pietsch288 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I was thinking about making my center a rf-7, but just to try it out I don't wan't to start chopping one up, I was thinking I could take the horn out, seal it back up with a small piece of mdf, put it on its side, and place the horn on top. I favor the rf-7 over the rc-7 in A-B comparison it seems much smoother and softer in action scenes but I'm not 100% sure about the dialog (it seems ok), but I can't A/B them in the exact same location, and until you use it for several movies you don't know for sure. So like I said "does the horn have to be in the box"???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzannucci Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Is it the horn or is it the crossover? If it is the crossover that provides EQ, you're likely going to mess things up. The crossovers are likely not interchangable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Its a good idea when shipping it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietsch288 Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 no, what I mean is.......other than aethestically is there a reason for the horn to be mounted in the box. For example..... the woofer has to be in there because it needs the box to make sound. Does the horn use the box to make sound?? Obvously the horn needs to be very close to the drivers but does it need to be in the box??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietsch288 Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 Remember I am going to use this thing as a center channel so it needs to be on its side, because a floor speaker laying on its side would be un-balanced. I have 2 choices re-arrange the face to a normal center channel, or remove the horn lay it down and put the horn directly on top or bottom of the woofers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy West Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 The horn is self contained and does not to be inside of an enclosure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigrfish Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 The Horn Lens (proper name for a horn) is going to have a driver mounted to the back of it. The driver may be heavier than the lens. You will need to secure it. Sandy is right in that there is no reason to have the horn assembly inside the cabinet. One thing to remember is that the cubic volume of the inside of the enclosure will be altered by removing the horn and driver assembly, and that volume difference may affect the acoustic response of the enclosure. It also will be necessary to make provision for the termination of the wires that go from the crossover to the now external HF driver...and of course the hole the horn assembly came out of has to be sealed up for everything else to work properly. Silicon caulk is your friend, and GE makes it in many colors. I just use a 700Hz (minimum frequency)wide-dispersion Selenium horn lens by itself with an Eminence titanium-domed driver and with a high pass filter and a blending unit( so called black box) with a volume control for the center channel on my stereo, with no low frequency transducer at all...but I do have a 15"sub and two other 15's and two 12's for low frequencies on that side of the room so I don't really need any more woofers on the main side of my stereo. I do not use a center channel for TV sound, only use it for music. Go ahead, experiment in health, try various locations and positions until you have satisfied yourself that you have it just the way you like it. When I first mentioned in these forums the idea of using a horn-only center not too many people thought too much of it, and most said it would sound horrible...and most were WRONG...not being critical just stating the obvious...lots of times it is not possible to speculate what a thing/configuration is going to sound like until you actually put ears on it. Many of us do this kind of stuff all the time, so we are one part artist, one part tinkerer, putterer, and mad scientist (we all carry a card that says we are allowed) and when we get through with the adventures, we tell our mates what it sounded like and whether we would do it again, etc. Good luck with it, and please share your eventual impressions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Some of the audio engineers can correct me but the front face of the cabinet becomes the ground plane for the horn flare and does have some effect on the pattern. Also if the horn is not totally vibration free some low level energy can come of the back of the horn. I'm not a speaker designer but I would not mount a horn without some sort of an enclosure just so I was in control of the pattern and any rear energy. Although you will find plenty of designs with horns in free space, even on this web site........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
space_cowboy Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Some time ago someone made a center out of a KLF-20 if I remember right so it would lay horizontal. He did have to cut a new motorboard, then mounted the woofers at the ends and stacked the horns in between. It looked awesome and totally dwarfed a KLF-C7. Can't remember what he did about the rear ports though. Just a thought........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietsch288 Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 Before I bought the rf-7's,rc-7 and the rf-5's, I had a full 6.1 system of kg5.5's that I had bought throughout the years. I actually did just that....I took one of the speakers and made a center out of it by cutting out the front....re-arranging the face, glueing the MDF back on and painting it black. Looks sweet....as a matter of fact I'm using it as my 6th channel right now. I never noticed any sound difference between the LCR, plus at the time back in the early 90's there wasn't anything for centers out there to even buy.... let alone match. The front of an RF-7 is designed diff than a kg5.5 and there is bracing inside. If I do that again I have to be very carefull not to screw it up....besides the fact that the rc-7 doesn't suck.... its just not a rf-7, so if I'm not completely satisfied I can sell it as a rf-7 and not a rf-7 center hi-bred. I'll take some pics of the KG center and you guys can tell me what you think. rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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