Corner Horn - As it should be!
Making the horn a part of the room is not new. Klipsch has done it almost a decade ago. It seems like there isn't much to be done, but adding another dimension to the 2D model of the classical Klipsch Corner Horn. When you enter the subject directly you first realize that in order to receive low frequencies the horn must be big. On the other hand there is this size problem. Although it sounds really out of place, in the search of good sound, there is this WAF that most audiophils have to obey. This design can help you if you have a perfect corner. It can combine a large mouth and a large diameter speaker unit in considerebly smaller space.
The principle is simple. You use the side walls and the floor as the part of the enclosure. The enclosure is a badly designed bass-reflex enclosure when you leave it at the center of the room. The geometry is designed to work only when it is placed at one of the corners of your listening room. Depending on the T/S parameters of the speaker unit used, the enclosure can have exponential, hyperbolic, parabolic, geometric or traktrix geometry. The mathematical function is used to generate the surface of the horn. The space between the walls and the surface of the enclosure is the horn geometry itself. Since you can not rebuild your walls based on a mathematical function, the outer geometry is designed to give the desired area at a certain distance from the speaker unit. As you can see, the distance between the enclosure and the wall is not constant at any angle. Therefore, in order to give the mathematical function to the curve, you have to make all the modifications on the enclosure side.
Finally, the cone shape in the picture above becomes like the fist picture on this page. At first sight it looks like that it needs a mind-blinding calculatoin. Well, it does, I do not believe that it can be done by hand. Computational power is needed to find the exact surface geometry. That is why I have added the BASIC source code of the program that I have coded. You have to know the mathematical function you are needing for your horn application in order to use and modify the code. Excuse me that I haven't coded the program in C or any other better languages because of my ignorance. Therefore, I would be very greatful if some DIYer like me convert this BASIC code into any other modern language. cornerhorn.bas
Where do I mount the speaker? I mount it facing towards the corner. The geometry is cut at a certain distance from the corner and the speaker unit is monted on that surface. By this way you have a volume at the back. You can have a sealed rear chamber or you can go for a bass-reflex enclosure. They both are possible. Or even you can leave it open if you can precisely calculate the radiation both from the front and the rear of the speaker unit and their interactions inside the listening room.
Looks like that this might be a hard enclosure to build. Not really. Like in every other enclosure, there can be some modifications made to make things easier. The geometry is symetrical after all. The enclosure has 3 sides which are all identical. Anyway, if you are determined enough to give this a try, be sure that I am here to help with all my might.
© 2007 - All the text and pictures are generated by Onur Ilkorur unless where noted. Unauthorized copying of the material on this web page is just not ethical
