Why the 300Hz horns?

[Panomaniac]

Question for you Altec heads.

What where the 300Hz horns for? Like the 803, 1803, etc. Rarely do I see them in the Altec catalogs for cinema systems. They all seem to use the 500Hz horns, with the rare exception of the 1803 here and there.

So what were the 300Hz horns used for? Outdoor stuff? Stadiums, race tracks, county fairs? What was the intended use?

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

Don't forget the 203!

[valhallax]

ive got 805's and 803's..and to me the 300hz horns sound smoother. the longer throat and larger mouth, to me the difference is very clear. still your question remains

[LICORNE]

Question for you Altec heads.

What where the 300Hz horns for? Like the 803, 1803, etc. Rarely do I see them in the Altec catalogs for cinema systems. They all seem to use the 500Hz horns, with the rare exception of the 1803 here and there.

So what were the 300Hz horns used for? Outdoor stuff? Stadiums, race tracks, county fairs? What was the intended use?

You might want to look at STEVE SCHELL'S opinion on this at the folling thread.

http://www.hostboard.com/forums/alte...multicell.html

[GM]

They were holdovers from the folded bass-horn days when a lot of overlap was required to fill in for its early roll off and to protect the driver against over excursion, so the horns loaded down to ~160 Hz with ~85 Hz cut-offs and a half octave lower with dual drivers. Loaded with the phenolic PA diaphragms of the day and driven with ~impedance matching amps their vocals are in a league of their own IMO.

WRT alum. diaphragms at 300 Hz, the 805/288B horns I initially used on the 210s were impressive, but paled once I added mouth extensions to them, but ultimately I couldn't accept its HF performance even with an 802 super tweeter horn XO'd at 5 kHz and with no digital delay available (or even imagined by me in '70), I traded them for 511/802 (effective) and later doubled them up to get back most of what I'd lost along with a real ~flat to 20+ kHz once EQ'd. With what 511/802 drivers are going for now, a good time to try this upgrade and maybe experiment with 350-400 Hz XOs if a HIFI/HT app.

GM

[Panomaniac]

Hi Guys,

- lot's of good info. Thanks for the info and the links. I still wonder where these were installed - ball parks, race tracks? Cal Weldon has a pair of the crazy big 1803's.

Anyhow - I ended up with a pair of the 803 horns. Not my first choice, but the price was good. Running them with Radian drivers at the moment while I save up for Altec. The idea of running them with the phenolic drivers caught my fancy - like some of the "Giant Voice" stuff - then add a tweeter. Nice to know they will play so low that way. At the moment I cross at about 350Hz without much trouble. They are very directional, which is what lead me to think they might be long throw horns for outdoor use. Could they have been used for voice with no woofer?

Any more info welcome!

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

......Could they have been used for voice with no woofer?

I would think the Giant Voice installs would have been woofer-less in many/most cases. I haven't ever looked at any of the Giant Voice literature, Though, so I'm just guessing.

I have a pair of 203's, but I've never used them..... blown diaphragms in my only large format drivers :-(

[GM]

Originally in apps where the big W bins were used as well as in standalone PA apps.

Yeah, long expo horns are going to beam pretty good if not extremely large with lots of cells, hence the 15, 18 cell monsters to cover both the main floor and balcony with the smaller horns used to cover relatively small areas and/or 'throw' it out there in a PA app.

GM

[Cal Weldon]

Cal Weldon has a pair of the crazy big 1803's.

Yes he does and he still doesn't know what to do with them. Methinks he needs to win the lottery so he can buy a house big enough for them.

Cheers.

[bfish]

GM nailed the "why". The fact that the 300Hz systems were (and still are) so accurate for high output voice reproduction led to their widespread standalone use for civil defense warning systems, ballparks etc, and later for PSYOPS in 'Nam.

The specs for a Giant Voice "A" station were 119dB at 30 feet from 600-2400Hz with a 300Hz cutoff, and 4 pole mount 1003Bs with dual 290s could do this for 360x35 degrees.

A reliable clue that a horn came from a Voice install is the presence of a 45 degree throat adapter for keeping water out of the driver.

The 300Hz horns with 290s are still my favorite mid for a HIFI 3-way. I've never heard anything else that does the voice band so naturally. The fact they don't suffer at +100dB levels and don't need much power to do it makes them a no-brainer for an all-out system. Coming up with tops and bottoms that can keep up is the hard part.