# horn loaded midbass



## rey759

Hello all,Anyone here ever messed around with horn loaded cabinets?I'd like to build a set of pa tops using a 12" midbass,midrange compression horn and compression tweet.Anyway I'd like to horn load the 12 and run a bandwidth of about 150-800Hz on it.Would like to keep the cabinet as portable as possible,or is that a pipe dream?Can't seem to find much info about them.Also does the speaker cabinet have to be built to the specs. of like say a vent cabinet.WinIsd models a 2.9ft3 enclosure,or would horn loading change the specs for it.


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## chrapladm

Does it have to be a 12"

Do you have pretty good wood working skillz?

I only ask because I can think of two design that sound great. One only needs an 8" though but is good to 150hz. The other design uses a 12" woofer but can play down to 40hz. You would not need a sub with that design. 

The 8" design needs a sub from 150hz and down but plays VERY loud. The 12" design cant keep up in SPL with the 8" design but can play lower.


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## rey759

my wood working skills aren't expert level by no means but i have a friend who is a carpenter and can help me with miter cuts and stuff. wouldn't really need 40hz.these are going to be used for pa tops going through an electronic crossover,but the extra low end might not be bad.


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## nick24u

Hi, I built such PA cabinets a few months ago. I used an existing design I adapted to my speakers. I can show you how it is like with some photos. I used 2x12 inches midrange speakers in a long throw angled cabinet with a horn tweeter on top for mid high and a bullet tweeter for the highest frequencies. This last tweeter is lined with the horn tweeter to match response phase and is intalled in the 12th horn to keep space. There is a 2nd order 3 way passive filter inside and I cut down to 120Hz before the cab with an active filter to stick the big 21 subs. The result is amazing, very sensitive without the need for max power and flat response up to 18KHz+. The only thing is the horn angle that's quite directive and is mostly useful with large, see outer spaces, unless you add more front fills to cover short distance audience. As a probing test, I am planning to build two more cabs like this, but with a single 12 because the double cabs are a bit heavy, and dynamic is so gorgeous that a single 12 will just make it fine. check out the look of these cabs on a raw test during construction (no active filtering, player straight in the epx3000, the horns did not have the bullet tweeter at that time, I added later to retreive the highest range: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xge51e_chateau-3-voies-brut-de-fonderie_tech. construction is not that complicated as there are only a few angles to manufacture, the rest is much like a standard cabinet.


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## chrapladm

20" cube and VERY sensitive. This will play 150hz and higher very loud. If using lower volumes you may be able to set your Hpass on the speaker at 120hz.









Here is a stack of DR200's playing.





BUT you could always design your own also.


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## nick24u

horizontal dispersion is amazing on these compact horns! you get a really nice angle. is there any active treatment behind the cluster?


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## chrapladm

There's a garage......LOL.

No there aren't any active treatments behind the speakers.


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## nick24u

chrapladm said:


> There's a garage......LOL.
> 
> No there aren't any active treatments behind the speakers.


These cabinets are interesting, but I think it is a bit delicate to build with this curvy horn, this is why I chose a simpler version. can you post a link to the some schematics? how is the 12 mounted? I guess it is rear mounted with a phase inversion? thanks for sharing your experiences.


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## chrapladm

These designs that I mentioned are all from Bill's site here:
http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/DR200.html


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## nick24u

thanks for the link. I think I will get some plans to see if I can make some :T. regards.


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## loach71

Another horn-o-phile is Dr. Bruce Edgar. Do a google search for "edgar horn"...


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