horn placement in line array

[kan3]

If I were to use a compression driver in a 12unit line array would it be better to place the horn in between the mids or to the side of them I.E.


M
M
M
M
M
M
H
M
M
M
M
M
M

OR

M
M
M
M
M
M
MH
M
M
M
M
M

I'm curious about the benfits of doing both...namely to driver spacing of the mids

[hunter audio]

hi

best on top , as better directivity & longer coverage - no use trying the point source principle here as the horn flare will any way have a way better polar responce than ne of the mids

another prob if not a very efficient tweeter you will have level matching probs

suranjan

[thylantyr]

I vote the center of the array and make sure the horn is aimed at the listening position. Another idea, make the horn tilt so if you do place it up high you can aim it lower towards the seating position. /heh

[hunter audio]

hi

sorry correction = please read polar responce ( of horn ) as horizontal and vertcal coverage

suranjan

[johninCR]

If the horn is less than 3-4" in height, then in the middle of the array, it's not going to create a big hole in your array dispersion. Plus it would look pretty silly out to the side. If it's a circular horn lens, then to the side, unless you are talking about one of those 3-4" bullet type compression tweeters (which would be fine in the middle).

In fact, I've had good results with those titanium bullet tweeters right in the middle of the array. I like my arrays to sound good while up and walking around and the rectangular shaped lenses lack good vertical dispersion and I don't really care for the plastic sound.

[kan3]

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=294-620

Thats the actual lense I was looking at. I was also looking at the vertical dispersion and thought the 60deg lens would be a smarter idea with a single HF unit, like you mentioned.

The sensitivity of the drivers will be realitively close, within 3db of each other. The compression driver by itself, after eq, sits around 103-104db@1w. I'm running an active setup with variable crossover/level settings per individual channel so its not a concern really.

[johninCR]

What are you doing for main drivers and what are you thinking for an XO point ? I think the lens choice is a good one for dispersion purposes. To reduce it's height you could cut off most of the top and bottom mounting flange and get the lens overall height down below 3.5" in an effort to minimize the gap in your main driver spacing due to the tweeter just to be on the safe side.

[kan3]

The 4.5" vifa buyouts from PE

Not sure what the crossover point will be yet. The lens says its good down to 1.5khz so most likely between 1.5-2.25khz. I'll run some measurements to see what works best...I also have to keep it below the wavelength of the 5" spacing.

Compression driver will be the B&C de10, unless of course I REALLY like the results enough to pull off my de250 from my other setup and use that instead.

The lens has a cutout height of 4.3" so I don't think I'm going to beable to get it down that far =]

[johninCR]

Sorry I was looking at the wrong dimension for the flange reduction. I've never crossed nearly that low because I find the real world effects of comb filtering to be minimal, so you should be fine with that lens. If you make your center to center spacing all equal and the driver mounting flange will fit through the Vifa cutout, then you can experiment both ways before deciding or make a test baffle and run them OB for a test.

[roddyama]

Kan3,

I would suggest you do some experimenting. Build two boxes with 6 Vifas in each and a separate enclosure for the horn. You may even consider a curved array depending on how large your listening room will be.

There is also a school of thought that would offset the horn in toward the center to "time align" the actual driver with that of the direct radiators. If you do make the separate experimental boxes, you can try this as well.