How Do Horn Speakers Get Their Gorgeous Life-like Tonality?

[microstrip]

The largest issue I have heard with non-ideal horns that my newer JMLC horns with rollback have solved is removing this last bit of distortion from vocals.(...)

Can you give us more details on this design? Is it reproducible?

 

[DaveC]

Can you give us more details on this design? Is it reproducible?

I had a composites mold made w/ a 5-axis CNC Fc=330 Hz, but optimized for a ~4" diameter cone. Autotech has a pretty big selection suitable for many different drivers:

JMLC – Horns by Auto-Tech

Here's my mold... it's not cheap! Autotech must have invested in a CNC to make them, they have a lot of horns for sale!

 

[microstrip]

I had a composites mold made w/ a 5-axis CNC Fc=330 Hz, but optimized for a ~4" diameter cone. Autotech has a pretty big selection suitable for many different drivers:

JMLC – Horns by Auto-Tech

Here's my mold... it's not cheap! Autotech must have invested in a CNC to make them, they have a lot of horns for sale!

Thanks - but I was not asking just for the horn, but for the complete speaker!

 

[morricab]

the aerodynamics of the JMLC profiles are suberb and there´s no honk or plunk or echo or any other misbehaviour....
I use full rollback profiles from JMLC270 and up...
TAD 4003 hp at 550 and bandpassed to 2002 at 6K in 2500 horn

The Iwata 600 I have from Autotech have JMLC DNA in them as they have quite a bit of rollback to them. Sound great and essentially no coloration with the Beyma driver. The Radian with Be isn’t working out like I had hoped and I am thinking the horn and driver are somewhat mismatched.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

in our search for the perfect horn/ driver combo we found that Autotech Iwata horn was rather colored and far from ideal measuringwise either...
like most radial and Iwata profiles this is caused by relation between dimensions in height and width that causes reflections and colorations...

 

[microstrip]

the aerodynamics of the JMLC profiles are suberb and there´s no honk or plunk or echo or any other misbehaviour....
I use full rollback profiles from JMLC270 and up...
TAD 4003 hp at 550 and bandpassed to 2002 at 6K in 2500 horn

Do you have posted more details on your DIY speakers in any other thread?

 

[bonzo75]

Do you have posted more details on your DIY speakers in any other thread?

Zero Distortion: Leif's System with TAD 4003 based dual FLH

http://zero-distortion.org/tad-4003-dual-woofer-flh-leifs-system-norway/ The article covers a visit to one of the top 3 systems I have heard, based on a TAD 4003 dual woofer FLH, entirely DIYed. The article discusses the attributes of beryllium, of TAD 4003, Leif’s approach and philosophy and...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[DaveC]

Thanks - but I was not asking just for the horn, but for the complete speaker!

The driver is custom, but the main idea is the horn corrects the typical rising response of a 4.5" wideband driver. This allows the positive qualities of this type of driver while addressing the downsides... you can have a very light cone and a smaller diameter VC in order to allow better high frequency response without the shouty rising response. This in turn allows the driver to cover a very wide range so it approaches the ideal of a point source with controlled directivity, and indeed, the polar response of the speaker is excellent.

Also, it would not be difficult to use any 4.5" driver and correct the response in a passive crossover. It's more ideal to design the driver to fit the horn, but not as practical for a DIY project.

Then the speaker uses a 15" woofer <400 Hz in a ported cabinet that covers down to the low 20 Hz range, and a Fostex T500 to cover >13 kHz.

 

[morricab]

in our search for the perfect horn/ driver combo we found that Autotech Iwata horn was rather colored and far from ideal measuringwise either...
like most radial and Iwata profiles this is caused by relation between dimensions in height and width that causes reflections and colorations...

Interesting because the measurements for the Iwata 600 on the website with a B&C DE250 show pretty good results. My own measurements were quite ok as well. I will admit though that I prefer the sound of the 18 Sound XT1464 + Beyma CP755Ti but not by a large margin. There is probably a bit more resolution that I get from the Iwata + CP350Ti but there seems just to be more grunt and I can cross lower with the other horn/driver combo.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Bronze parts arrived, but only 1 of each...ha-ha typical

 

[morricab]

Anyone heard this new horn from B&C?
https://bcspeakers.com/en/products/horn/1-4/0/ME464

Its pretty big and claims to go down to 300Hz.

It was designed to go with their coaxial compression drivers (sourced from BMS or their own design?)

DCX464 Coaxials HF - B&C Speakers

More than five years of B&C research and development has culminated in a family of next generation high frequency devices. Compression drivers are the linchpin of a PA system: operating at wavelengths too small to readily couple with other drivers, they alone have to fight distance and...

www.bcspeakers.com

Quite interesting as a two-way option...

 

[Tom Danley]

Anyone heard this new horn from B&C?
https://bcspeakers.com/en/products/horn/1-4/0/ME464

Its pretty big and claims to go down to 300Hz.

It was designed to go with their coaxial compression drivers (sourced from BMS or their own design?)

DCX464 Coaxials HF - B&C Speakers

More than five years of B&C research and development has culminated in a family of next generation high frequency devices. Compression drivers are the linchpin of a PA system: operating at wavelengths too small to readily couple with other drivers, they alone have to fight distance and...

www.bcspeakers.com

Quite interesting as a two-way option...

Hi

Yes, I have heard them, i am using them at work.


They can go down to 300Hz depending on the horn they are on and if a single suitable horn is used, one can use up to a 12 inch driver below it in the same horn and live under the K=1 limitation.


They designed the hf unit as well as the lower range driver and because the two sources are "so close" acoustically, they combine coherently and so it is easier (as in actually possible) to make a "good" mf/hf crossover with these VS the BMS coax.



The advantages these have over a typical 1.4 or 2 inch driver is excellent hf response and efficiency and the absence of an obvious breakup modes / chaotic behavior up high. The disadvantages are cost, the dispersion is driver exit size (1.4 inch) limited around 20K to under about 60 degrees (if that matters in ones use) and working out the crossover for the horn one is using, to make it "flat".

It's a cool driver.

Tom Danley

Danley Sound Labs

 

[DaveC]

Hi

Yes, I have heard them, i am using them at work.


They can go down to 300Hz depending on the horn they are on and if a single suitable horn is used, one can use up to a 12 inch driver below it in the same horn and live under the K=1 limitation.


They designed the hf unit as well as the lower range driver and because the two sources are "so close" acoustically, they combine coherently and so it is easier (as in actually possible) to make a "good" mf/hf crossover with these VS the BMS coax.



The advantages these have over a typical 1.4 or 2 inch driver is excellent hf response and efficiency and the absence of an obvious breakup modes / chaotic behavior up high. The disadvantages are cost, the dispersion is driver exit size (1.4 inch) limited around 20K to under about 60 degrees (if that matters in ones use) and working out the crossover for the horn one is using, to make it "flat".

It's a cool driver.

Tom Danley

Danley Sound Labs

Thanks for your valuable input and good luck on your new home speaker!