DIY multicell horn

[joejoe723]

I saw a wooden 1803b multicell horn in a web site. That owner collected a lot Altec multicell horns and then he made the replica with wood.

Did anyone in here tried to DIY the Altec multicell horn?

[HiFiPlayer]

To build a 15cells horn looks thing or similar object is not a hardest job. But this horn can repoduce great sound. I will have a lot of questions.

I have collected some wooden horns design books. usually, a single horn from design to completed at least needed 3 months or more, some even few years.. Cause it needed more tested with instruments. As same as manufacturers to devolop a product.

To look is simple, to build is difficult.

[HiFiPlayer]

To build a 511 replica is not simple. Usually, size would bigger then source too many. A 15cells horn with plain or soild wood .... ????

If this is more simple as your imagine. Westlake will be close. Why such many peoples(included you and me) still looking for the VOTT? Don't DIY the king of king horns by yourself. why?.. Westlake can stand right there, then products selling such high. I believed that you saw that on some private/online shops homepage or in hifi magazines...right?

I will be a Altec Second If there is such simple.

Just a joke.

[HiFiPlayer]

to remind; I know metals welding and i was a leader of wood work club when I was a student.

[BACarr]

Speaking as a manufacturing guy, there is a lot of production, CNC and other rapid prototyping equipment out there that can produce a horn today very quickly.

And, unfortunately, around the U.S. there are plenty of machine shops with advanced equipment and lots of open time.

To avoid using very specialized and expensive machine time, it may have to be machined in sections, then assembled, but that's no problem.

The software to program these things is dirt easy, if you can design a horn you can certainly run the software. With the right output, you can simply email it to the shop. Many of the new CNCs will do the programming themselves, determine the tool path, etc., all you have to do is sit back and watch.

If you want to duplicate an existing horn, you can simply have it put on a CMM (coordinate measuring machine) that makes a digital copy. On our shop floor, you could feed the output of the CMM right to the CNC, but you could just as easily save it on disk and tweak it on your PC.

I've never machined wood, but if you have a nice solid hunk to work with, it shouldn't be that much different than aluminum or any other soft material.

We've prototyped model cars, etc., out of giant hunks of brass because you can just sell the scrap right back to the place you got the billet.

Good luck!

[Mirrophonic Sound System]

I've seen that same picture of the wooden multicell
I think it was made by Michael Christ.

Multicell would be very difficult to replicate but
the good news is you don't really want a multicell
as it is not the ideal horn - they are designed to
get HF to difficult seats in a cimena but have their
own problems (lobing etc).In fact I don't like the
sound of any of Altec's multicells.

I made a replica of the WE 24A - the best sounding
multicell known - without the internal cells and it
sounds great !

[BACarr]

Okay, my wife was looking over my shoulder and said that's as clear as mud.

Imagine you take a 10" loaf of stale bread and carefully cut your horn design into it.

Then cut the loaf of bread into five 2-inch-thick slices. Now you have five cross-sectional pieces. Put them back together, you have your horn.

Each 2-inch-thick "slice" is what you'd have machined (we're using five as an example, but the number of slices is determined by how deep your tooling can machine). Assemble them all together like your loaf of bread and you have your horn. Even better, you can have the CNC machine in some locating holes so you can put pins in there and the pieces will line up perfectly.

The end product I'm describing gives you a giant hunk of material with a horn inside. There's alot of excess material there which could be cut away to reduce the weight, but you could leave it there and eliminate all your resonance worries.

HTH.

[HiFiPlayer]

Of course, I known machine can duplicate more difficult objects.

For exsample: NASA can duplicate 288s & 515s easily. Some people even can duplicate all Altec's speakers if he own same materials and machines. But there is more different to a DIY people who love to his(DO IT YOURSELF)hobby.

Anyway, I'm not meant that no one can do that. I just emphasize not everyone can easy to build his (DIY)replica horns. And then the soild wood material needs placed a long time before use.

[HiFiPlayer]

altho you can usse cnc machine to duplicate a 18cells wooden horn. But I don't think that horn can be soild and durable. Cause metal horn can built with under 1CM thickness metal plate. But can you use under 1CM thickness wood to build a replica horn in same size with no resonance. You should know if the thickness of meterials are not same. the diameter of the horn mouth would not same...

Howevver, to replica a wooden horn throat that I would agree is a simple job.

[joejoe723]

Yes, the wooden 1803b was made by Michael Christ. I wondered that the sound of the replica horn??? In fact, I think to replica the Altec 1803b is a very difficult job except having a lot tools (I means DIY at home, I also know welding and wood work). Of course, it can be done in a simple way, just do it using BACarr?s method.

Hi Mirrophonic Sound System (it seems your nickname came from the WE?s sound system), I never seen a WE24 horn (even a photo), what material you are using on your DIY horn? Why you choose to DIY (not purchase it)? You seems to built a DIY horn successfully and having a great sound.

On the other hand, i must mention that using a wooden horn throat is good. It is better than using the original throat. I read an article before, the author is made a replica Altec horn throat with wood and then he measured it with the Br?el & Kj?r, the data proved that it is good.