freddyi Posted January 7, 2007 Share Posted January 7, 2007 with todays range of small compression drivers, whats a good way to do a simple and effective Smith tweeter? does one need (or desire) vanes or not for 4Khz up? with regards to regular Smith Distributed Source Horn, how much useful contouring of response can be done by varying the vanes' profile? (RCA-Fan briefly mentioned this as a design parameter) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted January 7, 2007 Share Posted January 7, 2007 Due to the wavelengths involved for tweeter use, the overall path length of the horn is so short that the vanes would literally have no effect, and there is possibly not room enough in the tweeter-specific horn. The Smith-type horn is used at lower frequencies, although a 2" throat Smith ought to work with a coax (combination midrange and tweeter) driver, although I don't know of anyone testing this. DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted January 7, 2007 Share Posted January 7, 2007 Freddy----Go over to the Lansing Heritage site, there's a recent thread about a fella making small Smith horns for tweeter use and much discussion. Over here I doubt there's more than a half-dozen guys even know what a Smith is though if the word gets out several will tape-worm this site to set up businesses selling them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted January 7, 2007 Share Posted January 7, 2007 Martinelli made me a set of 6" long vanes (5 per horn) for a small Tweeter type Smith horn.. I finished them last month..Ive tried several HF drivers on them...Including taking off the baby cheeks off the JBL 2404 & mounting them on the baby Smiths......As some of those on this site know I also use a large Smith horne for mids Approx 31 inches wide......I cross over to the baby smittys at 5k.....Do i like the top end??? Welllllllll not to my satisfaction....Like Dman states they (vanes) might be too large.....I notice on the Westlake moniters there tweeter version leaves out the vanes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddyi Posted January 10, 2007 Author Share Posted January 10, 2007 Hi Maron - maybe its combing too much from those vanes - hope you get one going to satsifactionwas yours 10" wide?how wide was the little field coil Selstad?Technicshttp://gallery.audioasylum.com//cgi/gi.mpl?u=7080&f=sb10000catalog.jpgFreddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 Freddy.....the 10" was too big. I understand that one has a low cut off of 1200 I had another one 8" wide. It too was a bit lackluster.....Getting the vanes thinner & smaller can be a problem for my fat stubby fingers...Westlake just leaves the vans out but i dont know what the polor plots would show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 THe Vintagetechnics is not a true Smith horn, but a hybred design to control vertical diffraction. The Selstad is small enough, But i have not heard it or seen a good polor plot...I under stand a small cast aluminum unit was made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddyi Posted January 11, 2007 Author Share Posted January 11, 2007 Hi Maron,over at Lansing Heritage vanes vs none looked about the same -on one Smith type maybe no vanes better on the response curve - can't locate tread easiy - its over there. I might try something crude with a ksn1016 piezo as driver. Heres a thread by Steve Schell on the Selsted-Smith 5Khz model http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=9871&highlight=Smith+horn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guinness Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 freddyi, I think the thread you are looking for is this one.... http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=12697&highlight=selsted I was reading it myself over the last few weeks and thinking of building my own set of Smith's for a tweeter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 I have 1016A elements with phase plugs, no horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 This might help a bit with ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddyi Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 thanks -- what in general would happen to response if one cut it back as follows? (hey DJK - so your piezo are complete but no horn - what were they meant to feed?)how was the 10" DSH figured? are 5Khz Smith horn (and vaneless variant) practical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Can't answer that question. What freq. was the crossover to the tweeter on the Westlake monitors? I think they didn't have vanes in them. Don't know if they crossed higher than the 1200Hz of this on or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Sure you can cut back the radial top & bottom to the vane septa..The low end cut off would be affected...But the upper band width will stay the same....I made a small 90 degree version 6"' with vanes up to the edge ten years ago...I forgot what the low end cut off was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.