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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Problems with horns: upper bass
Post Subject: On Purpose And ApproachPosted by Dresden on: 11/19/2008
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I'm not sure I understand what point you consider a priority, but I can explain the reason for my initial inquiry and what I intend to do.

My initial inquiry was intended to acquire information on whether a horn with a target range of 40Hz to 400Hz could be made to reproduce said frequency in a satisfying manner using both the front and rear acoustic energy of one driver.  Obviously, such a range is but a fraction of the total range in a system covering 20Hz to 20KHz.  From everything I've gathered, I've concluded that building at least two--and perhaps three--different versions of a Mid/Upper bass horn design will be required to determine which of the three configurations perform best.

It is not (and was never) my intention to simply build one horn say, as a past-time/hobby or any other reason I may view as frivilous.

I've already designed the horn I will be implementing for use in the range of 400Hz to 7KHz (which may or may not be 500Hz to 7KHz, contingent on the driver's real-world capability).  I've already designed a horn for use in the range from 7KHz to the driver's limit.  And I've also chosen a method for amplification, a cross-over (for judicious limit of unwanted frequencies pertaining to each driver's capability), and a methodology for dealing with delays.

I've designed a whole system.  My concern with the Mid/Upper bass horn represents the last stage of my project as it pertains to research and preliminary design(s), to be followed by blueprints, and ultimately, construction.

The reason for my pursuing this project on two fronts (home and 'professional' audio) is my desire to have a system that can project excellent performance if and when compared (or used) in either environment (the 'professional' environment more likely benefiting the most from this approach--I believe a lot of 'professional' loudspeakers are grossly lacking in terms of performance/fidelity).  I arrived at the conclusion that the division between home and 'professional' loudspeakers blurs to some extent with the common subject matter of horns, given that many of the compression drivers used in horn systems in the home are the same models used in 'professional' systems.

I conclude with saying I've approached this project being vividly aware there is no such thing as a 'perfect' horn loaded system.  Many may question a lot of things, especially my choice to designing the system as 'active'.  But, in the end, all of the work has been done with the one goal I decided on since the beginning:  to create a complete, integral system capable of delivering satisfying performance with little left to chance.

Once the design is complete and presented in public I'm certain you'll appreciate my reasoning.

P.S. I'm posting this reply once again as it appears to not have gone through.  I apologize if it accidentally appears as a repeated reply.

 Romy the Cat wrote:

 Dresden wrote:
hmm...I didn't realise I had left my browser logged-in to your site (I left my PC on over night, downloading some files).

'..the only advantage that class-D amplification has is cost, size, heat generation and power.'

In my eyes, that's more than I could ever have hoped for in the present price range.

I've had the pleasure to listen to some high-end amplifiers, utilized mostly with ribbon loudspeakers.  (I still prefer Bryston over most any other amplifier, when taking into account build quality, warranty, looks, and of course sound.)  But in terms of cost, the modules I've found are very promising.

I intend to power the drivers to no more than 33% of their rated power capacity ([200W], AES total power capacity being 600W continuous pink noise), particularly to keep distortion ultra-low and driver power compression at or under the 2dB level.

The purpose for wanting to implement class-D amplification is for use in small theatrical performances or musical venues, not for personal use (think an auditorium, small stage or music hall).  Of course, should a person have a home that could justify actually using such capacity, that would be a sight to see--and hear--in person.

For personal use, yes, 20W may prove more than effective.

Dresden,

My idea to “talk” about horns implies visualization or possible pursuing of specific sonic objectives. I hope that “Sound” is always the subject of any posts at this site: it might render itself as the thoughts about nuts and bolts of grid biasing, the size of back chambers or the VTA setting. I do not particularly care about non-applied talks about audio,  the talks about audio while being blind of ignorant about results or demonstration of capacity to recognize and to use results. There are many communities (like DiyAudio.com for instance and many others) that might explore all imaginary subjects from many directions, done mostly by the idiots who have no sense of sound recognition, no well-structured sonic objectives and very superficial  and shallow appreciation of the actual sonic output of their actions. I would like do not convert my site into the DiyAudio.com type of idiocy and I hope that people who have inters in my site actually think first about own interests in sound and second about the way to get there.

To say honestly I do not understand what you are trying to do and some of the things you say does not compile in my mind as something that makes sense. You need to understand my limitation in the subject – I think about playback as complete result. I might abstract out of the “complete result” a specific characteristic of sound and look in this deeper, deconstructioning sound but  I tend do not glue sound from the multitude of accidentals micro-results. Why I go over all of it in the given moment? Because I feel that thinking, designing and talking about midbass horn is possible only in context of larger view of playback installation. To think just about midbass horn without thinking about everything else is like making a surgery on kidney without caring about the rest of the body.

I do understand that you would like to build a high quality 40Hz horn, good for sound reinforcement application and good for home use. But this objective sounds as oxymoronic to me as the objective to making a screwdriver that would take apart a precision Swiss watch and at the same time to be a useful to disassemble the Golden Gates Bridge. I mean the objectives and the means for sound re-enforcement tasks and the home use are so different that I hardly feel that it is possible to think about both of them and to use the same vocabulary.  I might be wrong but it is how I see the things and my explosion to what “out there” prove to me that I am not very far from what it is.

The caT

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