What kind of speaker for home made e-caller
- Thread starter BruceB
- Start date
A coaxial cone speaker can give a frequency response to 22 kilohertz. This is for all intents and purposes ultrasonic, beyond the range of most adult human hearing. However bobcats and foxes and coyotes have been found to hear frequencies as high as 50 to 60 KHz. Obviously what sounds good to you and me is not as significant as how it sounds to a predator.
As a longtime handcaller and lipsqueaker I found these busier, squeakier calls more effective than cassette tapes of old, which topped out at about 16KHz. So, years later I built my ecaller specifically to reproduce coaxer noises, lipsqueaks, recordings of mice in order to call predators extremely close (occasionally right up to the speaker) for photography.
Powerhorns don't reproduce these noises in these higher pitched frequencies; typically they don't go beyond 12 or 15KHz . Too, the 6" cone that I use does a better job with deep mountain lion vocalizations, fawn bleats, and doe death struggle sounds. Powerhorns are more efficient, however, and will be louder at the same power draw level (although they're prone to distortion at high volumes).
LionHo
As a longtime handcaller and lipsqueaker I found these busier, squeakier calls more effective than cassette tapes of old, which topped out at about 16KHz. So, years later I built my ecaller specifically to reproduce coaxer noises, lipsqueaks, recordings of mice in order to call predators extremely close (occasionally right up to the speaker) for photography.
Powerhorns don't reproduce these noises in these higher pitched frequencies; typically they don't go beyond 12 or 15KHz . Too, the 6" cone that I use does a better job with deep mountain lion vocalizations, fawn bleats, and doe death struggle sounds. Powerhorns are more efficient, however, and will be louder at the same power draw level (although they're prone to distortion at high volumes).
LionHo
When I was just getting into wildlife photography many years ago, I read something by Leonard Lee Rue where he said he used a dog whistle to get habituated zoo and National Park animals to look up from grazing, so I bought one. But since it's chrome plated and gets more attention from park rangers than a lipsqueak, I never ended up using it.
Hadn't picked it up in years, until I was graphing frequencies of various calls in the sound editor GoldWave some time back. Turns out the dog whistle looks like white noise. A lipsqueak, on the other hand, looks very much like a mouse squeak.
Which further confirmed my opinion that a dog whistle is utterly useless as a predator call.
Another thing worth considering is that ultrasonic sounds don't propagate well (IOW, they don't carry far), and are mostly useful as coaxer noises.
But I do find the range between 15-22kHz to be a very important part of the sound spectrum for predator calling. Most horns don't touch this range.
LionHo
Hadn't picked it up in years, until I was graphing frequencies of various calls in the sound editor GoldWave some time back. Turns out the dog whistle looks like white noise. A lipsqueak, on the other hand, looks very much like a mouse squeak.
Which further confirmed my opinion that a dog whistle is utterly useless as a predator call.
Another thing worth considering is that ultrasonic sounds don't propagate well (IOW, they don't carry far), and are mostly useful as coaxer noises.
But I do find the range between 15-22kHz to be a very important part of the sound spectrum for predator calling. Most horns don't touch this range.
LionHo
The specific speaker brand probably isn't too important, not nearly as significant as the basic design. If my 20-year old paper-cone Pioneer 6" diameter 100W Coax ever gives up the ghost, I'll replace it with a new one that has a poly cone. I'll rue the day that happens, though, since I'm pretty sure I'll have to spend a bunch of time sanding and spray-painting the plastic-chrome-swirly-hubcap-ninja-shurikan-Blade-spinner-thingy of a speaker grill with flat olive drab paint.
Come to think of it the biggest issue may be in fact be finding a speaker with out a plastic-chrome-swirly- hubcap-ninja-shurikan-Blade-spinner-thingy grill. My old one has a grill with a fine metal mesh that twigs can't penetrate and get at the paper cone, likely the reason for it's longevity.
Other than the grill issue, just about any 4" to 6" round coax should do the trick. Bigger ones will have better low frequency sound reproduction, but of course will be heavier.
Let us all know if you find one that works especially well.
LionHo
Come to think of it the biggest issue may be in fact be finding a speaker with out a plastic-chrome-swirly- hubcap-ninja-shurikan-Blade-spinner-thingy grill. My old one has a grill with a fine metal mesh that twigs can't penetrate and get at the paper cone, likely the reason for it's longevity.
Other than the grill issue, just about any 4" to 6" round coax should do the trick. Bigger ones will have better low frequency sound reproduction, but of course will be heavier.
Let us all know if you find one that works especially well.
LionHo
Budo, I didn't mean to suggest that I use a RS amp with my speaker. I use and have had good results from the Velleman VK4001 7Watt amp, though.
I'd be quite surprised if the RS amp has the juice to drive a cone-type automotive speaker; their published spec shows it does not have an good audio frequency response in the near-ultrasonic range (that even an average cone speaker will have).
LionHo
I'd be quite surprised if the RS amp has the juice to drive a cone-type automotive speaker; their published spec shows it does not have an good audio frequency response in the near-ultrasonic range (that even an average cone speaker will have).
LionHo
I bought one from WalMart, back in the automotive section. It is made in China and is 5.25" Polypropylene, Dual cone.
5.3oz magnet 15watts RMS @ 1KHz, 40 watts max. paid $8 something for it. I hooked it up but dosen't seem to have enough volume. I am running the vellman amp 8aa batery pack and Nady receiver.
5.3oz magnet 15watts RMS @ 1KHz, 40 watts max. paid $8 something for it. I hooked it up but dosen't seem to have enough volume. I am running the vellman amp 8aa batery pack and Nady receiver.
I have an old horn speaker out of a Magnavox stero that sound good, but it is heavy. It is made out aluminum I guess, it is rectunglar in shape 4"x10 1/2" and dosen't have any spec. written on it other than a part number 580088-1 then 67.32 on it, but it really sounds good.I may try and use it in another application.