This would be testing my knowledge of horns methinks :-*

Just to oversimplify things let me ask a question.
Doesn't the expansion of a horn basically release the sound wave into open air at a point where the frequency's size is equal to the mouth area? Or at least in this instance 1/4 wavelength of the frequency?
If this is the case, then the longer the horn gets, the more control over the wavefront it would have therefore providing the speaker with a cushion to load against and reinforce the wave. At least that is how I see the expansion helping to make the horn more efficient than a typical box.
If anyone has a simpler explanation, that is what I want. i have read a bunch of books on the subject and had several conversations with Mr. Bruce Edgar about it, but the complications are all mathematics and little theory really.
That being said, I believe that the effect of a longer horn is a more level and smoother sounding response, but the only output gain being from the improved power handling and limited excursion created by the pressure back against the woofer at a given frequency.
Now I am getting too technical to be practical though. Any thoughts? To get more SPL basically you have to increase the power, increase the cone area, increase the excursion, or increase the efficiency of the entire system (of course any combination of the above multiplies). So, in theory this means that the most SPL producing set up would be a chamber that has an open horn on either side of the driver, but there is no way to model it that I know of. Could one say that a horn on both sides would double the output? Of course wouldn't the 2 horns be 180 degrees out of phase unless they were different lengths with different expansion ratios.
I had this conversation with Mr. Edgar and he laughed at the complexity of it at the time saying it was more trouble to do on paper than in practice and I should build it and let him know how it turned out lol.
Ahh to have my shop back. On the good side, my best friend has a saw and a shop and I have some other tools. I just need a brad nailer and a good compressor and I am on my way again.
The WO is a bass enclosure so working with more horns and more size is probably not going to affect it as much as changing the chamber size, power handling, and excursion of the drivers. Who wants to be the first to build one of these monsters we have described? Personally I am up for the port out the bottom idea with the opening on the same side as the mouth. I might build that with a really, really low tuning frq just to see if it sounds good for a TV stand in my HT. Anybody know of a 10" with a really low Fs? (Like below 20hz)
Ok enough books for today. I am getting carried away lol.
Went loud, went home! :'(
Robert