Members bikehorn Posted February 3, 2004 Members Share Posted February 3, 2004 It has become apparent that a W bin is 1) just plain goddamn impractical to build this summer2) probably not the best speaker cabinet for an electric bass so, i have been searching around for speaker designs to use in my electric bass endeavours. i found a bunch of other good looking W bins(various designs by Celestion, Fane, Eminence, JBL, Electro-Voice and others), but again, i can't use them. maybe i'll make a pair of PA subs sometime. anyway, i finally came across the drawings and dimensions for the Sunn 2000S 2x15. Sunn called it a "rear loaded folded horn" but it looks more like a regular old 2x15 direct radiating port box from the outside...except the port is a large rectangular thing in between the two 15" speakers(JBL D140Fs) that extends the full width of the cabinet and there are two angled baffle boards inside that you can't see just by looking at the cabinet from a distance. the picture is a huge one, so i'm just going to give the link rather than put the pic in here. here it is. the drawing does not have any dimensions on it, but they are as follows: 24" in width, 36" in height, and 15" deep. the internal horn baffles have a 3 to 3.5" horizontal section and a 9" angled section mounted at a 45 degree angle. it doesn't seem like there is anything highly scientific about the design of this cabinet, as all the numbers are nice round ones, as the height and width are just plain old multiples of a foot. and the 1x15 version was just the same cabinet with the bottom half lopped off and the full height of the port(i think). the reason i am posting this and blabbing so much is that i'd like to build this cabinet in the summer months, but with some modifications. i sort of have this thing for 18" speakers for electric bass use. plenty of BEEF. as a result i'd like to put an 18" speaker in the bottom half, probably a Celestion G18Q-400 and a random(but quality) 15" in the top. will there be any sort of acoustic disturbance to either speaker by the other if i use different driver sizes? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted February 3, 2004 Members Share Posted February 3, 2004 I'm far from an expert but that looks like a hideous design with a backwards horn loaded port. I wonder if there is a way to tune that thing. If you want to build a funky FH type of cab,how about copying the old Cerwin Vega model that was an 18" "e" style horn with a front mounted 10-12" driver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OMNIFEX Posted February 3, 2004 Members Share Posted February 3, 2004 Looks like a Bass Relfex, with an esoteric flare to me. Have you checked Ebay. There are always bass hornspopping up around there. I would cost you cheaper to buy one than build one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted February 3, 2004 Members Share Posted February 3, 2004 Yuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bikehorn Posted February 4, 2004 Author Members Share Posted February 4, 2004 Originally posted by agedhorse Yuck why yuck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted February 4, 2004 Members Share Posted February 4, 2004 Originally posted by bikehorn why yuck? Look at it. How can a reverse horn port possibly sound good?Maybe by accident,it doesn't sound that bad,but it looks like a recipe for horrible tuning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted February 4, 2004 Members Share Posted February 4, 2004 Originally posted by bikehorn why yuck? Generally it's such a bad compromise... big, heavy, poorly tuned or even tuneable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassknave Posted February 4, 2004 Members Share Posted February 4, 2004 I have to stand with Andy on this-- Sunn's bass cabs were radical back in the day, but they were huge and heavy--and were competing with the likes of Fender Bassman and JBL D140 loaded Dual Showman cabs, which were sealed designs. As one who has owned Kustom K200A1 4x 15, Fender Bassman, Fender Dual Showman, Vox Westminster Stacks, Acoustic 361s, Ampeg SVT 8x10, Ampeg V4B, PV Mark III & IV, among others, and still owns two Sunn Sorados (dual 15--Altec 418-421), I can testify that they were all heavy and huge. Sunn's cabs were an early effort at reflex cabinets, with the porting doubling as an attempt to gain efficiency by horn loading. This was pre Thiele-Small. Back then, we didn't fully understand that the interplay of porting and volume would actually allow us to "voice" reflex cabinets. My current rig is tony, bone-crushingly loud--and probably the lightest of all. It's a Trace-Elliot biamp setup with the GP12 SMX preamp and the 2103 H 2x10/horn and the 1153 single 15 cabs.I power with a Soundtech PS 1300 (400WPC/8ohms). This rig handles a low B string beautifully and lets my high C & F strings come through sweetly and articulately (I play a seven). After all, that's what it's designed to do. The 2103 cab weighs in at about 70 lbs; the 1153 is just under 60, and the rack is about 45-50. Stacked, it's less than 4' high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted February 4, 2004 CMS Author Share Posted February 4, 2004 I think it's important to understand that cab designs in the 70's were attempts to handle increasing power, and provide increased volume, with speaker drivers that still hadn't caught up to amplifier technology. It was necessary to increase output by using radical box designs at that time. But as driver quality increased, the simple front loaded sealed or ported box emerged as the best compromise in weight, size, and output. There are few good-quality present day bass speaker cabinets that can't blow away most of the efforts of the 70's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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