Lowthers - Please educate a village idiot...

That's really cool Joe. I'm sure that it did your Uncle's heart good when you not only shared a common interest, but that you would probably be as glad to own the product as he was of building it : )

I did just what you are thinking of doing, but not with Lowthers. I built a system using all "vintage" gear that was all tube based. The one exception to the "vintage" rule is the the CD player, which is still tube based. This system consists of an all copper chassis Harman tube tuner, a modified HK Rabco ST-7 TT, Cal Alpha / Delta combo ( this replaced an Anodyne tubed one box player that was acting up ), a modified Dyna PAS 3 and an original Marantz 8 ( EXCELLENT condition ) driving modified Klipsch La Scala's and / or Heresy's. I recently traded the Marantz for a fully calibrated HP Spectrum Analyzer with extra modules ( i made out like a bandit !!! ), so this system is currently down and out.

I'm probably going to build the preamp & amp as listed on Norman Koren's website sometime in the near future, but i'm not sure as of yet. As such, it would be great to see another "Agon regular" jump into the "oldies but goodies" camp : )

As a side note, you might want to check out the Single Driver Website as you can find all kinds of info there about Lowthers, Fostex, etc... type speaker systems. Since most of these folks are running "pee wee" sized tube amps, there is no mention of the "ultimate" single driver speaker that just so happens to be low impedance and low efficiency : ) Having said that, some of the other drivers and designs mentioned in their forum might be good enough for background music while sipping tea : ) Sean
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Twl: NO letter bombs / email virus' please : )

Twl: My comments about "sipping tea" and using most "full range drivers for background music" referred to the lack of bottom end that most of them suffer from. Elevator music doesn't need bass : )

Other than that, my comments had nothing to do with power. I would need at least 10X the power that you are running to be able to hit the same spl levels for most of my speakers ( Klipsch not included ). As such, that is one of the strong points of Lowther's. One must remember that as one pushes ANY driver harder, low frequency extension is rolled off. Since the Lowther's are typically quite efficient, you don't have to push them as hard as other less efficient full range drives. As such, they will maintain their measured frequency response a little more evenly in terms of bass extension at normal listening levels.

With a 1 MM X-Max though, you not going to get much bass out of the driver no matter what. As such, you will have to rely on some type of vent to extend what the driver is not capable of providing on its' own. As we all know, trade-offs are rampant in speaker design and dealing with reality and accepting the facts about this will typically get you a better product than denying that fact and living in a dream-world. You've obviously accepted this and tried to find the best solution to this problem. From your posts, it appears that you're quite happy with what you have and that is all that counts.

Trelja: Here's an Eminence driver that you might find interesting. I use these as very wide-band midranges in PA cabinets that i build for locals. As mentioned above though, these drivers have a 1 mm X-Max so you are still in the "need bass reinforcement" camp : ( Due to their surface area though ( 12" ), they can do reasonable bottom end without having to make as much of an excursion as a smaller unit would. Larger surface area almost always pays off when it comes to bass performance but is obviously a drawback when it comes to moving mass / high frequency dispersion characteristics.

As to the Heresy's, they are capable of SO much more than what they deliver in stock form. Tell your buddy to invest in what he has or sell them to me at a bargain price : ) Sean
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Trelja: Heresy's use an accordion surround, so there is no foam to rot. If the driver needs to be re-coned, it is either rattling or torn. As for the tweeters, i don't know if one can find diaphragms for these or not. I would get busy looking for that before i would dump any more money into these. I think that i bought the last diaphragms that Klipsch had in stock and they told me "we won't be getting any more of these in. Ever". I think that these were EV T-35's, so it quite possible that EV or a repair facility would have diaphragms for these.

Twl: I knew that you wouldn't have a problem with what i said. You are both too honest and too much of a realist to not know and deal with the truth. If you told me that you had a 2 watt SS amp, THEN i would be worried : ) Sean
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