My experience with them is VERY limited. They are highly efficient as you probably know. They produce very little deep bass, if any at all. For that reason, a horn design probably would work slightly better than a ported design. The horn would help maintain the high average spl on the bottom end to whatever the cut-off frequency that the driver and cabinet were capable of doing. Bass horns also TYPICALLY have large unbraced cabinets that tend to resonate quite a bit, adding to the "apparent" bass output of the speaker. It is not uncommon for someone using Lowther's to have some type of sub or bass reinforcement for these reasons. Sean
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There are newer versions of this speaker that have modified/redesigned voice coil setups in order to tame the brightness/detail to your acoustical environment. The old models were very bright, IMO, and as Sean mentions had very little bass. They sounded best in overstuffed/dead rooms (think "After the Thin Man" furniture and drapes). I lost the website that sells the new models (with and without enclosure) and perhaps someone else will know of it. The site also sold tubes and used tube gear. If you are interested in this "type" of speaker you may want to check out Hammerdynamics.com. I understand that the designer/owner recently passed away and my heart goes out to his family and friends. Though I have not listened to the Hammer speakers myself I do find their design to be very interesting and have read favorable info about them in the Audio Asylum forums. They come in kit form only and you either build or have someone else build the enclosure to specs. |
Thanks Sean and Dekay, I have the web site that tells about the new type Lowthers, they claim they work in a bass reflex cabinet. I always heard these speakers need to be horn loaded to get the bass to work, so what I`m after is has some body heard these in the bass reflex cabinet and what did they sound like, I know some people love the horn Lowthers , but I`m looking for a littler better low end. The Lowthers are , as I hear,very fast and very good from the upper bass and the mids are great, there imaging is second to none. the music I play is mostly jazz and fusion and these speakers are very good with it I`m told. |
Hi Drumsgreg, I have heard the new bass reflex and can say it's an improvement over the older tower speaker (more bass). In my opinion sounds better than the horn loaded also. If you call David Dicks (I think thats his name) he is VERY honest and will tell you how it is. I think you will want to add a powered subwoofer regardless if its in your main listening room. As Dekay mentioned the Hammer Dynamics Super 12 Loudspeaker Kit is available. Although the designer/owner passed on to audiophile heaven, his wife plans on keeping the business going. From what my friend that has visited and listened to both speakers tells me, he prefers the Hammer. |
Lak, Thanks ,I`ll call him tomarrow and see what he said about the speakers. did they image well when you heard them , I just get tired of hearing the speakers and not a whole lot of the music. Thanks Greg |
YES, they image very well. You just have to let David know what type of room you have, to determine which speaker is best for you. David has the BEST pricing I could find. I highly recommend him as an audiophile and gentleman. What type of amp/preamp will you use? Let us know what he says! |
I have the Rogue 66 and the 88 power amp, the cables are all Mapleshade and the digital will be the AudioNote DAC1.1 when it gets here and the speakers I now use are the Meadowlark Shearwater, but they will go back in the H.T. room with the rest of the Meadowlark speakers.These speakers sound great but I just don`t want to pull them out so far in the room to get them to image,which they do well . I originally bougth them for the H.T. room were they have been making great sounds with the other Meadowlarks.I`m tring to find a speaker that will let the drums out of the box if you know what I mean.I hear the Lowthers dont have to be so far out in the room to image like a bandit. And they are reported to be very fast for dynamic drivers. Thanks Greg |
Drumsgreg; Knowing that, let me say this: At a minimum of 102 sensitivity, it doesn't take much horsepower to drive the Lowthers to very loud levels. Lowthers are perhaps the most resolving speakers I have ever heard. Every little detail is there! The realism is pretty astounding. Contrary to what I said earlier, there is plenty of treble and bass. The bass is surprisingly well defined, and sounds like real bass, not pseudo bass. The drivers I listened to were the DX-2. All you have to do is pick out the drivers that match the liveliness of yor listening room. Over time I wonder if the Lowther speaker could become Fatiguing, thats a question I do not have an answer for? Dekay mentioned something about a new voice coil, but I have no information about that. With all that said I think the Hammer Dynamics S-12 is the way to go! Its much smoother than the Lowther, less fatiguing, and better imaging! They are 97db efficient. I don't mean to confuse you, just want to give you as much information as possible so you can reach a decision. I hope this helps! |
Lak, Thanks for the info on the speakers, no you aren`t going to confuse me , I take a good long look at things and reseach it out before I spend my money, the more info I get the better I`m informed to do the right thing. Thanks Greg |
a horn-loaded design that i'm curious about is the hedlund horn. http://www.adminsoft.ch/Hedlund/HedStart.htm
this is designed for the lowthers, or the aer driver, which is basically a german-made lowther knock-off, that's supposed to best the lowthers in all areas.(perhaps addressing your concerns, lak?) the hammer s-12 - a wery interesting concept, really isn't truly full-range; it goes from ~45hz to 11khz, & uses a x-over w/a supertweeter. |
Lak, I spoke to David today and he is a very bright guy, and very angry at the people who trash his speakers [dealers] .I ordered the plans and when I finish the cabinets I`ll order the drivers .I believe the guy when says there the best speaker made, I shall see if this is true in a few weeks, I`ll keep you posted . Greg |
Greg, Glad to hear your a man of action. Which driver do you think you will purchase? |
Sedond, I looked at the Hedlunds website, very interesting! When I listened to a traditional Lowther horn loaded speaker next to the new larger double ported box the horns sounded like certain frequencies were being boosted, and others attenuated. Lost the sense of realism that the reflex pair had, and the bass got really muddy sounding as well. The German driver could sound better however I never heard them. |
Lak, I don`t know at this time , I will look at the dx 2 and the pm6c, I`m not sure yet but I plan to do some more research on them. I could hardly find to many people who like them, so many were so dead against the speakers being used in a bass reflex, they were down right mean as hell about it. I saw an article about hte mini towers and the reveiwer like them very much, some people just slamed them and never heard them at all, they just didn`t like the idea of there LOWTHER in a bass reflex. Greg |
Drumsgrer, when I first started to research Lowther speakers about 1 1/2 years ago (which I had never heard of before) I had a very hard time finding anyone that had heard them. When I did people either loved them or hated them. It sounds like not much has changed! Live would be a lot easier if someone would ship them out for auditioning, however I realize the huge monetary expense involved. The mini towers are NO match for the larger double ported bass reflex. I looked at Davids website and noticed he had the larger double ported bass reflex with one or two drivers on the front, or one on the front and one driver on the top. Interesting, I wonder how they sound? |
