what i know about horns

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

i have had 2 horn cars one was a 91 tempo the other an '87 formula firebird. few general rules i learned. (these apply to large horn bodies not the mini) they sound best off axis (not fireing straight at your face) . fire them off glass (straight up off windshield from behind the dash) they can get REALLY BRIGHT unless you buffer them with a good cloth grill ( i normally had tweed covered grills on mine) the farther back you get them usually the deeper the sound stage but also the higher up over them (the listeners ears) the higher the sound stage as well (this could also be due to the car/s i had) i always liked mine best with as few source points as possible (i know there is a trend leaning towards 3 ways) i know crossovers have improved alot since the late 90s (meaning more people have general knowledge about settings 24-72db per octive slopes phase shift caused by these and so forth) but back in the day with what was avalible/used it was hard to get a "seemless sound". key imho to having a good to a great system is its ability to NOT sound like a car stereo or even a stereo at all. should just sound as if its being played on your car hood expanding out all the glass in your car should dissappear along with your whole car. http://home.comcast.net/~customcarstereo/frame_featured.html this is a decent link (not my car but shows you the basics (i wouldnt be caught dead with those horn covers though but shows you the correct basics of how they are made) on the mouth of horns i like to use semi thick (as compared to reg grill cloth) it really helps smooth out the sound. most of the time you should wire the horns out of phase with eachother. its real easy to tell if u need to do this if it doesnt sound REALLY REALLY solid and full. 24 db per octive cross over slope or greater is needed to get the horns to play there lowest freq. how i always tuned my set up was with an audio control rta (ignoring the subs) i made a refference starting point that ressembled a cheesy "sea gull" drawing kids make (basically a rounded m) then tap the 20 k (by itself up to flat) then tune) you will notice alot of the times you boost an area another area will drop so its best to start high or low and work across.

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[req 5,000+ posts]

thanks for the info audiolife.

so you would rather still have the horns under the dash than at the base of the window then? eaither way its going to be a hassle fitting full horns in my little saturn //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

but they are going in there no matter what.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=69139&page=1&pp=25

 

[Johnny Drama 5,000+ posts]

That makes the install part look very easy. I am thinking I may want some horns sometime soon.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

install isnt the hard part its the "making cool covers" thats the hardest part...really is opening your mind to what would look good there. in that install link its the first car that im talking about it opens up to parts of it go to midbasses and horns.