dnewma04
The Healer
About 10 years ago, I heard a set of speakers that pretty well changed my opinions on everything I knew about speakers. Prior to hearing them, I was convinced that cone/dome speakers were the way to go. I had heard plenty of horns over the prior 10 or so years, never really hearing one that really did it for me. I found them a bit honky, shouty, or just plain ear splitting. Many of those I heard were very well respected, and many did some things very well. They never ran short on dynamics for instance, which is a huge plus in their favor, but none of them excited me much. Klipschorns, Lascalas, Edgar Horn Titans, old Altecs, and even some front and back loaded horns using dreadful drivers like Lowthers.
At the time, I was a member of the basslist and Thomas Danley introduced the unity horn, and offered it to the basslist via Nick McKinney at Lambda Acoustics. There was a an enormous amount of interest on the list with quite a few people springing for the kit and being amazed by the results. From that moment, I decided I needed to hear a set. Luckily, within about a year, I was able to hear one pair and about 6 months after that I heard another 2 pairs. Two of them used Lambda Acoustics TD series drivers (the others used TAD 1601 woofers), which were already a favorite of mine and these speakers cemented those feelings.
After hearing the Unity's, I had finally heard what I had always hoped to with horns, no odd colorations. They sounded like cone/domes at low volume levels and as you turned the volume up, they just kept on sounding like that. Very smooth, extremely detailed, and even at very very loud levels, there wasn't a hint of compression. I was hooked, they had dynamics, detail, and smoothness?! The basic idea of the unity horn was to create a 2 way horn system with the mids and highs sharing the same horn. The Compression driver is attached at the back of the throat and the mids get attached on the walls of the horn and are placed in such a way that the horn acts as a point source from 300hz up to the frequency limits of the compression driver. In the case of the Lambda Unity horns, they were square conical horns, but the unity principals can apply to other flare rates, as well. The lambdas used a 60x60 flare to near the outer edge where it transitioned to a 90x90 horn near the terminus. It's a constant directivity horn, as well.
I started to do some research and even attempted a few builds, but never had the tools to really do the job right and make the horns decent. A few months ago, Nick decided to sell off some B-stock sides for the unity horns for a good price so I decided to jump on the opportunity.
I was able to figure out the size and placement of the entry holes for the midrange and started to work out a method to drill them consistently.
I will be getting into more of the theory behind the horn sometime down the road, but for now, this is just going to be a build thread. One is mostly assembled and awaits many coats of paint, lots of filler material, and a crapload of sanding. In any case, here are some pics of the progress so far. Unfortunately, being B-Stock items, they take a ridiculous amount of work to get them done. None of the parts really quite fit together right.
At the time, I was a member of the basslist and Thomas Danley introduced the unity horn, and offered it to the basslist via Nick McKinney at Lambda Acoustics. There was a an enormous amount of interest on the list with quite a few people springing for the kit and being amazed by the results. From that moment, I decided I needed to hear a set. Luckily, within about a year, I was able to hear one pair and about 6 months after that I heard another 2 pairs. Two of them used Lambda Acoustics TD series drivers (the others used TAD 1601 woofers), which were already a favorite of mine and these speakers cemented those feelings.
After hearing the Unity's, I had finally heard what I had always hoped to with horns, no odd colorations. They sounded like cone/domes at low volume levels and as you turned the volume up, they just kept on sounding like that. Very smooth, extremely detailed, and even at very very loud levels, there wasn't a hint of compression. I was hooked, they had dynamics, detail, and smoothness?! The basic idea of the unity horn was to create a 2 way horn system with the mids and highs sharing the same horn. The Compression driver is attached at the back of the throat and the mids get attached on the walls of the horn and are placed in such a way that the horn acts as a point source from 300hz up to the frequency limits of the compression driver. In the case of the Lambda Unity horns, they were square conical horns, but the unity principals can apply to other flare rates, as well. The lambdas used a 60x60 flare to near the outer edge where it transitioned to a 90x90 horn near the terminus. It's a constant directivity horn, as well.
I started to do some research and even attempted a few builds, but never had the tools to really do the job right and make the horns decent. A few months ago, Nick decided to sell off some B-stock sides for the unity horns for a good price so I decided to jump on the opportunity.
I was able to figure out the size and placement of the entry holes for the midrange and started to work out a method to drill them consistently.
I will be getting into more of the theory behind the horn sometime down the road, but for now, this is just going to be a build thread. One is mostly assembled and awaits many coats of paint, lots of filler material, and a crapload of sanding. In any case, here are some pics of the progress so far. Unfortunately, being B-Stock items, they take a ridiculous amount of work to get them done. None of the parts really quite fit together right.
