Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Jessie Dazzle Project
Post Subject: As the World TurnsPosted by Paul S on: 8/7/2007
Jessie, you know I am not a horn guy. I played with horns for 5 years, and I have heard plenty of them, and so far none have worked for me, musically. But I have remained mindful of horns' potential, and I keep coming back to that, for various reasons. I am drawn to your project because it just makes sense to me, and it seems "most likely to succeed", including your very clever, VERY CRITICAL adapt-on-the-fly factors that too many designer/builders either do not consider or they ignore them.
Well, I woke up too early this morning with several threads running at once, probably all worthless, but here's "yours", Jessie:
Perhaps you could figure the circumference of your big horn at given lengths and thereby turn the form(s)/mold(s) in sections, anyway. Also, the forms/molds can (of course...) be made of anything easy to deal with in the center, including air, with "the good stuff" only on the outside. Use templates to pin the form/mold sections together with all-thread, rods or re-bar when the time comes. Likewise, you can join completed horizontal horn sections with large-ish flanges, plenty of SS bolts with Neva-Sieze on them, and build up the outside of the completed monster profiles once you are committed to a location.
I should probably just keep the following to myself. It has NOTHING to do with you or your particular plan, but FWIW only, anecdotal only, and probably you already either know or sense it: Basically, really big horns seem to work better in theory than in practice. Of the large horns I have heard, tossing out the plywood ones, only two were concrete (one poured in place, one gunnite), both "exponential", neither worth the effort, IMO, and I'm sure you would agree if you heard them. One was round, one was rectangular (no parallel walls, however). I do not suppose for even one second that the "exponential" profile was "the cause" of the problems, but I did marvel at the effort versus results that apparently left no way to effectively modify the things in situ. Of course, the builders loved them, anyway! But my point in bringing this up is that, as near as I can tell, big LF horns are no "gimmie", by any means.
Meanwhile, I am watching for posts on this like a soap opera junkie.
Best regards,
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site