Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: The Ridiculous Japa-Brazilian horn.
Post Subject: The sound of bellsPosted by Paul S on: 3/6/2007
Again, I am not insisting that the material of that horn will behave like a bell so much as I am suggesting that bell-like sounds will eminate from this horn. Is the difference clear? Some of those Altec horns were textbook examples of both types of bell-like resonance, where the body of the horn itself resonated and certain bell-like artifacts were created/amplified by/in the horns' mouths. The interesting thing about the horn doping was that it addressed/affected both issues simultaneously, albeit it did precious little for the true bell-type ringing of the horn body (as one might expect).
I suppose that your casting experience ties in with molding experience, which should certainly give you a leg up on how various materials do for horns. I always thought, being a carpenter by trade, that some of the lighter, "buttery" woods, like bass wood or sugar pine, would make nice horns, striking a nice compromise between energy losses and the self-generated noises I have been talking about. Of course the shape of the horn is primary, but I cannot and would not discount the effect of the material itself, by any means. And I would guess that reinforced plaster would work out well enough provided mounting studs and/or coils were imbedded before/while casting.
I am still not finished with my OB project, in fact I have just made some more changes I hope will get even more out of this very interesting design. I can't tell for sure if I am up against the ML2's limitations yet but based on the little experience I have with horns I expect that I would wind up doing multi-way horns and multi-channel amps at the same time, were I to go back in that direction. Who knows where all the power goes with those supposedly 102 dB systems?!? Actually, I suppose we have a pretty good idea...
And that is another thing about "the horn in question": I just can't see/hear using DSP to correct such wide variation between drivers at various frequencies and volumes. This seems to fly in the face of the dictum that each horn has only a very limited range that it can do without the "horn-factor" itself taking over. I was and am not sure if it is possible to get truly "wide range" from any horn without gross coloration. And I would very much like to have a brief listen to that bronze horn to finally confirm or dispell the notion that it is just another "ringer".
Best regards,
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site