Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Horns....(Compression Drivers)

This is topic Horns....(Compression Drivers) in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Ravindra Desai (Member # 2337) on 04-03-2004, 07:10 PM:

Horns were OK in the days of Valve amps when you needed to 'reach' the sound far behind. With modern day amps, they sound too harsh. Is there any replacement to this technology? How does one cope up with this situation?

Ravindra.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 04-03-2004, 07:19 PM:

Tube amplifiers do have a warmer, desirable sound. But if you have a theater, the ease of installation and maintaince far outweigh the sound advantage.

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 04-03-2004, 07:24 PM:

An alternative to horns would probably be a system that uses Ribbon tweeters, like SA. The cost of those I'd imagine to be huge over the horn based system.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-04-2004, 12:03 AM:

The ribbon tweeter with a 90 x 40 wave guide is very compact and easy to time aline due to the size of the unit. I have used equipment from SA and other companies, especially when building plans have changed with a loss of behind the screen space. The cost of the ribbon is high compared to conventional driver and horn. The output is very smooth but cross over point is 1.2 to 1.8KHZ so it may tax a poorly designed two way system but works well in 3 way situations. Even though ribbon units can handle much more power than a industry standard driver; there is a resonate point to ribbons if not properly EQ'ed you will hear a "spitting" artifact in the playback if certain limits are reached. There are different ways to approach audio playback...Klipsch = horn loaded designs / JBL Screenarray / ElectroVoice Variplex / QSC New Cinema line / SLS ribbon array systems / EAW new designs using coincident speaker layout.