Cornu spiral horns for amps?

[Krinor]

I'm sorry if this topic is maybe a little bit missplaced in a stompbox forum but has anyone tried anything like this for an amp speaker?

http://diyparadiso.com/cornu1.htm

Check out the interior shot in the bottom of the page.

[R.G.]

I think that it would be very difficult to use that design for a musical instrument speaker, on practicality grounds rather than performance.

The speakers noted were rated at 8W, I think.  A guitarist is going to want much more amp power going into his speakers. The extra power is going to be tough on the fairly fragile horn membranes. Likewise, moving the speakers from place to place for stage setups is going to require them to be much sturdier than the lightweight construction shown.

It's a clever idea though.

[Krinor]

I'm building a pair for studiomonitoring.
When I finnish them I'll try to run my Ruby through them 

[R.G.]

Kewl. go for it

[Paul Marossy]

wow, those are interesting!

[soulsonic]

I'm going to have to try something like that to use with my old Dynaco Stereo 70!!!

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, those are more of a hi-fi thing than for guitar speakers...

[tobias]

Not quite the same thing, but you should check out the beautiful horn amps and speakers at Specimen Products... http://specimenproducts.com/amps/hornspeaker.html I have been there and they sound really beautiful.

[Krinor]

Wow, that Janus Horn is really cool!

[John Blund]

Hi
sorry if I'm hijacking I was just curious if there is any good literature or sites concerning hornspeaker design and horndrivers, especially the spiral "labyrinth" design linked above, I've been trying to find some general technical info and math on these things but only found specific designs, and I really want to understand how these designs works compared to more standard speaker and enclosure types! 
btw what are the disadvantages with hornspeakers except that they can be fragile

happy for any info, thanks

[petemoore]

  A Most effecient use of speaker power...the speaker becomes much louder and horny sounding, if you're standing in front of it,but this cab is very directional.
  We made a couple of these...
  Plywood megaphone with 12'' speaker in the back. 3'' Oak boards  were added for re-inforcement boards around the perimeter of the output opening and [triangular 1'' strips] down the corner seams...filled/sanded/painted horn surfaces.
  Sealed box containing the 12'' which drives sound into the small opening of the megaphone speakercab.
  8' long [same as sheet of plywood], rediculous to pack until you simply stack them like tupperware drinking glasses, then kinda heavy.
  Works like ... er..actually is a megaphone.

[Krinor]

Yes horns are fairly directional. But they work nicely on their own for playing mono signals. The Cornu design emphasize the bass (a bass signal that is virtually not there at all to begin with) and pumps it out to the sides of the speaker. The advantage is obviously that you can drive horns with virtually no speaker membrane at all. You use a horndriver, a very small speaker with a large magnet. I suppose you can also use an ordinary small, low watt speaker. As the sound travells through the ever increasing opening of the horn it is strengthened by enormous degrees. It's like a bagpipe where you have a small reed feeding a small hole which gets larger and larger towards the opening. We all know the result...  Anyway, I think maybe something like that cornu design could be integrated in front of a cabinet. It would be nice to have a small low power battery driven amp with such a feature. Imagine the faces on your pals when you fire up a 1/2 watt amp and blow their hats off... I don't know if it's possible to do something like this, but on the quest for "The Tone" anything that might be at least remotely interesting should be tried.