Conical horns whos using them and your opinion

I was going to build some prototypes. Then I read about the need for further crossover work with conical use and that project went on the back burner. I'm pretty happy with my tratrix salad bowls so I haven't had much motivation to revisit them.

The correction isn't much of a issue just the narrow bandwidth necessitates multiple conicals to cover range that other flares handle. Still I find the imaging to be better the sense of loudspeaker disappearing presenting a sound field is also bettered over other types I've used.

Johnk, how are they with respect to beaminess?

Johnk, you probably already know this, but my suggestion would be: Don't equalize the on-axis dip you get in the treble region. It's an artifact of the in-phase mouth reflection; it moves up or down in frequency as you move the microphone closer or farther away, and it disappears once you're off-axis by 15 degrees or so. Just listen from off axis anyway and the mouth reflection dip becomes totally inconsequential.

Ralph, in my experience, conicals and quasi-conicals beam less than exponential or tractrix horns, and in trade-off require a more complex crossover. Several of my models use what conical guru Bill Woods has described as a "conical horn", including the Stormbringers that made a stop at your place a while back.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

The Acoustic Horn Company AH300 is a wide range conical used by Oswald Mills in their flagship speaker and by Cogent in their acclaimed Field Coil Speaker System.

While I have never heard either of those speakers, I do have the AH300 in my hybrid system at home and there is no trace of beaming at all. However, if being off axis bothers you, it would be best to stay near the center or shop for something else. The dispersion pattern is a very controlled 40 degrees, which is to say 20 degrees either side of the center axis. Up close this is very narrow. At a distance of 15-18 feet it works well and, of course, further out the dispersion limitation would matter not at all.

If you have a large space, this may well be the best option available.

Here's a link to an article that you may find useful:

http://www.acoustichorn.com/tech/conical-horn-geometry/

Since using tweeters I stopped messin with eq. I can sit very near field to this set up. The beaming really isn't a issue at all. The sound is near seamless and very low in coloration. Problem is the size gets large fast my bass conical is over 8ft L. Used 10 sheets of 4x8 birch ply on the big conical. Tweeters running to 6500hz, mid conical to 500hz, mid bass conical to 90hz the bass conical below 90hz. My friends joke and call the big bass conical king conical;) Integrating the conicals took a bit of thought but I have them vertical time aligned with no direct radiation blockage from the bells. Except for the bass conical that is its where it is. Thanks for the posts.

Thanks Duke, Macrojack and Johnk for the replies :)