I've been really looking forwards to updating this thread, but a certain pandemic has done it's best to prevent me thus far.
Well, today I finally made it back to visit Bill and his amazing horns, dragging Barry/Blue58 with me.
Firstly, it's just good to meet and share. It's been such a rotten 15 months, so it's good to see us all having survived. And of course, it's the hobby...and what audiophile with a pulse doesn't want to hear amazing analog, in the form of a rare but superb sounding vinyl spinner (Horning Sati tt/The Peak 12" arm/DaVa cart w bespoke field coil psu/NVO phono), replacing previous Bergmann Sindre and Red Sparrow, and a big treat for us, a Studer A812 Mk2 tape machine. The Mayer 10Y and 46 monos as before.
And the stars of the show, his amazing and pretty unique artisanal all-hand crafted horns.
Bill has not stood still here, his brain is more active when he's asleep then when I'm struggling with the Sudoku in front of me Lol.
This has included investigating and maybe sourcing custom field coil full range drivers as an alternative to his current favoured BD drivers, finally pulling off the hand fabrication of both larger mahogany horns to allow a lower crossover point of c.100Hz (as opposed to 170Hz of his standard size horns) and outsized rear chamber for this larger horn.
His narrative on the multifaceted construction of this larger horn left me and Barry pretty speechless and full of admiration.
I know there are many DIY horns builds we never hear about, but as far as I can see, Bill's construction efforts here remain above and beyond any normal call of duty...inspired and persistent are the least descriptions I can come up with.
His dedication here is beyond anything I've seen, and Barry concurred fully.
After a pint of draught lager, 2°C perfecto, and the boys getting acquainted for the first time, we thought some music was in order...