Now done
5. Cover the pyramid with bitumen sheeting, cutout for taps and ports.
6. Lined the horn to enclosure mating surfaces with sealing strip foam.
Seals well, no daylight.
7. Retrieved the 2nd set of Vitavox S2 screw on mounting rings I made many years ago from the now defunct Le Cléach upper mid horns.
Trial fit - looks good.
The SH60 is so much shorter due to the 60° angle that the S2 fits entirely inside the SH50 rear enclosure!
I already have sealing cover plates, for the BMS4550s / Peerless 1" driver set ups that cover the S2 hole😉
Rest time; watching the 1st tennis semi final from Monte Carlo on replay.
Will watch the 2nd semi final tomorrow morning on replay.
5. Cover the pyramid with bitumen sheeting, cutout for taps and ports.
6. Lined the horn to enclosure mating surfaces with sealing strip foam.
Seals well, no daylight.
7. Retrieved the 2nd set of Vitavox S2 screw on mounting rings I made many years ago from the now defunct Le Cléach upper mid horns.
Trial fit - looks good.
The SH60 is so much shorter due to the 60° angle that the S2 fits entirely inside the SH50 rear enclosure!
I already have sealing cover plates, for the BMS4550s / Peerless 1" driver set ups that cover the S2 hole😉
Rest time; watching the 1st tennis semi final from Monte Carlo on replay.
Will watch the 2nd semi final tomorrow morning on replay.
Lighter work today and a quick repaint of the outer flares and she's in place.
Marie loves the colour.
Does make much more of a feature of the MEH attributes and I like the colour too.
In progres.
12" of heaviness. First one removed from the SH50 donor.
All loaded/ wired up.
Vitavox S2 aligned and fitted.
Lifted into position.
Can really see the difference in horn angle and flare sizes..
Time to sit back and listen SH50 Vs SH60.
The 4 MF drivers on the left SH50 are wired for 8ohm. The 2 on the SH60 are 4ohm.
This audibly gives about the same volume.
Don't even need to measure and adjust in Najda for that.
The DSP PEQs timing delays etc seem to sound fine too - The 1/4 wavelength driver distance is the same, same drivers.
On to the 2nd one now. No rest for the...
Marie loves the colour.
Does make much more of a feature of the MEH attributes and I like the colour too.
In progres.
12" of heaviness. First one removed from the SH50 donor.
All loaded/ wired up.
Vitavox S2 aligned and fitted.
Lifted into position.
Can really see the difference in horn angle and flare sizes..
Time to sit back and listen SH50 Vs SH60.
The 4 MF drivers on the left SH50 are wired for 8ohm. The 2 on the SH60 are 4ohm.
This audibly gives about the same volume.
Don't even need to measure and adjust in Najda for that.
The DSP PEQs timing delays etc seem to sound fine too - The 1/4 wavelength driver distance is the same, same drivers.
On to the 2nd one now. No rest for the...
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After some more blood and sweat the second SH60 is done and in place / working.
That enhanced pic makes them look a bit more red than they are on the eye naturally.
Here's a natural one
They kinda look a bit bigger in terracotta Vs the black.
I don't mind that - speakers should be seen and heard😂
Set up wise the SH50 tuning (PEQs, driver time delays etc) sound spot on.
I did have to down the dB on the MF drivers a little bit.
4ohm on 2 drivers > than 8ohm on 4 drivers! Not by much though.
So, how do they compare?
I'll have a really good listen before I comment on that.
That enhanced pic makes them look a bit more red than they are on the eye naturally.
Here's a natural one
They kinda look a bit bigger in terracotta Vs the black.
I don't mind that - speakers should be seen and heard😂
Set up wise the SH50 tuning (PEQs, driver time delays etc) sound spot on.
I did have to down the dB on the MF drivers a little bit.
4ohm on 2 drivers > than 8ohm on 4 drivers! Not by much though.
So, how do they compare?
I'll have a really good listen before I comment on that.
After several evening listening sessions..
The SH60 alikes sound a more open and even more even than the SH50s.
I did have to reduce the dB level a little on the MF drivers.
2 X 5" drivers at 4ohm > than 4 X 5" drivers at 8ohm!
There’s a more solid stereo image / central vocal when it’s mixed that way, yet the out wide dynamics, tone and pump are still there🎶
I played various test tracks and was initially suitably wowed.
Made sure to listen over a couple of evenings to different things to avoid the initial wow factor I can suffer from, and then return back down to earth later😂
That return back down didn’t happen.
They are good!
Then I thought, my little SET amp on the previous Tractrix T200 setup with MF JBL2482s was driving 16ohm..
Let's try the 2 X MF Celestion 5" at 16ohm instead!
Down with the cabs again, remove the covers, rewire.. put back in place💪💪💪
A few test tracks later..
One I particularly use for midrange soul / life likeness is the clarinet solo from the remastered Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong Together recordings..
That solo sounded amazing on the JBL 2482 (Alnico / Phenolic compression drivers) for those frequencies, brought it to life like it was in the room. Rare experience.
However, other things they did not do so well.. definitely not point source evenness🙂
The SH60s now got similar emotion and feel going nicely.
You’d think 50° to 60° wouldn’t make much difference - bit it does in my room.
All to do with the sound waves interacting with each other and the room..
Angles do matter apparently.
The 60° horn angle opens things up nicely but not too much.
2 X 5" MFs with the tap holes a little farther apart sound just fine.
Don’t at all feel the need for 4..
Wife listened to her favourites and simply said, “you’ve nailed it”.
Can’t explain it better than that, at the moment🙂
Here's a couple of pics closer up in natural light
When I've recovered🙂
I'll make some rear enclosures specifically for these, so the SH50s can go back together for wedding duty later in the year.
Might even try a passive XO for them😂
I also have thoughts of a SM60F alike project.
Again using the Vitavox S2 drivers and 2 or 4 X 3" Faital MFs + 2 X 8" Faital LFs.
I've done the detail measuring and plan view drawings already..
I'm sold on the 60° degree profile in my room for hifi use.
The SH60 alikes sound a more open and even more even than the SH50s.
I did have to reduce the dB level a little on the MF drivers.
2 X 5" drivers at 4ohm > than 4 X 5" drivers at 8ohm!
There’s a more solid stereo image / central vocal when it’s mixed that way, yet the out wide dynamics, tone and pump are still there🎶
I played various test tracks and was initially suitably wowed.
Made sure to listen over a couple of evenings to different things to avoid the initial wow factor I can suffer from, and then return back down to earth later😂
That return back down didn’t happen.
They are good!
Then I thought, my little SET amp on the previous Tractrix T200 setup with MF JBL2482s was driving 16ohm..
Let's try the 2 X MF Celestion 5" at 16ohm instead!
Down with the cabs again, remove the covers, rewire.. put back in place💪💪💪
A few test tracks later..
One I particularly use for midrange soul / life likeness is the clarinet solo from the remastered Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong Together recordings..
That solo sounded amazing on the JBL 2482 (Alnico / Phenolic compression drivers) for those frequencies, brought it to life like it was in the room. Rare experience.
However, other things they did not do so well.. definitely not point source evenness🙂
The SH60s now got similar emotion and feel going nicely.
You’d think 50° to 60° wouldn’t make much difference - bit it does in my room.
All to do with the sound waves interacting with each other and the room..
Angles do matter apparently.
The 60° horn angle opens things up nicely but not too much.
2 X 5" MFs with the tap holes a little farther apart sound just fine.
Don’t at all feel the need for 4..
Wife listened to her favourites and simply said, “you’ve nailed it”.
Can’t explain it better than that, at the moment🙂
Here's a couple of pics closer up in natural light
When I've recovered🙂
I'll make some rear enclosures specifically for these, so the SH50s can go back together for wedding duty later in the year.
Might even try a passive XO for them😂
I also have thoughts of a SM60F alike project.
Again using the Vitavox S2 drivers and 2 or 4 X 3" Faital MFs + 2 X 8" Faital LFs.
I've done the detail measuring and plan view drawings already..
I'm sold on the 60° degree profile in my room for hifi use.
Very nice Steve. Glad the 60 degree is working for you.
Once we start building different H-V versions, we know we caught the syn bug for sure ! lol
Enjoy!
Once we start building different H-V versions, we know we caught the syn bug for sure ! lol
Enjoy!
Yes, one profile just won't do😂
Have to try differences to see..
This afternoon I got on to a bit of measuring of the new SH60 horns.
Vitavox S2 HF
That will do nicely.
Giving plenty of HF extension for my ears😂
MF just 2 X 5" drivers. Needed a little fix.
I guess it's the tap recessing being slightly different - more than 2 Vs 4 drivers effect, but who knows?
Before
After
MF and HF together
Note how the phase 'falls in' nicely.
LF + MF + HF
Overall phase just came together without any time alignment changes needed.
Pleased with these.
However I usually find the MF drivers way to pronounced with fairly level plots like these though. Easy to reduce.
The tapped horns come in at 55Hz, not measured here.
Pic of the measurement rig.
Mic at 1m from mouth.
This seems to work pretty well.
Will have a listen later and compare to the before changes
It took a couple of goes to get the best balance of SPL between the LF / MF and MF to HF.
Measurement ideal had the MF SPL too high for my ear.
Reducing to optimum listening balance required a little rejigging of things to get a nice phase plot back.
I also had to toe the 60s in a tiny bit more.
The main take away from the 60s Vs the 50s in listening evaluation is that there is more definition or tonal rightness, emotion even, in the HF frequencies.
Wasn't expecting that!
The other thing, and perhaps it explains the above, is that the centrally mixed image (usually vocal) is rock steady in the middle.
There's still all the detail and dynamics out wide when the music contains that, it's just that the central imaging is now excellent.
That would have been my been my only real criticism of the SH50s in my particular room.
The SH60s are a setup I feel I can grow old with🙂
Measurement ideal had the MF SPL too high for my ear.
Reducing to optimum listening balance required a little rejigging of things to get a nice phase plot back.
I also had to toe the 60s in a tiny bit more.
The main take away from the 60s Vs the 50s in listening evaluation is that there is more definition or tonal rightness, emotion even, in the HF frequencies.
Wasn't expecting that!
The other thing, and perhaps it explains the above, is that the centrally mixed image (usually vocal) is rock steady in the middle.
There's still all the detail and dynamics out wide when the music contains that, it's just that the central imaging is now excellent.
That would have been my been my only real criticism of the SH50s in my particular room.
The SH60s are a setup I feel I can grow old with🙂
Hi Steve
"Measurement ideal" does that mean a straight line for the frequency-response?
I wonder if that could have been manipulated with global EQ on the input of the DSP to get the desired "house-curve". I guess that would alter the phaseresponse too, but..........?
Do you listen on axis?
I remember Mark tuning his MEH's 10° off axis to find the best overall balance.
Nice to see your builds.
Steffen
I kind of aimed for a downward slope LF to HF.
Done this with all my horn systems over the years..
What was a bit different with this one was that while it measured okay and phase plot was nice enough, there was way toooo much MF volume on listening.
Tweaked it down and repaired the phase plot to suit..
I listen pretty much on axis, a little toed in with the SH50s and a little more with the 60s..
Usually it's not a problem at all.
The Compression Driver is normally the overriding factor in what your ear likes when it comes to this - imaging / SPL etc.
The overpowering MF was new to me!
Perhaps only having two drivers?
But I had that before early on with the SH50s.
Although not with the Vitavox S2s.. They are deeper and require a slightly different time delay.
Fun and games.
Thanks for liking my builds 🙂