 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
97.97.49.97
Reviewing discissions centered around the "Lowther America" Field Coil Drivers makes me wonder how many Asylum members are fortunate enough to own a pair of these?
I have had much experience with current and vintage field coil drivers and really enjoyed these. I do not own a pair however.
Follow Ups:
"Who owns a pair of The Lowther Field Coil Drivers?" My original SUBJECT.
I am not needing to hear anyones opinion of field coils or even their opinion of having heard a pair of Lowther America Field Coil drivers.
I have lived with the Lowther America Field Coil Drivers in my home on several occasions. I had the opportunity to compare them with many other current and vintage Wide Band field coil drivers of similar size.
After having fallen head over heals for the $42,000 D9e-II Feastrex field coil drivers which had thoroughlly outclassed every other Wide Band driver, Permenant magnet or field coils, that I had ever listened to, then I got to evaluate the Lowther America Field Coils.
I was stunned at just how much enjoyment I was deriving from this $6,000 pair of drivers (the Lowther America field coils) when compared with the rediculouslly priced $42,000 D9e-II's. Sonically stunning drivers the both of them.
However, I do have several questions that should really only be addresses to PURCHASERS and current owners of a pair of Lowther America field coil drivers, not designers and builder' or sellers such as Mr. Dave Slagle.
I heard a pair in Dave Slagle's system a few months back. With hearing a new system, it's hard to say what part added what sound (and there was a little noise in his system at the time) but it really just sounded like Lowthers without the bad parts. He had them in a pair of Big Fun horns, with the turntable set up with a strain gauge cart and basically all custom and prototype electronics. I heard a big difference compared to the permanent magnet Lowthers I've listened to and owned.
I greatly appreciate hearing peoples thoughts of Lowther field coils' sonics, BUT I am only asking, WHO ACTUALLY OWNs A PAIR??????
Thank You.
Obviously from his post, Justintruett is telling you that Dave Slagle does, right? That addresses your question, doesn't it?
W
"Note: Lowther Loudspeakers Systems in the UK has not participated in this design, except that they have produced the cone and basket assemblies. They have permitted use of the Lowther name. The design has been done by Dave Slagle (of Intact Audio), Jeffrey Jackson (of Experience Music), and Jon Ver Halen of Lowther America."Jeffery swears that the field coil makes a huge improvement. I think he prefers them front loaded.
I have held one of the coils, but he did not have it hooked up while I was over to his place. Between the massive winding and the milled outer case, $6,000 is pretty reasonable. A lot of time and effort goes into making these things. The Mercury vapor based power supply is an awesome upgrade as well. Super-cool is never cheap.
Edits: 07/10/12
And? I know all that you posted. I have had the pleasure of enjoying three pairs of these particular field coil drivers in my personal listening environment for extended periods of time.
I simply wanted to hear from customers who have purchased and now own and use these drivers.
You want to hear what? Something to reinforce your buying decision? Somehow I never was convinced with any field coil based speakers demo and I heard Cogent in RMAF, CAR in Audio Karma show and recently Jon's Lowther OB's with Pass amps.mY guess is if someone is not capable of making convincing permanent magnet system won't make a great FC system either. Lowther driver seems to be dead under 500hz in OB , also rather average over 3khz. C.A.R systems with TADz were agressive sounding but with F.C are lethargic. What a heck is going on on this HE forum , are you guys so old and fat that you can't move your head around and about the only thing you can do is open your check book to try a new fancy idea? So far I have not seen a one sensible horn design coming out of here (not counting dr. Edgar system) nor I've seen one serious Lowther based system. Do you all listen to bluegrass banjo bands? Best Regards, W
You have good ears Wojciech. Due to the very limited time I had to set up the system, I was unable to do any real listening before people started coming in. When I went to disassemble the system, the field coils were unusually hot. Someone had bumped up the voltage to the speakers from 12V where it belongs to about 16v. When the voltage is increased, it results in the Q of the speaker going lower, and poor upper bass/lower midrange response. Probably closer to 300 hz, rather than the 500 you indicate, but still a problem.
Further, the over-damped nature of the sound would result in a very fast attack on transients, but not the usual harmonic development/ambient information in the highs.
Once I got the system back home, it sounded pretty bad. Once the problem was identified, the system returned to its normal self. Too bad you can't hear it now, I think your impression would be significantly different.
Jon Ver Halen
Ah, no not really. I think that most or all present noticed that something was out of wack or speakers were not delivering /living up to the promise. Being tactful and respectful nobody said a word. I unfortunately lack little (or a lot ) in those departments so you got it in full. Truth to be told my own speakers sound far worse than what I heard during that demo:)
What happened Limono, did you sit on a pinecone or something like that?
Interesting comment about the field coils....
How many OB systems have you listened to? OB systems may give up some bass slam compared to horn systems, that certainly is possible. If you are using my system as a representative of OB systems, then I need to caveat that my amps need to be jazzed up for better midbass performance, so it may not be the OB speakers (power capacitors are too large with moderate ESR and the power tranformer is a little weak). But I don't recall that the bass was any better with your amps - of course your amps were only 45s and so they seemed to run out of juice for the bass.
For the high frequencies, I thought that the enABLed Lowthers had very good high frequencies on my OB system. One reason is that the output transformers are permalloy, and I had a supertweeter in addition to the Lowthers. The enABLe treatement did a lot to improve the high frequencies of the Lowther drivers compared to my stock drivers.
I recall listening to high frequencies on an Edgar system and I could hear the high frequencies move front and back as the frequencies changed, likely because the high frequencies were reflecting off different points of the bell of the horn - very annoying and a nonstarter for the high frequencies. That surely could have been fixed by low passing the high frequencies to the horn and letting the supertweeter take over at a lower frequency.
Retsel
too many mojitos ..:) besides, your OB's in DIY state would be a few grands at most, Jon's are $15k or so in nicer version. Expectations are different , than there are stand mounted monitors on the market selling for as much, it's hard to comment on anything without hurting somebodys feeling or stepping on a foot and really looking at the market perspective it's impossible to criticize anything at all, especially at mere bottom feeder $15k price range. My bet it that, That San or Other San from the cherry land would not even bent his finger for that price (it would buy you a nice wooden packing box;) My Enabled Lowthers are long gone and I haven't heard from the buyer since but I lost most of my hair and teeths are going too which might suggest he doesn't wish me well and a spell is working. I hope your heat pump is working like a champ. W
Edits: 07/11/12
I am not offended by your comments of OB speakers. As you correctly pointed out, the value of my OB speakers is simply the drivers as the wood for the boxes was from reused plywood that I had laying around and cobbled together. Even with their crude finishing, they sounded pretty good. That is the value of getting the speaker "out of the box."
My intent is to build a real set of OB speakers for the Lowthers which is similar to the Rullit design (hopefully a picture is attached) - a type of waveguide.
The heat pump is doing great - it loafs along even with our 100F temperatures.
I don't see the value in FC drivers. And I maybe guilty of crazy large horn designs. But I have scene logical designs that where well executed in this forum. This is about as sane as I get today its not to large.
Post a Followup:
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2013, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ Take5 ]
