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So who's buying these Lowthers?


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I predict $20K and they go to Japan.

Finest example I have seen.

Iain, I cannot believe you were still conscious enough to post after seeing these!! Beautiful, just beautiful.

No kidding [:P] I need a Japanese Sugar Mommy [:D]

Usually these are in the UK. Not too many in the USA nevermind in such stellar condition.

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Beautiful speakers, but what so special about them. I am probably getting banned for that question.

duder

This is a very rare 20 made high performance 1951 Lowther single driver speakers. This was before stereo so to have to is a big deal. Most ebay ads don't give much information but this ebay ad is a mini Lowther, Voigt and Hegerma speaker history lesson.

from the ebay ad

This pair of Lowther Hegeman Reproducer horn speakers is in fantastic condition and sounds amazing. Set comes with the original green back PM4 drivers that have been restored to their original 1950's style square frames.

A
chance to own a pair of these speakers may never come again so please
read the details below in their entirety. To get larger pictures just
click the image thumbs on the right hand side and check out this link
to a video detailing the speakers and matching cabinet.




Winning Bidder will receive:
• Two Lowther-Hegeman Speakers
• Two Lowther PM4 Ticonal G, Green-Back Fullrange Drivers
• Brand New Cones & Square Baskets (from Fullrange Speakers)
• Matching Teakwood Center Console - Optional to Winner Bidder if desired - you just pay for shipping
&
Original Paperwork which includes:
• 4 page Lowther Brochure
• Factory Cabinet Build Plans
• Price Sheet from The Radio People in Hong Kong where the set was originally purchased
• Letters from the prior owner to Lowther over the years.


HegemanSpeakerLOGO.jpgLowther Hegeman Reproducer History
This
groundbreaking speaker resulted from a collaboration between legendary
american audio designer Stuart Hegeman and Donald Chave of Lowther UK
. As
it was 3 times the price of the next most expensive Lowther speaker at
the time and had very short production run between 1950 &1951 - No
one knows for sure how many
Lowther Hegeman Reproducer speakers were made
- the best production estimate is in the 20-30 unit range. At the time
Mono was the dominant playback format so these speakers were almost
never sold as pairs. Hegeman & Chave desired to take the
Lowther/Voigt full range single driver concept to a higher level and
this both front & back horn loaded speaker design was the result.
No doubt part of the high cost during its day - was the
Plaster-of-Paris folded horn that loads the front output of the PM4 and
the very elaborate horn loaded bass cabinet taking the output from the
rear of the driver

The Designers

StuHegemanPhoto.JPGStuart Hegeman
Stu
Hegeman is revered by high-end audio engineers as he was one of the
first focus on components and speakers designed specifically to sound
like music and not just measure well for specifications sake. For
example he was first to identify negative feedback (a common method amp
designers use for reducing measurable distortion) as a source of
unusual distortion in itself, which was undetectable by the
instrumentation of the day. As measurement methods evolved, Hegeman’s
philosophy was proven true. Like many geniuses in their respective
fields Hegemans’s ideas were so far ahead of their time they were
scoffed at by his peers, but are now universally accepted. His theory
of amplifier design based on ultra-wide frequency response, stating the
frequency response of an amplifier should not be limited to the range
of human hearing (20 to 20,000 Hertz) but should also be extended to
the fringe areas of the audio band (10 to 40k Hz), was laughed at. But
two decades later nearly every manufacturer adopted this principle to
some degree.

Unlike so many
other audio engineers Hegeman was not limited to a specific area of
audio design. He made brilliant breakthroughs in almost every area of
audio, including FM tuners, preamplifiers and loudspeaker design. He
even invented a large screen projection tv in the 50’s and handmade a
working video recorder prototype in the 60’s long before anyone knew
what these were. He also invented the soft dome tweeter and the
omni-direction speaker system. His theoretical work on loudspeaker
dispersion and electronic sound in general have been snapped up by
manufacturers and still serves as the basis of their product lines to
this very day. For a partial list of some of the electronics Hegeman
designed click this link. Hegeman Equipment List


LowtherPm4Tag.jpg
Donald Chave
Donald
Chave was a true believer in the philosophy set forth Lowther founder -
Paul Voight - who had the vision, technical abilities, and marketing
prowess to take the company to the next level. Chave updated and
expanded a series of permanent magnet full-range drive units (that are
still made today, fundamentally the same) and produced many speaker
enclosures that extended the frequency spectrum of these highly
sophisticated drivers. Donald Chave was also wise enough to recognize
true talent and humble enough to seek help. So in the late 40’s Chave
implored Hegeman to come to Britain and work with him on a new flagship
loudspeaker for Lowther. Hegeman was a big fan of the Voigt/Lowther
philosophy and his talents and passion were well suited to maximize the
sonic benefits of this unique system.

PaulVoigtpic_001.jpgPaul Voigt
In
1934, Kent England, an alliance between Paul Voigt and O.P. Lowther
brought forth one of the most influential loudspeaker manufacturers of
all time, Lowther. The Lowther/Voigt union was based upon Voigt’s
invention of the “Domestic Corner Horn” a home hi-fidelity loudspeaker
design he started developing in 1924 (that’s 22 years before Paul
Klipsch’s famed corner horn) Voigt was an electronics genius who broke
new ground in the fields of radio circuitry, recording cutters,
microphones, amplifiers, transformers, pickups and loudspeakers. He is
one of the unsung pioneers of sound reproduction, whose brilliance and
contributions to audio never received its due recognition. His work
laid the technical groundwork for entire industries and his theories of
sound reproduction continue to prove more accurate as time progresses.
Though the average audiophile probably never heard of Paul Voigt he has
the highest respect of the generations of audio designers who succeeded
him. Peter Walker the inventor of seminal electrostatic speaker designs
said “I can think of no single man who has done more in the field of
audio” - Paul Klipsch also had tremendous respect for Voigt, whose own
speaker designs were influenced by Voigts.
LowtherLogoSmall.jpgLowther Sound Reproduction Philosophy
In
a nutshell, the full-range Lowther philosophy is that the audio
spectrum should be covered by a single driver, believing the
incorporation of multiple drivers and the required crossover filter rob
the music of its true natural presentation and introduce distortion and
phase shift that is unavoidable. The difficulties of developing a full
range single driver system are numerous, yet its strengths are just too
good to overlook. Nearly all conventional multi-driver speaker systems
put a crossover in the mid-range to split the signal to the bass driver
and the tweeter. Music is made up of approximately 70% midrange and
this is the most critical hearing region, where our ears are most
sensitive. If the midrange is off then it really doesn’t matter what
the other ends of the frequency range sound like, our brains are
convinced what we are hearing is not the real thing. There is no way
around it, crossovers introduce phase and balance problems that cause
deterioration in detail, transparency and imaging. And the design
variations of each driver in a multi-driver system, with differing
time-constants and sonic characteristics, further blur the sonic
picture being presented.

Theoretically,
a perfect speaker system would be a single driver with the ability to
reach all the frequencies necessary to reproduce music. This is the
goal designers have been longing for since Paul Voigt first developed
his single driver full range approach. Despite the loss of some of the
lowest and highest frequencies, the gains produced by lowther's
approach in coherency and naturalness are well worth it. Especially if
your musical tastes run towards classical or acoustic instrument. For
reproducing the human voice there may never be a design surpassing the
coherency presented by the Lowther designs.
The Lowther-Hegeman is
one of the best executions of the Lowther single driver full-range
philosophy. It extends the frequency range of the PM4 driver to
amazingly wide proportions and disperses music uniformly over a wide
angle. It utilizes a folded horn for high and mid frequency and a
rear-loaded horn for bass response. The Lowther-Hegeman utilizes an
elaborate folded “W” bass horn specially designed to exploit the rear
output of the Lowther PM4 driver. The front-horn is a unique dual
outlet double rate flare horn crafted of Plaster-of-Paris.

LowtherPM4single3.jpg
Lowther PM4 Driver
The
P.M.4 driver was developed for, and first used in, the Lowther-Hegeman
system in 1951. It is a marvel of audio science that is still being
produced today by Lowther UK. The PM4’s in these Hegeman speakers are
the original greenbacks with the no-longer produced Ticonal-G magnets.
The shape of the magnet is of considerable importance, enabling
enormous magnetic force into the gap. The PM4 produces an astonishing
flux rating of 24,000 Gauss. This in combination with an incredibly
light and nimble cone (only 6.5 grams of moving mass) equates to speed,
which, to your ears, translates to incredible sonic detail, superior
natural reproduction, wide dynamics, and outstanding transparency.

LowtherPM4single3.jpgPM4 Driver Restoration
In
general all Lowther drivers require new cones over time because of the
natural deterioration of the delicate surrounds and spider assembly.
These drivers have been re-coned a total of three times over the past
55 years. The original owner had them re-coned twice, once in 1971 and
again 1997. We have, and will include, the original letters of
correspondence with Lowther. At the time of his last re-cone Lowther
updated the frames to the rounded style that you see on Lowther
speakers today, this was common practice. When we received the
Lowther-Hegemans and inspected the PM4’s we felt it was best to re-cone
both drivers. We wanted to return the PM4’s back to as close to
original as possible in both performance and appearance. We questioned
many Lowther experts and the name that kept on coming up was
Ines Adler of Full Range Speakers
in Berlin Germany. They were the only ones who re-manufactured the
original style square-frames and they utilized cones that best matched
the electrical and sonic characteristics of the original 1950 era PM4
cones. We sent both drivers to Fullrangespeakers in Germany where they
were expertly re-coned and they also fully re-magnetized the original
Ticonal G magnets. We could not have been happier with the results as
the drivers perform to a level exceeding our expectations, with a look
and sonic character archetypal of the original 50’s versions.

HegemanSpeakerLOGO.jpgLowther Hegeman Sound Today
Fans
of Lowther speakers, and other fullrange designs, will absolutely love
the Lowther Hegeman system. It is amongst the best, if not the best,
representation of what the Lowther sound is all about. If you like full
range electrostatic or planar type speakers, you will probably be more
impressed with the Hegemans, as they have all the favorable
characteristics of those designs with a whole lot more dynamic impact.
Their sound is akin to a pair Quad 57’s on a heavy dose of steroids. If
you are a fan of classical, jazz, orchestral, acoustical, opera,
chamber, folk, or any other music genre where the primary source is of
natural, non-electronic instrumentation, you will love the
Lowther-Hegeman system. What they do better than any other system is
their incredible natural sonic depiction of human voice and acoustic
instrumentation. A properly recorded orchestra played back through the
Hegeman’s produces an eerily life-like experience. Tracks that capture
the melodic nature of a woman’s voice, will send shivers down your
spine. Conventional systems can’t compete with the Hegeman’s on these
aspects. The system has a level of coherency, clarity, speed,
naturalness and pure musical energy that is unmatched. What they
accomplish with just a few watts of single ended triode amplification
is truly astonishing.

Traditionally
the biggest criticism of Lowther speakers in general lack of lowest
bass, which is not entirely true. Larger cabinet systems such as the
Lowther-Hegeman do make it down to the lower bass regions that includes
a vast majority of recordings, yet in comparison to many modern
high-end multi-driver systems they do lack the extreme bottom end. If
your primary listening tastes are rock, dance, techno or other bass
heavy music this may not be the speaker for you, but they are such a
wonderment everywhere else in the frequency range that you may simply
not care about the missing lowest bass frequencies or find it a better
option to locate a worthy subwoofer to get the last few Hz.

Original Owner
The
original owner of this amazing set speakers was a decorated WWII Vet
and a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force. During the
1950’s he was stationed in Formosa I (Taiwan) and frequented Hong Kong
. In 1958 he purchased this pair of Lowther Hegeman speakers along with
a matching equipment cabinet and components from The Radio People, Ltd
on 31 Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong. For those of you who don’t know,
The Radio People, Ltd was a Mecca of hi-fi in Asia that specialized in
Europe’s finest audio gear. It became a famous destination point of
American service men and all music lovers of Asia. It was one of the
only authorized dealers of all major British equipment manufacturers in
the 50’s. When the Colonel came back to the US he brought his equipment
with him. He enjoyed this system for the rest of his life in his home
in Phoenix AZ. Over the years he maintained the system, re-coning the
pm4 drivers when necessary. He kept mail correspondence of these
services from Lowther UK in 1971 then again in 1997 from the Lowther
Club of America.

Some More Detail:
According
to the original paperwork the wood enclosures were crafted by The Radio
People, LTD while the PM4 drivers and Plaster-of Paris horns were
imported from the UK. This was the common business model of the day for
all British manufacturers because of the high cost of labor in the UK,
shipping complications, and taxes/duties. If you were going to be a
Lowther Distributor anywhere else in the world other then the UK you
had to invest in a first class woodworking shop - which The Radio
People did - Craftsmanship of the enclosures is absolutely phenomenal.
They were built to precise specifications as provided in the original
plans (included) using marine grade plywood - all vital joints were
dove-tailed and tightly bonded. Veneer is high-grade teakwood of 3/32”
thickness with a hand rubbed oil finish. There may very well be no
other pair in existance with this teak finish.

Cabinet Condition
- The cabinets of the Lowther Hegeman were luckily in phenomenal shape
for their age. There were no rings, stains, scratches or gouges. The
finish was is little dry and the areas were the woodgrain lines are
show a slight raise. Also there is a slight variation of color between
the two cabinets because of their placement in the original owners
house and proximity to the incoming natural light. Using a light coast
of Howard’s Restor-A-Finish we were able to bring them back to very
good condition. The luster and color of the teakwood is outstanding.
All of the original seals on the cabinet and plaster-of-paris horn have
been replaced.

Bass Cabinet Illumination - As
per the factory build plans - the bottom of each Lowther-Hegeman
cabinet is a small removable panel. Inside is a light-bulb and fixture
attached to a long stand. It seems as a final touch to the
Lowther-Hegeman system an illumination source, which provides just
enough light to cast shadows of the louvered bass cabinet, to set
ambience and really accentuate the beauty of one of the most incredible
speaker designs of all time! Both the bulb and fixture date back to
50’s. This set has one light-bulb and is missing the other - it is a
bayonet style lamp and should not be hard to find a substitute if the
new owners desires the illumination

Speaker Wire - The speaker wire has been replaced in both speakers with high purity copper cabling

Matching Equipment Cabinet
- top cabinet lifts up and has a cutout for a Thorens TD-124 on the
right and an area for drop down components on left - An amplifier can
be placed on the bottom left and there are drawers for media on the mid
and bottom right - as mentioned this is an optional item if the winning
bidder wants it included. Dimensions -
34"W x 44"W x 20"D

Lowther Hegeman Dimensions - 46"H x 44"w x 24"D

Shipping -
I can ship these speakers fully insured worldwide and no expense will
be spared in order to protect this very rare set when it comes to
packing materials. All interested parties should e-mail me their Postal
Zip Code, City and Country as early as possible for shipping cost
estimates

Final Note
- Odds on finding another pair of Lowther-Hegeman loudspeakers,
anywhere in the world, so closely matched and in impeccable condition,
are slim to none. We have spoken to many Lowther enthusiasts, many in
their 80’s, who have never even seen one. The only other
Lowther-Hegeman that we were able to track down is located in the
Lowther Voigt Museum in England, and that is a single not a pair. In
the vintage audio world this is the rarest it gets. A system with a
heritage rooted into the very beginnings of hi-fi and a lasting impact
on today’s designs.
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Beautiful speakers, but what so special about them. I am probably getting banned for that question.

duder

This is a very rare 20 made high performance 1951 Lowther single driver speakers. This was before stereo so to have to is a big deal. Most ebay ads don't give much information but this ebay ad is a mini Lowther, Voigt and Hegerma speaker history lesson.

from the ebay ad

This pair of Lowther Hegeman Reproducer horn speakers is in fantastic condition and sounds amazing. Set comes with the original green back PM4 drivers that have been restored to their original 1950's style square frames.

A chance to own a pair of these speakers may never come again so please read the details below in their entirety. To get larger pictures just click the image thumbs on the right hand side and check out this link to a video detailing the speakers and matching cabinet.




Winning Bidder will receive:
• Two Lowther-Hegeman Speakers
• Two Lowther PM4 Ticonal G, Green-Back Fullrange Drivers
• Brand New Cones & Square Baskets (from Fullrange Speakers)
• Matching Teakwood Center Console - Optional to Winner Bidder if desired - you just pay for shipping
&
Original Paperwork which includes:
• 4 page Lowther Brochure
• Factory Cabinet Build Plans
• Price Sheet from The Radio People in Hong Kong where the set was originally purchased
• Letters from the prior owner to Lowther over the years.


HegemanSpeakerLOGO.jpgLowther Hegeman Reproducer History
This groundbreaking speaker resulted from a collaboration between legendary american audio designer Stuart Hegeman and Donald Chave of Lowther UK. As it was 3 times the price of the next most expensive Lowther speaker at the time and had very short production run between 1950 &1951 - No one knows for sure how many Lowther Hegeman Reproducer speakers were made - the best production estimate is in the 20-30 unit range. At the time Mono was the dominant playback format so these speakers were almost never sold as pairs. Hegeman & Chave desired to take the Lowther/Voigt full range single driver concept to a higher level and this both front & back horn loaded speaker design was the result. No doubt part of the high cost during its day - was the Plaster-of-Paris folded horn that loads the front output of the PM4 and the very elaborate horn loaded bass cabinet taking the output from the rear of the driver

The Designers

StuHegemanPhoto.JPGStuart Hegeman
Stu Hegeman is revered by high-end audio engineers as he was one of the first focus on components and speakers designed specifically to sound like music and not just measure well for specifications sake. For example he was first to identify negative feedback (a common method amp designers use for reducing measurable distortion) as a source of unusual distortion in itself, which was undetectable by the instrumentation of the day. As measurement methods evolved, Hegeman’s philosophy was proven true. Like many geniuses in their respective fields Hegemans’s ideas were so far ahead of their time they were scoffed at by his peers, but are now universally accepted. His theory of amplifier design based on ultra-wide frequency response, stating the frequency response of an amplifier should not be limited to the range of human hearing (20 to 20,000 Hertz) but should also be extended to the fringe areas of the audio band (10 to 40k Hz), was laughed at. But two decades later nearly every manufacturer adopted this principle to some degree.

Unlike so many other audio engineers Hegeman was not limited to a specific area of audio design. He made brilliant breakthroughs in almost every area of audio, including FM tuners, preamplifiers and loudspeaker design. He even invented a large screen projection tv in the 50’s and handmade a working video recorder prototype in the 60’s long before anyone knew what these were. He also invented the soft dome tweeter and the omni-direction speaker system. His theoretical work on loudspeaker dispersion and electronic sound in general have been snapped up by manufacturers and still serves as the basis of their product lines to this very day. For a partial list of some of the electronics Hegeman designed click this link. Hegeman Equipment List


LowtherPm4Tag.jpg
Donald Chave
Donald Chave was a true believer in the philosophy set forth Lowther founder - Paul Voight - who had the vision, technical abilities, and marketing prowess to take the company to the next level. Chave updated and expanded a series of permanent magnet full-range drive units (that are still made today, fundamentally the same) and produced many speaker enclosures that extended the frequency spectrum of these highly sophisticated drivers. Donald Chave was also wise enough to recognize true talent and humble enough to seek help. So in the late 40’s Chave implored Hegeman to come to Britain and work with him on a new flagship loudspeaker for Lowther. Hegeman was a big fan of the Voigt/Lowther philosophy and his talents and passion were well suited to maximize the sonic benefits of this unique system.

PaulVoigtpic_001.jpgPaul Voigt
In 1934, Kent England, an alliance between Paul Voigt and O.P. Lowther brought forth one of the most influential loudspeaker manufacturers of all time, Lowther. The Lowther/Voigt union was based upon Voigt’s invention of the “Domestic Corner Horn” a home hi-fidelity loudspeaker design he started developing in 1924 (that’s 22 years before Paul Klipsch’s famed corner horn) Voigt was an electronics genius who broke new ground in the fields of radio circuitry, recording cutters, microphones, amplifiers, transformers, pickups and loudspeakers. He is one of the unsung pioneers of sound reproduction, whose brilliance and contributions to audio never received its due recognition. His work laid the technical groundwork for entire industries and his theories of sound reproduction continue to prove more accurate as time progresses. Though the average audiophile probably never heard of Paul Voigt he has the highest respect of the generations of audio designers who succeeded him. Peter Walker the inventor of seminal electrostatic speaker designs said “I can think of no single man who has done more in the field of audio” - Paul Klipsch also had tremendous respect for Voigt, whose own speaker designs were influenced by Voigts.
LowtherLogoSmall.jpgLowther Sound Reproduction Philosophy
In a nutshell, the full-range Lowther philosophy is that the audio spectrum should be covered by a single driver, believing the incorporation of multiple drivers and the required crossover filter rob the music of its true natural presentation and introduce distortion and phase shift that is unavoidable. The difficulties of developing a full range single driver system are numerous, yet its strengths are just too good to overlook. Nearly all conventional multi-driver speaker systems put a crossover in the mid-range to split the signal to the bass driver and the tweeter. Music is made up of approximately 70% midrange and this is the most critical hearing region, where our ears are most sensitive. If the midrange is off then it really doesn’t matter what the other ends of the frequency range sound like, our brains are convinced what we are hearing is not the real thing. There is no way around it, crossovers introduce phase and balance problems that cause deterioration in detail, transparency and imaging. And the design variations of each driver in a multi-driver system, with differing time-constants and sonic characteristics, further blur the sonic picture being presented.

Theoretically, a perfect speaker system would be a single driver with the ability to reach all the frequencies necessary to reproduce music. This is the goal designers have been longing for since Paul Voigt first developed his single driver full range approach. Despite the loss of some of the lowest and highest frequencies, the gains produced by lowther's approach in coherency and naturalness are well worth it. Especially if your musical tastes run towards classical or acoustic instrument. For reproducing the human voice there may never be a design surpassing the coherency presented by the Lowther designs.
The Lowther-Hegeman is one of the best executions of the Lowther single driver full-range philosophy. It extends the frequency range of the PM4 driver to amazingly wide proportions and disperses music uniformly over a wide angle. It utilizes a folded horn for high and mid frequency and a rear-loaded horn for bass response. The Lowther-Hegeman utilizes an elaborate folded “W” bass horn specially designed to exploit the rear output of the Lowther PM4 driver. The front-horn is a unique dual outlet double rate flare horn crafted of Plaster-of-Paris.

LowtherPM4single3.jpg
Lowther PM4 Driver
The P.M.4 driver was developed for, and first used in, the Lowther-Hegeman system in 1951. It is a marvel of audio science that is still being produced today by Lowther UK. The PM4’s in these Hegeman speakers are the original greenbacks with the no-longer produced Ticonal-G magnets. The shape of the magnet is of considerable importance, enabling enormous magnetic force into the gap. The PM4 produces an astonishing flux rating of 24,000 Gauss. This in combination with an incredibly light and nimble cone (only 6.5 grams of moving mass) equates to speed, which, to your ears, translates to incredible sonic detail, superior natural reproduction, wide dynamics, and outstanding transparency.

LowtherPM4single3.jpgPM4 Driver Restoration
In general all Lowther drivers require new cones over time because of the natural deterioration of the delicate surrounds and spider assembly. These drivers have been re-coned a total of three times over the past 55 years. The original owner had them re-coned twice, once in 1971 and again 1997. We have, and will include, the original letters of correspondence with Lowther. At the time of his last re-cone Lowther updated the frames to the rounded style that you see on Lowther speakers today, this was common practice. When we received the Lowther-Hegemans and inspected the PM4’s we felt it was best to re-cone both drivers. We wanted to return the PM4’s back to as close to original as possible in both performance and appearance. We questioned many Lowther experts and the name that kept on coming up was Ines Adler of Full Range Speakers in Berlin Germany. They were the only ones who re-manufactured the original style square-frames and they utilized cones that best matched the electrical and sonic characteristics of the original 1950 era PM4 cones. We sent both drivers to Fullrangespeakers in Germany where they were expertly re-coned and they also fully re-magnetized the original Ticonal G magnets. We could not have been happier with the results as the drivers perform to a level exceeding our expectations, with a look and sonic character archetypal of the original 50’s versions.

HegemanSpeakerLOGO.jpgLowther Hegeman Sound Today
Fans of Lowther speakers, and other fullrange designs, will absolutely love the Lowther Hegeman system. It is amongst the best, if not the best, representation of what the Lowther sound is all about. If you like full range electrostatic or planar type speakers, you will probably be more impressed with the Hegemans, as they have all the favorable characteristics of those designs with a whole lot more dynamic impact. Their sound is akin to a pair Quad 57’s on a heavy dose of steroids. If you are a fan of classical, jazz, orchestral, acoustical, opera, chamber, folk, or any other music genre where the primary source is of natural, non-electronic instrumentation, you will love the Lowther-Hegeman system. What they do better than any other system is their incredible natural sonic depiction of human voice and acoustic instrumentation. A properly recorded orchestra played back through the Hegeman’s produces an eerily life-like experience. Tracks that capture the melodic nature of a woman’s voice, will send shivers down your spine. Conventional systems can’t compete with the Hegeman’s on these aspects. The system has a level of coherency, clarity, speed, naturalness and pure musical energy that is unmatched. What they accomplish with just a few watts of single ended triode amplification is truly astonishing.

Traditionally the biggest criticism of Lowther speakers in general lack of lowest bass, which is not entirely true. Larger cabinet systems such as the Lowther-Hegeman do make it down to the lower bass regions that includes a vast majority of recordings, yet in comparison to many modern high-end multi-driver systems they do lack the extreme bottom end. If your primary listening tastes are rock, dance, techno or other bass heavy music this may not be the speaker for you, but they are such a wonderment everywhere else in the frequency range that you may simply not care about the missing lowest bass frequencies or find it a better option to locate a worthy subwoofer to get the last few Hz.

Original Owner
The original owner of this amazing set speakers was a decorated WWII Vet and a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force. During the 1950’s he was stationed in Formosa I (Taiwan) and frequented Hong Kong . In 1958 he purchased this pair of Lowther Hegeman speakers along with a matching equipment cabinet and components from The Radio People, Ltd on 31 Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong. For those of you who don’t know, The Radio People, Ltd was a Mecca of hi-fi in Asia that specialized in Europe’s finest audio gear. It became a famous destination point of American service men and all music lovers of Asia. It was one of the only authorized dealers of all major British equipment manufacturers in the 50’s. When the Colonel came back to the US he brought his equipment with him. He enjoyed this system for the rest of his life in his home in Phoenix AZ. Over the years he maintained the system, re-coning the pm4 drivers when necessary. He kept mail correspondence of these services from Lowther UK in 1971 then again in 1997 from the Lowther Club of America.

Some More Detail:
According to the original paperwork the wood enclosures were crafted by The Radio People, LTD while the PM4 drivers and Plaster-of Paris horns were imported from the UK. This was the common business model of the day for all British manufacturers because of the high cost of labor in the UK, shipping complications, and taxes/duties. If you were going to be a Lowther Distributor anywhere else in the world other then the UK you had to invest in a first class woodworking shop - which The Radio People did - Craftsmanship of the enclosures is absolutely phenomenal. They were built to precise specifications as provided in the original plans (included) using marine grade plywood - all vital joints were dove-tailed and tightly bonded. Veneer is high-grade teakwood of 3/32” thickness with a hand rubbed oil finish. There may very well be no other pair in existance with this teak finish.

Cabinet Condition - The cabinets of the Lowther Hegeman were luckily in phenomenal shape for their age. There were no rings, stains, scratches or gouges. The finish was is little dry and the areas were the woodgrain lines are show a slight raise. Also there is a slight variation of color between the two cabinets because of their placement in the original owners house and proximity to the incoming natural light. Using a light coast of Howard’s Restor-A-Finish we were able to bring them back to very good condition. The luster and color of the teakwood is outstanding. All of the original seals on the cabinet and plaster-of-paris horn have been replaced.

Bass Cabinet Illumination - As per the factory build plans - the bottom of each Lowther-Hegeman cabinet is a small removable panel. Inside is a light-bulb and fixture attached to a long stand. It seems as a final touch to the Lowther-Hegeman system an illumination source, which provides just enough light to cast shadows of the louvered bass cabinet, to set ambience and really accentuate the beauty of one of the most incredible speaker designs of all time! Both the bulb and fixture date back to 50’s. This set has one light-bulb and is missing the other - it is a bayonet style lamp and should not be hard to find a substitute if the new owners desires the illumination

Speaker Wire - The speaker wire has been replaced in both speakers with high purity copper cabling

Matching Equipment Cabinet - top cabinet lifts up and has a cutout for a Thorens TD-124 on the right and an area for drop down components on left - An amplifier can be placed on the bottom left and there are drawers for media on the mid and bottom right - as mentioned this is an optional item if the winning bidder wants it included. Dimensions - 34"W x 44"W x 20"D

Lowther Hegeman Dimensions - 46"H x 44"w x 24"D

Shipping - I can ship these speakers fully insured worldwide and no expense will be spared in order to protect this very rare set when it comes to packing materials. All interested parties should e-mail me their Postal Zip Code, City and Country as early as possible for shipping cost estimates

Final Note - Odds on finding another pair of Lowther-Hegeman loudspeakers, anywhere in the world, so closely matched and in impeccable condition, are slim to none. We have spoken to many Lowther enthusiasts, many in their 80’s, who have never even seen one. The only other Lowther-Hegeman that we were able to track down is located in the Lowther Voigt Museum in England, and that is a single not a pair. In the vintage audio world this is the rarest it gets. A system with a heritage rooted into the very beginnings of hi-fi and a lasting impact on today’s designs.

well that explains it. I like the fact that the center cabinet has a drop in cut out for a Thorens td-124.

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I predict $20K and they go to Japan.

Finest example I have seen.

Boy I was close!!!

Winning bidder US $23,100.00

But it is going to Europe : ) WOW

Well, Europe would have been my second guess. [*-)]

Very Close Seti, it's like you've done this before. But with the limited number of them still out there, I bet not too many people have done "this" before.

Good Call![Y]

Dennie

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