# USD/ID guides



## JsUltimateSounds (Nov 29, 2011)

i have access to the ID cd1e and USD entry level with motorola drivers.
i have only heard one pair of horns that sounded good (Brantley Miller's). Although he had so much money and time put into it. 
Is there a simple/effective way to run horns without them sounding so harsh amd bright. i have put layers of dampening material on back side of horns to reduce resonance. 

Thanks,
JS 
~no luck with horns~


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## Patrick Bateman (Sep 11, 2006)

JsUltimateSounds said:


> i have access to the ID cd1e and USD entry level with motorola drivers.
> i have only heard one pair of horns that sounded good (Brantley Miller's). Although he had so much money and time put into it.
> Is there a simple/effective way to run horns without them sounding so harsh amd bright. i have put layers of dampening material on back side of horns to reduce resonance.
> 
> ...


If I were going to do an entry level set of HLCDs, here's what I would do:

1) don't even think about using cheap compression drivers. I'd opt for the $45 or $50 compression driver from Celestion that's available at PartsExpress. Or perhaps the ubiquitous Selenium compression driver, from the EWave design. There aren't many good compression drivers under $60, but those are a good start.
2) If you want to reduce harshness in horns, you need to deal with high order modes. Check out my 'homster' thread on diyaudio. Basically you'll want to add a roundover underneath the horn, to reduce diffraction at the mouth.
3) Don't even think about doing HLCDs unless you have a way to flatten out their response. Back in the 90s that meant that you needed an EQ. These days I'd consider using an Android, iPhone or iPad as a source, and pick a player that includes an EQ
4) Get yourself one of those free RTA programs for your smart phone, so you can measure and flatten out the response

That's about it. Basically combine a decent compression driver with the USD or ID HLCDs, then use the EQ on your smartphone to flatten out the response. All of this assumes that you're willing to use a phone or tablet for your source.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

I would take the selenium d2500 over the d220 that is used on the Econowave. But you would need some thread on to bolt on adapters for them. Really nice drivers.

Or you could buy Joe zelano's prelude and be done with it.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Now if you had the room for a larger driver, you can get a badassed driver for about $50. The new Dayton Audio D250 is pretty much a direct copy of the B&C DE250 and is $40 for the titanium domed one and $50 for the polyamide domed one.

If I had the space for them, that's what I would get.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

The polyamide is the one you would want IMO...that's what the B&C is.


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## Horsemanwill (Jun 1, 2008)

jason would those mount up to the ID horns without any adaptors?


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Bolt up to the cd2 mini and all big horns from everyone...standard 2 hole bolt spacing.


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## Patrick Bateman (Sep 11, 2006)

If anyone wants to spend $200 on a lil' experiment, here's something you might try:

1) get a pair of the Parts Express D250-8s








2) buy the parts for the crossover schematic above. This is Danley's crossover for the Lambda Unity horn with the B&C DE25
















3) Make yourself a conical horn, and jam it under the dash

Although the Danley crossover was designed for a horn with dimensions that are bigger, if you use the boundaries of the car to extend the curve, it should work pretty well. All of my most successful crossovers for compression drivers used one of Danley's schematics as a starting point. Basically tweaked resistors until it sounded good.

One nice thing about using passives is that noise is very low. And of course you don't need an EQ then, because the EQ is built into the passive xover circuit.


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## corcraft (Nov 16, 2010)

Patrick Bateman said:


> If anyone wants to spend $200 on a lil' experiment, here's something you might try:
> 
> 1) get a pair of the Parts Express D250-8s
> 
> ...


What recomended mid for this project? Whats the xover freq? How thick mdf of fiberglass? Or does that matter. Sorry, i know nothing about hlcd's but like projects.


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