One thing you'll always get from me is honesty.   There are no hidden agendas with me.  No BS!  With that said, I haven't done much audio work over the last couple of weeks.  Volti Audio is not established enough yet to pay my bills all on its own, so I'm still building homes, and we just picked up a new home contract and I've been working hard on that to get things going.  But I still have an overwhelming amount of work for Volti Audio that I will be getting back to shortly, and I will have new content for future newsletters.

Meanwhile, I'm going to re-hash some old news to hold you over to the next newsletter!

Does anyone remember this project?

www.voltiaudio.com/flkhorn.shtml

The "FL" Khorns were the first Khorns that I restored that had all the upgrades built into them.  The V-Trac horns, BMS midrange drivers, Beyma CP25 tweeters, ALK Universal networks, Crites woofers, AND fully enclosed backs on the bass bins.   Cripes!  They weren't even Klipsch speakers anymore!  But they certainly maintained the character of Khorns, along with all the things we love about big horn-loaded loudspeakers.  Certainly a big step up in sound quality from stock Khorns; even brand new ones.  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so they're not tested in a two million dollar testing facility.   Spare me!  Every single component HAS been tested, and the whole package is a "known" design.  The "FL" Khorns sound incredible!  Much, much better than any stock Khorn I've ever heard, and I don't need a series of graphs on paper to verify that fact.

I'm not saying that testing is not important or needed at all . . . .

When a new loudspeaker design is considered, the components used in the making of the speaker have already gone through a plethora of tests to make sure that they perform within the range that they were designed for.  This is why a manufacturer can look at the specifications of a particular driver and determine if it would be a good choice for a particular speaker design.  Once the system is balanced with a properly designed network, the speaker is going to be very close to the design goal even before any tweaking is done, simply because of the "knowns".  This is exactly what I'm doing with my Khorn upgrades.  We know what to expect with the performance of each component, and given the similarities between the application of the new components and the stock components in the Khorn design, we can reasonably assume the new components to at least be in the ballpark.   Extensive listening tests and tweaking of the network indicates that it might very well be a home-run!  So at the very least, somewhere between being in the ballpark and hitting a home-run!  LOL!

I believe that running a full battery of tests on the upgraded Khorns and tweaking the system to make the speakers look as good as possible on graphs, might very well produce a speaker that doesn't sound as good!  Of course most speaker manufacturers will do the testing, tweak the speakers based on those tests, then do listening tests and end up tweaking the speakers away from the ideal, based on what sounds better.  The end result is about the same, somewhere between being in the ballpark and hitting a home-run.  Anything more specific than that is simply going to be a subjective evaluation anyway.

When it comes to producing a great sounding speaker, testing is only going to get you just so far.   A good designer will always "voice" the final product with his ears.

I'm not at all concerned that if my upgraded Khorns were tested, they might reveal some negative anomalies.  Tell me a stock Khorn doesn't have negative anomalies.  

From an email I received:

Check out the following website

http://www.flickr.com/photos/audiovoice_hornloudspeakers/page1/

Wow!  There are a lot of horn speakers pictured there!  And a lot of ugly ones at that!  I looked at every one of the pictures, some of them multiple times.   Although there were many that I would love to listen to, there were only a few that I thought were at all beautiful.  A friend of mine said:

"I am struck most by the complete lack of 'design harmony' exhibited by the majority.  
They look like pop-art sculptures constructed out of old auto parts, that one might see for sale along the road in Arkansas,
amid cars on blocks, discarded washing machines, and flower pots made from toilet bowls."  

"As an engineer I cannot claim to have much of an eye for art, but I know ugly when I see it!"

These are things I consider as I continue my new cornerhorn design.

Nearly every day I receive email questions from people asking about the products I sell, or for advice on something audio related.  I try to answer every email question, and offer the best advice that I can.  Here's an email I received recently:

Subject: F260 Horns

Hi Greg,

I've been following your work for quite a while.   Just wanna say fantastic work!
I have a question.   Will your horns work with TAD drivers?

Best Regards,
KC

**********

Hi KC,

Thank you for the kind words.

Will the Fc260 horns work with TAD drivers?   Yes and no.   The Fc260 horn is a midrange horn.   TAD drivers are capable of very wide frqeuncy response and are often used to cover both midrange and high frequencies in the same horn.  They typically have a recommended crossover point higher than 600Hz, and are being used to 20Khz.   It takes a specially designed horn, along with some processing to get that range from one horn, properly dispersed into a room.  My Fc260 horns will work between 300Hz and at least 6000Hz, maybe higher.   I've never tested them higher.   Of course they will go higher, even all the way to 20Khz, but what happens with any midrange horn is that the higher frequencies tend to "beam" instead of being dispersed properly, and the longer, narrower throat causes distortion of the high frequencies within the throat.  My understanding is that in order to have a midrange horn produce down to 600, 500, or even 400hz, and also at the same time extend to 20Khz, it must follow a modified curve, meaning that the horn is shallower, and widens out faster than an exponential or tractrix curve.   When a horn like this is built, it no longer has a smooth response like a pure tractrix horn has (within it's designed range), and it requires equalization to smooth out the response, which includes boosting the high frequencies.

If you're using the Fc260 as a midrange horn, then yes, they work fine with TAD drivers.   If you're looking to cover all the way up to 20Khz, then I would recommend a different horn, like a constant directivity horn.   But you will also need processing to smooth out the response.

Regards,
Greg Roberts
Volti Audio

Interesting picture

Well I guess that's it for this issue of the Volti Audio Email Newsletter.   Thank you for your support, and until next time, I hope it all sounds good!