Lowther.

[southall-1998]

Heard some Lowther speakers years ago and remember being impressed with the sound. The cabinets were Acousta's but can't remember which Lowther drive unit were used.....I'm guessing old PM6A's.

Are there some members on here that are still using Lowther units in Acousta cabinets?

[Rare Bird]

Original Acousta's 'PM6/7'.. There's is different types of Acousta tho..

[Mika K]

Bit related off topic here, so anyone here having experience of the Hørning speakers? Especially the bigger models are interesting as they're using Lowther DX4 drivers..

[southall-1998]

Bit related off topic here, so anyone here having experience of the Hørning speakers? Especially the bigger models are interesting as they're using Lowther DX4 drivers..

Cheeky, start your own thread;)

[SPS]

I have a pair with pm6c's installed, they sound very well, the more powerful lowther drivers dont work in the acousta very well in my experence.

i have a pair of ex4's i used in some larger back loaded horns up to about 7 years ago, they are a good sound, very fast and detailed. but harder to implement than the lower powered drivers.
New drivers take an age to break in, but once there they can sound smooth & sweet and do a very good stab at realism.. what ever that may be.

[southall-1998]

I have a pair with pm6c's installed, they sound very well, the more powerful lowther drivers dont work in the acousta very well in my experence.

i have a pair of ex4's i used in some larger back loaded horns up to about 7 years ago, they are a good sound, very fast and detailed. but harder to implement than the lower powered drivers.
New drivers take an age to break in, but once there they can sound smooth & sweet and do a very good stab at realism.. what ever that may be.

Have you tried PM6A's with your Acousta?

[walpurgis]

I had a couple of pairs of Acoustas with the old square frame PM6s. They didn't stay long, I couldn't cope with the midrange colouration honk. They are just about the most coloured speakers I've ever heard, spectacular sound though, The startling transient response is unlike most moving coil speakers even through the rather limited bass and they certainly project detail.

[southall-1998]

What's the typical used selling price for a pair of (Plywood) Acousta's with square (Alnico) PM6a's?

[SPS]

My first pair where plywood factory made jobs..they where coloured, I'd forget how they where.. The ones I have at the moment are chipboard, and sound far less coloured.. I would say they are quite good sound wise but they are not actual factory ones from what I can see. Many where made from plans

My first ones had the pm6a, they are slightly better than the c's in my view. There is a lot to be said for going for a more modern cab, the back horns enemy is cabinet resonance.. well made back horns can be quite good, but some are very bad.
The cabinet is usually the weak pont when lowthers are used full range.

I've not a clue what the value is of then..

[walpurgis]

My first pair where plywood factory made jobs..they where coloured, I'd forget how they where.. The ones I have at the moment are chipboard, and sound far less coloured.. I would say they are quite good sound wise but they are not actual factory ones from what I can see. Many where made from plans

My first ones had the pm6a, they are slightly better than the c's in my view. There is a lot to be said for going for a more modern cab, the back horns enemy is cabinet resonance.. well made back horns can be quite good, but some are very bad.
The cabinet is usually the weak pont when lowthers are used full range.

I've not a clue what the value is of then..

A decent looking pair was bought by an AOS member a few days ago for a couple of hundred quid (check 'eBay bargains'), but you can pay far more.

The main colouration problem is caused by reflections back through the cone from the internal panels directly behind the driver. The total lack of any damping material just compounds this (and you can damp horns, check 1950s JBL designs).

[Macca]

I had a pair of Lowther Acousta for a couple of months. Original PM6A drivers. Didn't do it for me, which wasn't a problem as I got them for next to nothing from a fellar who was moving house. I suppose in a sympathetic room playing classical they come into their own but they don't really work with Deep Purple. There is nothing offensive about the sound, though.

Sold the drivers to Classique Sounds and bought some Audax full rangers and stuck them in instead with some decent cable. Sold them to a DJ friend who used them as a PA and gigged them all round the country. This Frankenstein Acousta actually sounded a lot better than with the Lowther drivers and as the more modern Audax unit was 98 dB and could take 40 watts continuous you could get some really clean high volume out of them.

[jandl100]

I had a pair of Lowther Acousta for a couple of months. Original PM6A drivers. Didn't do it for me, which wasn't a problem as I got them for next to nothing from a fellar who was moving house. I suppose in a sympathetic room playing classical they come into their own but they don't really work with Deep Purple. There is nothing offensive about the sound, though.

Nah - Lowther drivers are almost always way too coloured for classical music, imo. There's a grainy shouty horribleness in the mids that resonates with an orchestra's violin section. Yuk.

It's very VERY difficult to get them to sound good, ime. The best I have heard was in Ferguson Hill FH1 (http://www.fergusonhill.co.uk/product_details.php?id=3) hybrid speakers. I might be able to live with them, but I only heard them in a Show dem and a longer period is needed to say for sure.

But, Lowther fanciers of the horny persuasion assure me that I am missing the point - sure, they are coloured, but just enjoy the dynamic speed and openness -- few things come close in those respects.
And yes, I can hear that, too. But the colourations do not sit well with me.

... and there's an implication in Macca's post that classical doesn't get loud ... :lol: ... have a pop round and hear some big classical tunes on MartinT's system. :eek:
Mind you, Lowther drivers can do LOUD as well - it just depends on the implementation.

[hifi_dave]

Have heard various Lowthers and never been impressed. They are fast and incisive but with a hopelessly coloured sound and a very harsh upper mid. Not for my musical tastes but they do have their fans. Maybe in a very sympathetic system playing single voice and guitar or something, they might sound good.

[Macca]

.

... and there's an implication in Macca's post that classical doesn't get loud ... :lol: ... have a pop round and hear some big classical tunes on MartinT's system. :eek:
Mind you, Lowther drivers can do LOUD as well - it just depends on the implementation.

An implication not intended! Of course there are loud clasical recordings, we have all heard that one with the cannons going off at the end...;)

[SPS]

a very mixed bag of opinions,
my vew is the lowther driver is not coloured at all,... that will make some laugh ... it may have some big peaks ( especially in a newish driver) and until they are very well run in they can suffer cone resonances,

i found they worked best as a two way though, to date i've not built or heard any back horn that hasn't added some cabinet resonance, this does limit the musical ability, those factory plywood cabs being the worst i've heard or owned. i built a few back horns in the 90's, but moved to open baffles, at first using the lowthers, a few years ago now.

Today i use byma tpl150, it is the most uncloured, clean, detailed and flat driver i've heard, and the ex4's in open baffle dont sound too out of place in comparision, and they go a fair bit lower.
the beymas and the lowther will show up most amplifiers for what they are, and many will prefer to use an less revealing driver to cover up weakness in the cabinets or elswhere in a system,
but i would say the more powefull lowthers do take a lot of work to get a good overall sound, the pm6 and the like are much easier...

put a lowther pm6 in a reasonble back horn, and mate it with a half decent se 4 watt el84 amp and many would be quite suprised how musical and lifelike the sound could be. then you could always add some big powerfull bass drivers and it will play rock too, but bass drivers to match the sound are not cheap.
that last line sums them up in my veiw...
cheers...

[walpurgis]

The best horn speakers I've heard were a pair of Tannoy GRF Autographs in Lasky's in the seventies and my home built Coral Beta 10 horns built in the eighties.

http://i46.tinypic.com/261cle1.jpg

These were 10" Japanese Lowther 'clones' with a sensitivity of 102db/w. They were far better made than the Lowthers and were quoted as having 40 watts power handling far higher than Lowther's 12 watt figure back then. The potential for the Corals at 40 watts was 120db output. Devastatingly loud in a domestic environment. The cabinet was similar to the Acousta, but half as big again.

http://i45.tinypic.com/snj7zt.jpg

They sounded quite amazing, far cleaner than my previous Acoustas and incredibly tight, the bass would smack you in the belly.

Here's a rather poor thunbnail of the horns at the finishing stages of construction, you can see the loose wiring, it was just for testing purposes.

http://i47.tinypic.com/wb2xcj.jpg

[SPS]

I have a pair of coral flat 8's somewhere, they are nice drivers..

[walpurgis]

I have a pair of coral flat 8's somewhere, they are nice drivers..

The Coral Flat 8 are also well suited to horn loading. They are very similar to Fostex units.

[chelsea]

Didn't know coral did a lowther like unit.
Look nice.

[Thermionic Idler]

Bit related off topic here, so anyone here having experience of the Hørning speakers? Especially the bigger models are interesting as they're using Lowther DX4 drivers..

Missed this thread, sorry! Yes I've had a pair of Hørning Aristoteles since 2009... love them and wouldn't use anything else. Forget everything you've heard about Lowther shoutiness and coloration --- in the Hornings the Lowther is stripped of the whizzer cone that is responsible for a lot of that awfulness, and is used as a wide band midrange.

No crossover circuitry is needed as it rolls off naturally around 8khz. The bass drivers around the back are also run without crossovers. The only filter in that cabinet is a high pass on the tweeter. What you end up with is a horn speaker that doesn't sound anything like a horn speaker and which has no trouble with complex classical recordings, even full scale Wagner operas! I have yet to hear a single driver speaker that can do that convincingly.

[Mika K]

Interesting to hear that as I have been offered the Hørning Alkibiades as a part of the trade. These speakers are bit older design - each of the speaker is 190cm tall having one 15" bass driver with DX4 unit and the horn tweeter. The below pic is taken from 6moons site showing similar speakers at the background.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/roadtour3/hero.jpg

INteresting speaker that would fit to my room and most likely also for the amps. The bad news is that due to the distance I do not have possibility to hear these before the decision, so going bit blind/def here.. :)

[jandl100]

INteresting speaker that would fit to my room and most likely also for the amps. The bad news is that due to the distance I do not have possibility to hear these before the decision, so going bit blind/def here.. :)

You just need to make sure that you get on with the basic Lowther sound.
If you like the good bits and don't mind or don't hear the not so good bits - both aspects have been well and accurately documented in this thread already, imo - then I am sure you will be well pleased!

It looks like the Lowther 'whizzer' cone has been taken away in those Alkibiades - always a good thing, ime. But that just reduces the sonic problems that bother some listeners, and does not take them away completely.

Personally, I could not live with them - but I know quite a few folk who really love Lowthers!

[The Barbarian]

The best horn speakers I've heard were a pair of Tannoy GRF Autographs in Lasky's in the seventies and my home built Coral Beta 10 horns built in the eighties.

http://i46.tinypic.com/261cle1.jpg

These were 10" Japanese Lowther 'clones' with a sensitivity of 102db/w. They were far better made than the Lowthers and were quoted as having 40 watts power handling far higher than Lowther's 12 watt figure back then. The potential for the Corals at 40 watts was 120db output. Devastatingly loud in a domestic environment. The cabinet was similar to the Acousta, but half as big again.

They sounded quite amazing, far cleaner than my previous Acoustas and incredibly tight, the bass would smack you in the belly.



Missed this.. I used to have a pair of Coral 'Beta 8's yonks ago, they were actually one of the best sounding speakers ive ever owned & one of my first ever DIY jobs.. I would 100% buy another pair if i saw them but i doubt id get them for the £25 i paid back then.. They were beautifully made units that's for sure..If i remember the '8's had a lower power handling than the bigger '10's..