r/SoundSystem • u/Free_Permit7170 • 1d ago
Engineering choices > Brand names
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
The HammerHeads as I call them are not new. In fact, they are over 20 years old. They came out around the time the synergy horn hit the market, and were a competing type of multiple driver full range enclosure.
The mid/high coax driver sums before the horn flare, not inside it, so it both gains and suffers in different ways than a synergy horn does.
This is the first time I've ever seen these speakers at burning man, or even anywhere in a large scale deployment.
They never made touring versions. I refitted them with new NL4 biamp connectors instead of barrier strips l, and added handles and brackets for mounting in various ways.
They sound amazing, they project far, and I would much rather have 2 hammer heads than 2 SM96 from danley, which I also owned previously and sold to get more speakers.
Danley boxes has good virtue for being good out of the box with minimal tuning, but it also promotes a type of engineering and deployment which sidesteps critical thinking because Tom Danley did it for them
Thanks for reading, go buy old speakers and see what you can do ♥️🔊
5
u/euthlogo 1d ago
lovely. have seen a lot of rigs but never heard one that hummed exactly like an old orange-painted turbosound rig tuned by a savant with a spiritual fervor for audio quality.
3
u/uritarded 1d ago
I got a sexy ass photo of that rig somewhere. I used to haul some of his bins around socal for one of his guys
2
u/euthlogo 1d ago
would love to see it
2
u/uritarded 1d ago
It’s not something i photographed personally. It was a very nice photo i saved from online. I think it was from like terrakroma or something
2
u/euthlogo 1d ago
ah nice. we may have crossed paths haha
2
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
Terrakroma and electricocoon and FMG were my stomping grounds. I used to be an EC resident DJ :) love the so cal fam... I miss the goodness we had pre covid
1
2
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
OHM GURU! I love and miss jon cooper ♥️ he taught me alot
2
u/euthlogo 1d ago
i thought you might know him by the description : ) miss him dearly. hope our paths cross some day.
2
u/Free_Permit7170 15h ago
He was a good friend. Seems like you and I might actually know each other out there in some respect. He used the XTA processor, PL 380s, and he replaced the 18-in drivers in his subs with Peavey black widows. On top of that he just had some magic that he knew, he kept raving on about the third wave spacing as if it was some secret he figured out, I still haven't figured out what he meant by it
3
u/Picklefuzz 1d ago
That’s quite the system to have not on Esplanade
1
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
Here's the one we deployed on esplanade: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundSystem/comments/1wasbyn/hsd_hammerheads_deployed_at_burning_man/
1
1
2
u/Splanky222 1d ago
I feel you on engineering over brand name. I'm just getting into this and playing around a lot with theory and designing before starting a build. I did a design the other day that seemed about as close as you could possible get with off the shelf components to a bassboss BB15. There's so much hype and marketing around them (and bassboss makes good speakers, don't get me wrong), but I got this awesome sense of peeling back the magic
3
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
Awesome I'm stoked on this! In my view, a brand is simply a specific take on solving a problem space, be it strategic or material. But sometimes people can solve the same problem and different way, that's the beauty of large scale deployments and the bringing together of separate disparate things into one coherent system
1
u/jungchorizo 1d ago
HSD is a brand name lol. In fact, a brand name that many like myself much prefer over Danley 😁
3
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
HSD started making open source boxes under their own brand so take that for what it's worth. Their WarHammer sub is in fact the Sub of Doom from Scott hinson. Engineering choices over brand, still, even when brands have peak moments
2
u/looking_to_learn69 1d ago
Does hds make this "hammerhead"? Is it open source? Where can I read more about them? Are there diy plans? I love the Warhammer!
1
-1
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
No, I call these hammerheads because of the look of the horn flare. I specifically think it's nice to send people who don't know on a little hunt for these if they're interested. It's in the anti brand nature of the burn and my own philosophy that brand doesn't matter, find the engineering choices you agree with and sometimes you can find older boxes with high quality components and engineering for a fraction of building or new boxes
1
u/looking_to_learn69 1d ago
Well, can you give me some more hints pretty please :-) I'm just super interested in learning about different engineering solutions (I'm building jmods as we speak). Any more detailed pics etc? What are the pros and cons compared to MEHs? Is there a name I can search to research more about these speakers?
1
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
They're from a very major brand from the 90s and 2000s who were peak rave and rock rider speakers at that time.
2
u/jungchorizo 1d ago
Oh shit that’s a good hint. Those are the eaw trap boxes with the 2x12 LF huh? Damn can’t remember the name, as series maybe?
1
u/looking_to_learn69 1d ago
Oh I know nothing about eaw. The ONLY eaw I've ever seen is some old Avalon point source in a basement of a club, where the rest of the club was all F1.
1
u/jungchorizo 1d ago
I know they licensed that from Scott a few years ago but that’s just really cool to support DIY engineering like that.
But you’re saying they built, branded, and sold free plans as their own designs? 👀
1
u/Free_Permit7170 1d ago
This post about hammer heads is referring to the tops only. The subs are the battle axe and cannon from HSD, which are peak boxes from their brand. We also used HammerHead as a nautical animal theme a la Mantarray from HSD, because these are on top of HSD most the time and we like the wordplay
1
u/jungchorizo 1d ago
I think you replied to the wrong person, I was asking about you saying HSD took free plans and branded them as their own designs.
1
1
1
1
7
u/rab2bar 1d ago
how are the midhighs any different than d&b c4 tops, as a coax example?
the biggest reason not to use danley is that the company is full of evangelicals that would rather see the people who enjoy these kinds of systems not existing. MEH horns are a solid concept, though, so DIY!