making conical speaker horns

[Günter VögelBerg]

I am in the early stages of designing some conical horn speakers and I would like some tips about constructing the horns. I cannot wrap my mind around the geometry and all the angles. Ideally I'd like to have some kind of formula for making horns of different lengths, different diameters and a different number of sides. I will have to make a number of plywood prototypes to test before I make the actual project. How would you start on this? Any advice appreciated. Thank you.
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[Timothy McMahon]

I would start by reading this: http://jansson.us/jcompound.html

[Doug Dawson]

I am in the early stages of designing some conical horn speakers and I would like some tips about constructing the horns. I cannot wrap my mind around the geometry and all the angles. Ideally I'd like to have some kind of formula for making horns of different lengths, different diameters and a different number of sides. I will have to make a number of plywood prototypes to test before I make the actual project. How would you start on this? Any advice appreciated. Thank you.
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That's a familiar design. You might start by contacting the people who are producing it commercially. I'm sure they're full of information. They might also be litigious, but it's best to find out about that now rather than later. Save yourself some trouble.

[Günter VögelBerg]

Thank you very much for the link. The "N sided pyramid" is exactly what I am looking for.

I am not sure why I would run into any legal problems since I am not copying their design and I am only making these for personal non-commercial use.

[Bradley Gray]

I made some tapered columns last year. They were all 12 sided. I divided the top and bottom circumferences by 12 to get the end widths of the segments then started with 15 degree angles and did trial and error to dial in the blade tilt. I worked with 3 segments and adjusted the angle until I had a perfect 90 degrees.

[J.R. Rutter]

Have you heard those horns? I thought conical expansions had some definite shortcomings. It would be a shame to put a lot of work into something that sounded so-so.

[Dave Cav]

I'm pretty sure there was a rather long and involved thread on this subject about six or seven years ago.

[Günter VögelBerg]

I have not heard the OMA speakers in the pic. That was just an example of what I am looking at doing. I have, however, heard a number of horn setups of varying quality. They do have some definite shortcomings, but they can be overcome with careful driver choice and a lot of experimenting with crossovers and notch filters. Whatever I do I will make a plywood model for testing before I commit to a final project.

[Zachary Hoyt]

If they don't end up working well as speaker cones they could be converted into very nice wastebaskets or vase holders or table bases or something.
Zach

[J.R. Rutter]

Oh, I've heard some absolutely amazing horn speakers, but none of them were straight up conicals like the pic.

[Rod Sheridan]

Gunter, I also am interested in how it works out for you.

I have a pair of Lascalla’s, I like horn loudspeakers.......Regards, Rod

[Günter VögelBerg]

Gunter, I also am interested in how it works out for you.

I have a pair of Lascalla’s, I like horn loudspeakers.......Regards, Rod

I have considered that style of woofer cabinet, but have not done a ton of research on it. My initial thought is that it would be too big of a footprint for my room, so I am more inclined to a high-efficiency 12 or 15 inch woofer in a conventional ported cabinet with separate horns for midrange and tweeter compression drivers or possibly ribbon tweeter. Eminence has several woofers with 97+ db w/m efficiency that are fairly affordable. I am not looking for the ultra-high efficiency speakers that guys use with their SET amps and similar. My current amp is a DIY version of the old Dynaco st-70 with improved transformers and biased for KT-88 tubes, so I have a fair amount of power to use. What kind of amp drives your Klipsch?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, prior to the Klipsch I had a pair of Altec 816's with a 15 inch woofer and a 500 Hz horn.

I had a Dynaco 35W tube amp which I liked with a Dynaco solid state pre-amp, now I use Sony AV Receiver which makes Diann happier.............Rod.

[Günter VögelBerg]

Hi, prior to the Klipsch I had a pair of Altec 816's with a 15 inch woofer and a 500 Hz horn.

I had a Dynaco 35W tube amp which I liked with a Dynaco solid state pre-amp, now I use Sony AV Receiver which makes Diann happier.............Rod.

Nice. Those are serious vintage classics.

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks Gunter, I built the 816"s during my last year in high school...........Rod.