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At recent Nord-West trade show Jeffrey Jackson, the guy who runs Experience Music site, demonstrated his new horn Installation. I know little about it and would like to make some comments about what is feel is obvious from the image.

It is 5-ways with LF coming from this box in the middle on the floor. It looks like the wardrobe in the middle is amplifiers and it looks like it is a full-range amp, not DSET as I can see filters on the speakers shelf. As I understand it is the Jeffrey’s own amp:

http://www.experiencemusic.net/Eimac75tl.htm

Considering the Jeffrey’s association with GOTO the drivers might be GOTO, which one and how used is unknown at this point.

From the comments I heard personally from a person who heard the sound of the installation it looks like the result was OK but still not there. The person complained about dried, over-damped sound with a heavy shortage of the necessary amount twinkleness and sparks. It might be so or it might be not – I was not there. Jeffrey’s occasionally posts at this site I hope he would show up and comment on the Sound he was able to get out if this installation.

A few my own comments. First thing first – I do applaud and very enthusiastically support that fact that this is probably the ONLY commercial public installation where the person went into design expense to time-align the channels naturally. Here is where the Experience Music’s attempt is stay well above anything else. Unfortunately, like always with horns he pays for it a lot and here is what the tiny little things kicks in… So, let go from admiration of time-alignment into constrictive criticism.

Midbass horn: it a new meaning on half-space as someone make a joke at AA. It looks like 50Hz horn and most little crossed at 400Hz-500Hz above. I said before and I am saying again – I do not think that 50Hz horn might live under MF channels in horn installation. The price of the having that mouth’s opening in front of MF and tweeter is too high price to pay. In the time-aligned configuration the mouth of 50Hz horn is 6”-8” ahead of tweeter – too, too, too, too, too much. I do give a credit to the elegant shape Jeffrey was trying to make his 50Hz horn but in going this shape he last some sq inches in midbass-horn mouth.  What I see would be much better if this shape midbass-horn would be sitting on the external left and right side of the system, mount to the right and left wall. Perhaps Jeffrey intended to do it but looking at the high of the frame he constricted it does not look so. If the midbass-horn goes on the side walls then the lover MF horn go to floor – it would be way more interesting configuration. In this configuration the midbass-horn might be used much closer to listening spot and the entire installation might work in much more extreme nearfiled – it would help a lot with the reportedly needed sparkles in sound…

Lover MF horn: The profile looks like from the classical GOTO playbook, probably 200Hz-220Hz horn and the channel most likely is crossed at 1kHz -2kHz. In Macondo I call it Fundamentals Channel - I love this channel. It might be a very interesting debate if the Lover MF horn should be faster or slower opening horn. With faster profile (Tratrix, LeCleach) we have more articulate but shallow lower end. With slower opening (exponential, parabolic) we have more LF extension but it is in a way more muddy bass, the slower opening also make gloriously softer bass… So, it is how it was used and there is no truly any golden rule in it… The key is what kind accent the Lover MF horn provides in the system.

MF horn: It looks like a compression driver in 500Hz  LeCleach horn. For me it is too far. The price of putting the midbass horn in front I think is too high… The presentce of the horizontal (!!!) surface above (look like a shelf for crossover) is absolutely prohibitive in my view

HF channel: I feel that tweeter is los in this configuration. The baffles around it too much and there are too much reflections for it to work as well as it can. One of the solutions would be to use a line array tweeter (ribbon) with very narrow (15-25degree) vertical firing diagram. But it will send the Lover MF horn even more up. So, do not put the Midbass horn below the MF… :-)

The Frame: I do not like it at all. Perhaps it is just a temporary solution juts for the show. The front tripod should not be there. The baffle with MF horn shell be stronger and shell hold the Lover MF horn without any front legs. If the Lover MF horn too heavy then use contra-level with added mass to balance out the Lover MF horn’s moment. I think the black-painted frame with the shelf and the front legs will be way more graceful solution, the solution that would visually connect the midbass horn and the Lover MF horn into one visually compiled system.

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