811 horn dampening

**robertbartsch** · April 19th, 2010, 01:57 PM

I have a few Altec horns lying around so, I modified a pair of 811 horns using 8 black silicone canisters that I purchased at The Depo for around $4 each.

I completely filled the two bell cavities in front of the mounting baffle plates - smoothing out the material with a large putty knife. It is not completely dry yet, but the damping from the silicone appears to be substantial. Now, there is no ringing and the horn gives out a deep but low "thud" when struck. I have not mounted the drivers and tested the mod yet, but, at this stage, I don't think it will be nessary to apply anything to the horn material in the back of the baffle mounting brackets.

Anyway, this seems like a simple mod that could be reversed if needed - so no harm, no foul, I suppose.

I have not found the factory horns to be ringers when mounted properly in a cab but I have not listened to dampened horns either. So, frankly, this just an experiment for my knowledge only.

Obviously, there has been a lot of discussion of this topic and I found from my research that most people used either silicone or non-hardening modeling clay.

So far, this has worked well and the black silicone closely matches the factory black paint.

**Panomaniac** · April 19th, 2010, 02:26 PM

Cool.
What is the silicon like? The stuff that comes in tubes for the caulking guns?

**robertbartsch** · April 19th, 2010, 03:47 PM

Yes; the silcone comes in a tube and is applied using a caulking gun. At its deepest point, it is about 2 inches thick - so I expect it may take a few days to fully dry.