Square Horn or Round Horn?

[SirenTech Ind.]

I've been thinking whether the shape of a horn on a siren makes a difference in the sound output. Which horn is more effective square or round. Tbolt or Hurricane, or any other siren for that matter. I'm not sure whether its easy to select one type of horn, this being the fact that the sirens are different in various ways. Ex. HP, chopper RPMs, port size and so on. So I leave it to the rest of the board to make a possible conclusion.

[Urbanexplorer]

For maximum sound distribution, I would imagine a round horn would be better, because it allows sound waves to rotate around the inside of the horn. A square horn would be better for distributing sound waves to a specific area.

That's only my guess - I didn't get quite that far in my physics curriculum.

[Jim Z]

doesn't matter. as long as the cross-sectional area follows the properties of a proper acoustic horn, it doesn't matter if it's round, square, oval, elliptical, or just totally jacked up.

well, sort of. if you want equal dispersion in all directions, then you want a horn shape which is symmetric in both axes. if it's non-square rectangular or oval/elliptical, it'll have narrower dispersion along the minor axis of the horn's mouth.