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TH & Unity Horn - Solar sound system

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toastyghost View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote toastyghost Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 March 2013 at 7:13pm
Where is this going to be playing out the next few months Phil? A friend of mine moved over recently and I want to get him to come have a nosy.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BP1Fanatic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 March 2013 at 1:37pm
AWESOME build!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mr. doom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 March 2013 at 2:09pm
Originally posted by Phil B Phil B wrote:



Secondly the backline pulled twice as much as the system..EKKK! It was only 2 x gtr and 1 x bass amp! But current draw went from about 2amps with the system on playback with 2 x self powered monitors to 6-8 amps with the backline. This seriously dug into the battery bank very early on...

So a few things to think about...
Backline ...why not make our own with efficient amps and just some speaker emulation DSP in front??? 
Subs .... some tracks from the electronic bands were going down lower than the SS15`s could go, still there but if we are going for full range we need something under them. So an idea floated around the after festy campfire was some kind of servodrive tapped or transmission line horn for efficiency to cover 20 - 40hz...


Great job!
Musical instrument speakers are generally efficient, the amps are toasters though. Some DIY bass and guitar rigs/monitors would be fun to build and save a ton of power.

Getting that last octave of bass (outdoors) is going to take exponentially more speaker, you may want to consider larger horn that gets to 35hz but I would just build another pair of SS15's and get creative with the eq.
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Phil B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Phil B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 April 2013 at 12:18am
Well we have done a a LOT of measurements but have hit a brick wall with getting our Unity Mkii`s low mids doing what was expected! Pictures tell a thousand words...

How we reduced rear volume.... and made it easier to put the rear cover on with clips like the SS15 extenders



First set of rear ports



Path length extenders ( to increase path length of rear output - copied from pics of SH50`s)



Double rear ports in first position!




Single rear ports nearer to front ports...gaffer over old ones!




The results.....

Front output only.. ( as in the front of driver ports with back of box sealed)




Front + Rear ports


We have the peaky response that a rear 6th order bandpass should give but just can`t seem to get it too go any higher than around 110hz. We guess the front output is too high in freq and will try to move the ports futher down the horn to try and flatten out the hole around 150hz. It was good to see exactly what happens when you move the rear ports, and we also tried loads of mad stuff...like tins cans in the rear box to reduce volume further ! We put in extra baffles which do that now....which is the green plot above .
The plot of Mad Extention is when we just put shutter ply around the horn to make a BIG horn..and of course it responds like one!

So the poor prototype horn is going to get another hack about and we`ll see what we get!

Far too busy with work at the moment !

Toasty next gig is.... Ecotopia Junction Festival April 21st. Little Community festy with pedal and solar rigs.

Cheers for the compliments everyone.. Embarrassed

.p.




Edited by Phil B - 02 April 2013 at 6:31am
Mostly harmless.... except if catering is shut.

Solar Sound System Shennanigans..http://diyhifi.biz/
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote snowflake Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 April 2013 at 2:51am
what's the sensitivity like compared to the mid section?
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Phil B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Phil B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 April 2013 at 4:35am
Originally posted by snowflake snowflake wrote:

what's the sensitivity like compared to the mid section?


When I`m next home I`ll get some measurements done with a set input Voltage for ya...

This is a very rough smaart trace ( mic in same position and same amp setting but no checking of actual input voltage across the different loads)



.p.
Mostly harmless.... except if catering is shut.

Solar Sound System Shennanigans..http://diyhifi.biz/
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Phil B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Phil B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 May 2013 at 11:57am
Bingo !

So these slot ports ...




Plus reducing the rear volume with foam and wood

Having a bit of a fiddle with the cross over points

Equals with mids....... 91hz to 1.1Khz +/- 3db !!

Still have a bit of work to do on the phase trace..... more Smaart time !! But as we are crossing into the Subs at 100hz I reckon we can work on the HPF of the Low Mids to get us back in the ball park!



Got a bit dis-heartened for a while but just kept on plugging away with changes and mods till we had a good understanding of the trends we were seeing.....

Now just to build 2 proper ones !! The poor prototype is looking like Swiss Cheese!

.p.

Mostly harmless.... except if catering is shut.

Solar Sound System Shennanigans..http://diyhifi.biz/
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Phil B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Phil B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 September 2013 at 11:57am
So we have finally finished the Unity Mkii`s. After all those measurements and testing it was down to doing a CAD drawing of the finished boxes and then modding 2 of the original 4.

We kept the original horn flare , then fitted the new 1.4" RCF comp drivers which meant hand crafting the new throat. This is probably the trickiest bit as to keep the Oblate Spheroid horn flare is critical to the whole design.

The new front piece was glued to the horn flares, new holes cut for the 10" ports and a new yoke assembly made...all sounds great but when you`ve only got a couple of days before a gig deadline it was hectic...

We didn`t really have time to add the extra foam to reduce the rear volume but we knew we could just EQ that out and run them a bit higher....

Anyway some pics...











They sound awesome.... full range down to 100 hz ...

Now to start really sorting the Wind Generator and some Li-Ion batteries...I see more late nights before summer...!

.p.
Mostly harmless.... except if catering is shut.

Solar Sound System Shennanigans..http://diyhifi.biz/
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Pasi View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Pasi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 September 2013 at 12:02pm
I've always wondered on these unity horns, how that pressure created by cone drivers affects the diaphragm in the HF unit?

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Phil B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Phil B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 September 2013 at 12:09pm
Well the old 1" Celestions we took out were just fine..... same can`t be said of the 4" Mids.



4 out of 8 had exactly the same damage to the surrounds. Same position on the driver on all of them, which coresponds to directly opposite the ports so the place of highest pressure.
When we fitted them originally we were concerned at how close they were to the baffle using just the front seal and it seems we were right. We`ve added foam spacers to add 1.5mm so hopefully enough to stop the damage??

.p.
Mostly harmless.... except if catering is shut.

Solar Sound System Shennanigans..http://diyhifi.biz/
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Phil B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Phil B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 February 2014 at 3:24am
So after running the new Mkii Unity tops for a few months we can pretty firmly say they are winners! Compliments at every gig by punters and artists about the clarity / punch / looks ! 
We`ll be converting the last two Mki`s over to 3 ways sometime in the winter, only difference will be some neo 10"`s to try save weight as they are pretty tricky to get up on the pole right now.

Managed to acquire a decent amp rack and distro from work....ex Nexo Alpha stuff thanks Bruce! Rewired the lot and squeezed it all in ! Bit weird having an SSE logo looking at me...!



Here`s a few recent gig shots....













Next on the agenda is a new MPPT for the wind generator to get around the 96-24v mismatch we have right now. 

And we also haven`t damaged any more 4"`s after we added a 1mm shim to all of them . ...wahoo ! We think they were just too close to the baffle with the pressure from being opposite the ports causing the surround to fail.

.p.
Mostly harmless.... except if catering is shut.

Solar Sound System Shennanigans..http://diyhifi.biz/
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bitSmasher View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 February 2014 at 5:04am
how hard does the FF4 push Your Mum?
also, I still love this rig... will make an effort to check it out if I ever get down to Melbourne again
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