Big BenD Bass Horn: Rear chamber and Middle Section
[Previous: Throat Bend; Main; Next: Belts and Braces, part 1]
The Middle Section (Spire)
I actually started building the spire before the throat bend. It is a fairly straightforward
 |
 |
The spire is about 1m long and consists of nearly-parallel sides (the angle is just a few degrees). One of the narrow sides is straight, the other has two break points to approximate the exponential area expansion. I used the router on the throat end to make the walls where the flange connects vertical, so that the hole in the flange could be cut out easily.
This is all there is to say about the middle section for now, but I will return to it in the next part, since it needs quite a bit of bracing.
The rear chamber
The rear chamber is just a simple rectangular box. The sides have the same length, and although this sounds like something you shouldn't do, (square rooms have the strongest modes), there is a very good reason for it: The sides are the largest dimensions of the box, and therefore sets the lowest modes inside it. If the depth is kept, and the box is made to have an aspect ratio different from one, that will push the lowest mode lower. So to keep the modes as far away from the working range as possible, I decided to make the box square.
I also routed out space for the driver to move, both for 15" and 12" drivers. The box was made large enough to work with Altec 515-8G, 65 litres, as it is easier to reduce the volume than to increase it.
The front baffle has a rectangular hole that fits the horn throat, and 8 T-nuts to bolt it to the horn.
The rear cover also has T-nuts.
There is at this point no bracing inside the box, this will come later, based on vibration measurements.
Here are a couple of pictures of the first parts set up for the initial tests.
[Previous: Throat Bend; Main; Next: Belts and Braces, part 1]