Acoustic Horn Design – The Easy Way (Ath4)

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There are still some ugly things however, mainly because of the cavity modes and the reasons why they occur. This was expected as the design was not really optimized yet in any way -

But it's quite interesting to actually see these images.
 

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The trouble is that the contributions of the channels are dependent on pressure distribution in the chamber which is far from uniform. And as this distribution is determined by the acoustic impedances and positions of the channels, it's really not very straightforward. The guys at KEF/Celestion have apparently some papers on that, which I haven't seen yet.

Now I'm more wondering, why not to leave there only the central channel? Overall SPL cancelations? I need to add some absolute SPL charts vs frequency.
 
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Is there any curvature in the center channel?
Not much, and in fact this is just what it takes.

However, the center hole (in a spherical cap?) is interesting.
Yep, that's really just a cap with a hole placed over a convex dome diaphragm. There must be some other problem however, otherwise it would be too easy.
 
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This one, by the same authors, might be useful too.

"Design of a Coincident-Source Driver Array with Radial Channel Phase-Plug and Novel Rigid Body Diaphragms".
 

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For the past few years I've noticed that newer drivers, of similar design, are noticeably outperforming drivers from 10-15 years ago. My 'hunch' was that improved modeling is allowing manufacturers to push the boundaries of what's possible.

For instance, I have four ring radiators here at the house, all of similar design, but the newest one I have is not only the cheapest, it's also the best performer. (Eminence N151M.)

When I measured it, it was one of those moments where you step back and go "whoah", like the performance is THAT good.

Basically, I **love** to tinker around with phase plugs, but someone at Eminence *really* did their homework on this one. I just don't see a scenario where I could exceed it's performance for $80.

Of course, then I read the paper just posted and it gets me wondering what the Celestion parts are like these days... (My reference speakers use a Celestion compression driver, but it's a ten year old model.)
 
This one, by the same authors, might be useful too.

"Design of a Coincident-Source Driver Array with Radial Channel Phase-Plug and Novel Rigid Body Diaphragms".

Literally one minute ago, I'm saying "I'm sick of 3d printing phase plugs, Eminence has it all figure out."

And then you post THIS paper, and I'm like "oooooh, I could TOTALLY 3D print this phase plug..."

fe85.jpg


According to the paper, the phase plug raises output at high frequency by about 4dB. This would be fantastic for a full range driver, particularly if you're arraying them. The weak link in a line array becomes the high frequencies, because they don't sum constructively, unlike the midrange and low frequencies.