15" BPH Build (TMAL's Emperor Horn)
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Category: Plans
Forum Name: New Projects Forum
Forum Description: Forum for new speakerplans projects, in memory of Tony Wilkes, 1953 - 2014
URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=74874
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Topic: 15" BPH Build (TMAL's Emperor Horn)
Posted By: tomr_29
Subject: 15" BPH Build (TMAL's Emperor Horn)
Date Posted: 02 January 2013 at 7:19pm
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Evening. Just thought I'd put up a few pics of what I've been working on the last few months. I'd been looking at upgrading my system to two-way bass for a while and had come up with a 15" BPH deisgn using a PD154, rear-loaded, similar to the ES18. I sent the design over to Tim Malone (TMAL) for CNC cutting only to find out he'd already designed his own 15" BPH with a similar response and a much tidier design! After some discussion it was also agreed that the 18-Sound 15LW2400 was a better match for the design, giving a smoother response and the slightly lower sensitivity of the driver more than made-up for by its xmax and power handling. Anyhow, with thanks to Tim for the design and the CNC work, here's a few shots of the build. More can be found on my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/tremorsound Starting with the internal bracing: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/203/dsc03715jw.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> All internal panels fitted and checking the driver positioning: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/38/dsc03726i.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> Get stuffed. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/dsc03787f.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> Ready for painting: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/17/dsc03796lu.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> I forgot to take pictures during painting... http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/dsc03873zy.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> Finished assembly. Time for a quick test in the garage. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/dsc03880nt.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> During sound-check for a gig on NYE: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/688/dsc03889o.jpg/" rel="nofollow"> Stack is Hogs, BPH and reflex tops. The tops struggle to keep up and are probably going to be my project for 2013. Initially designed for sitting directly over subs, the PD154 in them is wasted now that I have the kicks. ------------- Proper capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. www.facebook.com/tremoracoustics |
Replies:
Posted By: Teunos
Date Posted: 03 January 2013 at 8:13am
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Lovely build, real quality!, but why the strange tail in the front chamber? ------------- Best regards, Teun. |
Posted By: tomr_29
Date Posted: 03 January 2013 at 11:51am
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The 'dog-leg' in the sealed chamber increases its volume without restricting the total length of the horn and allows the panels forming the horn to braced from both sides making the box incredibly rigid. The short panel sticking out over the edge of the driver is there to even-out the loading on the cone. Having the panels cut out via CNC has meant a more complex design is not so much of an issue to build. I can't really give any better information because this box was designed by TMAL who has considerably more experience than myself in cabinet design. He may be able to give you more concise answers. ------------- Proper capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. www.facebook.com/tremoracoustics |
Posted By: TMAL
Date Posted: 03 January 2013 at 12:47pm
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Hi Tom, Glad you like them. You covered the design principle quite accurately. The only thing that I will add is that the "Dog leg" section of the rear chamber should also absorb/dampen higher frequency resonance very effectively in the same way as the B&W Nautilus' "snail shell" chamber does. Unlike the Nautilus this will only be effective from around 90-100Hz up due to its shorter length. ------------- Flat pack & fully assembled Speaker cabinet design and CNC manufacturing. www.speaker-cabinets.co.uk |
Posted By: cravings
Date Posted: 04 January 2013 at 7:47pm
look properly tough alright  i think i'm going to look at bracing the horn section of my old turbo bphs this year. i'd previously thought it unnecessary... but 6 years ago or so when i started trying to put a better system together, they were my strong point / my starting point... now i feel like they're the weak point. they feel rattly. so yeah.. those one's you guys have built / designed.. they look serious. like it. |
Posted By: TMAL
Date Posted: 04 January 2013 at 11:27pm
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One thing that many people really over look is the importance of effective bracing. In our tests it has shown to often be a large percentage of overall THD in high powered bass cabinets. We are currently working on having systems for both accelerometer based resonant mapping and FEA based resonant mapping. With these in place we will really be able to tune the a cabinets resonant qualities. One thing that should be mentioned about these cabinets is that they were designed to stack directly on an upright Hog Scoop  ------------- Flat pack & fully assembled Speaker cabinet design and CNC manufacturing. www.speaker-cabinets.co.uk |
Posted By: all bass
Date Posted: 15 January 2013 at 12:47am
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Great looking cabs! Do you have any measurements to these? How do they perform compared to HD15's? |
Posted By: TMAL
Date Posted: 21 January 2013 at 11:17pm
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Hi All Bass, I'm glad you like the Emperor horns (hopefully Tom will alter the title to reflect it propper name). I don't have any measurments at the moment only the sims  . But the flare rate and loading is fairly Moderate and only a modification to other designs we have designed and tested / have good experience with so I am fairly certain it will be pretty close to the sims (although probably go a little lower). I will dig out the plots tomorrow and put them up.I am about to provide Tom with some software that he would be able to do this and get things tuned correctly within his system. So hopefully soon measurments will be there. In general though they will go lower and higher than the HD15, they will not suffer from power compression in the same manner as the HD15, this is due to the rear loading of the driver allowing the magnet to cool. This should also reduce driver failures over the life time of the cabinet as well. Distortion levels should be down due to the more even loading on the cone along with a far more effectively braced cabinet not adding as much resonance / colouration (along with wasting less energy). Efficiency is much the same as the HD but power handling is better so overal output will be higher (quite noticably when you factor in power compression). Obviously the trade of for this extra performance is an increase in cabinets size (there's always a trade off!), but they are still a relatively compact cabinet. Hope that helps. ------------- Flat pack & fully assembled Speaker cabinet design and CNC manufacturing. www.speaker-cabinets.co.uk |
Posted By: TMAL
Date Posted: 21 January 2013 at 11:19pm
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Cheers For altering the thread title Tom ------------- Flat pack & fully assembled Speaker cabinet design and CNC manufacturing. www.speaker-cabinets.co.uk |
Posted By: discosucks
Date Posted: 21 January 2013 at 11:48pm
| The way the driver faces always confuses me in designs like this haha . |
Posted By: tomr_29
Date Posted: 21 January 2013 at 11:50pm
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They're a bit larger than the HD15 but play lower and flatter. I think the sensitivity is a little lower due to the choice of driver but the aim was for a flatter response through the entire operating band and the more powerful driver more than makes up for it. Loaded with a PD 1550 they'd have a lot more kick, but at the expense of a more peaky response and higher roll-off. I cross them from 1851-loaded Hogs at 72Hz and they certainly do the business! I'll try and get measurements at some point, not sure when that'll be though.
------------- Proper capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. www.facebook.com/tremoracoustics |
Posted By: T-Bone
Date Posted: 25 January 2013 at 9:28pm
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Any other 15" neo driver or regular driver that will work nice without PD not available here in the US? Curious FaitalPro 15" neo woofer? Thanks! ------------- BASS, how low can you go! |
Posted By: TMAL
Date Posted: 25 January 2013 at 10:08pm
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Hi T-bone this cabinet was really designed with a ceramic based driver in mind. If a neo based driver was used in it the tuning will change quite a bit due to the change in the front chamber volume. It was originally a re-design of another of our designs (which was neo based cabinet) for the PD1550 upon request by a customer but I actually think the 15LW2400 is a better match to the design (and did when designing it). ------------- Flat pack & fully assembled Speaker cabinet design and CNC manufacturing. www.speaker-cabinets.co.uk |