Home-made Credenza Horn?

[OrthoFan]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm7k6ZIeCAo[/youtube]

Wonder what it sounds like in person? I noticed a few differences between this one and the real deal, notably, the flat surfaces, but obviously a lot of time and effort went into it. Anyone know this person? Is he a member of this forum?

[phonophan79]

...interesting!

[Lenoirstreetguy]

It sounds pretty good I have to say: probably in person much superior to most of those late twenties " phonic" knock offs,and bless his heart he's playing the records at the right speed! The internal curve of he horn is probably not quite to Western Electric standards but it sounds very pleasant.
Jim

[bbphonoguy]

I almost laughed outright just with the pleasure of watching this! I thought it was delightful. Great tune too!

[need4art]

Ya know what! I really dig it. If this person has plans I would love a copy. Years ago David B Weems wrote up plans for at least 15 different speaker systems as a Hi Fi nut I built most of them. There was sweet 16-using 16 4" speaker. Mr Thouris's magic Box etc. I have a shop and have brought a portable out with me. But would love to put together something like this and have it out there. I cut grind paint and do normal art resto stuff out there but with this you got great sound and you are not going to hurt the cabinet. GIVE ME MORE
Abe

[AllWoundUp]

Hello everybody and thanks for the kind comments! I am a member here but I've just been lurking, this is my first post. I have a small collection of old phonographs, Victor VV-35, VV-VIII, Columbia Viva-Tonal 163 portable, Columbia "Period" Queen Anne Electric and a few others. I'd been wanting an Orthophonic for a while and one day when looking at diagrams of the horns I thought, well, I could probably build that if I didn't have to worry about the curves! So I sketched out some plans & went to it. Took me about a month of weekends & evenings.

Built with a cordless 5.5" circular saw, cordless drill, small drill press, belt sander & misc hand tools in my "workshop", (an 8' x 6' shed), my carport and kitchen.

It actually sounds a bit better now as I've rebuilt the Ortho reproducer since I made the videos. now it's got a new Ortho diaphragm and neoprene gaskets. When I first got it, someone had used extra long screws for the dust cover (it's from a portable) and all 4 went right through the diaphragm, which had thick cardboard gaskets glued in with a ton of some kind of hardened goop! When I made the videos, I had put in an old Columbia Viva-tonal diaphragm and paper gaskets temporarily.

You can see pics of it under construction, plus pics I used to figure out how to make it and some plans I drew up here:

http://gallery.me.com/thejohanssons#100062

All the parts came from eBay, Wyatt's Musical Americana, APSCO, phonographs.org and Shenandoah Restoration.

There are 4 more videos of it on YouTube, plus some of my other players, too. Hopefully I will get some more videos up soon.

[OrthoFan]

I think you did a very good job! As noted, this probably sounds very close to the competitors' models from the late 1920s. (Probably better than many of them!)

The secret to the success of the Orthophonic design, in addition to the sound box, was that the horn's expansion/taper followed a specific, calculated rate. Also, there were no corners or abrupt angles in the tone chamber, which could impact, or add distortion, to the sound.

Still, if there are no air in the tone chamber you've designed -- from the throat of the sound box to the horn's mouth -- then it should be able to pump out quite a bit of bass, since it looks to be about six feet in length.


Given your ability with tools, you should try to hunt down a junker Credenza. I've seen a few fixer-uppers from time to time, in your area on Craigslist.
There was one recently in which the seller claimed it had all its parts, for around $100. (The cabinet looked very good.) The ad was pulled a few days ago, so I don't know if it sold, or not, but if it resurfaces, I'll call it to your attention.

OF

[Kirkwood]

My hat is off to anybody that tries to do this, and succeeds like you have. With a better reproducer, as you have already noted, the results must be great. What a neat video---congrats on your efforts. Suggested next project: an Auditorium Orthophonic! They're only just a *little bit* bigger (kidding!) and think of the sound you'd be able to get from that!

[AllWoundUp]

Ortho_Fan,

funny you should mention that, I'm going to go look at that very Orthophonic tomorrow afternoon! Just talked to him, he says it has an electric motor. Wish me luck!

[larryh]

Yes I agree with the others comments, you have done a fine job at recreating good sound from scratch. I have still wondered about a Brunswick Panatrope a dealer mentioned to me way back that he said had "two" horns internally that you could hear all over the block his store was in. I don't know if it was a sideways design instead of a vertical kind like most of them, but the idea struck me as interesting?

Larry