Anyone use horns? (and bad ideas)

[seedlings]

Not the super tweeter kind, but the under dash HLCD? They're wicked expensive for car audio, but super cheap for PA gear. The theory with car audio HLCD is to send higher pressure toward the opposite seat and lower pressure (dBs) toward the direct seat. The higher volume compensates for longer distance from the opposite side, and this is supposed to give a solid image (not super wide, but solid). Also the sound expands vertically for a tall stage.

My question is does anyone try this with a cheap horn from partsexpress? If it's mounted slightly facing the opposite seat, would that be pretty similar? Not looking for competition SQ, just more volume and better stage on the cheap. They could even be cut down at a shallow angle across the waveguide to throw less toard the direct seat.

Thoughts?

CHAD

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[81000d]

I have wondered this also.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I think you'll do better to just get a quality soft dome or some ring radiators like the vifa/tymphany xt 25 tweeters instead. Horns can sound good if done right but due to the shape, its very hard to get the positioning right. The XT 25s should be a giant leap in both SQ and volume compared to what you currently have.

Not to mention there's a huge performance difference gap from cheap/mediocre to high end horns.

 

[kmanian 5,000+ posts]

I use HLCD, and LOVE them. Automotive environment is very challenging and the throat design of the body for car audio is very important to getting proper imaging and stage. If you are simply looking for volume and some stereo separation, regular horns can work, but I think you would find them pretty harsh.

 

[ciaonzo 5,000+ posts]

You want the biggest horn you can fit without hindering the operation of the vehicle. The bigger the horn, the lower it will play. Mount a suitable monster of a compression driver to that horn and you will have a huge portion of the music spectrum coming at you with almost equal pathlengths. With enormous efficiency and headroom, I might add. All that's left is to equalize everything, and that is a lot of work but the payoff is huge.

Back in the day I ran the USD Waveguides with a 4" compression driver. The horn body was only good down to around 800Hz but I made up for it with driver diaphragm and excursion. Handed that over to a Vifa 10" in the door. That front stage did not need a subwoofer but of course I had a trio of JL 15W6's. Most powerful system I've ever had but it was all just too much. Eventually I scaled it back to save my ears.

I might have a picture of that somewhere.