Wayne Parham Messages: 18787 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Maybe you misunderstood. What I have said is that wood is aesthetically pleasant, but that I do not think the wood is necessarily better for acoustics, just better looking.
Wood can be machined, so the CNC/wood approach is perfectly suitable for small quantities. You probably wouldn't make a mold for a few dozen horns.
Essentially, as long as the material is non-resonant, I'm not real concerned with it as far as acoustics are concerned.
But the horn profile has a LOT to do with sound quality. The shape of my wood tweeter horn/waveguide is exactly what I want from a horn. It provides constant directivity and doesn't have any internal sharp edges that would cause discontinuity.
In the following document, there's a little more information about what makes a good horn shape for constant-directivity when sound quality is as important as coverage:
Okay I'm a little slow but I got it. When you say "Tweeter cabinet is purely decorative, and may be omitted" you mean the cabinet only, not the horn, which is indeed what you said and not what I read.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18787 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Oh, I see what you mean now. If you want, you can put the H290 in a cabinet instead of cradling it as most people do with the π wood horn. The "tweeter cabinet" is purely decorative and is optional. The important thing is the mouths of the tweeter and midhorn must be flush to make path lengths right for phasing/summing issues.