Wooden mid horns

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#23
🙂
 

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#25
Its not difficult, and no special tools required
You only need good working space, and its a hell of dusty mess

oh, btw
If you are interested, and know how to handle glassfiber laminate, I have "plans" fore doing an easy mold fore elliptical horn, with complex rounded mouth shapes
Afterwards, if you like, It will also be fairly easy to do a 2-part professional mold
But I hate polyesther
 
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#27
:idea:

Mentioning cheese, you just made me remember

You can make this cheese cutting bow like thing
A big one ofcourse
If you put a battery on the string it will get hot
Then you can cut solid polystyrene blocks pretty accurately by following two carefully alligned shape pattern plates
The hard ones fore flooring will be tough enough without any further treatment
Its easy to glue solidly together with polyurethane glue
If you want it to be tougher, paint it, and it will take epoxy laminating
Or maybe ask for poly blocks in surfboards shops
But if reinforcing, I would do that part before assembling
If you want it to be heavier and more durable, put it in a plywood/MDF box
If you are good, you can make some real good looking horns quite easy, and cheap
 
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#28
SY said:
That's true (i.e., I could be a victim of self-deception). Though hearing differences in speakers is not exactly an extraordinary claim.

Never heard Drew Daniels's monster JBL system. Maybe that's the Holy Grail...
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I have read that "Back in the day" Drew Daniels most popular JBL speaker used two 15" ported woofers, a 10" midrange (JBL 2125 or 2123 ? ) and a compression driver horn tweeter.

I've moved away from small diameter midrange speakers to 8" - 10" almost full range drivers for a wider BW midrange, and I like the dynamics and coherence from crossovers around 80Hz and 1,500Hz. RAAL type ribbons have been the only 96+ db/watt tweeter alternative that my ears like.

Maybe speaker technology has advanced to where a dynamic midange driver can now integrate into a horn sytem.
 

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#29
Defo said:
Where can you get wooden horns like the ones below, or at least elliptical ones (not necessary wooden either) for compression drivers? 400hz or below cf. Only ones ive seen are Fostex H400 and the Pi speakers ones, but at ridiculous prices... Around 600 usd a pair is more realistic to me.
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In reference to Pi Speakers, I think you must be talking about our wood tweeter horn, which is rather expensive at $700. Our midhorn is only a hundred bucks, not too expensive. It's pretty easy to make. The tweeter horn is more difficult because it is curved, really a work of art. All the cost is in machine time, with some assembly and finishing time afterwards too. My goal when I started making them was $400, but when we had done a few, we realized it cost nearly twice that to make them.

Here's a photo of one of our wood tweeters on top of one of our wood midranges. You can see what I mean:

DSCN2937.JPG


Round horns are easy to make. They don't cost much at all because you can turn them on a lathe. But I've never been a fan of round horns. Elliptical and rectangular horns are more difficult, because they have to be cut on a multi-axis CNC machine. Best to go with a 5 axis machine, but you can do them on 3 axis machines with the right mounting procedures, but it takes several steps with repositioning between each one. It's trickier that way, and requires you to figure out a way to mount the part so that it remains indexed between flip operations. We do it with mounts that stay on the part until it is finished, when they are cut off like risers in a casting. Either way - 3 axis or 5 axis - you have to make hundreds of cutting passes and it takes a lot of machine time. Unless you own the machine, it costs $$$.
 
#31
Well, yeah, you're right. Got me.

I kinda sometimes forget not everyone knows my situation since we're such a small community (we audiophiles).

My cabinetmaker died last summer, so I took the $100 flat pack kits off the shopping cart to give time for the new cabinetmaker to get them down. They were a hundred bucks when I was selling them, and they'll be available at that price again in a few months (hopefully) but now all I can do is give you the plans and let you cut your own out. But the midhorn isn't hard to make 'cause it's all flat sides.

I can still make CNC cut stuff 'cause the CNC shop guys are all still there. The new assembly guy can make my boxes and so most of my cabinets are available now, but not midhorns. Those have been on hold now for some time.
 
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#33
Beats me what you want it fore
Many 2" or 1.5" doesnt go much lower than some 1", they just play louder
A few does, but you will limit yourself to using those because of that, and not able to choose fore best sound quality no more

2" is still smallish, 75mm diaphragm if I remember it
Mostly same driver as 1.4", just with bigger exit
To me it seems obvious that such a small driver doesnt work well at lower frequency
 
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#34
tinitus said:
Beats me what you want it fore
Most 2" doesnt go much lower than 1.5" or even some 1", they just play louder

I would study a bit more and get more experience with these things before you throw the towel, and your money

The only compresion drivers worth anything down low are probly also the most expencive japanese stuff, exstremely expencive
Click to expand...

Ive not seen any 1" compression drivers except JBL 2426 be capable to reach 500hz, and still peform good. And the JBL has a titanium diaphragm which is a total no go for me...
 
#37
JBL 2470 1" phenolic dia , driver will go 500Hz easy and Klipschorn folks are using it down to 400hz I heard. Yamaha JA6681B will do the same. Martin Seddon (Azura Horns) has a nice plot on his 160hz LeCleach horn.It's mostly about horn. Get the plans and look for local woodworker/carpenter to build you a pair.
 
#39
Defo said:
Sooo.... do anyone know of any 2" throat wooden midhorns under 1000 usd a pair?
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You are going to need to nuild your own or have someone CNC them for you. Go to audioheritage forums and so a search, there was a guy in Nth Europe who had a number of radial horns CHC'd for an HT. He may be able to help.

Or you could actually do the work and design them yourself; there are plenty of calculators available for different flare profiles.

tinitus said:
2" is still smallish, 75mm diaphragm if I remember it
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Many 2" exit drivers are 4" diaphragms.
 
#40
Brett said:
Many 2" exit drivers are 4" diaphragms.
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Well, yeah it varies
A few do have 4" voicecoil, but seems to be older models
Very many 2" exits have 3" voicecoil
As do most 1.4" exits

But the Radian in question is with 3" voicecoil
Tho the older Radian top model is 4"
Whether a bigger 2" exit would sound better I dont know, but its proably not expected to go much lower than its 1.5" brother
Other than the horn size may be slightly diffferent with a bigger throat

I only say this because I expect many people may not have realised this
 
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