Lowther drivers, front horn or back loaded horn?

Gawdbless I built those horns, you have a t90aex a rare limited edition fostex tweeter and wonderful f200a the gent you purchased from put much $ into that system you got a great deal.

Hola Alanbrain,

Compression drivers are much more detailed and dynamic, with the wrong horn they can be punchy and have horn colorations, I am sure the 340 Azura horn will make the sound nice and full, the tone will come from the horn and the diaphragm.
Presence I would think is a combination of detail, tone and dynamics, so compression driver have these in spades.
With a 340 hz horn you will want to go as low as possible, I am sure you can get away going down to 500 hz, which is pretty low. If you want no trouble shoot for 700hz. Start loading up on capacitors to play around with Xover freq.
The most dificult part IMHO about a horn loaded system is Bass integration, go for a driver that will go up to 3khz or higher!!! Bass horns are really complicated...
Going down to 500hz limits the amount of drivers you can use but aids at bass integration, that low the usual suspects are JBL 2440 and gang, Altec 288 or GFA new ones, Beyma 800 series, Big radian maybe, TAD and of course GOTO and ALE, how much you want to spend? I think a good start is Altec or Beyma 700 series IMHO. Ask Martin from Azura to recommend a driver he knows works best with his horn!

Hi Gawdbless,

Your system sounds like a very dynamic one.
Tell me, the Oris with the fostex produce any ringing?
What is the distance between the horns?
and
What is the distance between you and the horns?
Have you compared to the Azura horns? Some people say that the Azura is made of heavier fiberglass and thats why it doesnt ring.

Thanks
Alan

Hi Jsadurni,

So, a 340 Azura with a compression driver all the way up.
And a bass horn or reflex from 40 to 400 but with a driver capable of going to 2 or 3Khz?
But, if a set up the crossover at 500 or 700hz Im cutting in the middle th frequency range of the human voice, am I?
So, just to understand, in that case is not better a Lowther that can go down to 180 hz, where it will be easy to make the crossover point?

Thanks
Alan

There is always a trade off..
General recipe for horns systems are cut from 500 to 800hz , you will need a tweeter at around 5k to 8 khz, and a 15 inch woofer from 500hz to 40hz. Depending an the drivers chosen.

I have tried a bunch of drivers horn loaded from 150-180hz Lowthers loose authority at 150hz but have a beautiful tone in a front horn, Fostex do get down to 150 hz nice but sound less dynamic and transparent than lowther
(I didnt try the F200, its in my list of things to do!)
The thing about this IMHO is that you get the whizzer highs... If you cut the Lowther at 1 or 2khz or higher over to a tweeter or a compression driver, then you fix that but you have a cut right there in the middle, which is worst? You decide based on listening tests. You can try the smaller Lowther...
You can get a GOTO driver specified from 100hz to 8khz, but GOTO recommends smaller freq. spans.
Or you can try a Phenolic Diaphragm Altec or Great Plains Audio compression driver that goes down to 300hz up to 5khz on the Azura 340 horn and stay away as posible from the human voice freq. range (this driver was designed for the human voice freq. range) Of course you will need a tweeter but the bass integration will be easier, then again you are cutting the compression driver too close to the freq. rate of the mouth and that induces colorations, which is worst? Lets try them.
A good compromise was found a long time ago with the general recipe, what I dont like about that is the tone of the 15 inch driver at 800hz, it sounds dull, that is why a lot of people are trying to get their compression drivers to go lower, maybe loosing definition in highs (depending on the driver) that is why I recommend a bass driver that goes up to 3khz, so that bass at 800hz has the same dynamic taste and detail as the compression driver and you dont get a "step" in performance...then we need to find a really sensitive bass driver, maybe two!