Has anyone used EV DH2A Drivers and HP940 Horns?

Azriel

Azriel

Active Member
I have Electro-Voice TL 2x12 cabs loaded with EVM-12L Series II that I used as the midrange part of a large scale system. I've been thinking about using a matching EV HF horn/driver set along with them. Has anyone used the DH2A drivers? I'm curious what they would be like with either HP94 or HP940 horns. Any preference between the two horns?

I could cross them over anywhere from 1k - 1.6k, whatever is best for the driver. Are they strong up to 13-14k? If so, I think I could be happy with that.

-Jon
 

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I have found that mostly all the Large format drivers have Limited HF bandwidth.
no experience with the Dh2a's. though. Only the smaller EV drivers that are High freq limited.
I doubt the horns shown would be suitable for up close Hi Fi use.
 
The DH2A seems to work well up to about 12KHz, but it's pretty rolled off above that, IME. There's a reason why EV commonly used supertweeters (T350 or ST350) with many of these, when they wanted better fidelity.

The HP940 horn will probably sound better in a home application. The HP94 is a diffraction horn, while the HP940 is a standard waveguide. Diffraction horns tend to have more sonic artifacts (uneven response), than more conventional waveguides. The HP94 is also useful to no lower than 800Hz, whereas the HP940 is usable down to 500Hz.

If you want to use these drivers and horns- be aware of the equalization requirements, to get flat response. This can be done with passive components (shelving circuits), or with an active crossover (active EQ). See here for details:

http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/STARINMANUALS/Bosch - EV/DH2A, DH2A16.pdf
https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/HP940_Horn_EDS.pdf
http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/STARINMANUALS/Bosch - EV/HP94.pdf

Regards,
Gordon.
 
I have played around with them a while back as I got them for a very good price,I did try them in many different horns with the plumbing screw on thingie, and without, without it's just a screw on 1 inch exit driver that had to be crossed over around 1.2 k for decent loading and sound
With the 2 inch adapter they actually behave a lot better as the expansion is almost 5 inches than the usual crappy adapters that are around 2 inches
This gives you choices outside of the cd horns you suggest the ev hr 90 , 120 are good
Yes they need eq above 12 k and ev used to sell some eq equipment for this,they are titanium which can be edgy on some amps
For a joke I made some silly budget speakers for my friends vintage store in Brooklyn as he sells vinyl and 45 ,so I got some used jbl cabs some cheap jbl knockoff driver from Newark electric and used a custom prototype horn from a guy in Canada which was a 300 hz horn
It sounds really good with a simple 700k crossover padded down to around 100 db
So experiment and have fun
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Hello all,
Thanks for all the info. How about using ST350s on top? I already have one from a lone Sentry V speaker, and know of another for $75, so it wouldn't be that expensive. Plus, I could at least try the one I have first before spending anything. Perhaps cross them over around 5k give or take?

-Jon
 
Those horns andd drivers were live sound parts used for churches and such. Those white horns were some of the first constant direcrtivity designs by Bob Kiel and worked very well. DH2 was one of EV's 13 inch drivers as I recall. None of these were built for sound quality, but desigrnd for pattern control. T350 was EV's tweeter for many many years, the bigger pbrother to the T35, As I reacll my KLipsch LA Scala's used OEM versions of the T35 back in the 70s and an OEM community horn and driver (community was EV's cheap line of 70V product and commercial audio). SQ of all this speaker and horn stuff was kinda awful by todays standards.

EV was at one time on par with JBL in hi fi, back in the "patrician" days (JBL had the Paragon). EV actually built a 30 inch woofer for the Partrician and it was amazing. I think over time its a classic case of product champions, EV lost their hi fi people and focused on pure pro audio and MI sound reinforcement with a wide range of dynamic microphones.

Brad
Lone Mountain Audio
 
Brad Lunde said:
As I reacll my KLipsch LA Scala's used OEM versions of the T35 back in the 70s and an OEM community horn and driver (community was EV's cheap line of 70V product and commercial audio). SQ of all this speaker and horn stuff was kinda awful by todays standards.
Click to expand...

I'm not the Klipsch police but this strikes me as either simply wrong and bad memory or, your LaScala might have had parts replaced (??)

The LaScala (of which I've owned since 1979) has a Klipsch K400 (metal horn) back then and later went to a resin horn which is the K401. If yours had a "Community Brand" horn, then I'd venture that someone likely changed something.
 
This would be era of La Scalas I bought new in 1974. I also realize one error I made- EV did not own community but owned University! (Community was building PA boxes back then in.. Philly?) Duh! I flipped those two brands. So it was a university horn/driver, I think an 8HD and 1828 driver likely built to fit their specs. I worked for EV from 1980 onward and recognized the parts. I could be wrong about the exact Unviersity horn/driver but T35's where pretty obvious with those "fins" on the horn mouth flare. As I say, EV had a strong OEM division and produced for many other factories. They would not have sold anything branded EV or University to another manufacturer for OEM use. EV was producing in Buchanan and Klipsch was not far away- Arkansas? - I dont know where their factory was in the 70s. There werent many factories producing parts like that at the time and imported copies of US parts didnt really exist yet.
Brad
 
I would use the 940 horn also and use a 700 hz or so crossover. The high end is going to depend on the diaphragm/ The later one gave a smoother response and could handle 50% more power if crossed over say from 700 HZ on word. I would look at the specs for the horn to see where it stops loading the driver properly. You nay have to cross closer to 1 KHZ. You have to realize even with the new diaphragms this is a 6 to 10% distortion driver from half power up/ Where the new drivers in the DD series and some of the professional drivers are less than 2 % distortion. Yes HF roll off can be an issue but with slight equalization compensation they will easily reach 16 KHZ. They are a great driver though I preferred the Emilars and the Altecs that had smoother high ends when you stayed away from this style of horn. Altecs copies were just as bad.
 

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Well this makes the cheese more binding: I just got the horns in today (waiting for the drivers) and this is what I saw when I opened it up. The listing on ebay clearly said two HP940 horns. No mention of a 1240. The seller is a computer recycler, and they're closed until Monday. I'll call on Monday and see what happens from here.

There's no listing for an HP1240, so I think they didn't realize the horns were different. So, best case, I'm still going to be on the hunt for one or more horns, depending on how they want to handle it.

Ugh, this isn't off to a good start.
 

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I think DH2s where after my 80s era at EV, so I'm betting early 90s. EV used to offer only 1.3 inch drivers in the 80s, then due to pressure from dealers wanting something competitive (JBL was higher power 2 inch), developed the DH2. Im sure its a good driver but would not want to use them for hi fi. These were higher SPL PA horns. Think sports venues, churches, etc. They wont sound very high fidelity.
Brad
 
I have a pair of those, and they sound fine. I have various EV compression drivers and tweeters. Mine came with the HP640 horns, which are nice sounding horns. One could easily EQ them. I don't see why they couldn't sound "hi-fi". Klipsch and JBL use horn drivers too, not much different.
 
There is quite a bit of information on this driver over at the Audio Asylum, definitely worth a look.
 
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