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Custom full-range folded horn cabinets

132.3.65.78

Posted on January 11, 2017 at 11:01:32
bleack1
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: NorCal
Joined: January 11, 2017




I apologize in advance if this is the wrong forum for this type of post but any help would be appreciated.
I'm planning on build a pair of high efficiency speaker cabinets out of some components I have laying around. (parts express give away/old DIY projects). Anyway I'm looking for notes from anyone more experienced then myself. Just let me know if you see something, because this is going to be one of the biggest projects I've undertaken. I'd hate to get through it just for it to sound like garbage.

I have a lot of car audio experience and I've built home use folded horn towers that turned out great in the past, but they were made from 3/4" MDF and weighed well over a hundred pounds each so I'm dismantling those to make something more 'practical'.

I'll post component specs later tonight. I know I have to do some serious math for these to sound right, I haven't decided on any measurements yet. this is still in concept phase.

 

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RE: Custom full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 30, 2017 at 10:16:25
bleack1
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: NorCal
Joined: January 11, 2017
@Bill Fitzmaurice, that's what I'm doing. This project was designed with an 800/5KHz crossover in mind.

@KanedaK, I move around a lot for work so a fixed/built-in large scale system isn't an option. This project is currently on hold because im currently closing on a new house now. so my goal is to make something comparable to a pair of $4-5K tower speakers but portable and on a budget. The reason why I'm mixing direct radiating hi's/mids is because these are not going to just be use for music. These are going to be my primary Left/Right audio speaks switched between a SS.receiver and 2x300w amp.

And worst case scenario is I waste a bunch of MDF, I don't see this build taking any longer then two weeks. I'll be in my new place in March so I still have plenty of time. If anyone's every seen a Horn tower with more than 2 sq/ft of sealed airspace, can you send me the make/model #.


 

RE: Custom full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on February 2, 2017 at 10:22:35
Rafaro
Audiophile

Posts: 158
Joined: July 30, 2005
Full range folded horn cabs??.....need to look into cornerhorn design and take advantage of corners limiting mouth size and boundaries increasing output. Years ago was into this but thats history. Briefly discussed here...."I have a dream- Compact simple ceiling Full range Cornerhorn speakers" Posted by Rafaro (A) on November 28, 2012 at 18:38:12.

Actual final design was a ceiling mounted folded cornerhorn bass cab with direct radiator MR, and tweet. The trick is in the internal folding.... donīt ask me for it. If you can figure it out itīs yours. Hint donīt use a compu in the design....it has speed but no creativity.

Rafaro

 

RE: Custom folded horn cabinets , posted on January 12, 2017 at 08:26:17
bleack1
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: NorCal
Joined: January 11, 2017



These are the towers I built two years ago prefinished. They sounded amazing, I work as public address and radio in the AF, and I have heard some extremely expensive PA/DJ loud speakers. These sounded better and only required ~350w each to bother my neighbors. I'm aware there's better components on the market, but again I'm just using what I have.
I not going to use the tweeters or that kicker sub, I'm just going to reuse the 8" woofers, 6.5" mids and the crossovers.

 

RE: Not full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 11, 2017 at 19:43:32
bare
Audiophile

Posts: 1877
Joined: April 14, 2009
Full range is ONE driver.. what you show is some Goofy DIY 'hope' design.
Google is yer friend.
What you lust after is a Heavily travelled path.. research it.

 

RE: Not full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 11, 2017 at 22:21:11
bleack1
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: NorCal
Joined: January 11, 2017



Okay guy thanks, I was dying for an elitist response. How's it a goofy hope design exactly? It's not far off towers I built before that sounded amazing. Trust me I've googled a ton already, I can't find anything close to this design. That's why I came here. But thanks for the advice.

 

RE: Not full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 12, 2017 at 05:03:27
Bill Fitzmaurice
Industry Professional

Posts: 5370
Location: New England
Joined: October 20, 2002
I wouldn't call it goofy, but where did you come up with the design? Assuming you want to go down to 40Hz with the woofer the horn must be at least seven feet long. As to 'not finding anything close to this design', my David speaker is a folded bass horn crossed over to a direct radiating MTM at 200Hz. The horn length is eight feet.

 

RE: custom folded horn cabinets , posted on January 12, 2017 at 07:53:10
bleack1
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: NorCal
Joined: January 11, 2017
I was just doodling speaker ideas, using a single kerfed edge, this was the one I liked the most. But,I can't find any speaker designs that have a passive radiator fire mid-bass into a horn, nor cabinets that have both Full sealed box airspace requirements and a horn. I'm not oblivious, I was just wondering if anyone has ever played around with these ideas and if they work. I'm thinking about moving the passive rads to the outside edges of both towers.
I haven't decided on dimensions yet, So math aside, is there anything that looks flawed. I discovered sketch-up last night so I'm going to do the math and make this a build log.

 

RE: custom folded horn cabinets , posted on January 14, 2017 at 04:25:13
vinnie2
Audiophile

Posts: 4481
Location: North Carolina
Joined: September 28, 2013
The way you are doing it could take a long path. Very many variables and you are changing more than one at a time which is not the best approach. Nothing wrong with what you are doing, but it's just a shot in the dark unless you start out with a known design and modify one thing at a time so you can keep track of what is changing.

 

RE: Custom full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 11, 2017 at 15:12:21
bleack1
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Location: NorCal
Joined: January 11, 2017



Sorry about the freehand, I redid them a little different with a straight edge.

 

RE: Custom full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 17, 2017 at 02:21:15
KanedaK
Audiophile

Posts: 2515
Location: Brussels
Joined: April 27, 2010
I, for one, don't see the advantages of matching (TRYING to match) a horn-loaded bass to a direct radiator midrange (or full-range).

1)Horn laded bass needs a sheer size to go low enough; otherwise you might be forced to complete it with a subwoofer, wich will be direct radiator again

2)If you like how horns sound, by all means make it all horn-loaded

...now if you'd be using a single driver with a back hornloading that would be a different story, but what you want to do here doesn't really make sense to me (even tho i'm sure there might be some other designs using that formula, but to me they don't make sense either)

 

RE: Custom full-range folded horn cabinets , posted on January 19, 2017 at 16:01:00
Don Reid
Audiophile

Posts: 886
Location: Rural NW Georgia
Joined: February 2, 2001
Contributor
  Since:
April 1, 2010
I strongly agree that horns work best in all horn systems. The sound from horns has an agility and dynamic immediacy that other speakers don't have. A seamless blend of horns with direct radiators is very difficult to achieve.
I dream of an America where a chicken can cross the road without having it's motives questioned.

 

I strongly agree that horns work best in all horn systems. , posted on January 20, 2017 at 14:04:07
Bill Fitzmaurice
Industry Professional

Posts: 5370
Location: New England
Joined: October 20, 2002
I agree of course, but I've also found that if you're going to have a mix of horns and direct radiators that you get the best result with the horns handling the low end. I've got horn loaded subs with TL mains in my HT, horn loaded subs with MTM mains in my studio, and both work very well. Commercial products do it the other way around, IMO not because it works better that way, but purely to keep the size of the LF cab smaller. I've never heard anyone describe the sound of a high frequency horn as 'effortless', but it's nearly always applied to a horn loaded sub or woofer.

 

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