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Johan,

You sure did a nice job on those horns. I had seen the faint image of the 8" driver but now that you mention it I can see the outlet port of the horn at the bottom too.

Earlier in the year I built a developmental pair of rear loaded, folded path, front firing horns using at last revision, a 6.5" woofer. I used a long ten foot path length for the horn and get terrific smooth bass extension. I am very pleased with them and am using them daily in my living room. I am preparing to make a scaled up version of them using a 10" driver and horn loading the HF with a 300 Hz horn which I'm casting myself. I just received my order of 10PW3 Seleniums (98 dB 1/1) for this project 3 weeks ago. My major R&D thrust is in coming up with low power SET optimized speakers. There is a magic there that IMO needs specialized efficient speakers to get out and fully blossom.

Rob
 
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Nice...

Rob, Thanks,
Could not agree with you more. Most of these horns are born out of necessity for low powered SET’s. You have an interesting horn there. It should sound very detailed with those ribbon tweeters. Are both drivers loading the bass horn or is it only the bigger of the two? Have you decided on which flare type you are going for on the new horns? If at all possible I would recommend the Tractrix flare. It sounds more natural. We built a pair of 200hz horns about a year ago. Although we only used 5 pieces of wood it was still a pretty daunting task bending and gluing. Drove it with a cheapie RS driver and it sounded great. Those horns taught me a lot about the nature of the midrange.
I would like to know more on the details of how you plan to cast those horns. Materials etc.
I need to duplicate some HF horns myself and still need to do the homework on that. I have never done this before so any help will be appreciated.
 
Johan,

Thanx for the complement.

These horns are a work in progress. This version does load both cone drivers into the horn, but my next version will explore employing a separate back box for the 4" mid/bass driver. Right now the 4" gets pretty wild on the bass notes and this really limits how much power I can apply to the cabinet.

I am delighted with the clarity and soundstage these produce. The bass is very clean with no noticeable holes. Stringed double bass is very believable. Female vocals outstanding. No listening fatigue at all. I've never owned speakers that would disappear like these do. I have a couple of ideas up my sleeve that I wish to experiment yet on them, plus I wish to time align the drivers but am completly happy with them as-is.

As I see this design potentially going to market I do not wish to discuss it in any specific detail in a public forum.

My mid range castings are a new experiment for me. I haven't had a chance to finish the mold, but I was going to try the first set in plaster de pari with wire mesh inside. The curve is like tractrix in that it approaches 90 degrees at the mouth. Here's a good project for someone with a potter's wheel!

Rob
 
Hi Rob, strangely enough, I did the exact same thing about 8 years ago with a pair of different sized drivers in the same bass horn.

My experiment did not work that well though. The stronger (bigger) of the two drivers pushed the smaller driver out against the horn load during bass notes. Might be the reason that the little 4”er gets pretty wild on bass as you mentioned. I removed the smaller driver and covered the hole and the bass was way tighter and cleaner.

I also had a BIG corner horn with two identical drivers, which had the same effect. Instead of the driver being anchored to the horn they kind of float around in a high-pressure environment. Kind of the same thing you get when two ice skaters try to push each other back. A lot of slipping and sliding going on.

Drivers in a horn loaded environment usually has much better frequency extension so the bigger driver might surprise you in its ability going as high as the 4”er. Never know what result it will give. All you will need is a square plank to cover the 4” hole. Use the 4” driver basket as a guide to drill the holes in the square plank so that they align with the existing holes in your cabinet. No need for extra holes in those nice cabinets. Might be worth a try. I do not want to tell you what to do. Just sharing my experience.

I wish I had a potter’s wheel. I am going to try and cut some mid horns out of polystyrene with a hot wire. Will keep you posted on this venture. The cast horns might work well. A little square wooden box with no top or bottom on the outside might work well to contain the plaster horn. A couple of long screws on the inside of the box should keep the plaster anchored. Might be heavy though. Thanks for the info.

Johan
 
Johan,

I changed the photo of my little rear loaded horns above which shows them better in context I think. I have actually done all that driver swapping as part of my R&D.. I tried single4", single 5", single 6-1/2", dual 4", dual 5", dual 6-1/2", the above with and without tweeters. When I tried the present setup it was immediately apparent that this was the right combo. The stone finished baffle is removable and this is how I was able to try different driver combos quite conveniently.

As far as I can tell there is no breaking step between the 6-1/2 and the 4" on bass pulses. The Qts is practically identical on these two drivers. My 4" (65-15,000 Hz) is doing a truly remarkable job with the mids and hi mids. The 6-1/2 is completely incapable of that response. With an Fs of 33 Hz it is doing a great job making the low bass extension that this horn delivers nicely.

As far as my castings, I hope to be able to mount them from a flange at the throat, and a somewhat hidden bracket halfway up the length. I do not wish to hide them in a box. Esthetics and the artistic form is part of what I deem important in these designs, provided they enhace rather than compromise performance. If I end up making them from cement I can weld these external brackets to the metal re-bar structure inside the cemen. There will be much weight to contend with.

Rob
 
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It sounds like you have done your homework and came up with a solution that works. I gave up on that concept years ago. That just goes to show. If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Never to old to learn something new. Great idea to have the removable front baffle. It leaves you with unlimited possibilities.

Are you running this as a 2 or 3 way system? IOW is there an x over between the 4” & 6.5” drivers? That might explain the different results.
 
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