Metal and Wood Horns

[Daithi]

If metal horns are good, why are cellos made of wood ?

[Roaring20s]

Are you wondering why horns were originally made of metal and not wood?
I would guess they were meant to project sound like the brass instruments in an orchestra.

James.


"If tin whistles are made of tin, what do they make foghorns out of?"
- Lonnie Donegan (1961)

[gramophone-georg]

If metal horns are good, why are cellos made of wood ?

Wood is easier to fiddle with.

[Daithi]

If metal horns are good, why are cellos made of wood ?

Wood is easier to fiddle with.

Can't stop laughing.

[Marco Gilardetti]

If metal horns are good, why are cellos made of wood ?

Because cellos are resonators for standing waves. Horns are impedance adaptors for travelling waves, and should not resonate.

[Orchorsol]

If metal horns are good, why are cellos made of wood ?

Because cellos are resonators for standing waves. Horns are impedance adaptors for travelling waves, and should not resonate.

Exactly! Horns are also known as "waveguides".

[epigramophone]

Wooden horns such as the Music Master were an extra cost option on many external horn machines, and are sought after by collectors, yet when comparing internal horn machines many of these same collectors consider the metal HMV Re-Entrant horn superior to the wooden Victor Orthophonic.

[Daithi]

If metal horns are good, why are cellos made of wood ?

Because cellos are resonators for standing waves. Horns are impedance adaptors for travelling waves, and should not resonate.

Thanks Marco. So if I understand this correctly the walls of the cello are designed to reproduce the frequency of and vibrate in sympathy with the vibrations generated by the strings, whereas the horn is designed to be a dead thing and to not vibrate but simply direct the sound. Is that correct? I struggle with words like resonate and impedance because I don't really understand exactly what they mean. I think I have some idea what resonate means but I have absolutely no understanding of impedance as it relates to sound other than that to impede something is to get in the way of it and prevent its progress. Thanks for your reply and for your patience.

[Daithi]

Because cellos are resonators for standing waves. Horns are impedance adaptors for travelling waves, and should not resonate.

Exactly! Horns are also known as "waveguides".

So the horn is simply guiding the sound wave in a particular direction? Does this mean that the horn should not vibrate since to do so would absorb energy from the wave ?
So how does the horn make sound louder ?

[Daithi]

Wooden horns such as the Music Master were an extra cost option on many external horn machines, and are sought after by collectors, yet when comparing internal horn machines many of these same collectors consider the metal HMV Re-Entrant horn superior to the wooden Victor Orthophonic.

So some property of metal V wood makes it more suitable as a horn material, and if so, what is that property?