Tweak for Oris Horns (BD-Design)

Hey Y'all,

When I was reassembling my Oris 150s after changing drivers (Lowther PM4a AERs to AER MD3s) a couple of years ago I tried a tweak which I believe has merit. This was back when I still had remarkably good hearing. Now I wear two hearing aids, but I still say, "Huh?" quite often.

Remembering that Bert had written that the rubber gasket which is pressed between the horn and the end of the cylindrical back chamber provides valuable resonance damping to the horn I decided to expand on this idea. Looking through my cabinet of speaker building junk accumulated over the last twenty-five or thirty years I found a large quantity of tar-like plastic damping tape which is packaged between two layers of waxed paper. The stuff is as soft and gooey as putty. I have no idea when or where I bought it. I wrapped and pressed this material around the outside of the throat end of the Oris horn so that it filled the space between the aforementioned rubber gasket and the throat end of the horn with its thickness being limited only by what would slip inside the back chamber.

I was and am quite pleased by the results. Without the Oris horn loosing any of its liveness or agility it at the same time seemed just a tad more controlled, tighter and faster. I know subjective judgements of this nature are subject to all manner of idiosyncratic error and flights of imaginatiion.
For that reason I don't usually suggest them, but here I make an exception.

I haven't asked Bert's opinion of this. He might point out some fatal flaw. If he doesn't it might be worth a try.

Don Reid

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