Lowthers - Please educate a village idiot...


Hello.

Despite me spending way too much time and effort on audio, and having two systems where one would do most normal people, I will, at some point in the future have a third.

My favorite uncle has a Williamson circuit tube amplifier which he built from a kit. He is a Marine who served our country valiantly during the roughest stretches of WWII(Guadalcanal, Solomons, etc.) and is a proud man. This system would become my remembrance of him.

Everyone thinks his stereo is an antiquated piece of junk, but when he saw my eyes and enthusiasm light up when he told me about it, he was just as happy as I was. He found a taker to pass along his treasured amplifier, as he is now to the point where he sees the end of the road in front of him. To have someone view him passing along this piece of him as an heirloom rather than something which should have instead be left at the curb swells his heart with pride and honor.

In order to do him justice, I want to give this amplifier a system which provide it with its proper level of importance. I have been toying with the idea of building a retro style system around this piece, albeit with a CD player.

The idea I have is to pair the amplifier with a pair of Lowther Medallions. The speakers would be done up in black, with maybe a tan grill at the mouth of the horn. A 1950s look to be sure.

The only issue is that I have no experience whatsoever with the Lowthers. And, more specifically, the Medallion.

Would someone please be so kind to educate me as to the Lowthers. I realize they are not for everyone, and I don't even know if they are for me. But, many have told me that if you fancy them, they are just pure magic. Some have even told me that it is the closest speakers to live even after all these years. Also, as I try to live by the mantra about not buying speakers I haven't auditioned(unless a KILLER deal comes along) are there any outlets for me to go give them a listen? I live in the Philadelphia, PA area.

Thank you all for your help,
Joe
trelja

Showing 5 responses by zaikesman

Taking off from your launching point, my vote would go to a nice old Klipsch corner horn (well, I would say one, but I guess the amp is apparently 2-channel, so two if need be...) with a Rek-O-Kut playing those 78's and LP's I just know your uncle still has stashed in the basement/attic...
Aside to Slap: If the amp is stereo, it was built at least a decade after the end of hostilities with Japan...

Trelja, I too like the Heresy's, but whether you go Lowther or whatever, if I were you, I'd really consider adding a turntable front end to complete the picture...OK, end of my $.02 :-)
Tom - I don't own any Madonna recordings and haven't heard "Vogue" on a good system, but I wouldn't be surprised if the production of a largely synthetic recording like this plays deliberate phase tricks to create a larger-than-life 'surround-stage' effect. What do you think?
It's an interesting question Tom, and I'm not sure what the right answer is. Of course the Lowthers, as a crossover-less single-radiator point-source and usefully wideband design, must be phase-coherent or very nearly so. However, when it comes to the type of 'surround-stage' phase manipulation that produces these wild and frankly enjoyable (at least on certain programs) effects, I'm not so sure it's as simple as saying that the result of the effect depends on the phase accuracy of the speaker system. My hunch, based on expereinces with boomboxes and TV's having built-in 'surround' settings, is that that the speaker positioning and playback environment has a lot to do with exactly how the program will come across. I suspect the psycho-acoustic result, for things such sounds appearing to come from way outside the speaker boundaries or even another part of the room, is largely dictated by chance anomalies in the entire system's (including the room) response. My assumption is that TV's and boomboxes will display many phase and response variations that will help affect how the program is perceived in space, but that these variations do not destroy or degrade the 'surround' effect - indeed, it's often greater than I find through a mostly phase-correct system (and my Thiels are this - however, it's also hard to be sure about preceeding characterization, as lots of TV's and BB's *are* single-driver per channel deigns, albeit with irregular cabinet and baffle loading and one would think polar- and time-response). In other words, I'm not sold on the concept that one can really draw any conclusions about a speaker's phase purity based on auditioning material designed to deliberately distort phase relationships for the 'surround-stage' effect. I tend to think a better measure is the degree of natural-sounding image solidity, focus, and stability displayed when replaying phase-correct program material (...which I'm sure you'd be quick to add the Lowthers will do very well :-)