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Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-20-2011
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A guy from DIYAudio posted information about his project:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/189377-5-way-project-tapped-bass-mids-tweeter-big-boy-system.html

5Ways_DIY_Audio.jpg

I the idea behind his endeavor and it sounds to me as he used right reasons to get where he is. As a criticism I would point out that his upperbass horn a bit underperform as it has too large through. To do it smaller would lead to longer upperbass horn and more complexity with mount it under MF horn. However, if you look at the size of the MF horn then it is too big for THIS configuration as his upperbass and the channels above will cover sub 1000Hz very nicely. So, instead of 300Hz MF horn I would put a smaller horn, that would let the upperbass to be longer, with covering the MF.

All together is very good setup. If he uses good drivers (I do not know his drivers) then it have a potential to sound very good. Everything is time-aligned (or has a potential to be), there is no typical Goto stupidity – wonderful. I feel that my efforts are not wasted.

Another thing is purely appearance. The tweeter arm I would like to be made not diagonal but horizontal, but it is the matter of taste….

It is interesting how the trapped horn sound in his situation ss it needs to run all the way up, not to mention to be a trapped horn….

BTW, if the guy used Tannoy GRF and with proper driver (not the contemporary Tannoy crap) then I wonder how much time it will take for him to reinvent my Injection idea….

The Cat

Posted by Markus on 05-21-2011
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http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?54198-5-Way-horn-project-big-boy-system!

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-21-2011
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Yes, Markus, thanks. It is a bit too obvious that Speedysteve7 is not a typical DIYAudio moron. As the evidence: pay attention the Speedysteve7 posted information about his playback and has no following. In contrary of him installation would be 20 times more idiotic then the DIYAudio’s idiots would avalanche the thread it with their “thinking”.

Again, the Speedysteve7’s project is another evidence that horns maker shall stop to offer to market individual horns but rather to offer individual horn in respect of pre-thought combination of the horns.

Another thing: the tapped horns that look like getting popularity nowadays need to be revised to be able to work confidently up to 100Hz to be able to compliment the sub 36” upperbass horns. I do not use the tapped horns and I do not know how they sound but somebody who do need look into it.

I do not like the idea of the conical horns, in fact I am against them but if Speedysteve7 started with a conical horn then I do like that he stick with them across all channels. If he found a good location for tweeter then it will be very good. I do not like the tweeter sifting on the side – the lobbing between MF and tweeter is too damaging in this configuration. Again, cutting the size of MF horn would let a tweeter to be inserter between the channels. To have it time-aligned will be pain in ass as it will be too much behind. Straggling with it Speedysteve7 might reinvent my Water Drop idea – a toll and harrow ribbon with 20 degree of vertical firing range…

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-23-2011
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Speedysteve, posted the side view of his installation.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/189377-5-way-project-tapped-bass-mids-tweeter-big-boy-system-3.html#post2581399

It is a bit more problematic. The angled axes of the horn are a bug no-no in this type of configurations.  Also, horns shall not live at back wall. He needs to extend them at least 2-3 feet forward into the room. The idea that Speedysteve and his friend suggested to flip the phase of one of the channel “because sounds better” is absolutely ridicules. In fact looking at the some positive reaction of the people who hear the Speedysteve playback it some technical moment that are showing up I think I can quite accurately predict how Speedysteve’s installation sounds, regardless that drivers he uses. All that I can say that he will face some problem and it will take for him for a while to recognize and to understand the problems.

The Cat

Posted by i_should_coco on 05-24-2011
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I did mention to Steve about the angling of the horns and he told me that he started with them horizontal, but preferred them angled as in the photos. Who am I to argue! :-)

The crossover phase change was because he's using second order crossovers which introduce a 180 degree phase shift so having the drivers in phase was incorrect. It sounded better after correcting.

It's early days yet, I think there's some work to do in terms of tuning alignment and adjustment of crossovers.

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-24-2011
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Coco, reviewing what Steve do I am not impressed with the direction he is doing now. The initial move with 5-way configurations was very good but not is the more delicate part start – to make all of it to sound right. A few comments that he and the people surround him had is making me to fee that they do not have right mind set to navigate this project to something more then 5-way configurations.

About the angle of the horns. I do not know how long the Steve room but since he have horn sitting in the very end then I presume that the room is not long and the listening spot is let say 8-10 feet away. From thins distance and with those horns I do not believe in such a thing as time-alignment. I fought with idiotic idea of angling horns for a long time.  Here is what I wrote 10 years ago:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hug/messages/15/6349.html

The crossover phase is absolutely irrelevant to the order of the filter. It is kind of funny that he even was listening it with incorrectly set channel phase. Still, it is not Moronity but ignorance – with is not a big deal….

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-24-2011
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  browellm from hifiwigwam wrote:
"not your typical DIY moron". High praise indeed from Romy there…

OK, I would like to make a commentary on the subject. I know that people who love to chop wood at DIYAudio site would consider this comment of my as the waste of their readable efforts but I consider whatever they do in audio is a waste of efforts. In fact I do consider the following comment is superbly important and if somebody does not feel it then it is too premature for him/her to read my site.

I meant to post it at hifiwigwam.com forum but then it came to me that I was banded from it a year or two back.  I was discussing something that I do not remember what and it happened that I expressed the position that contradicted a view of a guy who happened to be moderator in there.  He sent me a lengthy email with demand to behave polite toward to moderators of the site, which very obviously triggered my reply with advice to him to go fuck himself along with his site, his mother and whatever he represents.  The game is over; I am too much pro to play THAT game…

Still, I think that the even with Speedysteve7’s installation is too valuable and to illustrative to pass on the oportunety...

 First of all it has to be absolutely clear that whatever I will be expressing about Speedysteve has absolutely nothing to do with personal attacks (as many idiots would perceive) or with Speedysteve7 himself.  I do not know the person and target of my attention is not him but rather the abstract owner of Speedysteve7’s playback.

The “browellm” from hifiwigwam site pointed out that I found the Speedysteve7’s progress very positive and I do. I do like a lot many of the design ideas that Speedysteve7 employed. However, in audio we do not render the design ideas but shape re-birth of Sound.  Can I make presumption how the Speedysteve7 installation sound now? Unfortunately I can and I can do it without even knowing the drivers, amplifier of filters Speedysteve7 used.

You see, assembling of playback is not only to have “building plans”. The Morons from DIYAudio are running to get from each other the “building plans” or “schematic diagram”  of some kind of blueprint that would allow them do not invest own mind and do not even understand what and why they about to do. It is not surprise that most of the DIYAudio-level solutions in fact no more than celebration of Cargo Cult. The real results do not come from following any kid of methodology or blueprint but by honest recognition of actual results, interpretation the results in context of own objectives and consequentially navigating the actions in accordance with this interpretation, which ironically is kind of my “methodology”.

So, as Speedysteve built the bone of his playback, now his face a task to make this playback to sound properly. That , in a contrary to cutting wood and posting at forums require sensibility, the recognition of result and reacting upon them. In this – in listening sensibility – I very much deny credit to Speedysteve and without it (not my credit but his listening sensibility) the sound from Speedysteve will be very easily recognizable and predictable, even if he used the driver with Princess Diana skin instead of diaphragms…

So what turned me off in the entire Speedysteve project? This is your homework to figure out, the readers.

Rgs, Romy the Cat

Posted by serenechaos on 05-24-2011
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 Romy the Cat wrote:

 So what turned me off in the entire Speedysteve project? This is your homework to figure out, the readers.

Rgs, Romy the Cat
 
I think Romy's just jealous of all those conical horns, as endorsed by "he who shall not be named..."  
(sorry, to me, they're the distraction when looking @ this installation.  I just keep thinking how colored every conical horn I've heard is, like a cheerleader's megaphone,and how much work was already done, setting the foundation of the system, but no changes will alleviate that intrinsic sound...)  

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-24-2011
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 serenechaos wrote:
I think Romy's just jealous of all those conical horns, as endorsed by "he who shall not be named..."  
(sorry, to me, they're the distraction when looking @ this installation.  I just keep thinking how colored every conical horn I've heard is, like a cheerleader's megaphone,and how much work was already done, setting the foundation of the system, but no changes will alleviate that intrinsic sound...)  
Nope, conical horns do not recognize as distraction as I for sure do not find them as impediment in of listening sensibility. I do not know what “endorsement”, you imply but whatever… I in fact very glad that this type configuration will be played with conical horns. I wouldn’t use them and I do not like them but it does not mean that they shall not be tried. However, do I feel that Speedysteve will be able to give to this conical installation a proper ride? Nope, I do not think do.

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-25-2011
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Ok, I shall stop to annoy lost in frequency responses DIYAudio people and to lay cards on the table, explaining why I consider that for now the Speedysteve7’s installation and his efforts are condemned to end up with sonic nothingness.

When I read Speedysteve’s own posts and his own assessment of the sonic results of his new acoustic system then I noted one sad fact – Steve uses soft-rock music to assess his sound. I pretty much stopped reading him or express any interest in his further development as he wrote that he was evaluating the results of filters manipulation listening the Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here”.

It was it and the water must be flashed after this. This music has no questions and no answers that worth to be discovered by better playback. If anything, the better playback shall only indicate how primitive and plain that music is, but for sure Steve is not “there” to get it. In my post “Ok, let to complicate the things a little.” I did give a clue of reason, stressing the importance to observe the result and interpret them. To built audio and to have “Wish you were here” in head is not different then mixing stinky liquids taken from restroom trying to make a fancy perfume…

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 06-29-2011
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I went to see what Speedysteve7 does. I did not read the text. I just glanced at the text and seen the mentioning of multisampling with digital amps, mentioning of digital crossover. All of it and the most important the rock-end-roll crap the he plays in that room makes all his playback efforts no different than to applying make up to a corpse in order to look it more alive. Still, I decided to mention the Speedysteve7 progress as still there is something in what he does educational for others:

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?54198-5-Way-horn-project-big-boy-system!/page16

He did not BS himself like other heroes do but measure the responses of individual channels and groups of the channels. I did not look close what  and how he did it, I am sure that he will not interpret the results in the way I would agree but the fact the he was at least trying to do it is a good sign.  The only playback that do not require any measurements are playback with Goto drivers as the green color of the Goto magnets self-equalize the waves in a room…

 It looks like he got the clue presumably from my post above, cut his MF horn and placed the tweeter in correct location. This is very right move. For this, what I call Macondo configuration, this is the ONLY location where tweeter might sit. By cutting the MF horn he got a bit more upper knee extension from MF and less beaming. He for sure need to move the MF horn a good 1 feet down and to get rid of that horizontal shelf in front of the MF horn, In fact the hole horns assembly needs to be moved 3 feet forward as the tweeter picks up the side wall of the tapped horn but this is a whole another story… The glossy pictures on the location of the first reflection I guess work well with class T amps…

Anyhow, despite of all my skepticism about this project I do feel that there is surprising progress in right direction in there…

Romy the Cat

Posted by IslandPink on 06-30-2011
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Romy
It's topical to ask, since I'm building a 4-way system at the moment ..
( Tapped horn behind and three-way horn system in front )

Do you favour the tweeter horn to be placed at the top, above the mid/HF horn , or in this situation place the tweeter between
the bass/mid horn and the Mid/HF horn ?

To clarify -
Bass/mid is a rectangular Tractrix with about 75x50cm mouth , driven by Fane or B&C .
This will be resting on the floor .
Mid/HF is a GPA 288H on Azura 425Hz
Tweeter a B&C DE35 .

Hence the Azura is approx at ear level if just mounted above the bass/mid horn .
I can evaluate both options , but advice would be interesting .
Point me to existing threads on Macondo if necessary 

MJ 

Posted by Romy the Cat on 06-30-2011
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 IslandPink wrote:

Do you favour the tweeter horn to be placed at the top, above the mid/HF horn , or in this situation place the tweeter between the bass/mid horn and the Mid/HF horn ?

To clarify -
Bass/mid is a rectangular Tractrix with about 75x50cm mouth , driven by Fane or B&C .
This will be resting on the floor .
Mid/HF is a GPA 288H on Azura 425Hz
Tweeter a B&C DE35 .

Hence the Azura is approx at ear level if just mounted above the bass/mid horn .
I can evaluate both options , but advice would be interesting .

Generally the position of the tweeter above MF is preferable. Your tweeter is not a tweeter of narrow vertical dispersion and it needs some room to breathe if it sits between midbass and MF. This need a space for tweeter will put MF too high in relation to eyes level.

However, there are many variables that can moderate this generality. For instance if your MF roll of very soon and you cross HF very low then the output from HF become more identifiable. With GPA 288H in fast opening horn you shall be able to get good 12K-13K, 10K-12K with toe-off. It means that that your tweeter you will put somewhere at 12K-13K, most likely with 2+ order, it means that it’s location will be little identifiable. So, the location of MF shall be your primary concern not the HF.

There is another reason you need to consider. If HF sits above HF then you have only the ridge of MF that fractures the HF dispersion. If your HF is between MF and Upperbass then the HF waves battle two ridges of the horns.

Again, there are a lot of other variables to consider – the proximity of your sealing, what you have on sealing, the altitude of your listening position, the type of the room you have and many others. I still would keep tweeter above. The more free space you have around tweeter the better…

The Cat

Posted by IslandPink on 07-01-2011
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Thanks Romy.
Sounds like tweeter on top will be best approach in my situation.
The room is a good size and shape - 23ft x 15ft with 9ft ceiling . Plenty of room above.
As you say the 288 on Azura does go to 12-13k OK with some beaming - almost enough really .
However I was thinking of bringing the tweeter in approx 8k, but could try higher, eg 10-12k as you suggest .
Some experimenting will be required. Have you evaluated tweeters in isolation with 1st/2nd/3rd slope to determine best approach, or have you generally had to integrate into the system to be sure ?
Amps will be SE custom-built . 2A3 or 6C4C for the bass/mid ; 2A3 for Mid/HF and prob 71A for tweeters .
Bud Purvine most likely making the iron .
There may be some novelty in the dividing/crossover arrangment , that part of the circuit is interesting and a number of options are possible .

Full system will not happen quickly, but I do hope to get one side working with Tractrix and Azura and suitable amps/crossovers within a month .

MJ

Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-02-2012
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It looks like my “friend” from UK turned straight and made a frame for him horns:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/189377-5-way-project-tapped-bass-mids-tweeter-big-boy-system-7.html#post2831521

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?54198-5-Way-horn-project-big-boy-system!&p=1149312&viewfull=1#post1149312

He converted his experiments to the only one possible configuration I insisted a few months back and made looks like a metal welded frame.  That is already something more interesting. Let analyze what is going on in there.

The bigger problem I recognize is that he revered MF and HF channels and does not understand it yet. It will come to him sooner or later as there are VERY MANY REASONS why in this configuration HF shall be above MF.

The frame itself is fine but I do not like the way how he hands the channels from frame’s horizontal beams. It is not that I do not like it but it is fundamentally wrong. You see what you suspend the channels on those straps then you have absolutely no ways to fixate then in space in firm position. If your MF channel will rotate for a few fractions of degree then you are out of time alignment. So, what is the purpose of that frame?

Also, as you can see at some other posts he had begun to add the round terminator to horns mouths. No one argue with that but the whole idea of conical horns flasher in toilet right the way, how it shall be. I do not think that he has in this installation room to do La Horns but it is his business…

I did not read the threads in there and I do not know what MF/HF drivers he use and where he cross them. However, based upon my uselessly very accurate intuition I feel that he crosses his HF very low and he needs to jack it up. Something suggests me that in couple months it will be exactly what he will be doing.

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-12-2012
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The “speedysteve” converted his acoustic system to something more reflecting sensible design:

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?54198-5-Way-horn-project-big-boy-system!&p=1159200&viewfull=1#post1159200

As the result it turned out to be a lucid system. For sure I do not know the drivers and the crossovers that require some finer undersign of what playback does with sound.  Speedysteve did not indicate that he was “getting” but the time goes by and people grow, who know, where he will end up. A properly performing playback can do serious advance in person understanding of Sound.

There is on interesting subject in the speedysteve case and I would like to pay attention to it. Speedysteve added to his conical horns the mouth terminator, similar to La-horns. Speedysteve reports positive results and it very much might be the case as the edge terminator of the standard conical horns is a reticular crap, particularly for HF horns. This all bring the questions: what would be if Speedysteve instead of buying into the stupid propaganda of conical horns makers would use in his installation the horns that have proper edge termination to begin with?

The caT

Posted by i_should_coco on 01-12-2012
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I don't think Steve "bought into" the conical propaganda, more that it is easier for him to make conical horns and get a system up and running. So this is by no means finished. We have discussed him trying some different profiles (Le Cleac'h) for the midrange horns and he is happy to try this. Expect some experiments with this shortly, starting with the upper mid horns.

Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-12-2012
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 i_should_coco wrote:
I don't think Steve "bought into" the conical propaganda, more that it is easier for him to make conical horns and get a system up and running. So this is by no means finished. We have discussed him trying some different profiles (Le Cleac'h) for the midrange horns and he is happy to try this. Expect some experiments with this shortly, starting with the upper mid horns.
Of cause he "bought into" the conical propaganda. Why he did not make triangular horns than – it would be easier to make? The point is that horn profile is not what is easy to make but what has any practical sonic rational. The argument the you bring remind me that old Russian joke: A drunk guy crawling at nigh across dirty street on his knees. A cap came and asked what his was looking. The drunk respond that he looking the lost keys from his house. The cap asked where he lost them. The drunk said that is was at the next street. The cap asked why in such case he was looking the keys here. The drunk reply that it is because this street has better lighting…

Anyhow, I do not think that your Steve will be able to go La-Horns as he has no height in his room, not that I feel it is necessary. The installation looks rational and balanced now and if he begins to mix the horns of different profile then it will be feel discombobulated.

Good progress, I did not expected that he go so sensible on his project. If with time he will be able to develop in himself an interest to real music but to the crap the he was listening before then he have a chance to his installation to sound interesting.

Posted by Jorge on 01-12-2012
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Speedysteve
Do change the green curtains!

Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-13-2012
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I know it is a difficult subject but as it has to do less with audio but more with life priorities. Still, the practice indicates that the short-wall installations for acoustic systems of the topology that Steve is trying to make will never work. Sure it will produce Sound that will be enough for Steve to play his rock-n-roll and will enable him to post pictures at DIY web sites but it will never produce the Sound that Macondo topology could throw. The Macondo topology need long wall and it need to say far from walls. The SpeedySteve will play with his configuration for more months or year and then it will be a rainy weekend when he will bring juts to test what I was saying his speakers in a larger room where he will be able to install them along long wall and in the mid of the room. That will be it for his current location.

The caT

Posted by Romy the Cat on 03-06-2012
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I got today an email from the site visitor with a link to some kind of UK show, look like DIY bash show…

Our friend SpeedySteve went with his acoustic system to the show. Here is the link and in the next page/s you can see his and other feedback and him cutting the upperbass horn to pass it through the door.

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?67089-Scalford-2012-photos&highlight=speedy

What can I say? It looks like he and his associates do not target any commercial interest and they went there just to show off Sound. If it is so then I applaud to it. I certainly like that that the upperbass horn lost it’s La‑Horn negative opening.  The lower MF horn that SpeedySteve has atop has to lose it too. The negative opening works only for upper MF horns, no matter what Jean-Michel Le Cléac'h pitch to his gullible but mostly stupid followers. Somewhere (follow the link that I posted before in the thread) SpeedySteve wrote that as soon he added the negative opening to the peripheral of him upperbass horn he had… much fuller and deeper midbass. When people make comment like this they are at risk to be permanently declared Morons, anyhow I was laughing to hear it.  Nevertheless, it looks like the upperbass horn dos not have that crap on it’s edge and this is a good sign. When the upperbass horn will turn to parabola opening it will be even more fun…

The horn are properly installed in the room in my view but at the very first picture you can see that the lower midrange horn is aligned to curve that meant for much closer listening distance. It is possible that SpeedySteve did not reset the time alignment for larger room, it is understandable but unfortunate.

Also, if you read his comment about his sound on the show then you see that he much prefer the sound in his room at home. From what I know from the picture his home room is 39592 times less interesting sonically than the large room at the show, I mean for the topology of his speakers. So, why SpeedySteve prefer sound at his home? Because in much larger and much different room at the show the configuration of his acoustic system needs to be change and adjusted for the sound of hew acoustic environment. In the larger room he lost of him upperbass from flat horns and his taped horns most likely did not go to 150Hz well enough. There are many changes that might took place and I do not think that SpeedySteve dealt with them.

SpeedySteve_show.jpg

The caT

Posted by Romy the Cat on 08-01-2013
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He still is doing something and I do not know what and why.

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?54198-5-Way-horn-project-big-boy-system!&p=1627923&viewfull=1#post1627923

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?54198-5-Way-horn-project-big-boy-system!&p=1627744&viewfull=1#post1627744

Well, it might be better hobby then to build a toy rail-road in basement. Still, something suggests me that during my trip to UK in the end of this month I will not be asking Speedysteve to share with me his sound.

The Cat

Posted by decoud on 08-01-2013
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Though it may be better than actually being in the Albert Hall if the weather remains as it is: it is so unbearably hot in there live radio is currently the only way. 

Posted by speedysteve on 08-01-2013
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Well they are not my sound either...I've gone tractrix on upper mid and mid horns and exponential on mid bass. Still have the tapped horns.
The now black horns are someone else's and are intended to be used in light / small scale PA. That's the idea anyway. Whether they work or not the project is fun. Anything will better the kind of PA systems that are currently heard at jive dances and the like. That's what the new owner does you see.  They will be running in the near future - so we'll see.

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