Check out these new horns - Very Impressive

[djn]

Hi All, I spent the weekend at the AKfest in Livonia MI. It was a great time with LOTS to see, but I spent most of the time listening to Dan Csomos' new horns. Man do they sound great. Solid wood horn tops and bottom flares. Driven by the JBL 2445 CD with the True X Tent barrilium (SP) diaphragms. The bottom cab is about 5 cu ft and has the Lambda TD15X driver. These are just prototypes but the fit and finish is outstanding and the sound is huge....with....great imaging. I don't often find the two in the same speaker. They are flat from about 24hz to 20khz. Here are some pix. The horn flares and down posts are mahagony and the lighter wood is, I think, Maple. I think Dan is planning on putting them up on some sort of spikes. Cheers.

[bear]

Glad they sound good, but I am surprised at the "bi-radial" horn design. It's basically a diffraction slot loaded with two horn surfaces, one a simple conical and the other being two spherical surfaces. In general diffraction slots don't sound that good...

what is a "True X Tent" diaphragm? Link?

Thanks...

_-_-bear

[Flaesh]

Truextent - Advanced Acoustic Technology

[djn]

The horn flares are Tractrix flares. I am not really up on all the mechanics of horns, but I've had all the big JBLs, Altecs, Klipschs, Yuccies, and these, for what ever reason, sound better than any of them. I have mine on order.

[gedlee]

Originally Posted by bear

It's basically a diffraction slot loaded ... In general diffraction slots don't sound that good...

I was at AKFest as well. I think that these speakers looked much better than they sounded - but visually they were quite impressive. I cannot imagine the labor involved in making them however.

[djn]

Hi Earl, I would be interested in your thoughts on how they sounded. I wish I would have bumped into you at the fest. Cheers.

[gedlee]

Well they were harsh, just like all diffraction horns. They were the best sounding speakers at the show, I would agree with that - in general the speakers there were very bad. Rooms like that are never going to work well, which is why I never show anything in that type of venue. Those speakers were typical of the sound quality of a premium set of two way horn loaded system of a decade or more ago. A modern horn/waveguide won't have the diffraction and reflections that a diffraction horn will and the sound quality will always be much better. Horn design has come a long way in the last 20 years and the horn design on those systems is quite dated.

[WithTarragon]

Originally Posted by bear

Glad they sound good, but I am surprised at the "bi-radial" horn design. It's basically a diffraction slot loaded with two horn surfaces, one a simple conical and the other being two spherical surfaces. In general diffraction slots don't sound that good...

what is a "True X Tent" diaphragm? Link?

Thanks...

_-_-bear

I guess I don't see that. I have owned diffraction slot speakers (JBL bi-radials and Altec Manta Rays). The slot is quite pronounced, unlike what we see in the above photos.

I have found that it is difficult to sometimes look at the horn and then conclude what its expansion rate is (conical etc). It really does require physically measuring the beast and plotting the expansion rate.

While on the topic of a possible diffraction slot, was there any claim that these were CD horns?

[gedlee]

That it was "conical" was a guess, that it is a diffraction horn is pretty obvious. Actually it cannot be "conical", but I think that is beside the point.

I don't know what was claimed. I don't usually ask because people will tell you what they think that you want to hear and they never seem to have anything to support their claims. So your better off just drawing your own conclusions.

[bear]

I think I said the two side walls are conical... ok, flat then ok? ... the "baby cheeks" appear to be spherical sections.

Not sure what part of it is supposed to be "tractrix"??

The entry point to the horn is by definition a diffraction slot, it can be identified by the "rectangular" shape with sharp edges - that is a diffraction slot.

_-_-bear

_-_-bear