Which Eminence horns for towers

looking to do tower speakers and was wondering which Eminence horns are being used ?

thanks,

mike


(Message edited by clubmyke on December 29, 2004)

Umm you mean like the ones that are in the NVS speakers. LOL, Why not ask Duane? LOL

grant- you know i am a big time image dynamic fan- have to compare specs to the image dynamics and celestions(great hcld drivers)...

btw, came up with a different design that "theoretically" should work better( i am surpised no body makes this yet)..will be working with a local fabrication shop to see it can be put together.

(Message edited by clubmyke on December 29, 2004)

Horns (HCLD's)are really cheap, there are a lot of sources for them. There are no moving parts other than an easily replaceable diaphragm. PA stuff is cheap compared to the superhyped "high end" car audio BS that everyone gets suckered into buying. I personally would not use stuff hyped by car audio types, the application is completely different. You could use whatever mid/HF driver you want, and use whatever horn lens fits your app. They are pieces that you purchase separately. Duane posted specs here for the parts he used for his first ones, I hope he doesn't mind me posting a link. Imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery. On that note, I notice that Duane used a somwhat unusual horn lens that is pretty narrow compared to most PA types, his is roughly 6"x6", typical PA horns are 4"x10" or similar dimensions for wider dispersion to a wider audience. The tight dispersion pattern is very important IMHO for this app. Grant, I noticed that the ones you used are for very short, wide dispersion that is biased either left or right depending on horn orientation.

I would bet that you would have to do some tuning to calm down the "barkiness" of the horn, they can really hurt your ears at close range. You can "tune" the setup by putting in high current low resistance resistors in series with the speaker components to tone down some of the harshness. This is in addition to the crossover. Horns are by nature way too sensitive at certain freqs, cone speakers are not (as much) because the cones are not rigid. A badly tuned horn system will run people off QUICK.

Horns (HCLD) are nothing new, it is actually the oldest speaker technology. The dog listening to the owners voice on the RCA logo is listening to a horn. I know, probably too much info, but people talk about these things like they are black magic or something.



http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/79257.html

That was fun looking at that thread. A lot of information sharing went on there.
Looking at some of the tower speakers today I think, "How little they were back only a year ago" but of coarse I'm very used to looking at the larger ones now. Apparantly many are as now we see Skylon follow along, and even the King of Bling Grant is putting a HLCD system together.
I would second some of the comments from psyclone regarding the car audio vs pro audio in terms of hype, cost and performance.
I suspect the the Car Audio market is much bigger then the Pro Audio market and therefore attracks more marketing dollars....which could explain some of the hype.
As far as cost goes, spending $100 for a single car audio speaker will not get you a $100 speaker. That speaker probably cost 10 bucks. But hey, that's capitalism.
I'll continue to promote buying what sounds good to you in your environment.
It's an ADDICTION....you've gotta have it!
Happy New Year from NVS!

Mike,
just talking horn lenses, then dispersion is where it's at. For behind the boat, wide is good but I feel you should remain within the dispersion of the woofers.
Regarding the Compression drivers: I'd love to play with some that are like $300-400 each. If money was not an object, that's what I'd build and recommend stop messing around with the car audio inspired stuff.....I don't care who makes it, it's still designed for a car!
"ADDICTION" the second coming from NVS

agree with ya Duane- as good as image dynamic are...i dont think their horns would be "optimal" for tower speakers- there would have to be some serious tweeking

on the flip side i give them kudos for making a specialty horn speaker for a car interior and making great products -they design and manufacture their own drivers..i replaced my dynaudio component(gt-240) set in my car with image dynamic cameleons- they are that good and the image dynamic subs are awesome.

i dont think image dynamics horns are overpriced....horn prices vary with brand...the emminence psd-2002 goes for $200 for the pair including the driver/horns and the jbl's will easily start at $700 with the same configuration.

alot of the sound has to do with the actual horn lense design( please dont get me wrong, the driver is important)...

there is alot of differnt designs when it comes to the horn lense and the ratios used. this will affect how much tuning is required and the overall sound...there are alot of different lense designs and ratios for the lenses and it gets really, really involved.

needless to say, this is where the sound is shaped and if often overlooked in horn systems.

more to come...

Mike,
I agree also. When I say $300-$400 ea. I'm referring to just the Compression Driver....no lens. Lenses, like most things, often have to be comprimised from the optimal due to the size constraints of a boat.
Looking at the specs at least, I'm not convinced for our application a Compression driver need be over that dollar amount to get to an optimal level.
But hey, someone will want it, if they do, I'll happily build it for them.
Happy New Year