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Re: H290C Horn/Waveguide [message #78533 is a reply to message #77006] Tue, 03 December 2013 16:32 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18677
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

There were several influences that drove my decision to create this horn. The most important one was an observation that radial horns having relatively constant horizontal directivity sounded best to me. Objectively, they had smooth response and uniform horizontal directivity. Their physical features were much like modern waveguides, having no sharp edges in the flare.

The H290C is very much like a radial horn of similar size, except that its OSEC flare profile is defined as the hyperbola created from a line drawn tangent to an elliptic cylinder or oblate spheroid:

../misc/OS_and_EC_flare_profile.gif


When I first heard about this flare profile, I began to study it and found this shape was used in other disciplines as an antenna, horn, lense or other waveform radiator. This is an important "litmus test" for me, because the most successful ideas tend to be used in all engineering fields. Where I see things in just one field (and especially in audio), I am skeptical. Audio is saturated with fads and misguided pseudo-science, some even coming from big names in the industry. But this isn't one of them, and devices created using this profile provide fairly clear advantages.

However, the advantages are only found if (and this is a big "if") the waveguide/horn is properly built. Just having this basic shape isn't enough. Just like you can make a good exponential horn or a bad one, or even more so a good conical horn or a bad one, this flare profile has a few "sweet spots" and a bunch that aren't so hot. One is well advised to model the horn, optimizing it for best response and beamwidth/coverage. It isn't a "given" that this particular profile can be used no matter what exit angle is desired. Some work well, but some, not so much.

That was the basis for the last post, just above. It gives a feel for a well designed horn, and one that isn't optimized as well. Both have the same coverage pattern, but one has significantly more ripple.

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