Are Iwata horns that good?

[Lee in Montreal]

Is that Iwata horn that good? Strangely, I can't get any response graphs.
How better than, say, a similarly sized 2350.

[spkrman57]

But they sure do look pretty!!!

Regards, Ron

[Lee in Montreal]

But they sure do look pretty!!!

Regards, Ron

And these are beast at around 30" wide x 24" deep x 14" tall.

Currently transforming the above drawings into cercles and elipses that CAD can understand. CAD softwares don't understand Bezier curves, so I have to find simple equivalent circular shapes. But that part is done. Then on to find ways to stack wood to avoid losses of material and excessively heavy horns.

Imtermediate stage of draft. The original (can be seen in blue) is approximativee and specs/measures don't match the drawing. No to mention the lack of symetry on a draft done by hand 25 years ago... )

[Lee in Montreal]

The joys of making dust. Some guy's making an Iwata horn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MFcTfjeMI0

If I had to do it, I'd machine the sides at the same time. Top and bottom being the same, just make holes for dovel pins and you get a complete horn out of two similar parts as has been done by others. Except that I would also machine the bottoms and tops to make lighter horns.

[polar_bear_0104]

very interesting. thanks for sharing lee...i'm interested to find out too...i've encountered a few iwatas too but have not had long time with them to form an opinion.

[richluvsound]

Great project .

thanks for posting it .

Rich

[carolus]

..... Is that Iwata horn that good? ....

Hi Lee,
FYI,
I build those Iwata (4units) in 1983 in DIM ..... with wood multilayer, concept in slices .... with 10cm adaptor from 2" square to 2" round ....
In 5-way-horn concept,
See (Iwata) publication "L'audiophile N°21 & 25" ...
Do-it,
It's beautifull music .....
Allez, salukes & ... best regards,
Karel

[Lee in Montreal]

I build those Iwata (4units) in 1983 in DIM

Hi Karel

Do you have pictures of them? Please let us know what is "DIM"...

On another note, a Polish supplier is producing fiberglass horns. Here's an Iwata 300. I wonder about the material's resonance. Using fiberglass is a very cheap way to produce horns too. The hardest (and most expensive) part is making the original mold. Then copies are a walk in the park. MrWidget seems to have been succesfull with polyurethane plastic I believe.

[stephane RAME]

http://www.horns.pl/iwata300wh4.html

Stéphane

[Lee in Montreal]

http://www.horns.pl/iwata300wh4.html

Stéphane

Thanks Stéphane. Also a bunch of American dudes from AVSaudio.com just bought a huge pallet of horns from this outlet. I am waiting for them to start sharing their feedbacks.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1336262

[carolus]

Do you have pictures of them? Please let us know what is "DIM"...

On another note, a Polish supplier is producing fiberglass horns. Here's an Iwata 300. I wonder about the material's resonance. Using fiberglass is a very cheap way to produce horns too. The hardest (and most expensive) part is making the original mold. Then copies are a walk in the park. MrWidget seems to have been succesfull with polyurethane plastic I believe.

Hi Lee,
See photo ... my Iwata(-s) anno 1983, material: wood-multilayers-18mm-glued, it's "amorphe" (believe me) ...
In DIM, read "did it myself" (or DIY) ...
I am very satisfied ... no need to change my modest montage .....
Indeed, the Iwata300 is more "recent"
Best regards,
Karel

[yggdrasil]

Hi Karel.

Is that a small Iwata for 1" driver you have on top there?

Do you know of more documentation / drawings for Iwata's. The only drawing I have found is the one Lee posted in #1.

[Lee in Montreal]

Yuichi's Audio Lab has many drawing available too.

http://www.geocities.jp/arai401204/

[JoMoCo]

Now that Carl has lived with his IWATA fiberglass units for awhile maybe we could talk him into sharing .. some measurements perhaps ..

[1audiohack]

Sadly what's nearly always missing from these graphs is the phase response. With that information, literally the other half of the picture, one can better determine if the driver simply can't produce the required / desired energy or it there is something else at play.

A properly functioning 2441 on a 2311 horn would tempt even me to run without a tweeter, put that same driver on a big Yuichi or the Iwata pictured or a 2360 and there's little hope in my mind the driver can deliver the energy needed to satisfy my requirements for HF. Even the 2397's frequency response curve sinks like a safe about 9.5 kHz.