OK guys. Its been an exhausting 2 weeks.
Some time ago I had posted this thread:
Brainstorm: DIY Compact High-Fidelity PA. Well it really didn't give me the direction I was looking for. After some more thought, what I really liked is the old-school style of having a cabinet for each frequency band (Low, Mid-Low, Mid-High, High). I think if my target is high-fidelity sound, this might be the way to go.
I started a horn based design for a 12-inch driver.
Long story short, a straight horn just wasn't working. Hornresp would give me errors (Cir > 1 for S3). Something to do with the wavelength and I did do some reading about that and in theory a horn's dimensions should be 1 wavelength long at the lowest frequency. Maybe that was the issue here, but I wanted to keep pushing forward.
I needed a longer horn. Which meant fold.
Research on folded horns took days. I purchased a couple of BFM plans to study the DR series. Google took me to the Klipsch forums where I read about the La Scala. Following that was the Peavey FH-1 and Martin's 115. These were classic horn-based designs, which I really liked. Love that old-school look and feel.
I'm sure there are modern designs that are better. Show me. I'm posting work I've been doing to see if I can get some feedback. Meet PAscala. A midbass horn based on old-school design.
Some time ago I had posted this thread:
Brainstorm: DIY Compact High-Fidelity PA. Well it really didn't give me the direction I was looking for. After some more thought, what I really liked is the old-school style of having a cabinet for each frequency band (Low, Mid-Low, Mid-High, High). I think if my target is high-fidelity sound, this might be the way to go.
I started a horn based design for a 12-inch driver.
Long story short, a straight horn just wasn't working. Hornresp would give me errors (Cir > 1 for S3). Something to do with the wavelength and I did do some reading about that and in theory a horn's dimensions should be 1 wavelength long at the lowest frequency. Maybe that was the issue here, but I wanted to keep pushing forward.
I needed a longer horn. Which meant fold.
Research on folded horns took days. I purchased a couple of BFM plans to study the DR series. Google took me to the Klipsch forums where I read about the La Scala. Following that was the Peavey FH-1 and Martin's 115. These were classic horn-based designs, which I really liked. Love that old-school look and feel.
I'm sure there are modern designs that are better. Show me. I'm posting work I've been doing to see if I can get some feedback. Meet PAscala. A midbass horn based on old-school design.
Attachments
Hornresp Work
I tried a handful of drivers in the PAscala design. What was interesting is that drivers with a low voice coil inductance (Le) worked best. And there aren't many drivers out there with a very low Le. One of the best drivers I found was an Acoustic Elegance TD12M. However, the weight of the driver put it at the bottom of the list. Still the performance was fantastic. I might still consider this driver if the cabinet weight is minimal.
Another feature that I was looking for was a low Qts at or around 0.30 for a horn-loaded enclosure. Additionally, a high EBP at or around 180. These are what I look for in drivers for midrange horns. Others may look at different parameters. I'm open to education here.
I have settled on two drivers:
Eminence 3012HO and Ciare 12NDH-3
I also did some comparisons increasing enclosure volume (18-inch tall vs 24-inch tall). The 24-inch gave better response, however I'm not sure if the improvement justifies a 6-inch increase in height and enclosure weight.
Can i get some thoughts here on the findings?
I tried a handful of drivers in the PAscala design. What was interesting is that drivers with a low voice coil inductance (Le) worked best. And there aren't many drivers out there with a very low Le. One of the best drivers I found was an Acoustic Elegance TD12M. However, the weight of the driver put it at the bottom of the list. Still the performance was fantastic. I might still consider this driver if the cabinet weight is minimal.
Another feature that I was looking for was a low Qts at or around 0.30 for a horn-loaded enclosure. Additionally, a high EBP at or around 180. These are what I look for in drivers for midrange horns. Others may look at different parameters. I'm open to education here.
I have settled on two drivers:
Eminence 3012HO and Ciare 12NDH-3
I also did some comparisons increasing enclosure volume (18-inch tall vs 24-inch tall). The 24-inch gave better response, however I'm not sure if the improvement justifies a 6-inch increase in height and enclosure weight.
Can i get some thoughts here on the findings?
Attachments
It's not an error, it's simply a 'heads-up' cautionary message for the user. Multiple-segment horns are simulated using a plane-wavefront model which becomes less accurate once the mouth circumference in flare cutoff wavelengths (Cir) exceeds 1 for any horn segment. The results are still quite valid though.
Djk has done some interesting klipschhorn variants, one of them a mod to reflex load the driver to extend bass response and make it a full range cab
Yes I've read about some of his mods. I was especially interested in his PSSL mod which I would l like to experiment with to build a bass horn from the La Scala design.
I've asked him to comment here when he has time.
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