Talk:Horn (acoustic)

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A page about horns as acoustic devices is a great idea, but presently this article is (in my opinion) trying to be a lot of things and is accomplishing none of the well. The scope ought to be constrained to match the entry title, i.e. explanation of how horn-shaped conduits are used in acoustics.

Right now, the article touches on everything from how electric car horns work to the lyrics of "I've been workin' on the railroad" (totally irrelevant) and meaning of the expression "blowing one's own horn". Amazingly, the author has described the operation of the parts of a modern car horn but omitting any mention of the horn-shaped projector and it's role in the volume and pitch of the horn! Most car horns have a snail-shell-shaped acoustic horn that is the piece most relevant to the article.

The article also contains incorrect generalizations about car, truck and train horns. Since there are already Wikipedia articles about these topics which are far more accurate, this stuff should be removed and referenced in the link section. Ditto for musical instruments--there are already pages about horn instruments in general, as well as individual entries for each type of instrument. Likewise for loudspeakers. It's fine to link this article to all of these things, but the article really need not attempt to summarize them. One "examples" section at the end of this article should suffice.

The section of this article that is really on-topic is the small mathematical shape section. This section should be expanded. Exponential and conical horns are mentioned, but without any explanation as to why each is suited to a different task, acoustically. Tractrix, hyperbolic, catenary, and other commonly used horn functions have yet to get mention. Most important of all, an explanation of the acoustic impedance matching, directivity and resonant properties of a horn are required.

A note about the origin of the horn (from animal horns) is probably appropriate, since it explains why they are called horns in the first place, and how their most important acoustic properties were first discovered. --Adamsmith 22:08, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

agreed. this oughta be more of a disambig page or some such; what you want in a musical instrument horn is diametrically opposed to what you want in a horn speaker, and the car/bike/truck horn is completely orthogonal to that. Since we already have an article on the horn speaker..... Gzuckier 19:44, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

They are diametrically opposed? Orthogonal? I don't think so. They all use acoustic horns for the same reasons. — Omegatron 16:27, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Respectfully disagree. What you want in a musical instrument is resonances at individual frequencies so that you can hit specific notes. "The acoustic impedance of musical wind instruments varies spectacularly with frequency because these instruments are designed to produce one or several frequencies only in a particular configuration." This is exactly what you want to avoid in a loudspeaker. Musical instrument horns are not true exponential horns. The effects of the bell. Gzuckier 15:57, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, I got inspired and edited it some instead of just griping. It still needs lots of work, though. Gzuckier 18:37, 5 March 2007 (UTC)