My ideal Sub plans

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John, I'd expect in that comparison the JBL to be a much better driver. You have a very good driver vs a typical hifi sub driver which on its own probably doesn't sound that great (ok below 40 Hz). What would be interesting is to see a comparison of a driver that is very good as a direct radiator, but loaded in a bass horn. I'd be very interested to see something like the Rythmik Audio direct servo kit horn loaded to see if it improves on it.
 
hey Paul,

I've experimented with various drivers in my bass horn. Once, I even tried out the little JBL 2118--an 8 inch lower mid-range driver. Believe it or not, the horn made bass, very pretty bass now that I think of it. Hummmm.... I have 4) JBL 2123s, I wonder what one would sound like in a bass horn? The gradual bend in my bass horn allows some of the finer characteristics of the driver to reach the mouth.

The Lab 12 is a smooth driver in the TLs, and it hits hard with the help of the horn. It doesn't sound very pretty though. This may be part of my problem. I was so busy trying to make Lab 12 bass that I forgot about a driver's "presence". I'll swap in a few other drivers and get back to you...

Maybe there's a way to fall in love with my bass horn, again. :sax: :sax:

John
 
Oh my god...

I was surfing, and look what I found:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030202052012/http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lotusblossom/_wsn/page4.html

This my bass horn, indeed, the one I've been going on about. I lost this page when Earthlink crashed my web site back in 2001. Thanks goes to Jeff Robinson for carrying this archive link all these years. I'm truly tickled.

John

Btw, it takes awhile for this page to load. I had to hit the reload button several times to bring up all the images.
 
I swapped out the Lab 12 in my bass horn and replaced it with an Eminence Pro Kappa 10" driver.

The results are pretty darn cool. It's a brand new driver, so I'm giving it time to loosen up, but at the moment it sounds more like my JBL 2240s. The horn now produces a pleasant sounding mid-bass and a more natural sounding 40hz note. It's warmer than the Lab 12. My DSP unit won't allow it to play below 40hz, what with it's 4th order roll-off.

What's really neat, is the fact that the 10" driver can produce the same volume of sound as a pair of 18s. That's one feature of a horn that I'll always be fond of.

bye for now,

John
 
I think the horn tends to mask the driver's sound qualities. There must be a world of difference between the Lab 12 and Pro Kappa 10 to sound this different.

My center channel has a 3 cubic foot, concrete lined, reflex cab loaded with a pair of Pro Kappa 12s. It sounds like honey. I enjoy the sound of a low Q driver in a large enclosure. Turns out I like this feature in a horn as well...

John
 
The Eminence Pro Kappa 10 is breaking in enough for me to turn the wattage to the bass horn down. It's becoming as smooth sounding as the JBL 2240s.

This probably comes across as a reversal to my previous posts; yes, I guess it is. I had no idea of the sonic damage that the wrong driver was causing in my bass horn. I'm sure the Lab 12 is fine in the proper horn, it just isn't happy in mine.

I'm operating the Pro Kappa 10" in a 1-1/2 cubic foot sealed enclosure. There isn't much compression with the throat being 50 sq.in. The sound is dampened in a very pleasant way. I'm becoming impressed. Drums now have that open sound I've always liked but had lost entirely with the Lab 12. I'm not trying to put this driver down; they totally kicks as_ in my T/Ls. In my horn, their tonal qualities resemble a high-Q-driver/cab arrangement. I don't care for that sound at all. A Qtc of 0.5 is what my ears prefer. I like hard hitting transients with rapid decay, no bong, ringing, or hang-over.

John
 
more rambling...

Hi everyone,

I listened to the system this morning and came away feeling better than I have in years. The bass horn is very smooth and open. It's beginning to sound better than the JBL 2240s. I didn't have time to do a left/right channel comparison, so I just sat and marveled at the improvements. Bach and Willie Nelson, as different as day and night, sound excellent.

I still think that bent/folded horns need few and, if possible, gentle bends to mitigate distortion to the propagating sound wave. When the sound wave rounds a corner, part of the wave is bounced sooner because it hits the reflective panel first. Seems to me that this rounds off the transients and creates a slur. This is why I believe that too many folds kills the midbass--that and having the wrong driver. This is why I think straight horns are the best solution and everything else becomes varying degrees of compromise.

Think of the S bends in the side pipe on some of the hot-rods out there. Most of the higher frequencies are deadened--same with a horn. A low rumble is fine in the first octave, but not pretty in the second and third.

I realize that the little ProKappa 10 is an experiment, that's its limited Xmax will prevent me from using it in high power situations, but at least I'm on the correct path.

John
 
John,

Out of interest is the basshorn still crossed to the midbass at 190Hz ?

If you're running it much above 100Hz then folds could be of more concern. Have you tried running it as a subwoofer rather than a bass horn?

Many people on the psw site reckoned 100Hz is the highest a labhorn should be crossed - above that the folding becomes an issue. I cross mine at 80Hz 4th order and its fine to my ears at least 😉

This could explain why you feel the way you do about your folded horns, and I feel the opposite about mine. I run mine as subs, you run yours as subs plus midbass.


Rob
 
Hi Rob,

I'm crossing my bass horn at 230hz. I totally agree with your assessment with regards to the Lab 12/ Lab Horn: it should be crossed low. The Lab 12 drivers sound great in my T/L subwoofers. I cross them at 40hz.

My horn is not large enough to behave as a subwoofer unit. In its favor, the gentle, goose neck bend allows me to have smooth midbass; especially now that I have the correct driver.

It would be fun to raise the cross-over frequency and eliminate the midbass/lower midrange horn, but I'm concerned that time delay issue may become more of a problem as the x-over frequency increases. This is a HT setup and the idea of delaying all 7.1 speakers for one bass horn seems ludicrous. Besides, at 230hz the bass lag is only slightly noticeable.

I guess what I picked up from this exercise is the fact that the driver we choose for a horn may impart similar characteristics and limitations as it does with any other enclosure.

Appreciated your post, Rob,

John
 
Hi John,

Looking at the response on the link you posted, if you eq'd the bump around 70 - 90hz you'd have a pretty nice subhorn, 30hz and up!(jbl driver)

If its for home theater then the delay is managed in the processor / receivers speaker distance settings. Its already all in digital so no extra degradation.

I cant imagine the lab12's sounding anywhere near as good in a sealed / vented enclosure as they do in the labhorns. Your TL will be similar to my horns as most of the sound quality will be from the TL's mouth and little from the driver itself. This is where the heavy cone / big motor become a bonus rather than a handicap,imo. They're loaded by the horn / tl and working differently to how they would in a DR situation.

Paul was intending to use his subhorns for home theater, so again the xo point would be under 100Hz, and hopefully very hi-fi too..

Cheers,

Rob.
 
Hi Rob,

I've EQ'd the horn--did so a year ago, as a matter of fact. I don't want L/R bass competing with the T/L subs, so I've hi-pass the L/R bass channels at 40hz with 4th order linkwitz. I've added 9db of parametric EQ at 40 with a Q of 1.

The problem with using the receiver to delay everything but the horn (right front channel), is that when you pull the bass horn 12 to 15 feet closer to the listener, the mids and hi-frequency on that channel will be move closer as well. If you've got another solution, I'm all ears.

I don't own a labhorn, but judging from the specs they seem to be the AA-fuel dragster type of enclosure: very high SPL performance. My horn has too many large panels. It resonates with the Lab 12, but not with the Pro Kappa 10. I guess you could say my horn is more of cruiser. Now days, I like my music and SPl more on this side of the moon. As I get older--51 isn't too old, I hope--I like things mellow and even--easier for the brain to process. There's nothing wrong with good transient response, but head splitting bass is a thing of the past... unless it's below 40hz. Ha.

John
 
This puts some perspective on things. I suspect that John's comments relate more to bass horns than to bass horn subs. For me a HT bass horn sub goes up to 80 Hz with a 4LR at most and ideally down to 20 Hz, so this requirement would dictate that there is only one and it fires into a corner, and can't operate higher than this. This is still a compromise, as my ultimate would use a number of very high quality drivers in an unfolded exponential concrete horn, probably using either the Rythmik Audio directservo kit or some of the best pro drivers.

John, what are your panels like? What thickness/material are they and what kind of unbraced span do they have? For my bass horn sub I was thinking of 18mm MDF with no more than 250mm span between bracing, and built extra solid around the driver (at least double thickness).
 
Hi John,

I guess I'd try cutting the bump on the horns response with peq around the 60 - 90 Hz area. This should get it fairly flat 30 - 100Hz.

I'd use the horn on the .1 channel for home theater, low passed at 80Hz. The mains would be high passed at 80Hz. I guess to try this you'd have to find another vented midbass cab to match your left one though. 🙁

I'd also try and use the TL's below 25/30Hz, You've got the delay unit to match them to the horn.

I'm assuming your using a 5.1 receiver / processor for home theater ?


Cheers,

Rob.
 
Hi guys,

Paul, I think your design will be interesting to listen to. I'm anxious to read your comments when it's completed.

My current bass horn, the one I hyper-linked, is fabricated with 18mm plywood. I created sidewall cavities in the final mouth flair and filled them with approx. 75mm (3 in.) plaster-of-Paris. The cavity behind the bottom scoop is also filled with plaster. The upper horn sections are also 18mm plywood lined with slate and plaster. Further reinforcement seems moot as I may eventually destroy this horn in favor of a more economical design. Next time, I'm planning to use the horizontal floor/wall corner and keep the horns straight until they turn 90 degrees at the opposing side walls, thus creating the mouths. Remember the triangular horn walls I mentioned earlier? I have 25 feet of room width to divided in half for each horn.

My T/Ls are constructed with 18mm (3/4") plywood. They have no concrete lining like my other enclosures, but sound decent if held below 40hz. They resonate like a fart in a church at 80+hz. One day I'll apply 25mm of concrete board to their exteriors. They were designed to have no parallel walls.

If you keep your horn braced and use dado's and lots of glue you'll probably do great. I think you may be a bit annoyed with your horn at 80hz, but who knows, the MDF might dampened things perfectly. You can always double up the exterior panel thickness if it resonates. Another thing that concerns me is the size of your horn's mouth. I'm used to seeing much larger openings at the exit on low frequency units. If necessary, you can always add a larger flair into the corner of your room. Allow space for a reflector.

This is why I went for the T/Ls. Bass horns are large, sub-bass horns are beyond huge. Allowing for 1/4 space placement (floor and 1 sidewall), I purposely cut my low-end off at 35hz in order to control the size of the beast. It's mouth is truncated and could stand to be much larger, but I don't want to sacrifice the living space. In my graphs, you can see the rapid roll off at 50hz. I don't know why I picked up a bump at thirty with the 2240--could be room nodes.

I hope like hell_ you prove me wrong with your design. It's just that the reading I did on the Lab horn project indicated that it takes a stack of 4 to slip into the first octave. There are those who swear that their single lab enclosure is going sub, but I felt my leg getting tugged a bit with that one.😉 Of course, a true spl graph would change my mine. Conjecture, or modeled performance isn't quite the same as being in the here and now.

Hey Rob,

I'll play with the 70hz EQ peak. The thing I noticed is that the more alignments/adjustments you add with the DSP (mine is a QSC), the more life you drain from your music. Fewer alignments are like fewer components. I'm a firm believer in less is more. Now, my wife will say I'm full of b.s., but from a guy's perspective, I have just enough cone area and wattage in my media room to satisfy. She's going to have a ball selling all my gear on EBay if I ever kick the bucket.

I'm keeping my T/Ls on the sub output. Otherwise, I'll have to invest in an x-over just for them.

Horns are not pretty sounding if driven below Fc. My horn may have sub potential in your eyes, but I listen to it and know it's never going to happen. It's very smooth above 40hz with it new driver. It's mid-bass is so sweet with the addition of the Pro Kappa 10 that I find myself nodding with a sigh...

I listened to a sweet piece of music tonight (Passion Remembered) that has plenty of female oohs, acoustic guitar, and Congo drums. Wow, the horn can now create that "transparent" drum tone. It hits you and strokes you at the same time, only to vanish all too soon. I found myself listening for more of the same. It has surpassed the twin 2240s. Yes, this is what I call quality time...

You say you have a Lab horn. Tell us about it. Have you corner loaded it? What does it sound like? How low does it go?

bye guys,

John
 
lovely read...

Thanks Rob. I enjoyed that. And you even got a response from the master designer to boot. Cool!

So, in the end, did you move the cabs around? Did you experiment with the flair extensions? I may have to build a pair of Lab horns to see what's what. I've had the prints for years, but haven't had the time. I'm still putting the finishing touches on my home--built it from scratch...:house:


John
 
This last week I've pulled nearly everything out of my room to decorate. At the moment I'm sitting on the floor with my laptop.

When it all goes back in I'm going to try a few different positions.

I want to try down firing, but need to build some hefty frames to lift the labs up off the ground. My project list seems to be growing bigger every day!

Will post more to that thread when I do :up:

Rob.
 
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