Has anyone tried flocking a horn or a tweeter baffle with it? I wonder if it would change the reflection of high frequency and perhaps "soften" the tone a bit..
Flocking (texture - Wikipedia)
Flocking (texture - Wikipedia)
Do you think it would be better than felt or similar? That works well. I've also used faux fur. Works.
I've experimented with carpet, scrub pads and various cloth and even burlap. I don't have any equipment to actually "see" the differences but I have my ears and lots of time. Things do change and I'm always thinking outside of the box..
I figure flocking could be more flexible in the terms of creativity and appearance. Trying to treat a simple Piezo horn with anything else would be a pain..
**Dunno how this thread ended up here. I posted in the Construction area..**
I figure flocking could be more flexible in the terms of creativity and appearance. Trying to treat a simple Piezo horn with anything else would be a pain..
**Dunno how this thread ended up here. I posted in the Construction area..**
Peavey QT horns used foam at the horn mouth: https://community.klipsch.com/uploads/gallery/album_6/gallery_26262_6_85940.jpg
Back in the early 1970's encountered some cabinets using re-entrant horns with the interiors covered with a "fuzzy" kind of texture.
Low frequency was 2x15".
I think they were branded ARB, but have not found any examples on-line.
As I recall, the "fuzz" did not seem to help the lost cause...
Fuzz has little acoustic effect unless it is like 1/4 wavelength thick.
Estimating flock as 1/16 of an inch, I get 13KHz as a low limit.
You can experiment. Get a box or panel which is flock one side and not the other. Hold it near your ear and listen to ambient sound, both ways. Obviously any near-ear object will change the sound pattern. But what difference flock or not? I suspect very little, and only in the high sizzle end of the spectrum.
(True, even a 13KHz limit would take some of the curse off the Motorola piezos.)
The flock principle is extensible. Cut your own inch-long flock and it may absorb down to 800Hz. This is perhaps similar to the dead-cats school of room acoustics.
Estimating flock as 1/16 of an inch, I get 13KHz as a low limit.
You can experiment. Get a box or panel which is flock one side and not the other. Hold it near your ear and listen to ambient sound, both ways. Obviously any near-ear object will change the sound pattern. But what difference flock or not? I suspect very little, and only in the high sizzle end of the spectrum.
(True, even a 13KHz limit would take some of the curse off the Motorola piezos.)
The flock principle is extensible. Cut your own inch-long flock and it may absorb down to 800Hz. This is perhaps similar to the dead-cats school of room acoustics.
That was most of my intention. I love Piezo tweeters and have some control of them but the "Honkiness" is a tough one to deal with..
I've padded the rear chamber with cotton, fiberglass, foam, tissue.. All kinds of different materials. Each has their own effect. Never treated the horn surface as of yet. I'll be toying around with some flock in the near future, I'm sure. You have given me a direction that might just fix my dilemma! Thank You PRR..
I've padded the rear chamber with cotton, fiberglass, foam, tissue.. All kinds of different materials. Each has their own effect. Never treated the horn surface as of yet. I'll be toying around with some flock in the near future, I'm sure. You have given me a direction that might just fix my dilemma! Thank You PRR..
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I've seen acoustic foam glued to the front baffle. It was ugly but I guess it served its purpose.
Felt covered baffles are fairly common. My speakers have them. I guess it helps a little.
If you look at a lot of tweeters they have a mini baffle. The ubiquitous "phenolic ring" tweeter is a vintage example. And dome tweeters usually have a satin finish ring (either plastic or painted aluminum) which is no accident.
Finally, piezo tweeters can be tamed with a crossover. Typical impedance is about 100 ohms, so you can parallel a resistor (say 10 ohms 5-10 watt) and then employ traditional crossover techniques to tame the sound. Raw piezos hooked up with no crossover never sounded good to me. Even a 10 ohm resistor with a simple first or second order crossover cleans them up a whole lot. Try it!
Felt covered baffles are fairly common. My speakers have them. I guess it helps a little.
If you look at a lot of tweeters they have a mini baffle. The ubiquitous "phenolic ring" tweeter is a vintage example. And dome tweeters usually have a satin finish ring (either plastic or painted aluminum) which is no accident.
Finally, piezo tweeters can be tamed with a crossover. Typical impedance is about 100 ohms, so you can parallel a resistor (say 10 ohms 5-10 watt) and then employ traditional crossover techniques to tame the sound. Raw piezos hooked up with no crossover never sounded good to me. Even a 10 ohm resistor with a simple first or second order crossover cleans them up a whole lot. Try it!
I've had good luck with shorting the Piezo with a 22 ohm resistor and adding 33 ohms in series from the source as a starting point. (No cap of any kind) The series resistor can be changed in value to change the output level.
A piece of a cotton ball installed in the cavity behind the Piezo element/diaphragm helps with the internal rear reflections. (Don't pack the area too tightly) PITA to unsolder the element leads to get enough room to install the cotton but IMO.. It's worth the effort!
There are still some reflections in the horn area that I believe flocking may change enough to get the sound that I'm looking for. So.. Flock It! It'll be another thing to mess with.. 😉
A 6.5/8" full range driver, A BSC circuit (.8/1mH) and some various low ohm resistors are ingredients for a simple 2-way using a Piezo..
A piece of a cotton ball installed in the cavity behind the Piezo element/diaphragm helps with the internal rear reflections. (Don't pack the area too tightly) PITA to unsolder the element leads to get enough room to install the cotton but IMO.. It's worth the effort!
There are still some reflections in the horn area that I believe flocking may change enough to get the sound that I'm looking for. So.. Flock It! It'll be another thing to mess with.. 😉
A 6.5/8" full range driver, A BSC circuit (.8/1mH) and some various low ohm resistors are ingredients for a simple 2-way using a Piezo..
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