Hmm, I'd say...No
Granted, I don't own/haven't heard them, but what exactly is the difference between them and X brand $50/$100 Full Range Driver?
Other than bling-blingism, I doubt the fr is significantly flatter in response, so where does your money go exactly?
I think once you get beyond a certain price point full range drivers as a whole become the limiting factor, rather than the pitching of this driver against that.
Some people just have too much money to play with
Granted, I don't own/haven't heard them, but what exactly is the difference between them and X brand $50/$100 Full Range Driver?
Other than bling-blingism, I doubt the fr is significantly flatter in response, so where does your money go exactly?
I think once you get beyond a certain price point full range drivers as a whole become the limiting factor, rather than the pitching of this driver against that.
Some people just have too much money to play with
I have wondered about these drivers (and AER drivers) also.
I have been able to compare several Fostex drivers ($50/$100 full range drivers) against a number of Lowther drivers (priced close to the subject driver) and I can tell you that there is a world of difference. The Lowthers are a significant cut above the Fostex drivers that I own. Sometimes you get what you pay for and sometimes not. Is this driver worth the price? I would love to know but not at the risk of ordering from overseas. Without a local US dealer they are not competitive, by my standards, compared to the Lowthers from two local US sources.
I have been able to compare several Fostex drivers ($50/$100 full range drivers) against a number of Lowther drivers (priced close to the subject driver) and I can tell you that there is a world of difference. The Lowthers are a significant cut above the Fostex drivers that I own. Sometimes you get what you pay for and sometimes not. Is this driver worth the price? I would love to know but not at the risk of ordering from overseas. Without a local US dealer they are not competitive, by my standards, compared to the Lowthers from two local US sources.
You must be significantly more flush than me then, at least when it comes to the audio budget.
Could you please elaborate on how the Lowthers were significantly better than the Fostex drivers?. Is it just a subjective opinion or have you done controlled objective tests?(frequency response, impulse response etc).
I'm not doubting that the Lowthers could be better than X model Fostex driver, but when the price of the Lowthers is 6/7 times that of the Fostex, are you getting 6/7 times the performance?
Personally, I feel there's a lot of merit in full range drivers, but dropping such an amount of money on them is possibly a bit mislead, because I don't believe the performance gains could be great enough to justify the outlay.
Of course, everyone has differing opinions, but if I had that amount of money to blow, I'd be looking at a 3, maybe 4-way. Properly implemented, I think it'd bring improvements of a much greater magnitude in dynamics/accuracy/detail in comparison to a single driver ££££ setup.
Don't know if I am more "flush" then you, but everybody has different priorities and budget constraints. If we looked at each others budgets/spending I am sure we would both be able to point out faults.
I have done all of the electrical and acoustic measurements on the drivers and the finished enclosures. Got plenty of plots that show my home grown software accurately predicts the responses. None of this tells you how they sound.
I have played my Lowther speakers for myself, family, and friends and done specific one against one testing between similar ML TL designs with the Fostex FE-208 Sigma and the Lowther DX2 drivers. Everybody agreed that the Lowther DX2 was a better sounding speaker. If you read my Project #4 write-up you can see how I tested and what my 12 year old son had to say. Draw your own conclusions.
I have also heard my Lowther DX3 in the same environment as a few other DIY projects. Each had their own set of strengths and weaknesses and at the end of the day I liked the Lowthers better. My opinion and personal taste.
For me yes they are worth it, other opinions do not matter to me. You need to decide for yourself, my opinion should not matter to you.
Interesting point. Lets say that the middle DX series Lowther was of interest, costs about $1000/pair for DX3's plus say 50 dollars for BSC circuit parts. Total is $1050 plus wood. But wood is common to both speaker systems.
So the questions is, can you buy a pair of woofers, a pair of midranges, and a pair of tweeters plus the crossover parts to build a three way for less that will be competitive performance wise. Before I became interested in full range I built a Focal two way TL which cost about $450 plus wood. Compared to the Lowther DX3, which I compared directly, the bass and the very top were a bit better but the Lowther killed it across the rest of the audio spectrum. Before this I built a Focal three way which cost about $1250 plus wood but was long gone before the Lowthers arrived. Lived with that system for almost 10 years and I believe it would have produced the same conclusions in a one for one comparision, the crossover was a real pain on that design. I guess that my point is as follows, I am not convinced that a top quality three way using premium drivers and crossovers is going to be cheaper then a Lowther full range system. I think premium drivers are required to equal the Lowthers. In fact, I bet when you get all done, the Lowther drivers will be very cost competitive. But again, you set the standard and your opinion is what really matters. I can only relate my experiences.
theNoid said:So has anyone had a chance to play with these yet? If yes, do you think the FS-2B is worth the roughly $2400 USD a pair?
Noidster
Greets!
Not me, but from a materials/construction POV they don't appear that pricey to me. Consider that in 1954 the studio monitor driver standard was the costly to manufacture Altec 604C, which sold for $165. Using this inflation calculator: http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/InflationCalculator.asp I get ~$2079/pr, so considering that I believe the FS-2B is even more labor intensive to manufacture and made in much smaller quantities, $2400 seems almost a bargain to me.
For it to be a reasonable price to me from a performance POV it would have to clearly outperform a good compression driver, which I don't see happening due to the physics of the situation. That said, for those folks that prefer FR loaded systems, the ~exponential increase in price with increasing resolution (assuming the driver actually delivers) is worth it IMO if you can/want to afford it since it's by far the weakest link in the audio chain.
GM
They also build the AER MK1 which is cheaper and is used in the Lamhorn 1.8.
http://www.rlacoustique.com/aer.htm
I assume it is an american dealer and they sell the MK1 so ask them for the 2B.
But I don't see that much difference between the 2B and the MK1, they have very close construction methods so maybe the MK1 is a better bargain.
For sure, if I had the money I'd choose either the AER MK1 or some Fostex F200A (a little cheaper)
In europe the MK1 is sold 600€ so 1200€ a pair.
http://www.rlacoustique.com/aer.htm
I assume it is an american dealer and they sell the MK1 so ask them for the 2B.
But I don't see that much difference between the 2B and the MK1, they have very close construction methods so maybe the MK1 is a better bargain.
For sure, if I had the money I'd choose either the AER MK1 or some Fostex F200A (a little cheaper)
In europe the MK1 is sold 600€ so 1200€ a pair.
MJK said:
Yes, I've heard about this
But the products look quite similar though
EDIT : yes, the company is different : http://www.aer-loudspeaker.com/
here is the original AER website. (in german only) The MK1 is the original AER driver, but maybe not the Fs2B
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.