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10-31-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 21
Post ID: 27665
Reply to: 27664
The changes.
Some brief commentary about immigration from original Vitavox horn to 18-cell horn. I dropped crossover frequency till 640Hz. The new horns are much larger, dipper and finish in a very heavy texture structure. I got approximately 5 decibel higher frequency and right now my mid-range horn and my baseball scores are running with no attenuation of any kind. Just a single for microfarad cap for midrange driver.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
10-31-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 22
Post ID: 27666
Reply to: 27665
This is very serious question
MmI have today quite a few very interesting listening sessions with my new corner horns. I still need to come up with this name for it. I still did not measure anything and getting results purely by feelings. It does quite fine projected to the efforts invested into it but there is one factor which very much piss me off. It has very different lower base texture is that so insanely beautiful, I cannot express how beautiful it is. I sincerely failed that my main system produces probably the most interesting base that I heard anywhere. And it is objectively better then what my corner horns do. Still, for whatever reasons the Lord base from the corner horns in my view is more musical. I know exactly why and I know very specifically what kind of quality make me so love it but I do not know why I have it. It is not truly a dipole, it is front firing driver, this delayed back loaded corner horn. Is it because delayed phase randomization? Is it because it's used $3 worth amplifier that in reality is a spectacular amplifier? It is because extremely lucky hook in my children playroom? I do knot know the answer but I would love to have the same texture of the lower base in my immune system.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-01-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
a.anagnost


Greece
Posts 8
Joined on 10-16-2024

Post #: 23
Post ID: 27667
Reply to: 27666
Not sure if this helps

My view of the whole system is:

The Horn is conical, defined by the 3 intersecting walls (a pyramid with an isosceles triangle as base).

[As a conical horn, it is a cone with about 83deg apex angle assuming spherical waves, or, about 104deg assuming plane waves.]


Our box is emitting waves at some distance from the apex, so it needs to have an emitting surface matching the surface of the conical Horn at that distance. We may consider that the box is functioning also as horn adapter, coupling the small driver’s surface to the large conical Horn surface (at that distance).


Obviously, there is nothing suggesting dipole operation. (In fact, I am unable to believe that a dipole in a corner would emit anything re bass).


As conical horns don’t have a (well defined) cut off frequency, the low frequency response is defined by the box:

Since we are using the driver’s front and back radiation to feed the Horn, we need to mess around with back radiation’s phase to avoid cancelation. (This is where the bass reflex theory is helpful for tuning the box and adopting it to the Horn).


Furthermore, this corner horn is functioning at a very limited frequency range: The box’s volume acts as a low-pass filter, permitting through the 2 ducts only low frequencies (depending on box tuning). At the box’s tuning frequency, the driver is not emitting anything, only the 2 ducts are operational. (Witch I think is a good thing)


Yes, this horn it is a different animal. For sure it uses the room better than conventional front horns do.  

11-01-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 24
Post ID: 27668
Reply to: 27667
My thinking
Well, I would like to leave on conical subject aside of the scope of current thread and to stay here with my corner horn bass. When I talk about my corner corn as a dipole operated bass enclosure I of course recognize  that it is not ta truly a dipole. Yes we have dipole like radiation from both sides but there are two major factos. That back radiation is delayed for 3 ft in relation to front radiation and it is substantially phase randomized. The last factor is the most important. That back radiation is substantially lower and output then front radiation. Back radiation would be strong if it's would be a classic corner horn with front radiation is not permitted. Then the driver will be compressed into own back chamber and then pushed to the corner. Since the front of the driver is wide open the back of the driver produce manuscular pressure to the corner. So, in the reality it is not a truly corner loaded horn. With all honesty I have some kind of curiosity how's this speaker will act not being corner loaded at all. It is in my mind that the guy from who I bought those speakers have them positioned not in the corners but in the middle of the room.

There is another directions that I would like to investigate. Currently my corner horn is driven by incredibly cheap an objectively horrible amplifier. It is an integrated chip with a cost of literally under 1 dollar. I asked my technical consultant to review the schematic of this amplifier and he told me that there is absolutely nothing to look into it and it is done as simple as cheap as possible. Still, it produces that remarkable bass structure and I wonder if it is a property of THIS application? I had yesterday a visit from very experienced local auto guy and I played to him this corner horns. He said exactly what I am feeling. He said that it feels like it is driven by very good single-ended triod. It is not about that tubiness of sound however. It is the way in which the very bottom end of each base note decades. It is very very natural and very acoustical. I feel that it is likely by the fact that the direct radiation woofer somehow is it reinforced by the "confused" radiation from back. I need to look into it more and I am  very much would like to find what it is.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-02-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 25
Post ID: 27670
Reply to: 27668
Here is what in my mind



"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-03-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,658
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #: 26
Post ID: 27672
Reply to: 27670
Back to Sound Shaping?
While I agree with the "Musical Instrument Theory", you have made clear your intentions to try to get a working understanding and control of those speakers, And that sounds like something "sound engineers" do all the time, getting the effects they want with DSP. For LF there are D amps that allow you to dial phase or delay to taste. If your horn goes down to 640 Hz, then the woofer probably goes up that high, right? Add a "board" and you can do the woofer top to bottom, in as narrow bands as the board allows, to hear the effects per octave, or whatever you choose. For "purists" there are still analog versions around, gathering dust.

Paul S 
11-04-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,658
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #: 27
Post ID: 27675
Reply to: 27672
Tuning Made Easy?
Perhaps you have already tried this, Romy, but I was just thinking you could experiment by simply moving the speakers in relation to the corners, whether evenly from both walls or more or less from one side of the cabinet or the other, to try to determine how the "last leg of the horn" affects the sound. As for the sonic contributions of the cabinets themselves, short of drilling holes or butchery, you can add mass to the cabinet panels and/or +/- obstruct the passageways anywhere inside the cabinets. All of this being easy, cheap, and reversable.

Paul S
11-05-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 28
Post ID: 27676
Reply to: 27670
It is back...
The full range Melquiades is back to the duty...

CornerHornsAndMilq.jpg



"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-07-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
a.anagnost


Greece
Posts 8
Joined on 10-16-2024

Post #: 29
Post ID: 27679
Reply to: 27676
For the sake of completeness
Your corner horn design, as I just discovered, was patented by Klipsch (US patent 2731101): The Rebel horn. 
11-07-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 30
Post ID: 27680
Reply to: 27679
Yes, it is Klipsch Rebel but I think it is not where this Sound comes from...
Yes, it is exactly the replica of Klipsch Rebel horn. I did not see it before you mentioned it but you are right, it is the Rebel.

http://images.klipsch.com/Brochure_540100_RB_635164773054556000.pdf

In my case, I use an unfiltered LF section from 605A for the horn and for FH  Vitavox S2 at 640Hz. I needed to go with a deeper HF horn as Vitavox S2 needs some low-pass filtration to work in a short horn. I need to admit that I am having a very surprising result that made me very much question what is going on.   The sound is marvelous, truly marvelous and I do not use this word lightly. It should be like I need to sing admirations to Rebel Horn, 605A, S2 this little room but it is much more complex than this. I have been thinking and experimenting with it a lot. I have another 3 amplifiers including my very much tested Melquiades driving the corner horns, let's call it Rebel++,  and I got garbage sound. Truly disgusting Sound. I have 2 other good Dacs taking digital out from the transport and I have not disgusting but boring sound. I have other transports, DAW, and multiple amps driving the thing, and I do not have a near-close sound compared to when I drive the thing from that super cheap table radio device. Dima and I were looking into schematics and build of that cheap table radio and it is laughable: class B, integrated IC amplifier with huge distortions.  What I am saying is that while my Rebel++ might not be so bad it is not the reason why I have such a strangely positive result. I do not know the reason and I am digging into it now.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-08-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 31
Post ID: 27682
Reply to: 27679
A question.
I was looking about this Klipsch Rebel concept. It's looks like Klipsch dived into that Rebel configuration out of financial desperation. Is there more complex horns was too expensive to manufacture and sell and they come up with simplify version that they sell super cheap. In fact they reportedly selling many kits for Rebel. What I have is a larger version of C5 kit. Back in 1957 the kit was selling for $42. It is possible that this horn was built from original kit and they may have a lot of your versions and C5. Or maybe it was custom made by a furniture maker as my right and left horn have slightly different dimensions, like 2-3 in here and there. 

anagnost, I have a question to ask. How can I methodologically accurate measure a percentage of acoustic output which coming from back home. The back Horn signal obviously will be delayed but I cannot truly do it in time domain as at those low frequencies it is a completely mess and only God knows where is direct signal and where is reflections. 



"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-09-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
a.anagnost


Greece
Posts 8
Joined on 10-16-2024

Post #: 32
Post ID: 27683
Reply to: 27682
Rebel and answer
Rebel:
It seems that the Rebel was licensed to companies such as Cabinart (offering 3 sizes of the Rebel):
https://www.preservationsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Cabinart_1957_part2.pdf
https://www.preservationsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Cabinart_1957_part3.pdf

Apparently, all of them follow FIG.1 of the Klipsch Patent https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f0/9b/b3/3d80597554398e/US2731101.pdf, but Rebel++ is more refined at the back providing a more sensible throat geometry.
Unsurprisingly, it was common those years to license designs to other companies (for example, Vitavox CN-191 was using the Klipschorn, Vitavox Scouts were using the bogus JBL 4530) 

Measurements:
The obvious answer is: move the horn to your backyard, place it firing to the sky (and... call your doctor to fix your broken back).
I usually use MLS (Maximum length sequence) pseudorandom signal to extract the impulse response of the device under test. (The FFT of the impulse is the frequency response)  The methodology is explained at https://www.audiomatica.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/cliomls.pdf - example section.

(A few 100y ago, when I was developing an RTA app I sent you a prototype that supported MLS generation/measurements. I suppose it may still run under windows 11 - I will check if you wish)

It might also be useful to measure the resistance of the Rebel++, as a possible hint to why various amps fail.   

BR, Antonis
11-09-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 33
Post ID: 27684
Reply to: 27683
There is much more to it.
Yes, Antonis. I do understand how to measure the back response anechoically but the whole idea of doing it in place, factoring in the effectiveness of the corners. I do not know how to do it.
 
Regarding the Rebel++ impedance, yes it was my initial reaction but there is so much more to it that keeps my mind occupied for a while and I do not have the answer as of now. You see, the fact the tube Milq was objectively falling is a good indication impedance drop beyond where Milq can handle. Still, 2 other amplifiers were B2 and B3 that have no problem with low impedance. The failure with B2/3 aps was not so catastrophic but the “great” sound was not there.
My focus now is ironically not on Rebel++ , the speaker is good but no better than it might be. At this point I feel that the exceptionalism is not coming from the Rebel++ but from this shitty Denon table radio that I drive Rebel++. I have had this unit for 17 years and it was very good for my office, bedroom etc. I have not had a good full range speakers for over 20 years and the story with Rebel++ was a first time I was driving my little table radio against a “serious” speaker. I am more than impressed. Some of the things I am getting is would be VERY rare for any amplifier of any class and I am getting it from $100 CD/DAC/AMP combo!!!
 
The last night I was listening to Ivan Fisher’s Maler 2 with Budapest festival. I am not kidding, the Rebel++ overperformed my main system. Was sound better with Rebel++ then Macondo?  No, it was even remotely close. Still, I feel that Rebel++  was advantageous in my view. You see, Fisher’s Maler 2 is good performance but not consistent. There are some moments that are spectacular with very sensible personal touch but there are some moments when the orchestra just run through the score and make music boring and not expressive enough. Macondo, being the system that does very good audio, slightly masks out the boring moment of the performance by showing off a remarkable audio expressiveness. The Rebel++   and this shitty Denon do not do it at all and the boring parts are truly deep-boring. This is VERY advanced characteristics of a playback, and it is VERY hard to get. The fact that this shitty Denon and Rebel++  somehow do it is a huge mystery for me.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-09-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,658
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #: 34
Post ID: 27685
Reply to: 27684
A Silly Thought
Though it seems quite unlikely, I have to ask, does the Denon have some kind of buffering at the output stage? I mean, that's a 15" woofer you're driving there... Perhaps the waters are muddied enough by the "horn" that it eats some other problems, in line with the smoothing approach? Do you high pass it? Do you low pass it under the S2?

Paul S
11-10-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
a.anagnost


Greece
Posts 8
Joined on 10-16-2024

Post #: 35
Post ID: 27687
Reply to: 27685
The silly rebel thoughts
My experience with cheap/chip amps:
Around y2k, bored with the bass of those loudspeakers with <=8" bass drivers that my fiends where so proud about, I decided to experiment with a BR box using a 15" driver (irrelevant: a Beyma 15K200). Immediately, I discovered that my 300B amp was unsatisfactory, and decided to test the LM3886 chip amp. I used inverting feedback topology just 2 resistors without any caps in the signal & feedback path: a simple DC amp. I thought that it will fail miserably, but I was smiling for months...

The pic with the FR Melquiades:
My first sentiment was envy. The second thought was: It will fail. Fine... but why? Maybe the load is too low. But the 605A is not a 4ohm driver. In fact it is more like a 16ohm driver! Yes, the output transformer has amorphous core as opposed to the heavy iron core+inductance of the bass channel of the multichannel Melq. Are we done?

Freqs of interest:
I will arbitrary assume that the observed phenomena are involving freqs <=60Hz (wavelength >=19ft/6m) 

The silly rebel thoughts:
The Rebel is a two cell horn where the 2 cell's mouths are not close to each other (as opposed to all multicell horns I know of). Physics ensures that at low frequencies/high wavelengths this distance is irrelevant. Fine, but the listening spot distance may be quite less than the 60Hz wavelength. At 30Hz (605A fs) the wavelengths are x2. 
How many wavelengths are needed to ensure summation of the 2 cells + the driver? I don't know, by I suspect >= 1x wavelength...
This means that at listening position, one is exposed to much lower freqs than those predicted by the summation (a typical 4th order high-pass).
But, can the amps support this? For sure the FR Melq can not. A DC amp with feedback and high OpenLoop gain (chip amp) on the other hand can!

Measurements:
I wish I knew the anechoic response of the Rebel's mouths and the anechoic response of driver (with the mic at less 1 inch distance).
The same at listening position (the supposed summed response).
Using for sure the Denon, and, whatever other amp. 

BR, Antonis
11-10-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 36
Post ID: 27688
Reply to: 27687
I feel there is much much more to it
Antonis, as I said above, it might be more sinister than it looks. It might well explain why SET with no feedback cannot drive it. Howevers it does not explain why another solid state amplification driven by way more sophisticated front end can drive it fine but does not sound as appealing. As I said above my leading hypothesis that in this specific unit something completely accidentally was made right and I even with very high certain she can predict that what was made right is proper balance between volume and distortions. This unit very accurately depict musical content, the spiritual anesthetical definition of musicality which is outrageously rare and complex parameter, which was properly rendered according to my knowledge only in the first productions of Lamm ML2. This little unit should not have intelligence to observe musical complexity. During the last month I bought 3 other units of the same period from the same company bought this slightly different schematics. All of them were okay but none of them can differentiate good music from bad., This little stinky device somehow does and I feel it's nothing to do with speakers it drives, I never had any more or less capable of full range and it happens that my recent Rebel ++ were the accidental first.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-10-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,658
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #: 37
Post ID: 27689
Reply to: 27688
Valencias?
Romy, if you mentioned you sold your Valencias, I forget. I wonder how your little amp would come across with those, just for laughs and to satisfy curiosity about where the musical sound comes from, or if it's accidental synergy between the Rebel and the Denon (since I know you love that word)....

Paul S
11-10-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 38
Post ID: 27692
Reply to: 27689
It's might be coming.
I never have Valenca. I have Altec 19, I still own them but they are still in Amy's house. I actually would like very much to drive this my little Denon but not Altec 19 but some very capable full range system, something of Wilson Grand Slams or alike. There's only full range system I have are Dunalevy II with my custom tweeters and they are truly great. However, they do not play classical music and they sitting in my smoking room driven by very same Denon and I typically play there my blues that I like so much.


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
11-11-2024 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,159
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 39
Post ID: 27694
Reply to: 27680
Rebel of Macondo or Some sense of reality
I have tonight heated cop up Macondo and decided to do some listening. I need to admit that over a month I did explicitly listening to my new Rebel++. I pulled Karajan  Bruckner 7, this typically unfortunate DG pressing, lit up nice cigar come and listening it.

Well, I kind of forgot how starting Macondo and Milq are. The way how multichannel system run across inner workings of instruments and sections is truly cannot be compatible with any two-way system. I truly detect that I kind of missing that insultingly wonderful base that I have from that vintage Rebel but everything else is just I completely different dimension. If I can point one thing only then it is obviously size that absolutely not obtainable from any small speakers. The Brunner's crescendos, until you heard it at time align multichannel system with properly tuned channels is completely different exceptional entity. Normal audio just cannot do it. You need multichannels, you need reverberation injections, it is not that you're entire room should sound, it is not Brahms it is not Beethoven. It is Bruckner. With Bruckner that orchestral crush Christ to that dimension of universe. It is like you entering a magnetic field of magnetar and eat shreds you to the atoms. It is like a fireball of thermonuclear weapon, which is growing up and you feel it will never stop. I literally did not hear not multi amp and not multichannel system able to present this size. And it should not be an acoustic pressure it should be a tonal pressure. 

I just shut down the Macondo and my stupid brain begin to ask if I want to introduce more channels to Rebel. Of course I will not, but if you hear Macondo you know what I mean....


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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