Ever think of building a Cornu Spiral horn? Now you can!

I used four different 4" drivers in the same Cornu that I built for my son, he kept blowing them up at college partied. Two different tangbands, a parts express, and a Mark Audio pluvia 7. They all sounded pretty good, just needed to adjust the stuffing to taste for each different driver. Pretty forgiving design. I have no idea what became of them after college.
 
frugal-phile™
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Pretty forgiving design

Horn & wall placement dominate. So bass can be made to work. midTop character then becomes the determiner.

There are lots of nice 3” drivers (what seems more appropriate for the size you want).

The Fostex FF85wk and Mark Audio Aplair 5.2/3 are my favotites. The 3” FaitalPro is very close. Both the paper cones benefit from (fairly) simple modifications. On a budget it is VERY hard to beat teh Mark Audio CHN-50.

dave
 
I'm just running across this design and these really look intriguing! I'm wondering if a smaller, wall mounted Cornu can be set up to play decently with a sub (or two, crossed at around 85hz or so)?

Edit: I mean specifically designed to mate with a sub, in terms of drivers and cabinet dimensions :)
 
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I think the point is lost then. If you introduce a bass unit, you may as well make much smaller satellites than Cornucopya. When I bring out the 36” with the RS 40-1354 (5.25”) you get to watch your friends search for the woofer box. It takes quite some time for them to finally believe you that there isn’t one. I refer to them as the S&G speakers. (S***s & Giggles)
 
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I'm making progress on the choice of parameters for my Cornu.
I read on page 2 that the groove surface had to be equal to Sd, ie for a Cornu with two grooves at the start Sd/2.
I made a table of the Sd characteristics of the loudspeakers and I calculated the throat surface and therefore the height of the snail strips.

hpSd (cm2)surface gorge x2 (cm2)largeur gorge (cm)hauteur gorge (cm)hauteur gorge (")
4FE3248242,78,93,5
3FE2230,215,12,75,62,2
10F841436,218,12,76,72,6
10F842436182,76,72,6

with the spiral plane I measure a throat width of almost 1 inch (2.7cm) so depending on the speaker the height would be between 2.2 inch and 3.5 inch.
does that seem like a reasonable calculation to you?
 
spiral sans longueur droite.png


version of the spiral without a straight length at the end of the horn.
the dimension of the square becomes 80 cm x 80cm (31.5" x 31.5")
 
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While I am far from an authority, I think the non-uniform / variable rate of curve may provide some function beyond the ease of bending plywood. I worked on the math to calculate a perfectly uniform rate spiral (Cornu, spiro, clothoid, or Euler spiral, variously) only to see in other places that rounding over square/sharp corners in transmission lines was counter-productive. So, while adding damping material would attenuate the higher frequency waves, taking those bends out seemed like going double speed in the wrong direction to me (cutting out one thing to have to compensate with another).

(And then my wife veto'd the application anyway).
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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I read on page 2 that the groove surface had to be equal to Sd

Sd will have near nothing to do with the alignment. An artifact of “Classic Design”.

The primary parameters interact to give an alignment (in a horn, or TL a cross-section x a length) are Qts, Fs, and Vas. The parameter that most close aligns with how Sdis used would be the last.

In a horn the enclosure dominates. If you put a driver with “too much” in the horn you usually get too much bass, add some stuffing to pull that back. How low the horn goes is dependent on its geometry, and in the case of the cornucopia do not forget that the wall they mount on is an extention of the horn.

Take people's comments and experience when it comes to optimum sizing.

dave
 
The primary parameters interact to give an alignment (in a horn, or TL a cross-section x a length) are Qts, Fs, and Vas. The parameter that most close aligns with how Sdis used would be the last.

dave

thanks dave
I understand that Sd is not the most important parameter to determine the groove surface. I re-read this thread and it was already explained.
But what are the links between Qts, Fs, Vas and throat calculus?
I can't find the formula that indicates this relationship.
the speakers that are quoted in this thread are very different on these parameters, almost double for some parameters.
Fréquence de résonanceFsHz10011010090
Facteur de qualité électriqueQes0,70,50,650,41
Facteur de qualité mécaniqueQms4,952.443.49
Facteur de qualité totalQts0,60,470,510,37
Volume d'air équivalent à la suspensionVaslitres21,11,572,1

I would be surprised if the throat surface is identical with such differences.
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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But what are the links between Qts, Fs, Vas and throat calculus?
I can't find the formula that indicates this relationship.

With many degrees of freedom things get complex. One has to use a good piece of software to simulate. HornResp is the current standard (MJK NLA).

This is a quick summary of the math, it has lots of holes. http://p10hifi.net/TLS/downloads/Dinsdale-Horns-3parts.pdf

This is more comprehensive. A 1200 page textbook: https://audioxpress.com/article/book-review-exploring-high-quality-horn-loudspeaker-systems

But you still need the software.

dave
 
I'm going to re-visit this design, because I might have an application where I can wall-mount some speakers!

I don't have any materials yet, but I plan to re-use my FaitalPRO 3FE25 speakers in a 24"x24" Cornu box.

However, I went on a brief thought tangent with regard to compound horns. After briefly mentioning this to xrk971 with regards to the Tannoy Westminster speakers, he said that the Cornu speakers could work with a front horn. The problem I'm having is understanding what kind of front horn would be suitable, so without adding any further 'buffoonery' I thought I'd put my thought out there and see what people thought...
 
hello
after some research in the pavilion literature I calculated the groove necessary for finally a fostex FF105WK.
the speaker enclosure will be 60cm (23.6") side.

I try to do a simulation on hornresp but I stumble on the parameters.
the horns are uneven and I don't understand how to synthesize that in hornrep.
Thanks for your help