What speakers for 300B S.E.T ??


Hi,

Recently i heard a 300B based Audio electronics SE-1 SET amp + AE-3 pre with Lowther Academy speakers & was quite impressed with the immediacy,dynamics,soundstaging
& basically the whole presentation.

Now i'm very keen to try this to see if this is the kind of sound i would enjoy for a long time.Only way to know this i guess is to try it at home for an extended period of time. My previous exrerience has been with high powered SS .
( For ref : Supratek Chardonnay tube pre + Mac MC352 + TDL Ref studio monitors ) This is my first venture into low powered SET. I love the sound of my present sys. but the SET is a different experience.

Un fotunately my present speakers( 87db ) would not support the 7 watts the AES is capable of. The Lowthers are too expensive to experiment with. My goal is to keep the costs
low as possible . I shall very much appreciate your recommendations for high-sensitive monitors or small floor-standers ( HORN ??? ) preferably under $1K . This could very well end up as a second sys or it could go further.....

So what does everyone use with less than 10 magic watts ????
dilly
For the DIY info on Voigt Pipe with TWL mod, download from the link below:

http://www.lowther-america.com/Voigt%20Pipe.pdf

KK
Hi everyone,

I'm back to report on my transition into the single driver + SET world. Fisrt of all let me thank everyone here for the suggestions & support .

To make a long story short,I was on the verge of building a Voigt-pipe with the generous advise offered to me by Tom.
Then i came across this GREAT deal on a pair of MAUHORN 4's using Lowther EX2 drivers. Now i have them paired to my AES SE-1 Signature 300B + Supratek Chardonnay. So my speaker
selection is finally over.

Yes the horns are HUGE & BUTT-UGLY. But the "SOUND" which they make..... simply breath-taking. I have never heard mid range like this before. There is so much more information that was simply missing earlier. The involvement & connection with the music is un-paralleled IMO.

All that has been said about HORNS & SET synergy is true.There's something very very special . Maybe this is not to everyones taste. The bass below 50Hz is non-existant. Well i guess all speakers have their strenghts & weaknesses. But the strong suites of the horn + set is SUPER STRONG that you simply forget it's weaknesses. I can vouch for this as i'm used to CLEAN VERY DEEP bass with my trasnmissionlines touching 18Hz. Do i miss them. Yes ! But only below 50Hz .I think by integrating a fast sub this can be taken care of. ( have heard about TBI sub's. any suggestions are welcome ).

What the horns + SET do above 50Hz simply has to be heard by audio enthusiasts using multi driver speakers.
The speed of the Lowthers are amazing. The instrument timber is very real. The music sounds so LIVE & present. The point source imaging & the ' AIR ' puts you right there at the venue.

I started this project as an experiment. Keeping costs low as possible. Now this has become my main listening preference & it seems that i have got the itch to go further! Questions keep running in my head.......now if the AES sounds this good what would the Cary 300SE mono's sound like......... Just when you think you are done it starts all over again. Does it ever END ???

Maybe it's time to start a thread " Who has trully called it quits " - with a sys. you love & how long has it been since the last upgrade. I think you need to give a time frame here to qualify ...say no upgrdes for the last 2 years ??? I sure won't fit in there yet!!! Till the next good thing then...........

Cheers,
I use AE-'s, with the X-over taken out. I run a Marchland X-over. the SE- on the tweets and a Audio Research 50 watt on the mids......... Wooooow!!! On the bottom I have Infinty subs run in stereo... All Kimber Silver streak... All used from the net... I have a real hot rod...
Aloha Dilly,

Congratulations on your discovery of SET and Lowther speakers. I enjoyed feeling your newfound enthusiasm through your recent post.

I'm contemplating assembling a SET system myself, though a few months hence. Before doing this, I'm trying to assemble a quality P/P system built around an Air Tight ATM-2 amp and a good preamp choice. One of my requirements for a preamp is that it be VERSATILE enough to use with SS, SET, and P/P.

Most prominent by reputation for this is the Herron VTSP-1a preamp. But it is very interesting to me that your system uses the Supratek Chardonnay--a preamp also very high on my list, but to me unknown for its performance with SS or SET (I'm looking at Cary 300SE and Art Audio PX-25).

Can you comment further on your experience with the Chardonnay with your SET/Lowthers?

Thank you.

Garrett