Thinking about trying Horns
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This is what my dash looks like. Lots of Hard plastic... But tones of depth under the dash, obviously width as well. I could mount them two feet back from the front of the dash... With a plasma cutter and a helluva lot of work I could put a 10-12" mid in the kicks... And 3-18's IB in the rear deck... The only advantage to driving a boat I suppose..lol
So... Long body's, short body's? I already have a kickass set of pillars for the car mid and tweeter in them, but thinking about separating myself from the herd I guess.
Thoughts/suggestions?
So... Long body's, short body's? I already have a kickass set of pillars for the car mid and tweeter in them, but thinking about separating myself from the herd I guess.
Thoughts/suggestions?
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The big bodies if you could fit them and if you were serious about doing big midbasses.
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You do need to have some big,efficient midbasses if you're going w/ horns.
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So far from the truth.
Hundreds and hundreds of people have run horns with regular old car audio drivers for decades. the trend toward using PA speakers is fairly new.
There are some definite advantages to using an efficient driver like a PA driver and having more cone area is never a bad thing--but it certainly isnt a requirement.
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I guess it depends on how you interpret "need." You could run horns with just about any driver you want, but the trend toward PA mids is far from new. The Grand National was doing in 25 years ago and lots of guys have done it since. I suppose the trend for traditional companies to start producing and marketing PA mids is fairly new, but they've been in circulation among the die hards for a long time.
While you can pair horns with some normal mids, and hundreds of guys might have done so, I've never seen the point. You have to gain the horns down so hard to level match some low-80s efficiency bloaty mid bass that you lose what is in my mind the entire point of running horns: efficiency. It's not that it can't be done, but it's far from ideal and seems to me, a waste of product for the most part. To each their own.
Agreed, far from the truth. Adequate processing, power and tuning will do the trick.
Let's face it, folks, you can gain the horns down quite a bit. Hell, my ID horns are mated with (8-ohm) Exodus Anarchys in my Tahoe and a number of folks who listened to them in OKC commented that they were impressed with the balance between the two and didn't think they would have mated well at all. The system wasn't tuned in the least, and I'm running a PG Xenon 200.4 bridged on the horns and another bridged on the Anarchys. Just have the horns gained down quite a bit with my Behringer... they even scale well together up to stupid loud volume.
One of these days I'm going to sit down and really tune the thing, but I think it will probably be once I put my Zapco Z8 processor in, hopefully this spring.
Super-efficient midbasses are probably nice, but not a necessity by any means.
I love my horns almost as much as my wife!
If I could find a way to fit them in the 370, I'd definitely do it, but alas, I can't seem to find a way!
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I have a Spanish harlenish comp car that I've had for a few years, that's done ok in the lanes... It just doesn't get loud and rock enough for me... Unfortunately things always seem to come up when it comes to finals, or shows for that matter... Wife almost killed in a bike accident, me pissing kidney stones the year after that...
All of us in Ontario boys have to leave the country to NY at Syracuse customs. I can't just up and leave the country4-5X weekends in the summer, I have my daughter and a family member at home that I need to help care for. 1-2x a year I can, not 5-6.
So, I want to get something in my DD instead of having thousands of dollars worth of equipment doing nothing... I want dynamic, I want loud, the holy **** this is loud factor but I also want nose picking imaging, and tonality like I'm a custom too.
I don't know any other way to achieve that, than running Horns.
I appreciate all the info and ideas guys keep them coming!
All of us in Ontario boys have to leave the country to NY at Syracuse customs. I can't just up and leave the country4-5X weekends in the summer, I have my daughter and a family member at home that I need to help care for. 1-2x a year I can, not 5-6.
So, I want to get something in my DD instead of having thousands of dollars worth of equipment doing nothing... I want dynamic, I want loud, the holy **** this is loud factor but I also want nose picking imaging, and tonality like I'm a custom too.
I don't know any other way to achieve that, than running Horns.
I appreciate all the info and ideas guys keep them coming!
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Ok, I'll revise my statement.. You don't "need" big efficient midbasses. But if you have to turn your horns down 20-30db to match up, you're kinda loosing some of the benefit of having horns..
Josh
Josh
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To do unobtrusive horns in my car would take 50-60 hours I'm guessing if we're talking about cutting into the floor/firewall and doing it properly. I have access to a hoist, but after cutting there's going to be a lot of metal/fibreglass fab work.
But yes, if I commit to putting horns Id want to add as big a woofer as I can. So yes I am committed.
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I wouldn't put horns with some mid 80s sensitive speaker...but that's just me.
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I'm not saying it can't work or sound good...just it wouldn't suit me. The pro drivers have more impact, dynamics, and output...and a different sound to them- to me.
I just wouldn't want to but 110 dB horns with some 83 dB mids. Just me.
I just wouldn't want to but 110 dB horns with some 83 dB mids. Just me.
This might be a stupid question, but it's coming from a place of experience and what I've run that has worked well before. Isn't what matters here the output of the mid vs. the output of the horn? If you have that (from surface area, power, sensitvity, whatever) it should work, no? Obviously, that is easier to do with a more sensitive midbass and there are other benefits to running higher sensitivity midbass as well but what exactly prevents a more traditional car audio mid from working if the output is there?
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Power compression.
That would prevent them from reaching the volume needed to properly pair with the horns. In my hypothetical the mid setup is acheiving the volume needed. Or is the point here that within the confines of almost any car it becomes impossible to reasonably create enough volume to pair well without using a high sensitivity midbass?
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It can be done to certain degrees. But IMO it is easier with the pro speakers, but you can't run your front midbasses to 50 with the pro speakers unless they are 10s or 12s.
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You could also pull out a stump with a Chevy Colorado, but a Ram CTD 3500 is going to get the job done more efficiently.
A mid with an efficiency of 83db needs ~500w to level match a 110db horn getting 1w. Can it be done? Sure. Why would you want to when plenty of high efficiency PA mids exist? I don't get the appeal...
A mid with an efficiency of 83db needs ~500w to level match a 110db horn getting 1w. Can it be done? Sure. Why would you want to when plenty of high efficiency PA mids exist? I don't get the appeal...
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Kinda had the same setup, moved from an X65 to a 6ND430 and the system is now sounding better than ever - just couldn't fit a bigger driver without cutting metal (wife wouldn't let me do that lol). However, I now have an upfront subwoofer (10") and it's priceless now.
Lended the car to my dad but he's not thinking of giving it back anytime soon
Kelvin
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