I’m putting together a hybrid OB / horn speaker. I have 8 x AE Dipole 12 woofers to play with, so 4 per side. Current plan for them is a 1.5 arrangement whereby 2 of them are low passed at 100hz, whereas the other 2 are low passed at c. 600hz. This post concerns the 100hz low pass ones. I am thinking I might put each one in a U frame. Alternatively I could put 2 in a SLOB with wings, similar to the configuration XRK used on his XSD speakers.
I’d welcome any thoughts or comments from the OB cognoscenti on the relative merits / disadvantages of these options, or indeed any other suggestions.
I’d welcome any thoughts or comments from the OB cognoscenti on the relative merits / disadvantages of these options, or indeed any other suggestions.
Are you going to buy a premade horn or design one in ath? Also any pics or models of what you're planning to build?
Although they are brilliant horns, they're not constant directivity, are you aiming to have a rising DI with the open baffle arrangement? I have wondered for a while if Harmon house curve could be replicated but with a general boost across the frequency range, to get pinpoint imaging, and the tonal balance of a rising DI speaker.
I‘m persuaded by those who argue that in a domestic setting horn loading is more important than directivity. The combination choice is no more sophisticated than that I like OBs and I like horns, so why not both together, knowing that others have successfully gone down this route.
OK I have had a new idea and that is to arrange the 4 woofers like this mounted in a single large U frame 🙁or maybe H frame). Are there any acoustic issues with such an arrangement?
There are always trade-offs, these are key to a design. So, not necessarily. Are you familiar with the compromises of a U frame?
From my previous experience, the U-frame design tends to be harder to correct FR and deal with the peaking. The SLOB that Nelson Pass and XRT designed seems to be the best compromise IMO. I haven't built a large SLOB yet, but I'm leaning towards the latter mentioned design with the low buck GRS woofers and keep the slot as small as possible to push the resonance up high.