Full Horn Sound System
by Nicolas Haji-Ioannou
Four way full horn speaker system that provides unparalleled sonic accuracy/realism, very high efficiency and excellent imaging for outside venues.
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Horn systems can approach close to 50% efficiency compared to regular P.A. speakers that approach close to 5% efficiency. As a result, less amplifier power and speaker driver units are required.
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The horn efficiently couples and directs the sound forward with minimal driver cone movement for each driver unit, giving accurate and very dynamic sound with plenty of head room.
High, mid range and mid bass are space factor 1 (i.e. full wavelength horns that can be fully suspended in free air), the sub-woofer is a space factor 2 design, i.e. it requires the ground as part of its reinforcement.
Note, part of the sub-woofer is presented in the images as a single box.
Mid range horn is a traxtrix flare design to minimize horn effect sound.
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Frequency response of this horn goes down to 290Hz and the upper frequency is terminated at around 3KHz
The driver used is a 6.5 inch driver from Bymer Audio which has low 2nd and 3rd order harmonics.
The mid-bass driver is an exponential flare design to get the best coupling and directivity possible.
Lowest frequency full loading response is from 170Hz to 450Hz, however these are driven from 80Hz to 450Hz to get better frequency spread at the expense of a bit of efficiency.
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The driver used in this horn is an 8 inch driver from B&C Audio.
The sub-woofer is really massive using an exponential flare like the mid-bass horn, to get best coupling and directivity and since this is the biggest of the horn speaker system, it is ground mounted and can utilize the ground as a part of its reinforcement i.e. space factor 2. This allows the sub-woofer to be half the actual size.
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The sub-woofer consists of two horn boxes, each horn box is 6m in length on the interior. These two horn boxes will then be further mounted on an expansion horn 3m in length, 2m in height and 5.3m in width.
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Frequency response of the sub-woofer is from 19Hz to 120Hz, however the max cutoff is set to 80Hz since higher frequencies are not as efficient.
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Driver units used in the sub-woofer are 18 inch Ground Zero Plutonium SPL.
Expansion horn frames which extend the horn an extra 3m forward, 2m high and 5.3m wide.
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Work is on going. Measurements and new videos to follow.
Expansion section 01 - 03 have been completed. Mouth coupling frequency good down to 50Hz (Space factor 1), 25Hz (Space factor 2, coupled to ground)
Here are a few videos taken with a cell phone. Use headphones to get an idea of the sound quality. Please note that a single sub-woofer box was used i.e. the sub-woofer is not finished, and a single channel was also used, not at full potential.
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Poor Lonesome Me - Eugene Ruffolo played at low volume at about 5m
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Thunder Struck - AC/DC, played at half volume at about 10m
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House of the rising sun, played at low volume at about 5m
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Dangerous - Michael Jackson played at full volume at about 100m