Square Le Cleac'h petal horn

[tizman]

Hi All!

Just wondering if anyone has built a square petal horn based upon the spreadsheet provided by Jean Michel Le Cleac'h. I have a preliminary plan of building one out of flexible plywood with ribs for reinforcement and some sort of as yet undetermined treatment on the exterior for stiffening. I have been unable to find any photos online of DIY projects for Le Cleac'h petal horns for HF. There are many examples of round turned wooden horns and horns made from molds, but I am hoping that someone who has built one from the petal pattern can post on their experience or share some photos. In the meantime, I'll keep searching....

Thanks,
Tiz

 

[tizman]

Still no luck finding a build or even a photo of a Le Cleac’h HF petal horn. Maybe no one has actually built one? It seems that way based on searching the web...

 

[tapestryofsound]

I have, what would you like to talk about? ToS

 

[tizman]

Thanks for the photo! What is it made of and how was it constructed? Did you use the Le Cleac'h spreadsheet? What driver did you use, and what is the cut off of the horn?

 

[tizman]

ToS: I checked your profile page and found your thread on your horn. It's beautiful, by the way! I'll read through the Popular Mechanics guide for some ideas.

 

[tapestryofsound]

Thanks for the photo! What is it made of and how was it constructed? Did you use the Le Cleac'h spreadsheet? What driver did you use, and what is the cut off of the horn?

I used HornResp, and modelled it with a mouth flare of 112 degrees. I think the cut off was about 120hz, and I used a Jensen AlNiCo 6.5in guitar speaker as the driver with a 3:1 compression chamber. With additional EQ, I get between 85hz to 12khz at 112db per 1 watt at 1 metre (well, that's what HornResp tells me) and this thing at 4ft across, is big.

It is built from paper and card using 'stitch and glue'. Took a lot of time. As a full range mono horn it sounds lovely with quite modest electronics.

About to start work on another two as a stereo pair. Only this time they will be just 3ft across with 3in full range Peerless drivers, and a mouth flare of 180 degrees.

ToS

 

[DonVK]

Same here, I used Hornresp to generate the petals. Hornresp will also generate rectangular form factor. Mine was from cardstock, then the horn backside was reinforced with wax+fabric. Much smaller than ToS, but it was intended as a midrange only.

Some measurements at Dayton PC83-8 (3") test results

 

[tapestryofsound]

Yep, I like working with card and paper too. Build them any size you like, and they work. Really like the back curve on the mouth, something I am going pay a lot of attention to. I think your idea of working with wax is really cool ..... ToS

 

[tizman]

Very cool builds. I am hoping to build mine with just four petals, or possibly 6 or 8, and use flexible plywood. I need to do a bit more research to see if the flexy ply I can get locally can handle the curvature required at the mouth of a Le Cleac'h profile. I intend to use the horns from 600-750 HZ and up with a compression driver.

 

[tapestryofsound]

If you are going to go small, it makes sense to use something like 1.5mm Birch ply - easier to bend. Can always reinforce it afterwards. I have never used or even touched a compression driver. Now that I have discovered single driver sound ....... hats off to multiway horn builds, though. ToS

 

[tizman]

I've been waffling for about a year now on my next speaker build. I'm currently intending a two way with a Peavey FH1 bass bin running up to somewhere between 600 and 700 HZ and a compression driver in a horn for the HF. I have a pair of Renkus-Heinz SSD 1800 compression drivers. I also love the look of large petal horns. There is a 1/4 inch flexible ply available locally that bends very easily along one dimension, so that is the direction I'm moving in.