed. Now to build my own pair.

P.S., the top of the Heil is 72” off the floor.

[tinitus]

Thas a nice "experiment"

Looks like the sides of horn are slightly convex ?
I havent seen that before
Or is it optical illusion ?

[mondogenerator]

Originally Posted by tinitus

Thas a nice "experiment"

Looks like the sides of horn are slightly convex ?
I havent seen that before
Or is it optical illusion ?

I know what you mean

I think though its a conical horn with the hemispheres at the top and bottom for a flare. Im not in any way an expert but i would think ive seen smaller tweeters (much smaller) with the hemispheres vertical instead, for a more directivity in the vertical plane.

or am i getting that mixed up?

[djn]

It does look convex, but they are straight. the first time I saw them I thought they looked like huge JBL baby Butt Cheeks.

The sound stage is massive but still has great detail and great imagine. The issue I have now it that they sound better when I stand behind my chair instead of sitting in it. I am fixin' to build smaller cabs and that will lower them down to ear height.