Horn guy from B'lore

[Beast_of_burden]

Hi All,

I decided to register as I need help with building front horns for a pair of Lowther DX-3s that I own. I am pleasantly surprised at the active community of audiophiles here. I have been a DIYer for a long time. Have built Fostex BLH, lowthers in open baffle, lowthers in Tp1 Isis front horn, an old 3 way design with cheap locally available drivers. It has been an interesting journey.

Revelatory moments in that journey:

1. Listening to Riders on the Storm played on honey dripper tube setup(dont hav details of that setup, but guessing it was EL34 based) at the Analog room, Bay area. Vapour trails on each note, wonderful nearfield system. Picked our jaws off the floor listening to that soundstage - holographic and utterly hypnotic.

2. Wright 2A3 + DEQ2496 + ML Dynamo + Klipsch Rb 61 + CJ PA10 + heavily damped room = gloriously balanced full range music, silky, seductive, brilliant! No vapour trails, but the treble rose and fell like a waterfall. All budget components to boot.

3. Lowther DX3 in DIY TP1 Isis front horn paired with an Almarro EL84. Whoa!

Low points:

1. Fostex FE206 in FE208 BLH. Thats right, i built them but they havent lived up to my expectations. Considering throwing the big heavy boxes and putting the drivers instead in an infinite baffle enclosure along with Fostex woofers that I also own. will make a nice shouty PA system for sure. But then all full rangers belong in a front horn, my POV anyway. Ended BLH experiments.

2. Lowther DX3s and Fostex 305s in open baffle, screechy:lol: Much better after doubling the baffle size with foldable ears, but completely impractical at 5 ft wide.

3. Fostex 12# woofers in DIY H frames. yikes! End of open baffle experiments.

Right now too busy at work. dont get enough time to listen let alone build anything. The Fostex BLH isnt really such a great speaker. But I need to bring the lowthers back to life in those front horns. Hornresp has eluded me, I need help in understanding / simulating a simple 493mm exponential horn(TP1 ISis front horn). There are good things said about the Oris horns, maybe i should build clones considering it is rather difficult and expensive to source them here.My speaker building days are probably over, need help with resources who can execute the designs.

 

[arj]

Wishing you all the very best !
my audiophile journey started with a Klipsch-horn + SET setup in the Bay area and was accentuated by an Avant garde Duo with another 2A3 based tube amp setup at SIngapore. all heard at others homes or audio shows

I still dream of having a 2 way Horn speaker placed in the corners of a largish room with a tube amp :sad:. But have neither skills to build, time to learn how to build, money to buy a good system or the space to place it even if i do get it.

you should find experts here to help you with this though

 

[olly42]

Welcome to HFV

 

[RAAGA]

Welcome .....!

 

[GeorgeO]

Good to have you here and welcome!Hang in there, dont write the Fostex BLH system off just yet. Spend some time and go through the diy section in this forum, we have a member who has used the same drivers and they sound very very nice in a BLH enclosure.

 

[spirovious]

Welcome to HFV...

 

[theironhorse]

welcome buddy.. have a great time..

 

[anm]

welcome HORNy guy!

 

[stevieboy]

Welcome Horn guy! Nice to see one more DIY guy here, plenty of creative DIYers around here you'll find!

 

[Beast_of_burden]

Good to have you here and welcome!Hang in there, dont write the Fostex BLH system off just yet. Spend some time and go through the diy section in this forum, we have a member who has used the same drivers and they sound very very nice in a BLH enclosure.

Thanks all for the warm welcome, I am hoping to get some help and also contribute to the community.

I am looking for good tweeters to go with the BLHs, because the FE206 have poor HF inspite of the whizzer cone. I am now running them with really old Phillips dome tweeters and they have improved the balance quite a bit, but I am sure it can be improved further.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Hi ,it appears you are extreamly "HORNEY" guy!!
Welcome friend!

 

[Beast_of_burden]

Hi ,it appears you are extreamly "HORNEY" guy!!
Welcome friend!

Well, who isnt?

On an ever so slightly more serious note, thanks for the warm welcome.

 

[Kittu]

Welcome to HFV!

Can you post some of your creations and DIY work pictures here?

:signthankspin:

 

[SaurabhK]

almost misread ur thread title... i thought does hfv have an adult section tooo....lol

 

[captrajesh]

Never knew horn can sound fishy (If you can imagine what I mean; Referring to the replies here):lol:

 

[soulforged]

Nice to see more 'horny' guys come out in open

Try building a pair of Sachikos for your 206. There are a couple of guys here who have done that and are very happy...I wanted to build them too but placement constraints drove me towards BiBs.

Horns for Lowthers tend to be massive...how to u manage???

 

[kaushik]

I have Listened to some folded horn DIY towers , sounded very good , the best in towers ..by a diy guy [not me] ....... low freq is very will handled , warm sound overall .


Waiting for pict-o-bilia of diy artifacts so far by you !

 

[Beast_of_burden]

I have Listened to some folded horn DIY towers , sounded very good , the best in towers ..by a diy guy [not me] ....... low freq is very will handled , warm sound overall .


Waiting for pict-o-bilia of diy artifacts so far by you !

The BLHs I have are a bit heavy in the midrange. These have been practically built by me after I had the wood cut at the shop. There is plenty of bass after equalization but one has to listen at high levels for the rear horn's bass action to come into play. It sounds more balanced at high volume and can play without distortion. The downside is that I can listen to it at those levels when no one else is home, sometimes I do secretly wish my family goes away for a few days The horn action also means that the bass drops off rather sharply at the cutoff ~60Hz. All told this isnt a nearfield system, a pair of nice bookshelfs with a quality sub would be a more sensible choice for the typical apartment home.

I have RTA in my setup with a Behringer DEQ2496 so it does sound quite balanced overall. Apart from this my setup is entirely tubes - a chinese 6L6 PP amp + Audio note M zero + CAL tube DAC. Have a sqeezebox for a source. Here is a pic of my current setup(sorry about the stuff lying around).

The lack of HF extension with the Fostex is rather obvious although it takes a while for one to actually notice it. For me the coin dropped after I ran the RTA, the HF was maxed out in the correction curve. Added a pair of cheap Philips tweeter with a cap in series and it does sound way better. Although I should be having a pair of equally sensitive horn tweeters ideally.

Purely on an experimental basis I started out to build the mighty Lowther Tp1 ISis, but ran out of skill after I built the front horns. I will post that experience separately. The Lowthers are now back in their boxes waiting for another bout of inspiration. I will most likely build the front horns as satellite units and pair them with a pair of Fostex 12" FW305s. may have to attenuate the lowthers by about 3-6 db, but that is not a bad thing if I succeed in bringing the sound into balance.

 

[vivek.saikia]

welcome HORNy guy!

Hi ,it appears you are extreamly "HORNEY" guy!!
Welcome friend!

Nice to see more 'horny' guys come out in open

Try building a pair of Sachikos for your 206. There are a couple of guys here who have done that and are very happy...I wanted to build them too but placement constraints drove me towards BiBs.

Horns for Lowthers tend to be massive...how to u manage???

While seeing the thread title for the first time even I also read it as "Horny" and I thought I have a dirty mind. But now I feel belonged here.

BTW Beast! Your horns look great!

 

[Beast_of_burden]

While seeing the thread title for the first time even I also read it as "Horny" and I thought I have a dirty mind. But now I feel belonged here.

BTW Beast! Your horns look great!

Well, I like the vibe here too. The reactions have been overwhelmingly funny:lol:


Thanks for the compliment, I worked like a dog to finish them, slow painstaking work. Looking back I now think one has to be crazy to attempt something like this knowing you may not be happy with the results. In fact chances of hitting pay dirt with an exotic design such as the BLH is a hit or a miss scenario.

But when a design does work such as the Lowthers in the TP1 Isis front horn, it is a revelation. Here is a picture of the crude experimental front horn sitting atop a floor stander. The floor stander was supplying the bass, the tweeter having been disconnected. But the efficiency of the horn was so great, the bass from the tower was feeble at best. These horns can do Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Jazz et al brilliantly. I was hung up on building the TP1 speaker as a whole, but after the Fostex BLH I am not so sure of the BLH. I am planning to simplify the build of the front horns and operate them as satellites.