During my visit to the OJAS listening room late last year, Devon asked me to evaluate a pair of horns OJAS developed in collaboration with Lycan R&R. The OJAS 529B is a 500 Hz horn rescaled from the large format Altec 329A for use with 1" format Altec/GPA compression drivers.
Friday, March 8, 2024
OJAS 529B Horn
Sunday, December 17, 2023
3D printed WP12024 horn from Lycan R&R
In late September, I received a message from Trieu of Lycan R&R, asking if I'd be interested in evaluating his 3D-printed prototype pair of multi-cell horns.
Before proceeding further, this blog entry contains a lot of hyperlinked texts to either previous entries or other sites pertinent to the article (e.g. "Lycan R&R" above). Mousing over and clicking those texts will open the link on another page. Thanks!
Design notes from Trieu: "These horns are slightly wider. The original KS12024 has a rather narrow 50° horizontal dispersion. When updated to the 1" driver opening, the wider initial diameter of the of the 1" driver would not allow for the throat geometries to work correctly. I felt the slim vertical profile of the original KS12024 is important sonically.
The best way to maintain it is to increase the horizontal width via a wider angle. So I increased the horizontal dispersion to 62.5° allowing for the proper expansion and geometries of the throat piece. BTW, I used carbon fiber infused PLA filaments."
Friday, August 10, 2018
Parts Express 1" Horns and Waveguide Buy Out Specials
Leica II + Summitar 50mm f2 Ilford FP4+ in Kodak HC110 |
Before I-95 swarmed with rush hour traffic, I had to head back north with this box filled with horns from Joe. I didn't envision writing about 1" format horns again since I posted this blog entry last February. But after spotting the Azzolina KS12024s, it was hard to pass up this opportunity. Meanwhile, this post will focus only on the Parts Express horns.
Testing
High pass @ ~ 2500 Hz |
I used these two horns as references and for the first time I was able to convince my wife, Tish, to indulge me with her sonic impressions.
Altec 32C
Tish and I love this descendant of the old school WE32A horn. She describes it as sublime.😉
Emilar EH500
This is my favorite horn from the 70s. It was designed by Jonas Renkus who worked with John Hilliard at Altec Lansing.
Parts Express Specials
Round 1
(deeper/longer exit Altec 802)
+ Altec 802 |
There is an ongoing thread at Hi-Fi Haven about cheap horns where this particular horn/waveguide was mentioned. Its specs are listed as a 600 Hz, 10" x 14" exponential horn waveguide with a 90° H x 40° H dispersion pattern, made out of heavy ABS plastic. Price: $12.88/ea.
Sound
Tish: Not bad, but not as lush sounding as the Altec 32C. It will eventually hurt my ears.
JE: Tonal balance is reminiscent of the Emilar EH500. However the sound gets congested with complex musical passages (especially at higher SPLs) which can cause fatigue during long-term listening.
Community UC-1 part# 299-522 + Altec 802 |
I had to DIY adapter plates to mount the 802 drivers.
Sound
Tish: Harsh and shouty👎👎👎
JE: Sounds better disconnected. What were you thinking J-Rob???🤣
Faital Pro revisited
Sound
Tish: I like this best among the three - easier on the ears compared to the other two, but not even close to the 32C.
!!!STOP PRESS!!!
Altec 802 (left) + Renkus-Heinz SSD1400-8 (right) |
Round 2
(short/fast exit Renkus-Heinz SSD1400-8)
Parts Express Horn Wrap
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Altec 32A, 32C, Emilar EH1210, EH800, EH500 and Faital Pro STH100
+
Altec 32A and 32C
Altec 32A (top) Altec 32C (bottom) |
Altec 32A
Altec 32A |
Altec 32A + 802 + 414A |
Metal or plastic?
It's ironic that the later plastic 32C sounds more vintage than the earlier metal 32A. Definitely, the longer throat of the earlier 32A and the type of material used for construction influence the sound. But in what capacity, I cannot surely define. The iPhone RTA results reinforce the cooler and more modern sound I hear from the metal 32A versus the warmer and sweeter plastic 32C.
The magnitude of difference is not great. Similar to the 20275 vs. 34852 Altec 1" aluminum diaphragms - distinct enough not to be used as a stereo pair but still excellent performers in their own right. However, those who are expecting a front-row presentation may find both these horns too laid back.
Watch out for roughly finished throat edges in the 32A which are detrimental to performance. So far all the plastic 32Cs I've seen have very smooth throats.
Emilar
EH1210
Emilar EH1210 |
Emilar EH1210 + 802 + 414A |
Emilar "Bowtie" EH800 and EH500
Emilar EH500 (left) + Emilar "Bowtie" EH800 (right) |
EH800
Emilar "Bowtie" EH800 |
EH800 + 802 + 414A |
EH500
EH500 |
EH500 + 802 + 414A |
EH500 in Large Format Mode
EH500 sans adaptor + Renkus-Heinz SSD3301 |
Late addition:
Faital Pro STH100
Faital Pro STH100 |
STH100 + 802 + 414A* *RTA was done at a later date in another location, hence the difference in low frequency response |
CODA
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Altec 2-way XO Redux
JEL N1600 Crossover |
JEL N1600C + HF EQ optimized for the 802 driver fitted with the original 16 ohm 20275 diaphragm |
JEL Universal Altec 2-way XO |
JEL Universal Altec 2-way XO with HF EQ circuit |