Anybody have experience with Lowther Medallion?

organ

***edit*** Sorry for the typo on the thread title. It's Medallion.

I already made a deal on them and will be picking them up next week.
I've never heard them before but decided to get them because a few audio guys who's ears I really trust used to go on and on about Lowther's. And also, I'm a huge fan of Single driver speakers.
So I'm quite certain I will enjoy them, but still curious on how they sound. Please let me know if you've heard a pair.
I will be powering them with my SE tube amps ranging from 5-8w/ch.

I know I said, I wanted a pair of B&W 683, but the deal on the Lowther is too good to pass up and they rarely come up for sale.

Any info greatly appreciated.

zingo

No experience with those drivers, but I'd love to hear them. How will they be loaded?

mhardy6647

Yeah, some. The drivers can be scary good - but they can be awful with poorly recorded source material. IME they don't do well with "pop" recordings (multitrack, heavily compressed/EQ'd multi-track mono mixed down to artificial stereo). Hendrix on a pair of AlNiCo (well, technically, actually AlComax, I think) Lowthers in huge BLHs was unlistenable to me.

I couldn't live with a pair full-time; they're even less forgiving than the Cornwalls I had for a decade.

They're an acquired taste at best.

EDIT: The Medallion is a style of enclosure for Lowthers (BLH, I believe - back loaded horns). Which drivers are they loaded with?

FWIW, I don't think Lowthers are particularly hard to come by these days. I think the somewhat ironically named Common Sense Audio (i.e., the somewhat less ironically named David Dicks) still carries 'em. Dicks is the guy who sells bass reflex cabinet for the very low Qts Lowther driver - No bass and the Lowther's famed "shout" is a bad combination. http://www.commonsenseaudio.com/lowther.html

I don't know if the US Lowther distributor's still going; haven't looked lately.
Website's still up - http://www.lowther-america.com/

EDIT^2 - I am sure you know they're on the order of 104 dB @ 1 meter @ 1 watt sensitive... what are you going to use to drive them? Less is way, way more with Lowthers.

mhardy6647

ahh - did I misinterpret the question? Was the question specifically about Medallions, or about Lowthers in general?
I cannot honestly remember having ever heard or seen Medallions in the flesh (so to speak). The enclosures I have the most ears-on time with are Fidelios: You can see a photo if you scroll down a ways at http://www.the-planet.org/nnetg.html
I do not know which exact model of Lowther drivers Robert has in them, though.

dorokusai

Yeah, hit or miss as mentioned above. In the right design, they can be petty jawdropping but are very easy to screw up.

mhardy6647

They'll just never sound good on everything, irrespective of enclosure. That's fine as long as they're not the only pair of speakers you have... they're expensive for part-time use, I'd opine.

Fostex (still) makes some nice FR drivers that are less finicky (I'd opine) and considerably less expensive.

organ

Zingo,
They're back loaded horn design. I will post a link to the pic of the pair I'm getting at the end of this post.

MHardy,
Thanks for the help.
Sorry if I wasn't clear. But yeah, I was wondering how the Lowthers sound in the Medallion cabinet.
They will be my main speakers for quite a while, but I do have a pair of LSi9 and RT1000p as well. So I guess, I'll rotate them once in a while. I'm trading my RF-82II + cash for them.
The drivers are PM6C 98db sensitivity.
Looks like the Lowther sound character you describe is similar to what I experienced when I had a pair of Omega with Fostex drivers. I was actually able to enjoy compressed pop music through them as long as I kept the volume low, or else it's too in your face.
I have an EL84 SE @ 5w/ch which is a full pentode design using EF86 pentodes as gain/driver.
I will also use my favorite tube amp which is 5w/ch EL34 strapped in triode. And finally I have an ASL 300B int.

Doro,
That's what I was afraid of. I just hope the Medallion cabs make them shine. I don't plan to demo them because I've demoed quite a few gear at his shop and they always end up sounding much different in my room.

Here's a link to the exact pair I'll be getting. Been shopping there for years so I got them cheaper than the asking price.

Here they are...
http://audiooasis.com/blog/2011/6/3/lowther-medalion-with-pm6c-horn-speakers-pair-the-best.html

dorokusai

I think you'll be just fine with those since they're not just throwing drivers into a cabinet for ANY full range driver. The cabinets are based on a Lowther design so it's not just a DIY swinger making some guesstimates. That's what I always dread when it comes to old school, serious drivers. Bad cabinetry can make a 5 star driver sound awful so I should have been a bit more specific in my comment. Sorry about that and from the link you should be A OK man and I'd love to hear those some day.

Mark

organ

Thanks Mark. Good to know the Lowther designs are good. No need to apologize. My original post wasn't clear. It makes the reader think the Medallion is a Lowther driver lol. The cabs look great on this pair.
Anytime you're in Toronto, you're welcome to drop by:).

dorokusai

Make sure you look at the folds of the cabinet closely since that's a spot that is usually done right or done wrong. It seperates the cabinet makers from the guy who can just read numbers.

organ

Thanks for the heads up. I will inspect the folds, solidity, etc through the opening when I go there next week.

dorokusai

Good luck brother, keep us updated and awesome purchase!

organ

Thanks. Will difinitely keep you guys posted. I'll post pics once they're up and running.

mhardy6647

organ wrote: »

Zingo,

Looks like the Lowther sound character you describe is similar to what I experienced when I had a pair of Omega with Fostex drivers. I was actually able to enjoy compressed pop music through them as long as I kept the volume low, or else it's too in your face.
I have an EL84 SE @ 5w/ch which is a full pentode design using EF86 pentodes as gain/driver.
I will also use my favorite tube amp which is 5w/ch EL34 strapped in triode. And finally I have an ASL 300B int.

PM6 should be pretty good.
Not all of the Fostex drivers have that in-your-face proclivity IMO. The FE-103, 166 and 206 certainly do have that characteristic (to my ears). The 167 and 207 are better balanced (again, IMO). Just sayin'.



You will be wanting to pick up a single-ended 45 or 2A3 amp for those Lowthers... mark my words :-)

Joe08867

Big fan of the Fostex 207 as well. Much more forgiving for the type of driver.

That Lowther design is nice but like others have said sensitive to recordings used. I used a similar style BLH with a 5 watt tube setup and only used my TT as a source . It hated my CD player at the time.

organ

That's neat. I've always thought all Fostex had that characteristics. Good to hear there are some with better balance.

Now that you mentioned 45 and 2A3, all I'm thinking about is the ASL Tulip I sold a few years back. I used to power my Fostex and a pair of La Scala with it. It's a 2A3 amp that also accept 45 tubes. I miss that unit.

mhardy6647

How close are you to New England on that Vaporizer Island? I have a spare pair of Bottlehead Paramours that could be available on loan :-)

(not prepared to sell 'em in the foreseeable future - but they're on hiatus at the moment since I got a 2A3 amp that's a notch nicer.)

unc2701

Lowthers are VERY unforgiving of some recordings from my audition of a pair in a BLH.... but on the right recording, they will blow your mind. I'm a big fan of single drivers- have done Jordan's and a variety of Fostex and when they're right, it's amazing, but you'll put on something else and just wince.

So- have fun... and if you like bass, don't be a snob- throw a sub in there, tune it right and you might just find something that you'll keep for awhile.

organ

Mrh,
I think my island is quite far from you. I'm in Toronto, Canada:). Really appreciate it but I think I will end up having a 45 amp built by my techie. He quoted me $1k for a nice build with good transformers. I hate the way postal guys treat audio gear (Just ask Russman lol). I had to send a unit back to him a few times because shipping damage. Thanks for the offer though.
Do you find 45's to be better than 2A3 on single drivers? I wasn't happy with my 2A3 amp (ASL Tulip) and sold it. I like my SE EL34 the most right now.
I haven't played around with 45's because the only 45 tubes I can find is from Sophia Electric and they're pricey.

I'll attach a pic of the EL34 int. Sorry about the bad lighting. It was built by the guys in the shop where I'm getting the Lowther.

Unc,
Thanks man. I will give them a listen first to see if I feel the need for more bass. I wasn't able to find much info on the Medallion cabinet online. I see some people say it digs to 30hz and others say 50. I think 50 sounds more realistic.

mhardy6647

The Lowther's sensitive enough for SE 45 (ca. 2 watts) - the 45 is a magical-sounding little triode. Splurge and get yourself a pair of globe 45s when the amp's done. A kilobuck sounds like a good deal to me. What sort of output iron will be used?

mhardy6647

just to clarify my previous post (missed the 'edit' deadline)! - I mean get some old stock 45 globes :-) If you think the Sophias are expensive... !

The Sofia mesh plate "2A3s" (which are actually 300Bs with 5V filaments, as I understand it) are quite respectable. I've "rolled" a few flavors of 2A3s through my amp (including vintage dual-plates) and the Sophias did actually sound the best of what I have in the house. They have kind of a pimp my DHT look to 'em... but they do sound good.




EDIT: I added a borrowed photo of one of Gary Kaufman's early - and great sounding - SE 45 amp with fricking gorgeous and very vintage globe 45s in it :-)

The source of the photo (and an interesting story - the "bash" in question kind of got me started in the fleapower/fullrange hobby):
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/bostonbash99/

organ

Thanks for the input on 45's and the link to the "bash". I will read the article after posting this. That old school tube looks so awesome. Very cool with the getter in the middle section vs the bottom like current production DHT's.

He did show me a bunch of transformers, but I can't remember what they were. I was pretty much asking him what kind of price I would be looking at if I want a quality amp built using DHT's and he told me around 1k.

The thing I like about him is that he's not into conventional stuff. He enjoys challenges and building unique pieces. That's why he didn't think I was weird when I got him to build me my CD player with 300B tubes as gain stage lol. He even told me he enjoys building gear for me because we both like to try new things.

I still haven't told him to build it yet. Will probably get to it in a few months once I get some more money saved up.
If I'm not able to source NOS 45's at a decent price, I will probably go ahead and try the Sophia.

Thanks for your help. i will keep you posted. I'm getting the speakers on Wed. This wait is killing me.

mhardy6647

1k for a professionally built stereo DHT amp's a very good deal, I'd opine. Much of the hardware value will be (should be) in the output transformers.

organ

Yeah, he told me I'm basically paying for the outputs and some for labour and parts. I'm very happy with the cdp and int amp they built for me. So I'm really looking forward to a 45 amp when the time comes.

organ

OK, I got them last night, and after spending about an hour setting them up, I listened non stop until 5:30am.

When it comes to speakers, I AM DONE!. This is it. You're not going to see me buy new speakers anymore.

I'm so impressed with them. Instead of posting my impressions, I will give it a month or so of listening and I'll write a full review.

The cabinet work is excellent and very professional. The drivers are also in excellent shape.

mhardy6647

cool e-nuff.
Please post some photos of 'em when you can and if you would.

organ

I'm just about to heard out for work (night shift lol). I will take some pics when I get back home later.

mhardy6647

thass OK - no hurry! :-)

organ

Here are some pics. Sorry about the dark pics. I used flash but still pretty dark.
Gonna pull another all nighter with the speakers.

Pics are the cdp, int. amp and the speakers

mhardy6647

Thanks very much for taking time to take & post photos. The cabinets are beautiful; nice acquisition, congratulations!

Have you got SACD, vinyl, or reel-to-reel tape to feed them (yet)? ;-)

organ

Thanks man. I'm so enjoying them right now.
After two days of listening with the EL84 amp, I switched to my EL34SE and the difference is very noticable. They're so revealing.

My next plan would be to have my tech re-terminate my Polk Cobra speaker cables and cut about 1m from the pair to convert to IC. I'll talk to him then about building me a DHT 45 amp.

No SACD or R2R yet lol. But I do see myself getting back into vinyl in a year or two:-).

I just did some more reading on Lowther and in the future, I'd like to try the Alnico based drivers. I just hope they're worth the asking price. The PM6C drivers that are installed now is about $800/pair and the Alnico ones are about $2500/pair. I'm in no rush to upgrade them because I still have a hard time believing it can get much better lol.

Have you heard the higher end drivers?