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Machined Free Standing Baltic Birch Horn for 1.4" Drivers


Dave A

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5 hours ago, Pondoro said:

What is the tool cost? i.e. How much does the cutter cost, divided by how many horns it can cut before it is used up? I've worked on metal projects where the tool cost exceeded the material cost buy a large margin.

On wood not much. Carbide will last a long time. On metal parts it depends. If you match the right carbide grade and tool for the job + correct coolant + hydraulic tool holders and then run it with a good CAM program you can get a lot of life out of things. One of the biggest improvements in tool life for me was adopting high speed machining tool paths. Tooling can be a significant one time expense still with new tool holders but carbide is no longer as expensive based on parts cut with each carbide tool.

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  • 1 month later...

Had some visitors yesterday in the shop. Here to snoop around and hear the S-MWM's and pick up a set of Danley SH-50's. So while I had some Guinea Pigs here to try things on I let them listen to the 14" x 7" wood horn with the Faital 146 drivers. I really value the opinions of Klipsch forum members who know what they are doing and I was happy to play these horns and let the chips fall where they may. Now I really like them but at times it is hard for me to judge things because my daily listener is the S-MWM's and so all else pales in comparison. They met with approval and I will soon be making some for others. Claude has one in hand for testing so results should be here soon. I stuck these on a set of bass bins I have sitting around and I have to admit I was excited to hear them up and running right. Joe and Jay, my Guinea Pigs who also now know about Japanese Fireworks.

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On 5/15/2021 at 11:12 PM, Dave A said:

I stuck these on a set of bass bins I have sitting around and I have to admit I was excited to hear them up and running right. Joe and Jay, my Guinea Pigs who also now know about Japanese Fireworks.

As you know, those "guinea pigs" of yours,  stopped by my place first, to get their ears pre-calibrated before I sent them down to you for "sonic slaughter," so to speak! LOL.

 

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As one of the "guinea pigs" I found both Claude's and Dave's systems impressive as hell. The SMWMs with K-402s were all I was expecting and more. Totally effortless and natural. His wood mid horns were also excellent.

Claude's setup with 3 SH-50s in front was also great. The SH-50s gave the best imaging I have heard. Especially with his 11.2 (now 11.3) surround playing, it was superbly immersive.

Once my ears stop ringing I will take inspiration from Dave and Claude and continue to improve my system.

 

Jay

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33 minutes ago, grendel23 said:

As one of the "guinea pigs" I found both Claude's and Dave's systems impressive as hell. The SMWMs with K-402s were all I was expecting and more. Totally effortless and natural. His wood mid horns were also excellent.

Claude's setup with 3 SH-50s in front was also great. The SH-50s gave the best imaging I have heard. Especially with his 11.2 (now 11.3) surround playing, it was superbly immersive.

Once my ears stop ringing I will take inspiration from Dave and Claude and continue to improve my system.

 

Jay

All it takes is a can do attitude mixed in witch some Cash! LOL.

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2 minutes ago, Pete H said:

Can't wait to hear these Dave.  I may have to load up a couple sets of speakers and head down there soon.  I need a break, and the drive and listening might do me some good. 

I have one of my new horns up at Claude's right now for his assessment so wait until I get that back. You are welcome to head on down at that time and I look forward to your visit if it works out for you.

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On 5/17/2021 at 9:57 PM, grendel23 said:

The SH-50s gave the best imaging I have heard. Especially with his 11.2 (now 11.3) surround playing, it was superbly immersive.

I should add that the other 8 channels are all Klipsch. Super Heresy's, Fortes, and KPT-200's up in ceiling, with the cheapest TI chip amps I could find. All channels, including subs are 97-105 db/Watt sensitivity, so using less than 1 watt per most of the time, yet I can get dynamics past 120 db peaks without effort or distortion.

 

The Chesky Drum track remains as the greatest TEST of dynamics and POWER that sounds like the drums are in the living room. No hearing protection required 'cause the demo is short!

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On 5/18/2021 at 9:33 AM, Dave A said:

I have one of my new horns up at Claude's right now for his assessment so wait until I get that back. You are welcome to head on down at that time and I look forward to your visit if it works out for you.

Ladies and gentlemen. Looks like we have a Winner. Data to arrive soon.

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OK, so here's the screen shot of the curves. This is THE smoothest Magnitude Response (otherwise known as Frequency Response, incorrectly named) I have ever measured in a Hybrid Tractrix Horn (vs. Pure tractrix, which is round and cut on a lathe). I used a very realistic 1/12th octave smoothing, representing all the notes you can get in an Octave from any instrument.

 

Also, I boosted the curve that was measured at the very edge of the horn by 3 db vs. the Red one, which is measured at the central axis, representing about a 21 degree angle, 1/2 a meter out. The rolloff does not occur until about 6,500 Hz. The surprise here is the flattening of the curve above 16 Kz. at the 21 degree angle, which, I'm guessing has to do with how the throat meets the initial horn section that is not round. I can't hear past about 12 Kz. so I'm confident you will never need a super tweeter with this horn and it can be used in a 2-way system crossing somewhere between 700 to 1200 Hz. to a woofer section. I'm sure Dave would have even better performance on his Super MWM setup, using a strong midrange horn (from 300-1200 Hz.) and using this Amazing Horn as it's High Power Tweeter Section in a 3-Way setup!

 

You will see in the rest of the photos that Dave was pretty clever in starting with a radiused rectangle throat to blend with the Circular Phase plug of the Faital Pro HF 146R driver. Those who had a false first impression of looking at the face of this horn, by looking at all the subsequent photos, that the 1 mm thickness of the Baltic Birch layers get wider and wider because of the smoothly blended angular cuts that reach almost 90 degrees from the Central Axis line of the horn once the front face is reached.

 

All I can say is Dave created one fine chunk of Machined Lumber here! You will never, ever,  need to add dampening material to this incredible horn, unlike some of the other cheap plastic ones on the market! LOL. All I can say is well done! Another masterpiece!!!

 

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35 minutes ago, Deang said:

I’m impressed. There are a lot of different things you could do with this. Nice job Dave. 

Like keeping it on top of a double 12" Bass Reflex cabinet, which is what he has done and I've yet to hear. Working on my own variation here.

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3 hours ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

Also, I boosted the curve I did at the very edge of the horn by 3 db vs. the Red one, which is measured at the central axis, representing about a 21 degree angle, 1/2 a meter out. The rolloff does not occur until about 6,500 Hz.

I forgot to mention that the chosen center frequency of alignment with full band +3 db increase, is 3 Khz., a pretty good center point in this particular Bandwidth. 

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