3d spiral horn loaded drivers? anybody used these? link!

[thadman]

http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-intro.html

This is a site dedicated to 3d spiral horn loaded drivers. Has anybody explored this route?

http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-ho...horizontal.gif

horizontal horn
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-ho...0-finished.gif
design
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-ho...-dimension.gif

linear models
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-ho...horizontal.gif
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-l125/helix-l125.gif
design
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-l1...5dimension.gif

[thadman]

http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-boxmodel.html here is a box model
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~hanbei/eng-box/boxtype.gif the design

[JimJ]

I remember someone on DIYaudio saying they were attempting that project; don't know if anything ever came of it.

Regardless, I'd love to play with that 845 triode amp that's in the pictures

[supa_c]

that doesnt look fun at all.

[thadman]

It doesnt look that hard to build and would probably be a pretty fun project.

Would this design possess all the same benefits of a horn or folded horn?
Is there a formula/way to predict the design of one of these cabinets for a different set of drivers?

How much of a difference would this design see over a ported or sealed enclosure?

[supa_c]

Hard, no
time consuming, heck yes
A folded horn would take way less time to make

[thadman]

These seem to take a smaller amount of space, and I think it would be a fun project

Is there a program/formula/way to predict the parameters of the enclosure for horns?

Are horn designs THAT much better compared to sealed or ported?

[JimJ]

No really good programs to model 'em...

Depends on whether or not you need the ultra-high efficiency that a horn provides. If you have hundreds of watts to play with, you won't have the same need for 100+dB/W speakers that someone with only 10 watts has

[thadman]

I thought that the horn design extended the low end? making it possible to create heavy bass with a smaller driver?

[JimJ]

It does that as well...but not all drivers are suited for horn loading.

[thadman]

I understand that, I was planning on using one of Fostexs fullrange drivers

[thadman]

Anyone? They mentioned these boxes are the same size as vented/ported designs (meaning they wouldnt be THAT large at all)

I would very much like to design/build one for my Diamond Audio D9 15" but I am not sure how to design a spiral horn...or ne horn for that matter can someone give me some insight?

[thch]

horn? it seem to have no characteristics in common with a horn other then some superficial conic shaped section on the output. the site even descibes the box in a similar fashoin to a ported box. further there seems to be no proof on the site that the boxes offer any objective qualities over a ported box. this is not to say the 3d spirals aren't good (or are good).

[req]

looks like it would perform just as well as a bass reflex enclosure to be honest. whats the difference of a spiral port over a straight line port?

[thadman]

The air has room to expand throughout the spiral horn