Lowthers - Please educate a village idiot...
The Omegas are not a back loaded horn. They are just highly damped monitors. That's fine with most drivers but with Fostex or Lowther it don't work. Since I'm stating my humble opinion, from someone who has listened to both and currently owns both. The Lowthers that I own are DX4s in 2nd Rethms and the Fostex are in a Cain and Cain single horn Bens. If your amp is strong in the bass and is all around neutral, then the Lowthers may be ok. If your amp is a little airy like most SETs then you'll need the extra weight that the Fostex do. The Lowthers do seem a little more transparent, but at the end of the day I can't get past the peaky highs. The Fostex are all around a more natural sound. If the amp is push pull, then maybe and only maybe(listen at home) the Lowthers. But I know the Fostex will work either way without a home audition. I tried everything to like the Lowthers, Decware Gizmos,Cardas cables, you name it.BTW, I've also owned the Omegas and they sound just like Lowthers. There highly damped box just don't work with single drivers. They will have no upper bass, like the left keys on a piano. Not low, low, bass but bass nonetheless. I'm just trying to help another old A-goner who has been here since the good old days. |
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 > |
