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RE: Constant Directivity Horn Recommendations

Posted by Cask05 (A) on June 18, 2025 at 05:34:12

In Reply to: RE: Constant Directivity Horn Recommendations posted by tomservo on June 16, 2025 at 10:09:03:

Thanks for addressing my question(s), Tom. I agree that there aren't really very many knowledgeable (...truly knowledgeable...) DIY horn loudspeaker designers. And Hornresp isn't enough to produce better horns--so for full-range horn loudspeakers having 90 degree coverage--the list of commercially available horns is pretty short. The ways running BEM sims don't seem to understand what the real requirements are (over focus on throat smoothness, etc.)

A link to my last major creation is attached here. I find that I'm going to need to shift to a dual taper straight-sided horn (like your Synergy and Unity designs) for future designs since it gets a bit difficult and expensive to make the horn shown in the link (3D printers still can't handle it). This particular horn in the linked article is essentially the same size as your SH-96, but molded with a tractrix mouth instead of a secondary straight flair. I would like to produce it, but it really takes a lot of expertise and process control to do it using casting resins (heat buildup and warping).

Single point source really is key in home hi-fi (close listening distances generally inside the critical distance in-room). I think the 1.4/1.5 inch diameter exit compression drivers are a sweet spot for home hi-fi without having to introduce secondary midrange cone drivers of your very high output Synergy series. This results in much more simplified designs (two-way or perhaps three-way with ring radiator dual diaphragm compression driver). I don't need 11 drivers in the cabinet...only three. Price goes down accordingly, and performance is not affected for home hi-fi levels.

You comment about guessing the home hi-fi market is nicer than the way I think of it: irrationality rules in "audiophile-like" circles. You actually produce a loudspeaker that is superior and solves the problems that direct radiating home hi-fi loudspeakers, and suddenly, someone says "well, I'm not sure I like the sound" and the disinformation pipeline gets amplified by others who seemingly have something to lose if the market shifted toward MEHs. To say is another way, the hi-fi geeks should have piled on board when the SH-50/SH-60 came out due to their performance in-room, but the "sizzle factor" (generalized to any non-optimal characteristics of loudspeakers that some say they like) wasn't big enough to climb onboard the MEH bandwagon.

There is also the problem of old horn designs that are not very good (i.e., virtually all of those old designs). Candidly, that's why I rarely show up here to post--nostalgia actually gets in the way of innovating better loudspeakers.

Chris
Chris
"As far as the ear can tell, consistently clean and spacious bass can be reproduced only by a driver unit coupled to a horn-type acoustic transformer..."; Jack Dinsdale, May 1974

• A K-402-Based Full-Range Multiple-Entry Horn   (Open in New Window)

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