Is anybody messing with Tapped Horns?

I've been playing around with the TH tool in the HornResponse program for awhile and I think I'm going to give a moderate sized TH a shot this spring and get my feet wet. I want to see what all the fuss is about and gauge the relative difficulty of getting one right. Plus it'll be fun to compare one to sealed and ported subs. I'll probably use a cheap, moderate power 10 or 12.

Has anybody built one, or thought about it? Anybody using HR, or Akabak to model them?

Yeah I've read that entire 100+ page monstrosity of a thread. and all of the others. I think I'm going to do something medium or small sized just to try it out. Maybe something with just a good 30hz extension for music with a 10". Something inexpensive as I have too many drivers already but none of them are going to be useful in a TH.

From what I gather it gains you some sensitivity and output over a regular ported or sealed alignment but not as much as a front loaded or other true horn would. Basically it splits the difference and keeps the size down a bit. Tom has said that it can net up to 10db though, so perhaps us DIYer's designs just aren't fully refined yet.

I will. I need to start modeling different drivers and see if I can get something that looks decent in HR. It'd be nice if I can get a driver that also does well in standard ported and sealed boxes.

So far what I've got on what to look for in a driver are moderately high FS, slightly higher than the intended TH cut-off. This will put me in the 30-40hz area. Start with the throat around SD/1.5, mouth 2 to 3 times SD and go from there.

I haven't given up. Actually hearing the TH50 has renewed my interest in this project. I'm still in the planning stage at this point but I will get to this. I may do something a bit more "ambitious" than originally planned. Don't wait for me, cut up some wood and see what happens.

Looks like I'll skip the small 10 or 12" version and go straight to something big and dumb involving a 15" or 18". Out of the drivers I currently have (XXX,SDX, LMS) the LMS looks like it might be most useable in a TH. I have further modeling to do and I'm going to look at other designs than the TH too, just to see. I do have one that doesn't look too bad. May still buy a better suited driver for this sort of thing. Don't know yet. I'd rather use a driver that I'm already very familiar with so I can tell exactly what the enclosure is doing better.

LOL! You wussed out on your 15" build! Yeah I saw your posts too. What...500L horn in the living room too big for yah?

C'mon man. That post is over a week old. i'd rather not have a bunch of bickering in this thread. There's plenty of that in 50 other ones.

It won't be so bad. I've already got a 710L ported cab in my living room as it is. It's over 1000L external and over 300lbs too. I've got a 10000ft space at a warehouse that has a nice big field on the side with a ramp as well.



This is my main reservation too along with the size. The response above 70hz or so looks bad in the sims if you go for any depth out of the TH and what's the point if you don't? It's a shame to mess up the beautiful top end. I keep reading that the response really won't be bad like that, they can be tamed with damping, or stuffing,or bends in the horn path and that the resonances in the sims are overblown a bit. I'm not so sure. I've seen a few measurements that seem to indicate this, but they aren't as thorough as I'd like.

Here I am talking myself back into using a cheap driver on something smaller first to see what's up. It's probably a good idea. Hmmm.

Right. I wouldn't even want to go half the size of the THspud or tune that low with a little TB though. That thing is big and there's just not enough guts there with one little TB to make it worth tuning so low. For me anyways. Time to start looking at < $150 10's and 12's.