Butterfly bass bins and mids

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i've been looking for more info and hopefully drawings of these cabs manufactured under the name Butterfly (and if i remember the badge correctly in small letters it said "by Tube Audio"
 

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unlike the Martin these have a double(possibly triple) fold and the driver is "rear facing" the 12 inch version loaded with Atc's would kick like a mule with as little as two per side.

to my knowledge they where Canadian made in southern Ontario and in the late 70's early 80's a production company from south of the border bought a truckload of them, anyway i'm hoping i can find some drawings to see if i can figure out why they kicked liked they did.
 
The Martin 115, 215, MkII, MKIII and F2B are pretty much the benchmark for what you describe, they do look like they follow the same principles as the Martin bins, don't think Dave Martin sold a 2x12" version and none of them had a rear facing driver. The Martin's were IIRC available with either the ATC or RCF drivers.
Whether or not they follow the exact same folding scheme I would guess they are similar enough to have the same acoustic traits, maybe Butterfly managed to make an extra fold work and in doing so slightly lowered f3.
I think the reason these kick like a mule is that the folds are close to the throat, minmising reflections and geometric deviations in the horn, in the working band, very closely following a purest horn profile. I think the Martin's used a Hyperbolic profile. Also they used very low 'Q' drivers with very powerful motors, all in all they are very efficient wide band horns with excellent transient response with very little in the way of resonance to f things up.

I'm a big fan of the Martin 215's
 
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in my early touring days i spent a lot of time moving Martin gear back and forth across the map which is why when i encountered the Butterfly stuff i thought why aren't people using these instead?

i hope to get the dimension data to compare the two (and confirm it wasn't just me faulty memory)
 
Bloomin eck, if they kick more than the Martin then I'm somewhat surprised that your still here to tell the tale! A company I did some work for locally had a couple of stacks of Martin bins and Phillies, when I started touring I was lugging EAW850 and Turbo Flashlight, later some D&B C4 and EAW750 just missed the boat on the Martin gear, stopped as the Line Arrays were starting to take over.
 
i don't miss carrying heavy gear....
i may be pinning for the past but i recall a club tour using a Butterfly rig with two 15's three 12's and two mid horns and some Jbl horns per side and the whole shooting match running off 3 BGW amps the efficiency/spl was amazing.
 
I was refering to the Butterfly using a 15” and 12” under their version of the phillie mids, also the butterfly mids I guess would strggle to play as high as the Martins, IIRC the xover frequencies for the Martin 215/Phillishave were 250/1K6Hz with a HP of between 20-40Hz depending on use.
A freind was licensed to build those Clare C4 boxes over here, had just sold them and bought a load of l acoustics arcs when I visited the wharehouse, I don't think he missed the C4’s. The EV MTL4 came and went pretty swiftly over here as well, also manged to miss having to lug around the old court blackbox system.
 
you mean S4....which after lugging them most would wish for C4 and watch them turn into little smouldering bits...

the mids on the Butterfly managed 2k and where generally crossed thereabouts.

a production company out of Montreal made a version of the S4 that horn loaded the low frequency section made the S4 seem light by comparison.
 
Martin audio horn designs, Turbosound, Fane, ..., and more recently Funktion One systems exhibit indeed tremandous dynamic, pure sound (when correctly filtered/managed), "real" sound.
The popular today Line Arrays have yet some advantages (simpler to install) but the sound is most often flat, distorded, with little dynamic, finally well designed for compressed-poor sound as often in concert nowadays.
For true live music, think true horn designs ;-)
 
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here, here or should that be hear, hear....


lately i've wanted to be able to find info on the Klipsch PA stuff....i recall hearing some bass bins that in a stack of three in a small arena sounded F 'n amazing and always wondered about the mid's and high's from the same series....


can line's be augmented from horn loading??
 
Turk182,
Martin systems, when correctly installed, were stacked with bass coupled vertically, and at the side the same for mid, and for HF units. To be coherently coupled and to increase vertical directivity. Similarly to a line array (but without the 0° vertical directivity of the HF parts of line array).
Today's Martin audio line array are using horn if I am right, but I never heard it (here in France).

It indeed responds to the nowadays demand, easier/faster to install, not sure it sounds as good at systems with B115/Philishave/HF horns..
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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Butterfly just referes to the horn folding. Back in the early 80s, i built some Martin clones, OK but not as good as the prtototype horns i designrd. They are meant to be stacked.

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Martin_Audio_Bass_Bin_115.jpg


Here a FANE: FANE Long throw W bin, similar to Martin Audio 115 - Speakerplans.com Forums

LaScale style:
post-44375-0-99320000-1429972738_thumb.j | Speaker box design, Klipsch, Speaker plans

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Here someone manipulating a Sketch stack of dual turbosounds
Dual Turbo Sound Subwoofer Hard KICKing Bass Bin Cabinet - YouTube

I would suggest starting from scratch with the exact driver you want to use, and a good horn modeler. Most butterfly bins are compromsed and you can choose what set best suits your needs.

More links:
PA Systems, sound systems, speaker boxes, live Sound - Dancetech

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dave
 

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