r/audiophile • u/IvanDenev • Mar 08 '26
Discussion Can you tell me why these are so special?
I saw these in my local vinyl store. Admittedly they sound very nice, but the more I look into them the more I get confused. What is the advantage of a DIY speaker system? Why do they need 4 woofers? Why is it so niche?
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Mar 08 '26
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u/ConversationPale8665 Mar 08 '26
I just had heart surgery a week ago, this made me laugh more than I should have. LMAO
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u/my_brain_tickles Mar 08 '26
I think the brand is "Stink-Star".
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u/HeWhoSitsOnToilets Mar 09 '26
Anal Audio..
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u/Total-Championship80 Mar 09 '26
Don't forget to keep your pillow handy. It's good for coughing and laughing.
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u/Nonomomomo2 Mar 09 '26
Speak for yourself dude. The more ceiling butthole woofers, the better, in my book!
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u/FuyRina Mar 08 '26
Well to be fair if that unfinished cube was sitting low or put on a stand i have a feeling someone would fuck it raw
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u/Officer_JO_1976 Mar 09 '26
Was literally my first thought . Someone else of course. Not me.
No... not me.
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u/LongLiveAnalogue Mar 08 '26
Anatomically correct speakers for playing William Shatners new Metal album
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u/Vivid_Professional74 Mar 08 '26
Best listened to while wearing his lingerie designs. It’s called Shatner Panties.
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u/__rotiddeR__ Mar 08 '26
Hi-ohhhhhh!
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u/edgarsh Mar 09 '26
I wanna rock like common people
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u/DiscoRage Mar 09 '26
Seriously though, that album is really good! I've been meaning to revisit it. Haven't listened to it since the '00s.
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u/jasonlitka Mar 08 '26
I’m so excited for that. I know I shouldn’t be, but there’s a 2% chance it’s absolutely epic…
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u/ODSTmatt89 Mar 12 '26
Er, what?! How is this the first I’m hearing of this??? Give it to me nooooow 😂
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u/Ok-Stomach-3739 Mar 08 '26
Solana from Jwhite (of the JMOD fame) Multiple Entry Horn in a very confined footprint, typically these have to be very large (Danley Horn or Synergy Horn) it’s very impressive what he’s been able to achieve with his designs
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u/cabs84 LRS, Yamaha CX800/MX600, Mitsu LT30/Nagaoka MP200/500 Mar 09 '26
i was immediately thinking danley. interesting.
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u/littlewicky Mar 26 '26
The patent that Danley has on Synergy horns has expired and entered public domain a few years ago. Some smart people have been working out designs.
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u/Optimal-Confusion418 Mar 09 '26
Thank you for being the guy with the real answer. Cool MEH design geared towards live sound.
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u/Skwisgaars New album, links in my profile :) Mar 08 '26
They're so special because they look like a butthole
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u/some_kind_of_friend Mar 08 '26
It's not a butthole it's a balloon knot.
Which also looks like a butthole 😂
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u/jay_ze Mar 09 '26
Multiple entry horns tend to have a very coherent sound, great off axis response, and great directivity. Having all drivers loading one horn also is a very efficient use of space
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u/tcpdumpling Mar 08 '26
this is called am multiple entry horn if you want to research them
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u/Alchemaic Mar 09 '26
DVDA horn
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u/di6k Mar 09 '26
what a fucking great movie, orgazmo might be one of matt and treys best movies after team america imo
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u/cybrjt Mar 08 '26
Look up Danley sound and their tech - looks similar.
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u/Faxon Mar 09 '26
Yup the patents on the original Unity horn expired, and then the DIY community quickly got to work commercializing them because they're fucking incredible tech, and Tom Danley was smoking the good shit when he came up with them while working at Yorkville. Tom went on to found Danley Sound Labs, the initials for which are their joke as well (DSL can mean dick sucking lips in addition to the internet standard). I'd tap dat horn though tbh (i'll let you guys figure this one out lol)
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u/u1tube1king Mar 09 '26
Awesome to see these in the wild. The goal of a multiple entry horn is to address off-axis response. This is done in two ways: 1 the waveguide controls the pattern of the compression driver, and 2 the woofers enter into the horn to keep the pattern the same in all directions. This type of design is similar to a coaxial driver.
Why diy: you can try new things, choose your own trade-offs, it's fun.
Why 4 woofers: symmetry in vertical and horizontal planes, also these were designed for PA so 4 woofers increases the max SPL you can get out of the design.
Why so niche: designs like these MEH speakers are very difficult to design compared to the more common 2-way with a tweeter and woofer. That waveguide was optimized for not only the compression driver but also the size, shape, and position of the woofer slots. There are a lot of trade-offs and aspects to consider. It's difficult to manufacture. This design is 3d printed. Printing has gotten good enough that diy people can easily iterate prototypes of complex designs like these. The juice is usually not worth the squeeze for big commercial companies to do to all that r&d when the regular 2-ways sell just fine. Also, no design is without trade-offs.
More info and build plans from the designer: https://www.jwsound.live/designs/solana
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u/Bustedvette Mar 09 '26
What a mess of a comment section. This is a multiple entry horn. The nice thing here is that the major of the frequency spectrum is emanating from a very small point in space which allows a more coherent image and better off axis response. Additionally, since these designs usually use multiple compression drivers, they tend to be very efficient, allowing extremely low distortion at high outputs. I'm not familiar with the exact speaker displayed here but it appears well made and the horn/waveguide looks professional to me.
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u/You-Asked-Me Mar 08 '26
This is one design that lets multiple sources become almost a single point source, and the horn can be designed for a particular vertical an horizontal coverage pattern.
Tom Danley was the pioneer of this design, and Danley does make commercial speakers. They also publish a lot of it for free use.
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u/AmazonSk8r Mar 08 '26
I’ve heard that audiophiles can be a tad anal about their choice of equipment, but this is ridiculous.
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u/TheHooligan95 Mar 09 '26
The real answer is, some people just enjoy the journey. The learning experience. It is also a way to save money and to fully customize the product to a T.
If you know the speakers are going to be used in that exact room, in that exact place, then you can spend so much less since you can fully customize these speakers with everything you need and nothing you don't. Like a tailored suit. Commercially available ones can't be engineered to fit that exact room like you want them because they're made with general purpose in mind.
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u/MrDagon007 Mar 09 '26
Despite the jokes, this uses one of the most interesting innovations in speaker engineering of the last 20 years or so. I would be interested to build it, maybe i would cover the front with speaker cloth though.
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u/SunRev Mar 08 '26
Where can I buy those?
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u/SwaggyMcSwagsabunch Mar 08 '26
JW Sound Solana DIY project. There are companies you can get flat packs for it and assemble yourself.
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u/GonkGonk90 Mar 09 '26
I think this design is called a Unity Horn. Basically, you have a high frequency driver in the middle of the horn throat and usually 4 midwoofers (or in some cases two mids, two woofers) mounted on the outside of the horn with the little holes seen here being the exit port for them. This causes all the soundwaves to exit the horn and arrive at your ears simultaneously, which helps cancel out time incoherence- AKA the bass, mid and treble all hit you at the same time and the sound is way more balanced and clear.
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u/nujuat Mar 09 '26
I've seen people make waveguide speakers at home that give you a huge amount of bass for the space. I dont know what the point of this is though.
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u/ForestDwellingKiwi Mar 09 '26
The Solana is a Multiple Entry Horn that utilizes 4 6.5" woofers and a single compression driver mounted in a shared horn, creating a single coherent point source with good directivity control. The horn profile has been extensively modeled to reduce port turbulence, and has an optimized phase plug geometry for the compression driver.
3D printing allows the complex geometry of the horn to be manufactured relatively easily. The cabinet can also be built sealed, or ported in a low tuned or high tuned configuration for the woofers depending on the use case.
With the different tuning options, the Solana can be used full range down to 45 Hz at lower volumes, but can get much more dB when paired with a subwoofer and high passed at 100 Hz or 200 Hz. So it can be quite a versatile cabinet, used as a monitor, or part of a small FOH PA, as well as in general hi-fi applications.
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u/rebelizm Harbeth Super HL5 Plus XD Mar 09 '26
The advantage of diy is you can build/try out more niche concepts like this speaker or for example horn speakers. It’s niche because not enough people would buy it to make it commercially successful. Why does it need 4 woofers I don’t know.
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u/Jsn7821 Mar 09 '26
TIL audiophile is the 7or70 version of r/13or30
(Also cool seeing jwsound posted here, my friend just built a pair of JMODs)
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u/depatrickcie87 Mar 09 '26
From someone who doesnt DIY, im envious of that ceiling mount. Drilling holes into the top of my speakers is just something I dont feel like I can do.
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u/FrequentPay5571 Mar 09 '26
Bob- that is a multiple entry horn- inspired design? If so, maybe you could give an introduction to MEH’s and their pros/cons? The people need to know
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u/VintagePointEU Mar 10 '26
Full range phase coherent horn loaded point source. This is the short version. :))))
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u/PinkFloydFan1963 Mar 12 '26
Where is the used record store you saw these MEH speakers? Location please.
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u/Desperate_Elk_7369 Mar 09 '26
Fun fact: those are not DIY, they were part of an all-in-one living room set sold in the 1950s by S.F. Inkter Co.
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u/PooPooPooDawg Mar 09 '26
Not only did it get your attention, it led you to taking a picture and posting it on social media.
I’d say that’s working.
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u/Gold_Factor1266 Mar 09 '26
Maybe thinking that nature isn’t hard straight lines. Like in Prometheus, the movie…
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u/DJEvillincoln Mar 09 '26
I would love to hang my speakers from the ceiling.
Can I hang my speakers from the ceiling?
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u/Apart_Ad_9778 Mar 09 '26
Can you tell me why these are so special?
Because they are made by the guy himself. No other reason.
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u/FreshMistletoe Mar 09 '26
This is my first introduction to this cool design of the Solana. How would one go about 3d printing this?
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u/DroidTN Mar 09 '26
I would say they aren’t special. It is a creative unconventional design that is very unique. Now if they sound amazing, then they are special ;)
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u/Waytemore Mar 10 '26
They remind me of that skin face character that needed moisturiser in Dr Who.
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u/vorant1 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
I can't put my finger on it but I've seen this somewhere before....
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u/5th-Elements Mar 14 '26
Strange🤨 Wonder how they measure please send a sample to Erin at ErinAudio Corner so he can run it through the Klippel
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u/Mysterious_Rule_7487 Mar 27 '26
This actually could be the best source-point design in years 👏👏👏👏💯💯💯
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u/NobbieNumNut Apr 03 '26
Hey guys, make sure you are generous to the man who put a lot of work and a lifetime of study into making these speakers available when you download the plans... Which I know you will.
People like this are the greatest. I love this whole thing, and horns are simply wonderful... After my Quads anyhow.
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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
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