can i turn my house into a horn?

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gavman

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hello all

while doing a sound engineering course the instructor digressed into this topic

he described a setup where the loudspeaker drivers were in different parts of the building to the listening room, on a different floor, feeding a horn that terminated in two ports where there would normally be speakers. essentially the music comes from a hole in the wall...:confused:

this was done to allow the use of a particular shape of horn that exceded the length of the house, enabling incredible efficiency

is anybody familiar with this concept?

gav
 
I once sawite from Japan filled with 'househorns', but cannot remember where I found it.
It all stasrts to make our own hi-fi obsessions seem pretty small beer!!
 
Seconded - my jaw has gone through the floorboards and is still going.

That is a real hi fi.
 
infinite baffle more like

now here's a thing i don't understand.

the amps they recommend for the IB are pa amps of 1000watts or more, retailing for about £350

the ib setup is less efficient, needs driving harder etc

could my 100watt, high current krell (ksa100) do an equivalent (or better) job?
(i'm thinking of 4 times 18 inch drivers in two separate cube manifolds..that's 4 drivers in total)

does having loads of current mean that it can drive any load to 100watts worth of volume?
i'm sure all the tecchies are "laughing so hard the snot comes out (their) noses!"



i think i've found a new religion...the cult of the Infinitely Baffled

is there really only one person in the uk using them?

that italian bloke is a nutter
 
woah!!

now that's what i call a horn

so am i right in thinking these long designs are all low freqeuncy specific, as opposed to being full range?
 
gavman said:
infinite baffle more like

now here's a thing i don't understand.

the amps they recommend for the IB are pa amps of 1000watts or more, retailing for about £350

the ib setup is less efficient, needs driving harder etc

could my 100watt, high current krell (ksa100) do an equivalent (or better) job?
(i'm thinking of 4 times 18 inch drivers in two separate cube manifolds..that's 4 drivers in total)

does having loads of current mean that it can drive any load to 100watts worth of volume?
i'm sure all the tecchies are "laughing so hard the snot comes out (their) noses!"



i think i've found a new religion...the cult of the Infinitely Baffled

is there really only one person in the uk using them?

that italian bloke is a nutter
Click to expand...


You can have an IB subwoofer in a small box. The advantage of doing it with a whole room on the other side of the cone is a bigger box means more efficiency. Probably less colouration to worry about too, if the room is appropriate.

If you simply want an IB system for better step response, phase etc.. then you can get a good woofer like a 15" B&C, put it in a, say, 50liter closed box made of very solid materials like 1" thick MDF and braced on the inside. Then get a powerful amp, something with a true 500watts RMS or more. All you need to do now is EQ the low end to make up for the loss of efficacy a smaller box has. You can do that with a passive filter on the woofer itself or with an active one before the amp like a Behringer DCX or something from BSS. Two of these designs would give most people ample volume – somewhere above 100dB in-room at 20Hz I should think.
 
this is all very timely, as i'm doing building work currently.
so it's the right time to be doing structural things.

here's what i'm thinking;
2 manifolds in the loft above the main speakers
2 x 18 inch drivers in each box
4 in total

given that the site is u.s., would anybody have an opinion on drive unit options?
that is, 4 x 18 inch drivers suitable for use in an infinite baffle arrangement?
or would it be best to purchase the recomended u.s units?
ditto the behringer amps...

this thread has changed my life!!

gav
 
Something like the Eminence Definimax 18" should do well I expect. I have experience of the 12" and it is certainly a good driver. You will want to see what the IB forum have to say though. I suspect it would need a 1st order low-pass at 20Hz or so to make it work flat to about 100Hz.

As for amps I would choose the Alesis RA500 over the Behringer equivalent. The Behringer Europower amps might be what you mean instead.. I would rather go for something without a fan. Crown also have a good name though, maybe the Crown XLS602?
 
how much is the alesis?

it's fantastic looking, but not half as powerful as the behringer?

looking that good you'd want them on show, but i had thought to pout 2xeuropower2500 in the loft,next to the ib install, where the fans would be less of a problem

i get the impression 4 18's, mounted infinitely baffled, will require a lot of power...perhaps more than the alesis?

price is critical....

gav
 
If you can put the amp somewhere you won't hear its fans then I'd go for the Europower 2500. It probably isn't a better sounding amp but you don't really care too much for dedicated use below 100Hz, power is more of a concern.

If you used the Definimax you would want to run 2 drivers in parallel per amp and bridge the amp. That would give you 4 Ohms presented to the amp and 2500 watts available to drive each pair.

How you need that much output I don't know! I find my two 12" woofers in a smaller less efficient sealed box gives plenty of output right down to 20Hz. Two 18" woofers in a similar arrangement should give enough output for any lunatic IMO! You may have slightly (at least at levels which won't implode your colon) more colouration and distortion but you don't have holes in the ceiling ;)
 
the ib site recomend 4x 15inch drivers in a room my size

ib placement require twice as many drivers as a sealed box for a given room size

by going 18 instead of 15 i'm looking for the last few hertz, but i don't think it will be excessive

i reckon my main speakers will get pretty deep, so the ib will just handle sub 25 hz

what can i say?
i've got hairs on the backs of my hands
i'm the only house in the valley
and i truly seek bass nirvana....

still don't understand about the diff between amps and watts, and why my krell won't be up to the job with just 100watts and loads of amps
plum plum plum
gav
 

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