Hello!
My friends and I like to go and party outdoors.. Yet it almost always ends up in a party with cheap music/poor amplification. We have a wide taste in music and would like to take it outdoors.
We also play instruments and would enjoy outdoor sessions, and would like it to be LOUD (-:
It would be nice to take something like high quality, high volume 4 upper-two-way speakers and 2 subs to the bushes, and party on!
Anyone know there are any good exsisting DIY designs for something like this?
Thanks!
Adam
My friends and I like to go and party outdoors.. Yet it almost always ends up in a party with cheap music/poor amplification. We have a wide taste in music and would like to take it outdoors.
We also play instruments and would enjoy outdoor sessions, and would like it to be LOUD (-:
It would be nice to take something like high quality, high volume 4 upper-two-way speakers and 2 subs to the bushes, and party on!
Anyone know there are any good exsisting DIY designs for something like this?
Thanks!
Adam
check out www.speakerplans.com
there's quite a few different designs on there from horns to bandpass and direct radiating mid/tops
there's quite a few different designs on there from horns to bandpass and direct radiating mid/tops
Hi Magnus,
The horn ports were painted four different colours because I was using up some old cans of spray paint (not kidding). Those are bass reflex ports not HF. They are small bass boxes (dual 10") and they go with the small mid/high units on top. Great for small venues. The A4 and A7 boxes get put together for another system.
All together they make up my "Speakerhenge"
Cal
The horn ports were painted four different colours because I was using up some old cans of spray paint (not kidding). Those are bass reflex ports not HF. They are small bass boxes (dual 10") and they go with the small mid/high units on top. Great for small venues. The A4 and A7 boxes get put together for another system.
All together they make up my "Speakerhenge"
Cal
So Cal, are you using horn flares as ports? I just assumed they were HF horns 'coz they look pretty much like miniature 2380 flares. Anyway, the color coding scheme would work great for easy identification I guess.
Are there something like an 8'' and piezo horns in the small top boxes?
What amps and crossovers are you using for this setup?
/Magnus
Are there something like an 8'' and piezo horns in the small top boxes?
What amps and crossovers are you using for this setup?
/Magnus
Some nice tall line arrays is what you need. Keeping dispersion within the plain of the array is a huge advantage outdoors. Why play music for the birds flying overhead?
That's why all outdoor or large venue concerts use line arrays. It's easy to get high sensitivity using mulitple drivers, plus the gain in sensitivity vs distance for arrays over point source speakers is tremendous. Within the range that an array acts like a line array, SPL decreases by only 3db for each doubling of distance vs 6db for a typical speaker. That's a 9db difference at 25ft, which is huge.
That's why all outdoor or large venue concerts use line arrays. It's easy to get high sensitivity using mulitple drivers, plus the gain in sensitivity vs distance for arrays over point source speakers is tremendous. Within the range that an array acts like a line array, SPL decreases by only 3db for each doubling of distance vs 6db for a typical speaker. That's a 9db difference at 25ft, which is huge.
Cal,
Here is my outdoor party system. I built it for a video roadshow system I built into a 5 ton straight truck a long time ago. I also have an Eiddophor light valve video projector that can do a full drive-in theater screen at normal brightness that runs off a silenced 15kW genset on board the truck. Anyone wanna buy this from me?
I have four A-7's each driven from a 100 watt SS Altec 1594A mono power amp. Below them I have four Altec 816A bass bins each containing a 421 8H-SII woofer. An Altec 9440A, stereo power amp provides 200 watts RMS for each bass bin for a total of 1200 watts RMS. It can ruffles your clothes at 100 FT. I run the A-7's full range and have an active LPF to drive the bass bins. I set the ceiling on those at around 300 Hz. It is my workshop sound system now mostly collecting dust and I actually havent used it outdoors as intended for about a decade now.
This system sounds extremely good as you know....outdoors.
I had an opportunity to acquire (cheap) a pair of 210 cabinets loaded with 515B's and with the huge multicell topboard horns and drivers ( the A4 system) when I was building this system but could not physically handle them myself so I passed.
Sorry for the crappy picture.
Here is my outdoor party system. I built it for a video roadshow system I built into a 5 ton straight truck a long time ago. I also have an Eiddophor light valve video projector that can do a full drive-in theater screen at normal brightness that runs off a silenced 15kW genset on board the truck. Anyone wanna buy this from me?
I have four A-7's each driven from a 100 watt SS Altec 1594A mono power amp. Below them I have four Altec 816A bass bins each containing a 421 8H-SII woofer. An Altec 9440A, stereo power amp provides 200 watts RMS for each bass bin for a total of 1200 watts RMS. It can ruffles your clothes at 100 FT. I run the A-7's full range and have an active LPF to drive the bass bins. I set the ceiling on those at around 300 Hz. It is my workshop sound system now mostly collecting dust and I actually havent used it outdoors as intended for about a decade now. This system sounds extremely good as you know....outdoors.
I had an opportunity to acquire (cheap) a pair of 210 cabinets loaded with 515B's and with the huge multicell topboard horns and drivers ( the A4 system) when I was building this system but could not physically handle them myself so I passed.
Sorry for the crappy picture.
Attachments
Now this thread is getting better and better... 
You canadians seem to having set the new standard for the backyard party system.
You canadians seem to having set the new standard for the backyard party system.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
If you're within the nearfield conditon, that is, which is dependant on both frequency and the array height. Assume an array 2 meters high, which is about as much as you'd want for a backyard system. At 500 Hz the nearfield extends out only about 3 meters from the array; beyond that you're in the farfield, with 12dB rolloff. The farfield goes further out as frequency increases- and not as far as it decreases. At 25 feet with w/a 2 meter array the farfield only exists for frequencies above 1.5kH or so.
Actually, I was thinking about a 10ft array. 2M isn't really tall enough for me for indoor use. In the far field, I believe it's the same as a point source, a 6db roll-off, not 12.
Just to be safe, since there weren't any constraints mentioned, let's do a 15ft vertical stack of Bill's horns in a focused array. That should do the trick and you'd have enough efficiency to rock with a battery powered chip amp.
Just to be safe, since there weren't any constraints mentioned, let's do a 15ft vertical stack of Bill's horns in a focused array. That should do the trick and you'd have enough efficiency to rock with a battery powered chip amp.
All my DR series horns are designed to stack vertically, and the DR200 and DR250a are able to be stacked/hung in a 'J' array. Since the DR250a is not quite two feet high a 15 foot array would be like eight boxes; that would give a 2.83v/SPL of 118dB, with a capacity of 1600 watts for a total 1 meter capability of some 150dB, although the 124dB you could easily get from that battery powered chip amp wouldn't be shabby either.
Line arrays do shift from a 6dB to a 12 dB rolloff at the nearfield/farfield transition distance, and the radiation pattern also changes from quasi-cylindrical to hemispherical at that same distance. Calculating that distance is done withthe formula r (the transition distance in meters) = L (array height in meters) squared x F (frequency) / 700
Hi Bill,
You made me have to go look it up. Thank goodness it's not a 12db roll off in the farfield, because concerts would really suck. Also, we'd be getting 12db rolloff on normal speakers and high output systems would be very difficult and we'd all be stuck using headphones.
According to Dr. Griffin, in the nearfield, line arrays roll off at 3db and 6 db in the far field (the same as a point source speaker).
http://www.audiodiycentral.com/resource/pdf/nflawp.pdf
You made me have to go look it up. Thank goodness it's not a 12db roll off in the farfield, because concerts would really suck. Also, we'd be getting 12db rolloff on normal speakers and high output systems would be very difficult and we'd all be stuck using headphones.
According to Dr. Griffin, in the nearfield, line arrays roll off at 3db and 6 db in the far field (the same as a point source speaker).
http://www.audiodiycentral.com/resource/pdf/nflawp.pdf
Thanks for all of the answers, wow!
This thread is much better then previous ones for outdoor speakers.
I am totally new to this so excuse me for my silly questions...
Are you talking to me?
What's the difference between an array to a line array?
Remember that I want the set to be convenient to carry around..
Adam
This thread is much better then previous ones for outdoor speakers.
I am totally new to this so excuse me for my silly questions...
Which are the 210's over there and why would the plywood help with gaining bass?rcavictim said:
johninCR said:
Are you talking to me?
What's the difference between an array to a line array?
Remember that I want the set to be convenient to carry around..
Adam
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