HD 15 horn - Fattenising HD15’s....

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Fattenising HD15’s....

Printed From: Speakerplans.com
Category: Plans
Forum Name: HD 15 horn
Forum Description: Discussion / Questions about the HD 15 horn
URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2574
Printed Date: 27 March 2026 at 8:37am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Fattenising HD15’s....

Posted By: matt andrews
Subject: Fattenising HD15’s....
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 4:11am

I know what dom and norty are using, but what else is anyone doing to to make their piles of HD15's sound a bit, err, fatter

My monostack of 6 x PD154 HD15's @ 600W each is just not sounding good enough yet.

Drivers are very young mind (15 hours maybe, will this improve?) Would more amp power/eq tweaking help much?

Matt

Replies:

Posted By: matt andrews
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 4:12am

Yeah, I cant really afford much right now, need a few more rentals yet.

Posted By: norty303
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 4:22am

More hours on the drivers definately helps. Try taking a little EQ out at 100hz (no sniggering please Dom!) to buy some more low end headroom. How much power does each box get currently?

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Posted By: loophole
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 5:57am

let them wear in a lot more. our drivers only really came to life after 50 hours, and up to 20 they sounded really lifeless relatively. well over 100 on this lot now and theyre still getting better :)

dont try and cross them too high. with 6x154s you shouldn't even consider anything below 48 IMO. if you dont push the low end quite so hard, you can boost a bit around 72 and 85 hz which i find really 'fattenise' (nice word matieo) the bass.

what amps and xover are you using? thick enough cable etc?

Posted By: soundgodwannabe
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 8:12am

In my opinion and everyone who has ever told me...if you want a fatter sound, then you have to use 18" drivers. 15" drivers will sound tight and punchy (kicky, if you will). It's like asking how can I make my snare drum sound like my bass drum.

I don't know if you can actually get the fatter sound out of the HD15's. I don't think that more will help or more power will help. A fatter sound comes with lower frequencies, so if your box is tuned to go that low...

I am building some X1's, I am hoping to get a fatter sound than what I got when I was using my double 15's (reflex). Good luck to you!

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Make the soundman mad and I WILL press the suck button for your band.

Posted By: matt andrews
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 8:19am

RMX4050HD (600W per box, 2.66 ohms stereo)
4mm Vandamme cabling
Behringer Ultradrive

I do intend to eventually run all 8 on a pair of RMX4050HD's which will give 700W a box at 4ohms stereo, im guessing this will be quite a lot better.

Taking them out on friday so will tinker a bit more, cheers for the ideas guys

Matt

Posted By: matt andrews
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 8:22am

Yeah, i reckon eventually, some X1 type cabinets also; but currently looking for free/cheap stopgap

Matt

Posted By: Dom
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 12:52pm

Before going down the sub route we used to high pass at 45hz but boost the bottom end with about +6db. (Pretty much the same effect as taking the peak out around 100hz). Still never hit a clip light on the PLXs and a stack of 6 really kicked.

Drivers definately take a long time to break in and seem to take a lot less driving to get the same results after they have.

I'm personally still not 100% convinced about the subs... They certainly fattenise the sound, but for techno I like the sound of a big pile of kick bins... I think it may just be a case of having to re-educate my ears to what a flat response sounds like rather than actually liking a non flat response...

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"It sounded like a million fire engines chasing ten million ambulances through a war zone and it was played at a volume that made the empty chair beside me bleed."

Posted By: JD01
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 3:19pm

@ soundgodwannabe: That is definitely NOT true. Take a look at the LAB subs or the EAW KF940 or BH760. 12" drivers! 30Hz! And a friend of mine built 15" horns going down to 35Hz.

Posted By: Disco Stu
Date Posted: 08 September 2005 at 6:43pm

I agree

Any size driver can go low look at bill fitzmaurices collection of designs 8" 10" 12" and 15" they can all load to 30Hz on a long enough horn the bigger driver you use the bigger the horn has to be

And different drivers have different characteristics for instance a double 12" works better than an 18" in a horn because a smaller cone has greater strength and retains its rigidity when used in a horn

If you are talking about bandpass then a bigger driver is probably the way to go for the most LF output but even on reflex bins I dont think 18s sound any better than 15s in fact i prefer 15s because they have a more balanced sound imo they kick better than 18s and are more responsive 18s are often "slow" and heavy and ok go low but id rather have lots of kick than lots of sub

Stu

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Posted By: matt andrews
Date Posted: 10 September 2005 at 12:05pm

High passed at 48hz, boosted by 6db upto about 70hz

Crossed over to the turbo tops at 220hz

Not quite right, but man did it sound A LOT better, big grins all round.

Posted By: JD01
Date Posted: 14 September 2005 at 6:56pm

@ Disco Stu: Not exactly either. With horns it is like that: You need a certain size of mouth to get down low. The bigger, the lower. Now you choose a driver size. The more cone area you have, the shorter the horn has to be to get down that low. Think of a 12" speaker in a 'real' horn. You got to have say 15 feet to go to 30Hz. With an 18" speaker or two 12" you could 'cut' the horn at the place where it has spread to the size of the throat you need for the 18" (or double-12") and attach those two speakers you will get the same lower cutoff.

Posted By: loophole
Date Posted: 15 September 2005 at 9:51am

^^^ nicely explained

*thinks about short kick horns with 4 10" drivers reverse mounted around a small pyramid shaped compression chamber...

Posted By: Tom Umney
Date Posted: 16 October 2005 at 9:36pm

A pair of Punisher horns get down to 40hz and thats only a 12 inch driver in a relatively small horn enclosure.

Posted By: IAIN RENDLE
Date Posted: 19 October 2005 at 6:25am

hi guys. joining this thread a bit late. but was going to make some W bins. and now after some thought i am now thinking of the hd215 design. would it complement my system if i have them crossed as follows

2 x 186 bins (40-90hz) 1 x hd215 (90 - 190hz) 2 x 12" + bmd450 190hz - up.

(per stack)

cheers.

iain

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