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Large Steel Horn (Playing Old Dancehall)

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Elliot Thompson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elliot Thompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Large Steel Horn (Playing Old Dancehall)
    Posted: 27 October 2015 at 6:37pm

For those who never experienced what an old large steel horn sounds like, you may find this quite interesting. Here is a Faital Pro 3 inch speaker playing through an old Altec 300 Hz horn.

 

As most old fashioned roots sound systems would tote such a horn of this magnitude in about venues in this day in age, I chose to use old 1980’s Dance hall Music.

The Faital Pro performs exceptionally well through a large horn.




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Elliot Thompson
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MattStolton Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 October 2015 at 11:17pm
The laws of physics haven't  changed that much in the last 50 years, so I reckon that could sound quite useful?!?!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote app Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 October 2015 at 11:29pm
Thumbs Up

"what!?"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elliot Thompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 October 2015 at 3:18am

Yes, the Laws of Physics do prevail.

 

One of the things that we need to take into consideration is the application horns are aimed for today compared to 50 years ago.

 

Many of those old steel horns were designed for speech purposes only (Public Address or P.A.) whereas today, the majority of horns are designed for treble enhancement for music applications. It is quite evident based on the length of the horn.

 

The horn demonstrated in the video offers a length that correlates to a 300 Hz horn, half space. 300 Hertz at half space is approximately 573 millimetres in depth. Under today’s marketing such a horn would be “usable down to 150 Hz” as it has no issues maintaining 200 Hz consistently without the need of equalisation.

 

The majority of large horns available today are within the 228 millimetre range in terms of depth. This is the reason why many of the horns today struggle below 2 kHz (Hence their dominance in the treble region) as, they are not capable of delivering vocals solely on their own.  

 

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Elliot Thompson
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bob4 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 October 2015 at 7:08am
 Nice tune... Big smile

What a beauty! Is it one of James Lansing's "children"? How old is she? Smile

reminds me of the pictures I saw on the lansing heritage site:



Originally posted by Elliot Thompson Elliot Thompson wrote:

The horn demonstrated in the video offers a length that correlates to a 300 Hz horn, half space. 300 Hertz at half space is approximately 573 millimetres in depth. Under today’s marketing such a horn would be “usable down to 150 Hz” as it has no issues maintaining 200 Hz consistently without the need of equalisation.

 


I love my 2350s! Heart

including the throat adapter they should be about the same length as this one...





Edited by bob4 - 28 October 2015 at 7:08am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elliot Thompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 October 2015 at 4:50pm

I could not tell you the exact time frame of that horn. It predates the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) era. I would estimate within the 1940s based on the low digit serial number chiselled on the horn by whoever assembled it. I would imagine later on Altec realised it made logical sense to print the serial number on the Altec Lansing sticker.

 

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Elliot Thompson
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 4AC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 October 2015 at 6:49pm
Originally posted by bob4 bob4 wrote:

 Nice tune... Big smile

What a beauty! Is it one of James Lansing's "children"? How old is she? Smile

reminds me of the pictures I saw on the lansing heritage site:



Wow, nice pic!
Takes you way back in time

uǝɿɿɐʌǝ6ɯo sı ʇsʞǝʇ ǝzǝp
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bob4 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 October 2015 at 9:43am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Zeno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 October 2015 at 6:19pm
Great to see people trying new ways with "old stuff" in combination with "new stuff".
I tryed a lot of "smaller" horns like the JBL 2380 but in comparence to a big horn like a Altec Mantarray or the JBL 2360 it is like a joke.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elliot Thompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 October 2015 at 5:55pm

There is a tremendous loss in sound quality when the horn is not large enough to cover the frequencies desired singularly. The horn demonstrated is large enough to cover the frequency response of the Faital Pro 3FE25 3-inch loudspeaker. Again, that is a 3inch loudspeaker sitting on a single horn covering frequencies many need 3-4 speakers using a crossover network to produce. The majority of horns on the market today cannot offer such a task singularly for they are just too small.  

 

A lot restriction from steel horns was not the design, but the compression driver attached to the horn. Cone speakers with a relatively flat frequency response, allows the user to hear how the horn was technically aimed to produce sound from the designer. With the resurrection of column speakers now called line-arrays, manufactures are making full-range speakers again. So one can only imagine what will occur if one uses a full range speaker aimed to deliver a frequency response up the 20,000 kHz today on a large steel horn designed nearly a century ago.

 

  

Best Reagrds, 

Edited by Elliot Thompson - 30 October 2015 at 6:52pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote valve head777 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 October 2015 at 7:22pm
mmm, food for thought Elliot.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elliot Thompson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 October 2015 at 12:41am

I have not posted a real time analysis like my other videos so, here is the Spectrogram.

 


 

As you can see based upon the Spectrogram, the dB level is fairly consistent (no obscured orange or red spots) within the 200 Hz – 16 kHz range under a 20 second time period at a distance of 2.83 metres on axis. It could definitely be looked upon as a continuous average response from a dB perspective using the audio track presented in the video.

 

Frequencies beyond 16 kHz are limited based upon the MP3 recording. I tend to use MP3 as a reference source material (unless I am exploring the reactions of frequencies beyond 20 kHz) for music as it is the standard whether we like it or not.  

 

 

Best Regards,



Edited by Elliot Thompson - 31 October 2015 at 12:42am
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