Finally after 11 years I have prototyped a production model and done a set of plans for the DIY speaker builders.

These are not on the site yet, but will be in the next week or so.

Here is a link to the plans:


https://www.decware.com/CORNERHORNPLANS.pdf

The file is 2.3 meg.

We will have the required actual size template for sale once these plans are added to the web site.  The template will sell for $39.

I will also be creating a dedicated support forum for these plans soon.

Enjoy!

Thanks mucho Steve... These might be my first venture into building my own speakers.

Its too bad I don't have any free corners to put them in.  Dorm rooms are tight you know.  Oh well, one day I'll build them.  Until then I'll have to be patient. ???

-Matt

Thanks Steve, will the plans show exactly how your using them? ie: the exact speakers, mdf or ply etc, and I noticed that there is a high freq part of the horn on the top that I wondered how your using and if it will be part of the plans and what speaker is used there also.  Thanks alot   Dave

Oh Obi-Vaughn,

Don't think of it as getting weaker... Think of it as ascension to a higher plane...

(Silly smileys can get addictive.)

Welcome Machinehead.
I agree, this site is a great resource.  I especially like Steve's technical papers - what he calls the white papers.  
Brian

"So, those of you that have heard the horns, what drivers were in them at the time?"


When I heard them they had 6 inch fostex fullrangers in them, the fe167e I think.  They have a quality thats hard to describe.  Its kind of hard to hear them because they're so transparent.  Very impressive.  -Matt

The four way outlet is optional.

During the Decfest the corner horns had the Fostex FE167 drivers with the dustcap removed and a phase plug of sorts installed to kill the beam and extend the highs.  

This combo is very good, well balanced, has excellent weight and body with wonderful detail and air.  I still use these drivers in the corner horns and really I have no plans to change them.

The DX55 had it's moments while in the corner horns, but it IS a midrange in that it has no real bass.  The DX55 was never intended to be run as a full range speaker with supporting the bottom end with another driver.

got the phase plug info  8)

Hi johnny boy,
Here is the first paragraph from the introductory thread on these speakers:

"Here is the flagship of Decware speakers, the Decware Corner Horns shown with the production drivers, a modified Fostex 167E.  These are 8 ohm at 94dB.  They work well with all Decware amps, but especially well with the EX modded amps, the Signature monoblocks, Torii and the new SE34I2.  They will be available for sale in 2005."

The thread is here:
https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=shows;action=display;num=109...

I need another set of speakers about as much as another nose.  That said, the corner horns have been my goal for many years.  I have seen them and heard them, have kept up with this forum waiting for the plans to be published.

Now that the cat is out of the bag I am feeling more than inadequate.  My woodworking skills and equipment don't seem to be up to the challenge.  I wish Ziggy would consider adding a kit of the critical pieces for chumps like me.

dennis

The sensitivity rating when a single 6 inch driver is used will be whatever the rating is of the driver.   Naturally the driver will have more bass and enhanced power handling but from 120 Hz on up there should be little if any gain.

Steve

Could you place two of these side by side on the center of a wall, say as a centerchanel ?? They would radiate into 90 degrees each. ???
Would probably make a great subwoofer.

Thank you for the reply Steve!
It would make one hugh centerchannel!  Great sensativity, and would make all those gunshots and explosions sound real!

Hi erimille,

This is an opinion from a old/less than perfect ear.  I have heard the corner horns and feel that they should top your list of DYI speaker projects.

That is if you have the room for them and the corners in that room.

If it were me and I had a large enough room I would go with the false corner plan and place the units at least six to ten feet forward/away from the front wall.  This would give you the deep sound stage that Steve has in his listening room.

Food for thought.

dennis

[quote author=Nievate If it were me and I had a large enough room I would go with the false corner plan and place the units at least six to ten feet forward/away from the front wall.  This would give you the deep sound stage that Steve has in his listening room.

are there any specs available on the false corner plan requirements?

gratitude  :)

[quote author=erimille  link=1112743937/30#31 date=1113869342]



- Are you sure the angles are 23 deg? and not 22.5 deg? (360 / 16 = 22.5)

- 3/4" plywood... never seen such a beast. Most plywood is 23/32". Can you clarify the specifics of what you where using? Plywood, Baltic plywood? MDF?

And a few more general questions re these speakers...

- these seem *far* more specialized to the room than other speakers (more specifically HDTs).  Can you confirm? I'm converned that the acoustics currently in the room are minimal and wondering how sensitive the horns are to the room's condition.

- Can you elaborate on, "The ideal situation for these speakers is to place them in the corners on either side of a large opening to an adjoining room."?  Is one asking for trouble to simply put these in corners of a large room?

- Re  "We recommend the Fostex FE167 full range driver for this cabinet as our ideal choice for lower powered amplifiers." , ay ideas how this might sounds with a Zen Select (and Select with CSP?)

- The 'sails' seem a bit tricky... any additional pictures?

--eric

ps: thanks in advance.



[/quote]

No I'm not sure what the angles will be - 23 or 22.5 degrees.  This is a cabinet that you will have to find the angles as you go.  The angles will be determined by the accuracy of your layout.

3/4 plywood is not 3/4 inches - actual thickness of different materials also vary slightly.  Of course actual thickness effects all your measurments.  This is why an actual template is provided for you to lay out your cabinet.  I have used MDF and birch plywood.  The cabinet is not a "live" cabinet where the type of wood used will greatly effect it's sound.  You can make it from whatever you like.

Well, they eliminate the bass issue in two corners, but other then that they are affected by the rooms dimensions and acoustics just like any other speaker.

If you simply put these into the corners you will have no more depth to the soundstage then any other speakers placed in the corners.  Plus keep in mind that the farther apart they are the farther you will sit back to stay on axis.  

Yea, it sounds great. No problems.

The sails (or wings) are a bit tricky.  If you laid out your cabinet square and true and perfectly centered the template you make for the first wing should also fit the remaining three.

This sounds like a job for Ziggy!

Perhaps pre-cut panelized kits.  Hopefully the baffle could be removable to accommodate driver changeouts.

Steve, have you thought about a slightly larger version for deeper bass response (one that would still fit through a 36 inch door)?

If you simply place them in the corners you'd lose any depth of soundstage.

The easiest way to provide depth would be to build these into the side walls of the room with open shelving above, wing wall behind, and a grill cover.

[quote author=serenechaos  link=1112743937/30#37 date=1115850560]These are quite a bit more complex than HDTs, etc. and are hand fit.  It would be REALLY difficult to build as a knock down kit w/o cutting on a CNC machine.  


[/quote]


Actually, I think it would require a 5-axis CNC machine* and carefull 3-D program code to execute the changing angle of the inside curve of the final flare "sail" panels ( W,X, etc).  

*these are not quite as common as the "big routers", and machine time for a small production run would be quite costly.

If this design was ever to migrate to commercial production, it would probably make more sense to build KD assembly in cast fibreglass.

Custom colorscheme and pinstriping by Chip Foose, please, with replaceable front bafflles by the zigster

"hi, my name is chris, and my hi-fi's been  Overhauled "

Hard to compare the corner horns to the HDTs as the corner horns are in Steve's custom listening room that was, to some degree, built around/with these speakers in mind.  At the 2003 Decfest we heard them and the HDTs (with still fresh drivers).  The horns in his listening room, the HDTs in his garage, hardly a fair comparision.

My honest opinion:


The horn is too small to extend frequency response below 40 Hz, therefore it cannot be an audiophile speaker as it misses some of the musical range, it can only be part of an audiophile speaker.  


To develop depth of soundstage a corner horn must be located in a room that has wing walls across from each other as Steve has done, making it practicality very limited.


Steve's room isn't small, but with the needed wing walls and 45 degree orientation built into the design of the horns, the listener is pretty well forced into nearfield listening setup.  This again limits its application.


Maybe Steve is more busy than I can imagine, but don't know why its taken years after they were built to get these plans off the shelf.


I wasn't all that impressed with what I heard.  Keep in mind that they use middle of the road Fostex drivers.  And as you may recall I like and own Fostex.  This goes back to my suggestions to make a larger version of the cabinet that would accommodate larger drivers and produce deeper bass.  IMO this is a very involved cabinet to be limited by "ordinary" drivers.  And IMO no cabinet can be ideally suited for a wide variety of drivers as has been discussed here.  Just my opinion.

The music played was unfamilar to me.  The source was obviously vinyl, with all it's surface noise/etc.  As a digital guy that bothered me right from the start.  Another reason I wasn't impressed is because Steve played a game with each of us, as we were escorted into the room blind folded.  Games shouldn't be necessary.  Perhaps I take audio too seriously.

JLM
So, maybe it is just that your ears prefer BR/TL and sand amps?

Say that's a novel idea Jeff, about putting our audio beliefs in our user profiles.  I like that.  But I don't think I would know what to say.    ::)

Alf I think mine would be identical to the letter.

Dave

Im so excited, details please, please?

[quote author=nodiak  link=1121200742/15#18 date=1113187395]got the phase plug info  8) [/quote]


Nodie,

Care to share on this?

Take care,

Corey

The flux of the magnet holds it on and just the pins are contacting the pole piece? This doesn't seem like a stable surface area but I guess it must be.  :)

Take care,

Corey

I just wanted to say hello to everyone and add that last week I stopped by Decware. Steve is a great guy and let me listen to some of his equipment and many of his ideas.. My general impression of him and his equipment is extremely favorable. Now, you might ask yourself, OK, but why leave this type of a message in the Corner horn forum? My reasoning revolves around one simple idea. Steve's corner horn setup sounds fantatstic!

I have been in and around gear professionally and otherwise from about 1971. I have been a huge fan of several brands of speakers, but in the short amount of listening I was able to do at DECware, I can tell you that I am extremely impressed by the corner horns. In my belief, it is one of the best sounding speakers I have ever heard. It blows my mind to think he is getting all of that from a single 6.5" driver.. Yes, I will be building at least one pair of the horns.

Steve is a great resource and in every aspect I have seen, he views his equipment with a passion and sense of perfection that one seldom sees in anything.. I have no affiliation with Steve other than immediate and immense respect. He is a true audiophile.

IMO, if you haven't listened to these things yet, you should.

[quote author=gnat leader  link=1121200742/45#57 date=1141026433]Excuse my ignorance, but what is the driver he's using in it? [/quote]

At the time I heard them, I believe he had a modified Fostex FE-167 in them.  Simply incredible. He tells me that there is a better combination as a two way, but I can't remember what drivers it consisted of. I will likely play with a few of my own ideas once built. Such as a two way with a ESS Heil tweeter.. etc etc.

Frankly, I am also thinking that I will build a set of imperial horns as well, even though I never heard those..