Mixing folded horn and standard cabinets

[vwbidder]

I just picked up a set of JBL 2241H 18's in home made folded horn cabinets that are 2' wide by 3' high by 3' deep at a pawn shop for $355 out the door. The cabinets rattle some but its nothing some good glue and a finishing nail gun can't fix. We currently have an 18" Kilomax in an oversized ported cabinet (just over 9 cu ft and ported around 32hz) and will be getting a second one soon. My question is will they work well together or will there be conflicts/cancellations? They will be running off the same amp if that matters.

[Paul O]

> My question is will they work WELL together

Short answer.. No.

> or will there be conflicts/cancellations?

YES.

"Best" results will be achieved with the reflex cab delayed enough to time align with the horn, but this does nothing to fix the response differences and resulting phase inconsistency between the different drivers and cabs. The phase response varies with frequency and it will vary differently for both cabs. You might actually produce less bass with both powered, versus just 1. You could put them on seperate pass bands, depending upon where they work better, but you will still need a DSP loudspeaker processor to get the most. You might be better off scraping the horn enclosure and building another reflex box with the JBL, it will cooperate "better" with the Kilomax that way, if tuned similarly.

[wg_ski]

> I just picked up a set of JBL 2241H 18's in
> home made folded horn cabinets that are 2'
> wide by 3' high by 3' deep at a pawn shop
> for $355 out the door. The cabinets rattle
> some but its nothing some good glue and a
> finishing nail gun can't fix. We currently
> have an 18" Kilomax in an oversized
> ported cabinet (just over 9 cu ft and ported
> around 32hz) and will be getting a second
> one soon. My question is will they work well
> together or will there be
> conflicts/cancellations? They will be
> running off the same amp if that matters.

Decide whether you want horns or reflex boxes, and stick with it. Don't mix. Something to help you decide is whether the horns are any good. Do the horns actually go low enough (many do not), and is the buzzing something in the cab that can be fixed (or are the drivers blown)? If the horns are well designed (with at least an 8 foot air column length) they will be hard to beat with four conventional 18's. But if the cabs are trash and/or the JBLs blown, it might not have been such a good deal.