m00n Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 Here is one that catches my eye... Would this sound good? What would you expect this to sound like? Having such a small driver, would this even have any good bass response? Here is the page for this particular horn project Big Mouth - A Rear Loaded Lowther Horn Here is the site with lots of horn projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwatkins Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 First of all - there is a good chance that this will sound much better than one may think, especially if you are a diehard 3 way person. The well made full rangers will rival most two ways and leave quite a few folks impressed. No crossovers to diddle with and a surprising sound. Second of all - If you really like the good three way sound (those with good speakers and crossover) you may find this speaker lacking. I always have, but in the DIY areana a full range is a tremendous bang for the buck and easier to tweak. My DIY looking at three ways is daunting to say the least... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 Another DIYer's dream come true...it's a similar design to the Big Mouth (wish I knew what website this DIY SET/Lowther system came from; my bro e-mailed me the pic). From what I've read, these single drivers are very neutral and dynamic, and SETs make 'em purr! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 ...And these DIY Voigt Pipes were made in Indonesia (Lowthers have a worldwide following). They're probably the simplest single driver horns to build, thus very popular. Sound fabulous with SET 300b monoblocks! My youngest brother is considering building a pair someday... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 I've heard quite a few rear-horn Lowthers setups including Medallions and Hedlunds. All are shy in the bass and lack robustness compared to proper big-woofer-compression driver horn rigs. Note that Lowthers in rear-horns are direct-radiators above about 200hz, the rear horns used only load the driver below around 200hz. So above 200hx they ahve the same weaknesses as most direct-radiators: higher distortion and uncontrolled dispersion. Lowthers also have very erratic frequency response. The rear-horns used with Lowthers are horn-loading in self-defense, a bandaid. The reason is interesting. The fella who designed the Lowthers, Voight, had the notion that a cone driven by the most powerful motor possible should be the way to go. But he ran up against the problem of over-damping and so the Lowthers had poor bass in box cabinets. So by horn-loading the rear-wave of the driver Voight got some EQ action that brought the bass response up closer to the level of the midrange. Voight also used his drivers in various front-loaded horns and in "bathtub" corner-horns, several of which I saw in the Klipsch museum. Many of the rear-horns used with Lowthers, such as the Hedlunds shown in this thread, have severely undersized mouths and resultant severe "rollercoaster" frequency response in the bass. That said I must say that Lowthers have a sound, a sound some find good. They are more dynamic than normal cone speakers though that isn't saying a whole lot. I think they're OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwatkins Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Tom is right on - this thread and several others got me out last week to audition some speakers. I had been cocooning with my set up for the past several months and was beginning to wonder if I was biasing my observations on the 'what I own is the best' trap. My apologies in advance for not getting model numbers - I was listening to bunches. All setups were accompanied my a myriad of supposedly stellar electronics. Of course the Linn, ML and Dynaudios had several thousand dollars of Krell, Dynaudio and Linn electronis attached. I listened to a couple of (seemingly well made)hedlund look alikes. One Lowther and one Fostex. Yep on the bass. The Lowther I heard even seemed to have a delay that made me nervous after a few minutes. The Fostex was better to my ear. The highs are also interesting. This validated my opinion that the smaller woofs are probably great mid bass speakers (after all I have fostex in my modified heresy center - oops, there comes that dang bias..) Checked out Linn again (I keep thinking that for that amount of cash I ought to be impressed). Couldn't get my ear to like them - call it electronics or what you want, but Linn always sounds thin on the top side and seem to need a good sub. This tends to be something my ear says about most two ways. Came away more impressed with Dynaudio than before. The top two way was very pleasing and I really thought that somebody got it right with cones for the mid stuff. Impressively dynamic. Then I had a listen to a Dynaudio three way (actually a bit less costly than the twos I first heard) and my ears went 'yep, that's better'. Martin Logan - wanted to see about panels again (had some maggies for a long stretch). Still one of the nicer 'sweet spot' speakers around. Great imaging, but I have always felt like the bass on ML integrated rather strange (just my ear saying - that's nice but not quite right). When I stood up and moved around I remembered why the Maggies got relegated to limited use - above the top of the panel it sounds plain bad. The end result? The ears still prefer decent horns with crisp dynamics. My own setup still has some bass issues, but on a relative bang for the buck I'll keep thinking 3 ways with a horn dominance. Although, Dynaudio has risen a notch in my scale and Krell continues to be a longer term goal.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 "Having such a small driver, would this even have any good bass response?" The mouth is too small for any real low end. Here is what they think they are making: http://www.audioanthology.com/images/we15%202ok%20copia.jpg Note: this is a small one, it was used with a pair of dipole subs in theater use. Earlier versions were twice as wide, twice as high, and had a manifold for multiple receivers. The receiver has a 2" aluminum diaphragm. This small one shown is 100hz~6Khz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 Djk The ALLEY cat need you,r help. (La Scala) He,s ready to jump off the roof. Please contact him. Or his blood will be on your hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 One thing I did enjoy at the Midwest Audio show was DR. Bruce Edgar and His "Edgar horns" Demo. One demo he did do, with a 4" woofer and a cheap one to boot, to prove a point that in a horn enclosure just how fabulous the low sub notes are enhanced and made really loud. To see this clock radio sounding cheap speaker in his hand, then placed over a say 3" round hole....producing rock solid bass, was a great visual and aural experience and explained a little how our own K horn woofers work so wonderfully to give us heart pounding bass. Once you see / experience this demo, you really appreciate a folded horn enclosure. Between Fostex at the show, and Vifa, full range and tweeters, mids, and woofers, I learned a lot what other DIY's do too. To them, audio is a passion. Many DIY's produced say 2-8 speaker pairs in a whole year by hand, as a hobby, and yes...some actually did sound pretty good too. Did I find any I liked better than my k horns? No. Some close, maybe in different applications too, I happened to smile a lot. Some however really did suck. Why some people would pay 2,3,4,5,6 k dollars for some of them I had to wonder? Then I went back to remember for myself and others... "the sound" is in the ears of the beholder. On some selections, I might like crystal clear vocals... On another selection I might like rock bottom lows pounding my chest and awe inspiring (just below but you get my point) concert level music to inspire me. Other setups I enjoyed quiet soft sounding near field speakers that play in full range, but intimate open airiness that is just a different sound. I like the ones that go out on a limb..that create something completely different and somehow find success. Much like Paul did, with his speakers too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 ---------------- On 9/30/2003 6:29:52 AM djk wrote: Here is what they think they are making: http://www.audioanthology.com/images/we15%202ok%20copia.jpg Note: this is a small one, it was used with a pair of dipole subs in theater use. ---------------- Nice! They have a beautiful industrial workmanship... both the original and his hand made replica... http://www.audioanthology.com/building.htm Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpg Posted October 10, 2003 Share Posted October 10, 2003 m00n- If no one else has mentioned this, be sure to check out DIYAudio. Most of the people around there are into hi-fi horns and are very knowledgeable. I was hoping for some single driver rear loaded speakers, but I just don't think I have the woodworking skills to get them done. Enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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