Is there such a thing as too big?

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Yep, typical big systems discussed/built on most forums are all about efficiency/SQ in a HIFI app, not how loud they play per se. To go 'live' OTOH takes a bit more: 20,000 Watt Home Hi-Fi System

GM

IME as a live sound engineer, you don't need that much to go as loud as a drum kit - my main PA system manages that whenever I bring it out, and that's 1x 1.4" exit (3" diaphragm) HF, 2x 10" mids and up to 4x 15" subwoofers per side.

Looks like modern drivers can take a lot more (ab)use compared to the ones he used.

Chris
 
I can't think of any reason you'd want a Klipsch Jubilee speaker at home. It doesn't play low or nice. May be suitable for rock concerts, not quality at home.

I lived with a Klipschorn bass for several decades. No better way to fill your room with great gobs of clean bass, although not accurate (not a very flat freq response) and certainly not very low, by standards today. But the Klipschorn is a true horn. (OK, maybe Klipschorn owners aint got no respect for the lesser-horn Klipsch boxes.)

There's no sense today creating a system with even a slight ambition to be noteworthy that isn't bi-amped or tri-amped and no serious system should lack a DSP. I'd then ask (1) how am I going to make sub-woofer sound and (2) the rest.

Thinking separately about (1) and (2) will help you grapple with the design much better. Lots of great ways to handle each realm separately*; but the Jubilee puts your crossover in a band that is unhelpful since it makes a poor sub and you can produce upper-bass in a lot better ways.

If going big is your wish, I'd just get a few sets of Quad electrostatic panels. You will instantly become an A-List person.

B.
*here's a fun way to get down to 12 Hz
17 foot pipe sub 12-230 Hz ±5dB
 
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Been there, done that for several decades until I was forced to sell off some stuff to keep my house, winding up with just my two dual 15" 'subs' using the same Altec 515B drivers like in the ~35 Hz corner horns and frankly, while I miss some of the super high efficiency perks; all things considered I much prefer the drivers in the large, corner loaded MLTLs, finally understanding why the great horn designer Dr. John K. Hilliard chose IB loaded dual 803 [416A] for his seemingly large, open, yet still acoustically fairly small home system:

https://ia902502.us.archive.org/Boo...Mar_0000.jp2&scale=6.429872495446266&rotate=0

https://ia902502.us.archive.org/Boo...Mar_0027.jp2&scale=6.429872495446266&rotate=0


GM

Very cool! Thanks for posting this.
Do you have any other similarly-themed articles that you could share?
Cheers,
Marco
 
... the lesser-horn Klipsch...
I was assuming Jubilee owners would be placing them mid-wall like the other mid-wall speakers from Klipsch. I'm not sure how it performs relative to a Klipschorn if kept in a corner.

I don't know much about MWM boxes but they sure don't appear to aim for horn loading any too low at all.

Back in 1969, I had a buddy who built a house (in New Jersey) to play his Klipschorns. He had all the audio tools and engineering skills in the world at his disposal, at the time, as a senior scientist at Bell Labs. Mounted below the speakers, he had large enclosures (sealed, I think, maybe IB) to handle the low bass. Very nice sound.

B.
 
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IME as a live sound engineer, you don't need that much to go as loud as a drum kit - my main PA system manages that whenever I bring it out, and that's 1x 1.4" exit (3" diaphragm) HF, 2x 10" mids and up to 4x 15" subwoofers per side.

Looks like modern drivers can take a lot more (ab)use compared to the ones he used.

Chris

We'll have to agree to disagree assuming you're not using a compressor or similar to severely limit power hungry transients/sub harmonics [IIRC a kit drum's is around 8 Hz], a standard practice in prosound for as long as I can remember. FWIW, just now saw someone else that claims his huge horn system with a massive sub system can only do a drum kit at near live levels in his room: best 18' drivers that can go flat 20Hz

For sure! My '50s era Altecs and similar vintage high performance prosound drivers up into the early '70s will self destruct if driven much beyond their low power ratings due to the VC glues, coatings can't handle much VC heat rise, hence the need for extremely efficient systems.

Basic driver design hasn't hardly changed since the 1920s, but manufacturing, materials, etc., technology is light years ahead, resulting in power handling capability the pioneers probably never even dreamed of.

GM
 
We'll have to agree to disagree assuming you're not using a compressor or similar to severely limit power hungry transients/sub harmonics [IIRC a kit drum's is around 8 Hz], a standard practice in prosound for as long as I can remember. FWIW, just now saw someone else that claims his huge horn system with a massive sub system can only do a drum kit at near live levels in his room: best 18' drivers that can go flat 20Hz

For sure! My '50s era Altecs and similar vintage high performance prosound drivers up into the early '70s will self destruct if driven much beyond their low power ratings due to the VC glues, coatings can't handle much VC heat rise, hence the need for extremely efficient systems.

Basic driver design hasn't hardly changed since the 1920s, but manufacturing, materials, etc., technology is light years ahead, resulting in power handling capability the pioneers probably never even dreamed of.

GM

Hey GM,

No compression or anything like that. Just a system that's capable of 141dB peaks when tickling the limiters, although I am limited to around 38Hz at the bottom end. After putting a load of mics on a drum kit, I find I can push the faders up well past the volume of the drum kit itself.
I've got a frequency spectrum of a close-mic'd kick drum that shows 16Hz was only a few dB behind 32Hz, although given that a kick drum is a dipole at low frequencies, I don't think much of that very-low-frequency content gets transmitted to the outside world.

Whether or not we should ever try to reproduce a drum kit in a domestic space is another discussion...

Chris
 
Agreed, my post wasn't about space savings/efficiency, just I found I preferred the more 'open' sound of a large horn size flat baffle loading the drivers in a corner horn configuration over the corner loaded compression horns.

If I could afford to build a whole new system it would have [8] HE 15"/channel to get efficiency up 'close enough' to the HF horns.

GM


This is the dilemma I'm currently in. (~55-500hz range)

I have a dual 15" mid bass system. It's fine , quite good but not great by my standard.


A-
wondering about quad 15" or even quad 18"
hence the reason I've posted the picture of the 8x 15" per side
if selected, it would be modular build.

B-
on the other side, I wonder if a front mid-bass horn would do better
Like the Inlow dual 18" or maybe a dual 15" horn.
JBL 2240 60hz midbass horn - The Paper Horn by Inlow Sound

never heard either implementation and I read opinions from people whom I respect. (some tried/experienced both)
it's about 50/50 split...

not cheap to build both... and hard to re-sell.
 
I was assuming Jubilee owners would be placing them mid-wall like the other mid-wall speakers from Klipsch. I'm not sure how it performs relative to a Klipschorn if kept in a corner.

I don't know much about MWM boxes but they sure don't appear to aim for horn loading any too low at all.

If memory serves me correctly (probably been 10/12 years since I was told this) there were several goals in mind when the Jubilee came about.

1. Keep same footprint of Khorn
2. Keep bottom end extension of Khorn
3. Raise crossover point so it could be used in a 2-way system
4. (not sure if this was a goal or a happenstance result) lower distortion

The Jubilee "will" go along the wall just like a LaScala might go along the wall....however, you get the most bottom end with the Jubilee if you have it within "about" 10" of the corners (a lot more flexible than the Khorn in that respect)

They hit all their design goals. If I recall the conversation correctly, the Jubilee has (something like) 1/4 the distortion that the Khorn puts out.... reworded, the Khorn (which is already generally considered low distortion) has four times the distortion of the Jubilee.

The conversations I had that I'm basing these recollections from were from personal visits to Hope over multiple occasions (with larger crowd of people) and talking to Roy himself (Delgado, PWK's right hand man and co-designer of the Jubilee bass bin....and likely the sole designer of the K402 although I don't know that to be factual)

Forgetting about their imposing presence in a room (as those 402's are huge), you ask rhetorically why anyone might want a Jubilee in their home.... I'm guessing you've never heard them.

(disclaimer: Jubilee, LaScala and MWM owner.....started collecting them in 1979)

Roy has a PEQ for those who use an active that bumps the output at 32 Hz. Yeah, it's not 12 Hz.... but for everyday listening, they're not so bad.

:)
 
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I've been thinking about what has been said and had a pretty good measure up this evening.

As an alternative to the big horn cabs, could an Onken or MLTL using something like a GPA 416 driver be designed to match the footprint of the K402 horn (circa 1000mm x 650mm x 420mm), or am I trying to make the tail wag the dog?

Aesthetically, Onken or MLTL is going to win out over a Jube or MWM any day. Guess I would be looking at an active system and my lust for super high efficiency would not be fulfilled.

Particularly interested in your comment here GM, if you can spare a moment or three.
 
This is the dilemma I'm currently in. (~55-500hz range)

A-
wondering about quad 15" or even quad 18"

B-
on the other side, I wonder if a front mid-bass horn would do better
Like the Inlow dual 18" or maybe a dual 15" horn.
JBL 2240 60hz midbass horn - The Paper Horn by Inlow Sound

never heard either implementation and I read opinions from people whom I respect. (some tried/experienced both)
it's about 50/50 split....

Well, for 500 Hz at high SQ, you'll need multiple XOs to taper them unless you plan to sit a long ways away from them. I was thinking in terms of a two stage 'V' baffle with phase plug with HF [Synergy concept] horn in the middle [poor man's Jericho].

Of course we make do with greater spreads due to room acoustics, individual hearing acuity/perception, so as a frame of reference, the practical XO limit is ~350 Hz/2nd for [8] 15", ~500 Hz/2nd for [4] is often a 'good enough' summation in many apps, with [2] 18" = ~450 Hz.

Note that in my case that short of an audibly better design, I was thinking in terms of a two stage 'V' baffle with phase plug with HF [Synergy concept] horn in the middle [poor man's Jericho] + true [infra] bass system.

Frankly, IMNSHO, anyone interested/committed to high SQ horn systems ideally needs to audition the various types of DSL systems before making any decisions.

IOW, unless one has a long, large enough room to sit far enough away from a collection of separate speaker systems to sum 'good enough' over distance, then the system ideally needs to be scaled to suit the room for best overall performance and my SWAG why I much prefer the cobbled together flat baffle corner [conical] horn since the huge compression horn system was built for a two story cathedral ceiling, ~ 46 x 26 ft. brick construction room and now resides in a somewhat lossy studded drywall, floating [suspended] floor ~16 x 24 x 8 ft ceiling one.

Still large compared to many [most?] folks within the 'sound of my voice', but with a ~16 ft max listening distance to the sound wall it's just not nearly long enough to sum 'good enough' [to my ears] at 500 Hz with the current ~128 Hz acoustic center [c-t-c] spacing.

All that said, at least experiment with raw drivers to find what vertical and horizontal spacing one can live with along with what polar response keeps the first reflections to behind one's ears from at least 1 kHz-up [per Dr. Geddes] [~500 Hz my impirically arrived at limit] to set the practical limits.

Once done, it pretty much sets the component, etc., design limitss and if the polar response winds up with the < 90 degrees of a corner horn, then you'll know how much toe-in and/or sound/side wall damping will be required and don't forget/ignore floor, ceiling reflections where putting the 500-1 kHz system up high, angled down is a good acoustical solution, i.e. good speaker design dictates acoustical solutions to solve acoustical problems to maximize system efficiency.

Much better to go conical, but with it needing to be a full WL to load Vs the 1/2 WL of the compression horn, system depth will of course either push XOs much higher for a given room size/shape if not a Synergy/Jericho [MEH] concept or making them a better choice overall where a very long or short listening distance dictates toe'd in, narrower or wider than normal polar responses.

GM
 
As an alternative to the big horn cabs, could an Onken or MLTL using something like a GPA 416 driver be designed to match the footprint of the K402 horn (circa 1000mm x 650mm x 420mm), or am I trying to make the tail wag the dog?

Sure! I de facto recommend this or mount it to a flat baffle if the cab's wider than the horn and cover some/all of it with open cell foam to 'taste' to damp reflections back to the throat.

Most folks ignore me though apparently since the pioneers quit doing it for the most part as cost cutting apparently became increasingly the dominant design criteria, ipso facto DIYers don't need to plus often prefer the 'look' of just the horn perched on top.

FWIW, IME the Onken is a no-no looks wise with women plus can only be tuned by stuffing the vents plus sound wise has a highly resonant sound due to all the comb filtering of the vent's out of phase pipe harmonics with the driver's output.

Many obviously like this harmonic distortion, but for those of us prefering heart attack 'fast'/'tight' [mid] bass, some type of low tuned OB/IB, vented TL or large horn is the way to go if space permits.

GM
 
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