How to choose the correct Horn??

[Jer]

Again another age old question, but the answer seems to be illuding me. Partly because manufactures seem to tell very little about the actual characteritics of the horn other than dispersion.

This brings me to my question, how do you go about choosing the correct horn with such limited information?

I am trying to find a nice horn flare for a 2" driver that will play down to about 900hz, have a good 60x40 dispersion, but the factor that is most confusing me, is that I would like something that give me a medium throw.

There are so many shapes and sizes that apear to have the same charactersitics.

Thanks for the help!

[Ken L]

Originally posted by Jer
that I would like something that give me a medium throw.

Not an expert here, but I'll try to point you in the right direction _grin_

Throw is determined by the length (depth) of the horn compared to the width of the horn. Throw and dispersion are relative to each other if all other things are equal - Long throw will be narrow dispersion and short throw will be wide dispersion -

You select a horn by dispersion, shape, spl and frequency range, type and material

Rectangular does sound different than round - but round is generally harder to incorporate into a design - so as usual, always the trade- offs - dispersion you want to match to other drivers and crossover point - spl match to other drivers and your requirements, frequency range -

last but not least here, you should pick a horn that you can incorporate well into an overall coherent design - Paying particular attention to crossover points, time alignment, etc. and this is related to your intended purpose -

Generally, we have a tendency to think that everyone intends to use them the same way - not so - a wide variety of uses, and purposes - so there is no _right way_

What is your usage here? Pro? Residential??

probably the best source to check out for 2" compression driven horns is

http://www.ddshorns.com/products.htm

They seem to be well thought of and make an excellent product.

Give them a call, they are nice to talk to and informative - and I bet will be up front if they're product isn't suitable for what you're doing.

Regards

Ken L

[Jer]

Sorry

The horns are intended to be used in FOH cabinets for my PA rig

[mikee12345]

have a read at audioasylum
and the Pi forum

Hf horns are fiddly and require alot of knowledge to match comp driver to horn flare.

even a DIY midrange can be constructed not so difficultily...

Wayne at pi speakers will inform you .

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pi/bbs.html

[Ken L]

Originally posted by mikee12345
have a read at audioasylum
and the Pi forum....Wayne at pi speakers will inform you .
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Wayne also has a pretty slick crossover method where he crosses 3rd order on the high pass and second order on the low pass, that seems to work very well and is worthy of your reading up on over at his site

Regards

Ken L

[mikee12345]

Hes pretty onto it

he knows all his stuff(one of the few) and offers unbiased opinion.

he matches crossover carefully to system

[hancock]

Originally posted by mikee12345
Hes pretty onto it

he knows all his stuff(one of the few) and offers unbiased opinion.

he matches crossover carefully to system

In the interests of transparency, it is worth noting that the crossover that Wayne sells is an off the shelf Eminence part--same crossover regardless of speaker. I don't know if that qualifies as carefully matched. Careful what you read on the net.

John

[Ken L]

Originally posted by hancock
off the shelf Eminence part--same crossover regardless of speaker.John

Ummmm, wellll that particular information would tend to put a different light on matters.

John -

What do you think of the 3rd order High pass, 2nd order Low pass for a crossover in the 2K range?

Regards

Ken L

[mikee12345]

In the interests of transparency, it is worth noting that the crossover that Wayne sells is an off the shelf Eminence part--same crossover regardless of speaker. I don't know if that qualifies as carefully matched. Careful what you read on the net.

mm i said that cos he helped a mate with his jbl2370 HF horn filter,which uses a similar HF comp driver to the eminence ones i think...

crossovers aside-he DOES know his stuff.ive chatted to him alot.

[Brett]

Originally posted by mikee12345
crossovers aside-he DOES know his stuff.ive chatted to him alot.

I'm not sure I agree. I've read a lot of his posts on AA over the years and there have been excellent and often very contradictory points made by other people of experience and understanding, Bruce Edgar and Tom Danley to name two. Personally I would never use a 2370 domestically and every Emininence compression driver I've ever heard sounded pretty dire.