Wood Horn 3-way

[John W]

I'm curious about the placement of the Smith horns on top of the HF units ( the motor is still in the front of my of my car and the rear wheels push it along ) to that end are the highs distinct enough to give you the feeling of height or has this got alot to do with your knob twiddling?

It is a little too early to tell. My current standard for imaging and soundstage are a pair of L222s, which perform this task very well indeed. I need to move the new pair to a more permanent listening space and I will let you know.

[MatthiasA]

you did a great job! iam very impressed !!

:-) greetings Matthias

[grumpy]

I've found well recorded piano and voice (or other in-situ captured events...
acoustic bass ,kick drum, etc...) can be helpful 'auditioning' tools for balance/weight
in addition to RTA's which can keep you from optimizing for a particular recording -too-
far (can be loads of fun to do that too, but as you mention, it can make the next recording sound like crap).
Helps to know something about the recording (mic location) and have a reference system
(such as your L222's) and/or a great set of headphones.

Projects like these are an inspiration.

-grumpy

[Mr. Widget]

I'm curious about the placement of the Smith horns on top of the HF units ...to that end are the highs distinct enough to give you the feeling of height or has this got alot to do with your knob twiddling?
I ask this because I'm about to do my system using the Smith horns and I had intended to mount them in the box with 077 above.

I have done a fair amount of experimentation with Smith horns and others and John's layout looks just fine. They will image well if he got the horns right and gets the crossovers right. They certainly look great, and with some dialing in I would imagine will sound great to. I have to admit, I haven't yet played around with any of these 1" versions... so that part is a bit of a mystery.

Widget

[Earl K]

Wow John , Beautiful !

- I'm a little late to this oggling party / seems that I missed at least half the most recent posts .

- I love everything that you've done with that Walnut exterior .

- Good show .

[bbrown]

John,
Very beautiful work. Are you planning on grills of some kind?

Bruce

[aust-ted]

John, My belated congratulations on a beautiful piece of work.

It is a pleasure to see the work of a true craftsman as indeed you are.

Regards
Ted

PS Widget's are also looking great.

[Jakob]

Wow!

I'm very impressed with your work. If it sounds half the way it looks, it will be a killer system!

I'm thinking of building a simular system: a 15" driver, a compression driver and maybe a 2405 at top. I could see u are using a E145 and 076 but what are you loading the Smith horn with?

Widget: You are also building a simular speaker. What drivers are You using?

Regards: Jakob

[John W]

I am using a 2470 driver. This is a one inch driver with a phenolic diaphram. I want to try an LE85 driver also, this is what the crossover is really designed for. Regardless, I am enjoying the speakers very much as is.
I downloaded a 30 day trial of some RTA software and have adjusted the levels of the crossover and L-Pads to give a more or less flat response.

[aerohead]

Bravo! What beautiful work!
We just moved into a new home so, sadly, I have a huge chore list ahead of me.
Someday I'll be able to set up again to work for the pure pleasure of it without
guilt.

[Michael Smith]

Hi John
Have just finished my first pair of Smith horns and they are for a good mate,he is using K145-Le85 Smith Horn-077 I will be having a listen early next week,so I will tell you what the!
I think he's using LX10 / N7000 or the Pro variants can't remember,too many wines for lunch, I also think he has your compression driver as well so we can have a good play,his Smith horns are free standing as are yours,only difference is so are his 077,so a playing we will go and I will tell you how it went.
After seeing yours he's keen make a descision one way or the other, ontop or underneath,sounds like a dirty movie
Will keep you posted
Regards
Michael
Ps Have you moved your new babies into the better listening position yet?

[John W]

Here are the measurements I took off the 076 horn.

[John W]

I am still enjoying the new speakers. I replaced the phenolic diaphragms on my 2470 horns with 2420 aluminum ones and like the sound somewhat better.

[John W]

I have since swapped out the 1200hz smith horns on this project with full scale 2397 replicas built from heavy beach-wood driven by 2440s. The 2397 were constructed in the workshop in much the same way as the smaller horns. These mate very well with the E145s, and actually sound much better overall.

I built some grills for the fronts to make the wife happy. Since a nice curve doesn't hold its shape when stretched, the wooden frame was first faced with a fine wire mesh and then covered with the grill cloth.

I have also switched to using an 5234 active crossover with an 18db slope at 800hz to the E145 and a shallower slope to the N333 for the mid and tweeter section, sort of like the 4430 card.

[johnaec]

Very Nice!!

John