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High Efficiency Speaker Asylum Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place. |
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High Efficiency Speaker Asylum Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place. |
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In Reply to: RE: Does the criticism of line arrays apply to HORN line arrays of limited length? posted by Don Reid on June 20, 2016 at 08:49:58:
Hello Don
IN AN OLD POST I discussed the basic design. unable to post pics but you can imagine from the description below.
This is my design of a high power HORN line array cab measuring 22" wide x 16" height x 24" deep in closed position and weighing only 55 lbs with ferrite drivers. It opens to a 70" x 16" mouth at show time. This convertibility makes for easy transport and storage. There are TWO 10 inch drivers each horn loaded into its own exponential 54" length horn designed for a low corner of 75Hz. A curved reflector permits compacting this to a depth of 24" and still passes horn loaded freq up to close to 3KHz. The output of the two horns converge anteriorly to a 70" wide x 16" height mouth. In the middle between the two butt cheeks there is a proprietary designed diffraction horn which being about 12" long appropriately loads TWO high ouput 112dB/W compression drivers crossed over at 2KHz. That much HF output is necessary to keep up with the 2-10" horn loaded drivers!. This being a line array design having cabs above and below puts the cabs in 1/2 boundary space. Using 4 cabs gives a mouth size of 70" X 64" and better than 116dB/W output. From a distance it acts as a point source and avoids the few criticisms made against line arrays yet it avoids the all in your face/ears output as the output can be split and directed as needed as in a line array. The horizontal sound spread is better than -6dB at 90 degrees 70Hz to 16KHz. Although I designed this for linear array use I have found it very useful for a home system as just one cabinet can provide a stereo effect by hooking up Right and Left channels to the appropriate horn of the 10" driver and comp driver. As far as quality of sound it depends on the quality of drivers and amps but the benefits of horn loading are all there. It can make inexpensive drivers sound very good. And yes I have had all kinds of speakers including ribbons electrostatics and horns and all kinds of amps even tube SE 45, SE RCA 845 no power JFET yet. It has the clarity and transient response of electrostatic speakers but with the power of horns. A single amp can easily drive 4 or more of these cabs per side since at only 100 watts per cab the four combined (400W) will do 136 dB. For PA work I biamp with separate amps for the comp drivers and 10" drivers.
The use of horns in line arrays has been limited because the too large vertical exit angle of the MR horns causes MR interference patterns when cabs are stacked as in linear arrays. In this design that has been avoided. Of course HF interference patterns is avoided by the design of the HF horn and it´s very small exit angles. The directionality of horns enable near field Low Freq control to be maintained using much shorter columns. And horn loading causes a great increase in driver output. You would need 64 direct radiation linear array cabs with typical output of 98dB/W to match 116dB/W. The large JBL VerTec, or L Acoustics are direct radiators require 2x15", 4x8", 3 comp drivers 350 lb cabs and cost thousands of dollars and actually have less output in the low and mids than this design. The Martin Audio WL8 although a horn loaded design also do not equal this performance because of too short a horn and too small a mouth. I am very happy with this 55 pound compact cab´s remarkable performance.
Rafaro
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Follow Ups
- RE: Does the criticism of line arrays apply to HORN line arrays of limited length? - Rafaro 22:40:27 06/20/16 (0)
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