Hi all,
I'll keep this brief cos it's late and I'm quite tired.
My Horning Aristoteles speakers are equipped with Lowther DX55's modified by Mr Horning to act as wide-band mid range drivers (the idea being to remove a lot of the Lowther Shout as I understand it).
Anyway, what hasn't been removed is the Lowther Hassle. One of mine is intermittently buzzing and rattling on musical peaks and I think it needs realigning - my understanding is that the voice coil runs dangerously close to the magnet. The UK distributor who I bought them off originally in 2007 has now retired and buggered off to France and my attempts to contact the current distributor have been met with a wall of silence.
I simply do not have the confidence to realign this thing myself - I'm near Chesterfield in Derbyshire - between Nottingham and Sheffield. Can anyone help? I will of course be happy to pay you for your time.
I'll keep this brief cos it's late and I'm quite tired.
My Horning Aristoteles speakers are equipped with Lowther DX55's modified by Mr Horning to act as wide-band mid range drivers (the idea being to remove a lot of the Lowther Shout as I understand it).
Anyway, what hasn't been removed is the Lowther Hassle. One of mine is intermittently buzzing and rattling on musical peaks and I think it needs realigning - my understanding is that the voice coil runs dangerously close to the magnet. The UK distributor who I bought them off originally in 2007 has now retired and buggered off to France and my attempts to contact the current distributor have been met with a wall of silence.
I simply do not have the confidence to realign this thing myself - I'm near Chesterfield in Derbyshire - between Nottingham and Sheffield. Can anyone help? I will of course be happy to pay you for your time.
My former DX2's had a problem with hi-ferric coating getting loose. I needed to remove it from mag. gap. And to realign them. Try to find tutorial or two, watch for details and diy.
First you need to clean the gap with double sided tape. When you are sure the gap is clean proceed to next step.
Basically, you need shim of proper thickness, which can be made from al can (some beer for eg.) will suffice. At the end carefully tighten the screws. In a cross order.
That's it
And be careful with magnets. They are powerful. You can use magnetic tool but be careful not to tear diaphragm with tools.
First you need to clean the gap with double sided tape. When you are sure the gap is clean proceed to next step.
Basically, you need shim of proper thickness, which can be made from al can (some beer for eg.) will suffice. At the end carefully tighten the screws. In a cross order.
That's it
And be careful with magnets. They are powerful. You can use magnetic tool but be careful not to tear diaphragm with tools.
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Is the "Hassle" dealing with the idiosyncrasies of a high performance purebred, or the manufacturer themselves?
Have you directly contacted Lowther, or any of the local clubs?
Authorised Lowther Clubs, Distributors and OEMs in England.
I'd share your trepidation to take on such a tricky task without a lot of experience.
Have you directly contacted Lowther, or any of the local clubs?
Authorised Lowther Clubs, Distributors and OEMs in England.
I'd share your trepidation to take on such a tricky task without a lot of experience.
Realigning Lowther Drivers
If you don't have debris in the gap, then the cone likely sagged over time and you need to realign the drivers. It actually is not that difficult to realign Lowther drivers.
I would mount the drivers on a flat board in the same orientation that they are mounted in your speakers (same side up). You need to feed a low frequency signal (i.e, 20 hz) so that the drivers move back and forth in a relative slow manner so that you can hear the rubbing, but don't hear sound coming from the speakers. Then slightly loosen the bolts at the back of the driver just enough until the speaker can move around in the gap. You can move the speaker cone around and hear the rubbing on the different sides and then move the cone into the center of this movement area where there is no longer any rubbing. When tightening the bolts back up, you may notice that it shifted a little bit, so you may need to loosen, reorient the driver and retighten the bolts.
I would retighten the bolts in two stages. First, tighten them modestly (until each one is snug), and after all the bolts have been snugged up, then go back and tighten them down real good.
I would agree that you should be careful with tools. It would be best to have a stainless steel wrench instead of iron-based ones.
Retsel
If you don't have debris in the gap, then the cone likely sagged over time and you need to realign the drivers. It actually is not that difficult to realign Lowther drivers.
I would mount the drivers on a flat board in the same orientation that they are mounted in your speakers (same side up). You need to feed a low frequency signal (i.e, 20 hz) so that the drivers move back and forth in a relative slow manner so that you can hear the rubbing, but don't hear sound coming from the speakers. Then slightly loosen the bolts at the back of the driver just enough until the speaker can move around in the gap. You can move the speaker cone around and hear the rubbing on the different sides and then move the cone into the center of this movement area where there is no longer any rubbing. When tightening the bolts back up, you may notice that it shifted a little bit, so you may need to loosen, reorient the driver and retighten the bolts.
I would retighten the bolts in two stages. First, tighten them modestly (until each one is snug), and after all the bolts have been snugged up, then go back and tighten them down real good.
I would agree that you should be careful with tools. It would be best to have a stainless steel wrench instead of iron-based ones.
Retsel
I may try contacting Lowther actually, see what they say.
Thanks for the input so far everyone, much appreciated.
Maintenance
Here is a link to my maintenance sheet. Should give you all the information you need to repair your driver.
http://www.lowther-america.com/resources/Drivers/Maintenance.pdf
Here is a link to my maintenance sheet. Should give you all the information you need to repair your driver.
http://www.lowther-america.com/resources/Drivers/Maintenance.pdf
Hi there,
I'm near Dronfield, and would be willing to have a go. I've cleaned the magnetic gaps on my phase-plugged FE126s (and others) before, and the re-alignment seems straightforward enough. Disclaimer, though - I haven't done a driver re-alignment before. I'm good with speakers and don't think it'll be a problem, but please bear it in mind.
PM me if you'd like me to try.
Chris
I'm near Dronfield, and would be willing to have a go. I've cleaned the magnetic gaps on my phase-plugged FE126s (and others) before, and the re-alignment seems straightforward enough. Disclaimer, though - I haven't done a driver re-alignment before. I'm good with speakers and don't think it'll be a problem, but please bear it in mind.
PM me if you'd like me to try.
Chris
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