Luckily, I carpool to work with my brother, so I had some downtime to burn.Step 1: Research Ive wanted to build a front-loaded horn speakers for a while now, but the low (maybe even negative) WAF factor put the big ixnay on my plans.
After hours of researching how to build wood horns and searching Google Images for wood horn speakers (audio porn), I found some sites that would help an everyday guy like me understand what it would take to build my own horn system ( audioaslylum, diyaudio, edgarhorn (for inspiration), and volvotreter ) as well as some oddities and the horn systems that could house a small family. The best site by far (probably has everything you need) is volvotreter (see image of his system). Erik manages the site, most of which is dedicated to DIY horn systems. He posts all the plans you need and includes a lot of detail. My first project is to replicate his Current System, consisting of 320Hz tractrix horns, 77Hz mid-bass horns. Well see what I end up deciding on to complete the low end (below 100Hz). In the next several posts, I will share my experience building the ultimate front-loaded horn speakers. Wow. I wouldnt even know where to begin the process of building a lathe, so I began my search to buy a lathe where any cheapskate does, on Craigslist. Tractrix Horn Vs Exponential Horn Crack Me UpCraigslist cracks me up--actually the people on Craigslist crack me up when they post the same item week after week for months and even years with no buyer and no lowered price. How many re-posts will it take to get 250 for your POS all-in-one JVC stereo from the early 80s (The one you paid 500 for back then.) I digress, it only took me about a week to find the perfect lathe--one with variable speed and a swinging head (to accommodate the large horns)--a JET 1236. JET makes some decent equipment, not the best, not the worst, but usually reasonably priced. I sent the seller my phone number and told him that Id buy it. I got worried when I didnt hear back within the next four hours. I knew this was a good price, and Im sure he had other emails. He emailed me back within the next few hours, and I picked it up the next morning. Step 3: The Plan Most endeavors start with a plan (some of the best started with a mistake, which is content for a different blog). In this case, I started with a plan, and Erik (from volvotreter) was invaluable because he has plans on his website. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I decided to copy his plans verbatim (with a few tweaks). Tractrix Horn Vs Exponential Horn Driver I PlannedI downloaded this tractrix horn calculator spreadsheet from volvotreter, plugged in a few numbers based on the driver I planned to use (JBL 2446j), and wholla Out shot a stream of data points with AutoCAD measurements and dimensions. AutoCAD would have saved me a lot of time, but since I didnt have a copy, I decided to use the tool that I did have--Adobe Illustrator. I tried using the automatic graphing feature in Illustrator, but just couldnt make it happen. It looks to be pretty limited to very basic graphing, but it could have just been operator error.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |