I built Gary Dahl’s 3 cu ft sealed GPA Altec 416-8B midwoofers. Gary uses them with his RAAL ribbon tweeters and Azurahorn/Radian drivers. He uses the Altecs from 700Hz to 70Hz, which really keeps distortion very low. Below 70Hz, his subs takeover. See them all stacked up in these photos http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/100392-beyond-ariel-1165.html
However, I spend a lot of time at that thread and can’t recall anyone who uses any First Watt or Pass amp to drive the countless horn designs there. Most, if not all of them seem very happy with tube amps, many of which are very well designed, like Gary’s.
As its been months since I’ve been able to nail down what drivers to go for above the Altecs, I am eager to take suggestions from anyone here who may happen to be truly delighted with their First Watt amps driving a specific horn system. And when playing a very wide variety of music.
I have First Watt J2 and F4 amps and a pair of 12” sealed Rythmik servo subs.
However, I spend a lot of time at that thread and can’t recall anyone who uses any First Watt or Pass amp to drive the countless horn designs there. Most, if not all of them seem very happy with tube amps, many of which are very well designed, like Gary’s.
As its been months since I’ve been able to nail down what drivers to go for above the Altecs, I am eager to take suggestions from anyone here who may happen to be truly delighted with their First Watt amps driving a specific horn system. And when playing a very wide variety of music.
I have First Watt J2 and F4 amps and a pair of 12” sealed Rythmik servo subs.
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I have a pair of modified Klipsch LaScala's I have used 3 Firstwatt clones with. An Aleph 30 which sounded very good with no harshness and a single ended 3 stage Burning amp that was nice and smooth that I would have been very satisfied with if I had not built an F6. Right now I am using the F6 but I did change the crossover to a 1st order because the F6 shows more detail and I quickly detected some problem with my old crossover network. I am using an Altec 511b as my midrange with the original K55M driver and a after market tweeter. In my opinion horn systems are made for Class A amplifiers whether SS or tube.
David
David
Aleph 5 for Urei / JBL 813c, the last incarnation of Altec 604 based monitor.
Aleph J x3 for JBL DMS-1, pro version of K2 M9500.
Alephs are great for JBL driver. High resolution without harshness, tube like air with solid bass. I just fell in love with it when I heard it at NY audio show about 20 years ago. It's really great to see many people still love them and DIY them.
Aleph J x3 for JBL DMS-1, pro version of K2 M9500.
Alephs are great for JBL driver. High resolution without harshness, tube like air with solid bass. I just fell in love with it when I heard it at NY audio show about 20 years ago. It's really great to see many people still love them and DIY them.
You can't beat a conventional cone driver paired with a mid horn for low distortion as the horn loading is so efficient that only tens of micrometers of cone movement are required for 100dB. This very low movement (for a driver with order 2.5mm xmax) translates to very low HD.
Here is a 5in PRV 5MR450-NDY driver coupled to a tractrix. There is not a compression driver that can achieve low HD like this. The clarity and sound of vocals is amazing.
The data below is from the bigger horn (30in wide mouth and 3.75in square throat):
The smaller horn with 2in square throat can use 3.5in cone drivers like the SS10F and also achieve similarly low levels of HD.
Here is a 5in PRV 5MR450-NDY driver coupled to a tractrix. There is not a compression driver that can achieve low HD like this. The clarity and sound of vocals is amazing.
The data below is from the bigger horn (30in wide mouth and 3.75in square throat):
The smaller horn with 2in square throat can use 3.5in cone drivers like the SS10F and also achieve similarly low levels of HD.
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More info for open baffle:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/259293-prv-5mr450-ndy-fast-applications.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/259293-prv-5mr450-ndy-fast-applications.html
Yes, slightly higher HD but still very good (in the -45dB range if I recall). Here is OB response:
You can't beat a conventional cone driver paired with a mid horn for low distortion as the horn loading is so efficient that only tens of micrometers of cone movement are required for 100dB. This very low movement (for a driver with order 2.5mm xmax) translates to very low HD.
Here is a 5in PRV 5MR450-NDY driver coupled to a tractrix. There is not a compression driver that can achieve low HD like this. The clarity and sound of vocals is amazing.
The data below is from the bigger horn (30in wide mouth and 3.75in square throat):
The smaller horn with 2in square throat can use 3.5in cone drivers like the SS10F and also achieve similarly low levels of HD.
What kind of horn is this? Custom made?
I got the dimensions from Volvotreter's spreadsheet. It's made of foam core but you can make out of wood of course. Plans (scale pdf flat drawings) are in the Trynergy thread. It required some 3D manipulations to convert (or flatten) a curved tractrix onto a flat cut plan.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full...ing-trynergy-full-range-tractrix-synergy.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full...ing-trynergy-full-range-tractrix-synergy.html
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