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View Full Version : Exceptional bass corner horns... cheap!


Steve Schell
01-16-2007, 01:22 AM
I have been building horns as a hobby since 1992, and recently as a business. These bass horns were one of my more successful hobbyist projects. They were built in 2000 and were mainstays in my system for at least three years, something of a record. I have since gone on to build mid bass horn/compression driver systems as well as really large 20 to 80Hz. horn subwoofers. These bass corner horns have been mothballed for several years now, but I recently had the opportunity to put them back together and use them again. It has been a rewarding experience.

They are a pure exponential design with a 35Hz. flare constant. Their response is very good from 40 to about 400Hz, and sound like they go lower than they measure. They feature a very solid, powerful, clean bottom end, the sort that people unaccustomed to good front loaded bass horns often find shocking on first listen. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they perform when I got them going again. Dr. Bruce Edgar once told me that he thought these were the best bass horns I ever built, and that I "got lucky" with this design. IMO these units exceed the performance of the Klipschorn bottom end by quite a bit, due to the 10' path length and single 90 degree bend.

They are built in upper and lower sections; the joint is hidden by the midrange horn in the picture. The bottom section disassembles for easy moving. They are about 7'9" tall. They can be assembled on the floor and raised into position if your ceiling is at least 8'3" as mine is. If not they can be assembled standing up with a helper.

Each horn is driven by a single 15" woofer, installed in the sealed back chamber near the ceiling. The triangular shaped expanding throat section makes a 90 degree bend at the floor to the mouth which measures 18" tall by 69" wide. The mouth is extended by side walls and floor if one has good corners (I don't), creating an unusually smooth transition between horn and room.

With heavy heart I must sell these, as I no longer have room to store them; they must make way for my current development efforts. They are built from 3/4" baltic birch plywood and 3/4" preformed curved plywood. Some aspects of their construction are a bit crude. I always intended to clean up the woodworking a little and apply a finish, but never got a Round Tuit. I am asking $500 for the pair, which is less than I have into the materials. A freshly reconed pair of 1950s Stephens Tru-sonic woofers is currently installed and performing very well. They can be included for an additional $300 if the buyer prefers. Any interested parties in southern CA are welcome to contact me at (562)421-5145 for a listening session.

Here is a picture I took back in 2000; they still look the same.

Mr. Widget
01-16-2007, 09:28 AM
Here is a picture I took back in 2000; they still look the same.They look very interesting. I would love to hear them, but I rarely make it to So Cal.

I hope that wall of fiberglass is either covered or removed... that stuff will continue to shed and is quite a health hazard.


Widget

Titanium Dome
01-16-2007, 01:34 PM
They look very interesting. I would love to hear them, but I rarely make it to So Cal.

I hope that wall of fiberglass is either covered or removed... that stuff will continue to shed and is quite a health hazard.


Widget



Steve, I'd like to hear those and discuss their future. This is a hellaciously busy week with all the gang stuff going on, but I could probably get away for a couple of hours tomorrow night. Possible?

I'll open up PMs for you.

Thom
01-16-2007, 03:40 PM
Have you been watching Ebay for Round Tuit's?

louped garouv
01-16-2007, 05:34 PM
Beautiful horn Steve,

wish I was closer....

SMKSoundPro
01-16-2007, 07:58 PM
Is that an Altec 1x2 horn.

We used 4 of them in our outdoor sound rig on a scissors lift 35' in the air at the start of the Iditarod Sled Dog race on 4th ave in Anchorage. Bolted up with original altec drivers.

Man, they would get it on!

NEVER thought I would see one in some dudes living room!!!

Probably works relly well.

Scott.

ps. I was the announcer also, and inadvertantly announced them as World Champion "DeadSlogs" instead of sled dogs. Back to the flask to keep warm. Those were the days!

Ben Clarke
01-17-2007, 12:25 AM
Steve, those made my heart race. They're too tall for my space and I live in another world entirely, but sending you a PM.

yggdrasil
01-17-2007, 02:20 AM
Very interesting horns Steve.

Maybe you could share your design later on...

Steve
01-22-2007, 11:33 AM
I was very fortunate to be able to listen to this system.
I can truly say it took my breath away. While listening to LP's,for fun I asked Steve if he had Saving Private Ryan on DVD. If so...please play the scene towards the end with the tanks rolling up and the ground shaking. I ended up having to yell for Steve to turn it down as I was having a hard time breathing.
The really amazing part to me was when I closed my eyes to stop looking at the speakers and concentrate on the wonderful music they were making. The walls where the speakers were dissapeared. The depth and clarity of the music was amazing and peacefull at the same time.
When I play with my audio goodies, I now include that 30 min. of joy listening at Steve's as a reference to try to match.
As I remember he powereed them with a flea flicker amp.

If I had room in the small house here, I would pick them up.
Those of you who have a garage or work shop, these would be a wonderful addition to it.

Steve

Steve Schell
01-22-2007, 01:01 PM
Widget, thanks for the caution about the fiberglass. I must be a goner, as I have used fiberglass (mostly uncovered) in my room treatments for over 20 years now. Most of my current traps are burlap covered though.

SMKSoundPro, that is indeed an Altec 203B horn in the picture. I'll bet they worked great for the Iditarod; I have seen them used in clusters in huge stadium installations. They have been my favorites of the Altec 300Hz. horns for living room use due to their narrow pattern and really low (like 180Hz.) flare constant. Most of the time I used these I ran them with RCA MI-1428B field coil compression drivers. These drivers have a threaded attachment, but I made some wooden adapters shaped like pipe clamps to clamp to the driver then bolt to the horn.

Yggdrasil, I never made up cutting plans per se for the design, as they were just one-off experiments. I do have a few drawings and specs though; please PM me with your email address if you would like scans.

Steve, thanks for the nice review. Flea flicker... LOL! I was probably pounding you with the 1,600 milliwatts from my SE 45 amp.

Mr. Widget
01-22-2007, 01:16 PM
Widget, thanks for the caution about the fiberglass. I must be a goner, as I have used fiberglass (mostly uncovered) in my room treatments for over 20 years now. Well... some people can smoke cigarettes for 60-70 years and die of unrelated causes and others develop lung cancer or have a heart attack after only a rather brief exposure... breathing the broken glass fibers is certainly not going to do your lungs any favors. Covering your acoustic treatment will certainly improve your odds... spraying the stuff with hair spray is also a good idea. (I'd wear a respirator while spraying a large area of the stuff.)


Years ago I made panels similar to yours... but I covered them with fabric, because just looking at fiberglass makes my skin itch.:D I still use it inside my speakers though because I like it's damping qualities the best


Widget