Thoughts on Horn 350 Hz Smith horns.

I found a guy who makes Horn 350 Hz Smith horns on the bay for a very reasonable price. I've never heard Smith horns so I am reluctant to pull the trigger. Also, a 1" driver, that I know off, goes down to 350hz.
 

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If it's Les in Vegas, I've listened to a pair at his place and they are really nice. His were running 4" phragm/1.5" exit drivers and Be phragms. I think 2451s, not the 2" exit with the snout. First time I'd heard a CD crossed over that low, but it worked .

If those are the ones, I have pics on the computer - on a tablet now.
 
I make "Big Smith Horns" which are currently only posted on the Facebook Horn Marketplace. I will be posting them on eBay soon. I just looked for Smith Horns on eBay and could not find the listing djn was referring to. Please give me a listing number so I can see what they are and what price that seller is asking. Reasonable is in the eye of the beholder. I would be glad to demo mine for you before you make any decision if you are planning a visit to Las Vegas. JR_W was correct about the JBL 2451s with the BeX diaphragms. I have tried a wide range of similar drivers. Several of us have crossed an Altec 288 over at 200 Hz and the results were pleasant to our ears as well. Les Orr in Las Vegas
 
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I just looked "a different way": and found eBay 112044424826 - Moldova and eBay 252481724287 - Ukraine. If those are the listings djn was referring to, neither of them has anything to do with me. I am familiar with the designs pictured in the photos. I have not seen or heard either of these horns myself. I am not personally aware of a driver with a 1 in throat that I would want to cross over below 500 Hz, but maybe there are some. I have been at this for ~ half a century and have seen and heard a lot of speakers, horns and drivers. In any event, good luck. Les Orr
 
Hi All;

I have also heard a pair of the horns that Les built (very very well built by the way!) and quite frankly was surprised that you could cross even a large format driver that low, and have it sound good, but at domestic listening levels, you sure can. Makes for a really cool two way!

I like the even in room response, it sounds nearly the same everywhere, I bet they would be dynamite for home theater! This has me thinking,,,hmmm.

The horns pictured aren't the Les horns though.

Barry
 
I'm with you guys, I run 350hz round tractrix horns with the JBL2441 and I cross them at 700hz. Any lower than that puts a strain on the CD.

Yes, the ones I am looking at are here. For 200 bucks they might be worth a try. When I look at the smith horn, it looks like the vertical dispersion would be limited. Is that your experience?

Horn 350 Hz 1 Inches | eBay
 
I make "Big Smith Horns" which are currently only posted on the Facebook Horn Marketplace. I will be posting them on eBay soon. I just looked for Smith Horns on eBay and could not find the listing djn was referring to. Please give me a listing number so I can see what they are and what price that seller is asking. Reasonable is in the eye of the beholder. I would be glad to demo mine for you before you make any decision if you are planning a visit to Las Vegas. JR_W was correct about the JBL 2451s with the BeX diaphragms. I have tried a wide range of similar drivers. Several of us have crossed an Altec 288 over at 200 Hz and the results were pleasant to our ears as well. Les Orr in Las Vegas

Let me know when they hit the market Lesorr. I'd be interested.
 
For size reference only, these were unfinished prototypes. You can judge the size vs the regular Smith horns on the inner pair of speakers. And I think at this point, he had Be on one horn and Ti on the other - still in the dialing it in phase.
 

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Looking at the pic to link Les found, those look like 90 degree? Smiths proper are 120 degree right?

I don't see any dimensions listed at all.

I am not going to knock anyone who's native tongue is not english, but I do like my horns direct drive! At least he gives speed settings. 🙂

Barry.
 
I was talking over with someone a few weeks ago about how trivially easy it would be to make a "Synergy" variation of a Smith Horn. Those perfectly flat surfaces for midrange driver offset mounting are very tempting.

For that matter, it doesn't look like a Smith Horn would be difficult to make, shouldn't take more than a jigsaw and a drill....
 
I bought some monster Gauss 4000 compression drivers once and they came with the 4140 horns.The combination is really excellent if you want to spotlight the room with a warm sweet organic sound but in a small room with a good uncompressed recording it is almost too intense. Diffraction horns can be fun. I have other horns that may exhibit this but not with this kind of radiation. lol

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
I found a guy who makes Horn 350 Hz Smith horns on the bay for a very reasonable price. I've never heard Smith horns so I am reluctant to pull the trigger. Also, a 1" driver, that I know off, goes down to 350hz.

A 350 hz Smith horn probably is good to 600 cycles as far as loaded the low end - radiation typically is wide horizontally and erratic vertically. There are a couple 1" drivers out there that will go that low but if you're used to a large format driver you will probably be disappointed.
 
I was talking over with someone a few weeks ago about how trivially easy it would be to make a "Synergy" variation of a Smith Horn. Those perfectly flat surfaces for midrange driver offset mounting are very tempting.

For that matter, it doesn't look like a Smith Horn would be difficult to make, shouldn't take more than a jigsaw and a drill....

But what size would be needed to get pattern control down to 3-400 hz?
 
A full size 200 Hz horn may do it. That's 70 inch mouth circumference. 150 should do it - that's only 90" so the horn cn be pretty small.

Sorry to bump an older thread, but I was wondering: what are the dimensions of a 200Hz full size horn? Is it just a case of scaling the width and depth of the horn relative to the wavelength of the lowest frequency desired?
 
Sorry to bump an older thread, but I was wondering: what are the dimensions of a 200Hz full size horn? Is it just a case of scaling the width and depth of the horn relative to the wavelength of the lowest frequency desired?
If you simply want dimensions, this calculator will do it for exponential horns:

Calculate Back Loaded Exponential Horn

The throat area will affect the length required, for instance a 5cm (2") diameter throat 200Hz Fc (cutoff frequency) horn would be 65cm long with a 54 cm diameter mouth, while using a 2.5" (1") throat would increase the length to 84cm.

That said, using a compression driver, the response at Fc will likely be 20 (or more) dB down from the mid-band, as can be seen in the 180Hz Fc triple folded (re-entrant) TH-660 horn using the TOA TU-631 thread on driver.
Note the dispersion of a standard exponential is not at all like the Smith diffraction horn.

A "375 Hz" DSH (distributed source horn) should be crossed over about an octave higher than Fc.
The JBL 2397 Smith horn using throat adapters for 1" or 2" recommends 800 Hz as the lowest crossover.

Art
 

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