A very good Lowther design that emerged.... (News)

by anubisgrau, Saturday, September 29, 2007, 00:05 (6075 days ago) @ Bert

hi bert

I am very sceptical reading the specifications though... (all systems are
the same?). 30Hz @ -3dB isn't possible unless the Lowthers have some
internal equalisation of some sort (passive filter techniques) and 22kHz
is another end I do not believe.

yes - a couple of illogical things here, i spotted them too while browsing the website. i think that the correct HF response is 12kh, not 22k - while LF response may well be true according to what i've heard. but low end extension is not to be misunderstood. this is not a sound of a big driver. it's still a lowther, it just can't move air. not sure that even such an extended LF would please anyone who is into the music that demands thump and kick.

one of the sale points is there are no any passive elements within the cabinet and they clain all the tricks are pure acoustics. a designer is especially proud that he minimized a number of elements between the CD and the listener in his room to only seven, the last change being putting lundahl transformers as interstage coupling instead of capacitors into his 300b. it's quite obvious he is into simplicity. at the end of the day, anyone can open them and see what is inside.

i think that the trick is done not only with playing with TQWT but with the helmholz resonators in the first place. from what i remember they should be a kind of a resonant box with a tunnel in it, a kind of a bass reflex box that if placed correctly within the horn (or whatever it is called in this case), can enhance the bass and smooth up rough edges of the soundwave. there are two resonators within each box. how they manage to avoid any cancellations and similar, including phase confusion between the radiated wave and the one that comes from inside of the box, is absolutely beyond my understanding. but i am quite confident that the designer of it has not only a golden ear (as a tenor singer) but a golden brain too (as an engineer specialized in applied electronics), who played with FRs both scientifically and as a music coiNoseur. you can really hear that from the way they sound.

what i found quite interesing is that the room was just a plain, normal 24-25m2 room - so not a small one at all - and that the speakers were just provisionally installed, actually not correctly positioned at all due to a furniture arrangement, the sweet spot was soooo huge and the sound was all over the room! OK GC knows that i hate listening speakers from the sweet spot but this was very interesting in a very positive way - plus when walking around the room i couldn't hear any anomalies, standing waves, effects of cancellation or similar. so i feel that the room couldn't be more normal or average.

i asked for the measurements and what i got was a revies of scott faller, whose writings i followed for some time and i can't say he is someone one should be more careful than usual with the audio journos. here it goes:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0906/teresonic_ingenium.htm

and here's his measured freq. plot:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0906/teresonic/frequency_response.gif

(it's small but it's pretty clear - they are pretty dead above 12k and they go low up to some 35hz for sure pretty linear).

and apparently he bought a pair of these. now he is working on an ultimate lowther test - he is checking 6 different lowther drivers in this cabinet. btw, the version i listened was the one with DX3, not DX4 as in his article.

cheers

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