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Guys,I'm intrigued by the Sato horn, which is a home adaptation of a Western Electric horn. Of course, the western Electric horns have a impressive reputation, and they are very beautiful. I'd like to give the Sato version a try some time in the future, but only if it will be a satisfying experience and a step upwards from what I have. I have Oris-like DIY fronthorns with Lowther PM6Cs at the moment, running from about 220 Hz up to about 10 kHz. The horn is OK, the drivers have some nasty resonances etc.
I'm looking for any experience with either the Sato horn or the snail-type Western Electric horns. How is their sound? Is it clean and clear, couloured and distorted? Does the length and folding affect the sound negatively, or did Western Electric find good solutions?
Would I be better off building very long, round tractrix horns with a low cut-off, or is there a special benefit to building the Sato horns?
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Ivo
Follow Ups:
nt
I think Audiobizzaro (?) built some but has gone onto TAD2001 drivers. I can't remember his site but google should find it for you.
tim
Tim,I found his website earlier, one of the reasons I started this thread. Thanks for the suggestion.
Ivo
Audio Bizarro is Ed Billeci's site. Ed is in Portland, OR and I am grateful to him. Years ago my first field coil speaker purchase was a pair of RCA MI-1444 woofers he was selling, and for a few extra bucks he threw in a single RCA MI-1443 compression driver. Experiencing what these drivers can do led to my subsequent field coil madness and desire to reproduce the RCA center-suspended cone compression driver. He's a good guy and very nice to deal with.
Hi Ivo,
I build (DIY) (1988) my low-mid a horn Western Electric WE 66A (looks at a Sato) with a driver JBL2482.
My (DIY) system is a 4-way system.Low:a oversised Klipschorn,Low-mid: WE66A, Mid:Iwata with Vitavox S3, High: EV DH2305.
All drivers are connected to a pre-amp Kaneda and actif filter (Kaneda)with 2x4 amp's monsters 7W classe A.
Now, I listen with only a (one) 300B (7W) and passif filter.
In alle the cases, the sound (sorry, the music) is magnificent, cristal purety, very deep bass, I can place all the music instruments in the listening (living) room (realy a 3-D picture or orchestra).
If you can put a low-mid horn (with a good low-mid driver) in your listening room .....do it.
The sound (with a good tuning) is divine ....
Salukes.
Karel
Dag Karel,Are you Belgian or South-African?? Your combination of living in Brussels and writing Afrikaans (isn't it?) is highly confusing. ;-) I'm from Amsterdam (or a suburb close to it).
So you built your own WE horns? Do you still have the plans? Can I get them?
Bedankt,
Ivo
Hi
Beste Ivo,
I am a realy (Dutch) "ketje" from Brussel (Auderghem).
Did you now that in the "Boer oorlog" all the munition was made in Brussel (Transvaal, now Audergem).
I think that our two cultures are prety close .....
Building a DIY "Western Electric 66A" horn (like a Sato) is a real long(audiophile) adventure.
You like it!
Of course, I can send you the (one) basic plan (format A4), it's (like) "simple".
Give me your priv.e-mail.
Allez, salukes en tot "horens".
Carolus (multihornlover/octopus)
Hi KarelNice to see you here.You should really post pictures of your system.It is something special.
Rgds
Johan Dreyer
Hi Johan.
Ek, is so bly jou te lees.
I now that you have done good transformation on your audio system.
Better than pictures, come and listen and feel the music.
Johan, you are always welcome if you are in the neighbourhood (in Brussel, the center of Europe).
Ek het net begin dink dat ek skielijk 'n baie goed hornsystem heb.
Allez, salukes en tot "horens".
Karel
Karel, I have 1977 Klipschorns and am very interested in your oversize Khorn bass. Are you willing to post more info or email me off line? thanks, tim
Hello,
I hope I can be of some help, as I have firsthand experiences with a WE 17a horn. It turned out that a person that lives quite close to me is a long time WE collector, and uses a single 17a horn (Quite similar to 15a) driven by PP 205D amplifiers for his audio system.
He does use some equalization to bring up the higher and lower frequencies, and with this in place, I felt that the single 555 on the large horn was very satisfying with well recorded instrumental and vocal music.
The lower frequency reproduction of this horn was quite amazing to consider that it was created with a 1 gram piece of aluminum. Still not much below 100Hz however. That said, I felt the midrange was some of the most eerily realistic I have heard, quite unlike any other speaker I have ever heard. Very clear and clean, and seemed to originate from a live body rather than a speaker.
However, I think you would have a heck of a time turning it into a full range speaker system with woofer and tweeter, as I don't think any conventional drivers would be able to match the immediacy and tonal quality of the large midrange horn. Also, given the path lenght, there will be quite a time discrepancy, without some sort of delay setup.
If I had the space and money, I would love to have a large horn setup like this, but my current situation precludes that.
After all that rambling, I have to admit, I think WE had the right idea in coupling a small diaphragm compression driver to such an enormous curled horn. I think there are some other HE asylum members who can offer some suggestions and info on this note as well.Best Regards
Doug Eisemann
I agree that the big WE horns are really quite unique. I have heard the 13A and 15A on several occasions, and each time I walk away shaking my head. In their range, the reproduction is in many ways more like listening to live music than anything I have ever heard. The more time I spent listening, the more I was able to pick out colorations, but even so, the level of immediacy and naturalness is just amazing. I decided not to pursue this route because of the difficulty of making a full-range system, because of the size and because I suspect that if I lived with them for awhile, the coloration due to horn resonance would become more bothersome. Still, they give me something to shoot for in terms of absolute quality of midrange reproduction.Jonathan
I agree that the big WE horns are really quite unique. I have heard the 13A and 15A on several occasions, and each time I walk away shaking my head. In their range, the reproduction is in many ways more like listening to live music than anything I have ever heard. The more time I spent listening, the more I was able to pick out colorations, but even so, the level of immediacy and naturalness is just amazing. I decided not to pursue this route because of the difficulty of making a full-range system, because of the size and because I suspect that if I lived with them for awhile, the coloration due to horn resonance would become more bothersome. Still, they give me something to shoot for in terms of absolute quality of midrange reproduction.Jonathan
Jonathan,Interesting. In your opinion, were the colorations due to resonances of the horn structure, or were they caused by the folding and length of the horn?
Ivo
Hi Ivo,in my opinion, these were resonances in the structure of the horn. Especially in the case of the 15A, the mouth is made with very thin wood (ca. 1/4 inch or 6 mm). It resonantes badly if you tap it with your finger. I don't think the problem is because of the folding, which is very gradual and smooth, or because of the length.
Jonathan
Hi Doug,Your description sounds very good, indeed. Of the fronthorns I've built sofar, the bigger ones were always better, the larger the range driven by one speaker the better. That's what got me interested in the WE/Sato horns.
I would mate these with a folded basshorn, so there would be a much smaller path difference, or none at all. Tweeters will be hard, yes. Although I'm living with speakers with a 10 kHz limit at the moment (saw a same value for a Sato-system somewhere, with EQ) and I'm quite happy with that. As long as the quality of midrange is good, I can trade in treble extension.
Thanks Doug!
Ivo
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