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Lowthers - Please educate a village idiot...

Hello.

Despite me spending way too much time and effort on audio, and having two systems where one would do most normal people, I will, at some point in the future have a third.

My favorite uncle has a Williamson circuit tube amplifier which he built from a kit. He is a Marine who served our country valiantly during the roughest stretches of WWII(Guadalcanal, Solomons, etc.) and is a proud man. This system would become my remembrance of him.

Everyone thinks his stereo is an antiquated piece of junk, but when he saw my eyes and enthusiasm light up when he told me about it, he was just as happy as I was. He found a taker to pass along his treasured amplifier, as he is now to the point where he sees the end of the road in front of him. To have someone view him passing along this piece of him as an heirloom rather than something which should have instead be left at the curb swells his heart with pride and honor.

In order to do him justice, I want to give this amplifier a system which provide it with its proper level of importance. I have been toying with the idea of building a retro style system around this piece, albeit with a CD player.

The idea I have is to pair the amplifier with a pair of Lowther Medallions. The speakers would be done up in black, with maybe a tan grill at the mouth of the horn. A 1950s look to be sure.

The only issue is that I have no experience whatsoever with the Lowthers. And, more specifically, the Medallion.

Would someone please be so kind to educate me as to the Lowthers. I realize they are not for everyone, and I don't even know if they are for me. But, many have told me that if you fancy them, they are just pure magic. Some have even told me that it is the closest speakers to live even after all these years. Also, as I try to live by the mantra about not buying speakers I haven't auditioned(unless a KILLER deal comes along) are there any outlets for me to go give them a listen? I live in the Philadelphia, PA area.

Thank you all for your help,
Joe
trelja
slappy
903 posts
 
the hostilities ended 10 years before stereo?

where was i?

ohyeah. my parents had not been concieved yet.

i always was a procrastinator. :)
distortion
571 posts
 
Trelja, keep us posted on your project. As I indicated earlier I love your idea for this system.

I have been checking this thread daily to watch its progress.
trelja OP
3,215 posts
 
Distortion, thank you. I will certainly keep everyone in the loop.

As an update, Mbhcid(Mike) and I have been in contact, and I will be taking him up on his gracious offer some weekend in September, once we work out the details. I gather he owns the upper end Beauhorns, and that should be a real treat for me. I have heard they are about as good as a Lowther gets. While the Beauhorns are out of my budget, if I am indeed a "Lowther", I believe I will build a pair of Medallion II kits.
twl
3,251 posts
 
Joe, you'll like the Beauhorns. They're nice. You just have to remember that nothing is perfect, and it's a matter of whether you like the strengths of Lowthers, more than you dislike their shortcomings. Their strengths are very good, and they will really do some things that no other speaker can do. As long as you stay away from the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and things that are very demanding in the real deep bass, you'll find them to be a very high-performance speaker system. They are somewhat forward sounding and immediate, which may be a little different that what many are accustomed to. And there still is a slight amount of the upper midrange peak left. This can be dealt with, by an easy mod. If you like the detail and speed of an electrostatic speaker, with the dynamics of a fast cone driver system, then you'll love the Lowthers. That's about as good a description of them as I can give. They have some colorations, but so does everything else.
trelja OP
3,215 posts
 
Thanks for all of your input, Twl. You've really added a lot to my understanding.

I am kind of expecting to really like the Lowthers. The less expensive Beauhorns used to strike me as being indescribably ugly, but actually the look is growing on me. That being said, the Medallions are still more inline with the cosmetics and aura I am looking to achieve.

Despite having speakers which reproduce the bottom octave in full force, I am less an addict to it than one might ever believe. So many loudspeakers which don't go so low endear and really impress me for getting other things right. I consider midrange and ability to play without congestion, for example, to be far more important attributes in a loudspeaker. I also hear that room positioning, proper floor/speaker coupling, and cabling(JENA Labs?) help to maximize the LF performance.

A rolled off treble isn't as bad, in my opinion, as it is sometimes made out to be. If the speakers go out to 15KHz they do better than most people care about - many can not hear that far, or much beyond that range anyway.

I will see if the upper midrange peak bothers me. If so, I'll seek out your wisdom, should you be so kind.

Also, since I hear that the Lowthers should really not have much power put into them, am I going down the right road with this combination? I am kind of thinking the amp will be running KT66(6L6) tubes, and while they aren't powerhouses, am I asking for trouble by not using a 3 - 7 wpc SET? Obviously, I would HATE setting up this system, only to damage the speakers in a few weeks.

Thanks again!
Joe
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