I put in a request for a quote for the drivers via Lowther’s website and got a response saying I’ll be hearing from their US distributor, Fidelity. That was a couple of months ago and Fidelity hasn’t responded at all even after I emailed them a few times, so I’m not sure they sell directly to individuals. Probably need to wait for a US dealer to make them available.
@Gerald kirchner
Looks nice. Flat surround and structured cone. Interesting solution to put holes into the whizzer cone. Certainly was a lot of testing where to put them and defining aperture.
Looks nice. Flat surround and structured cone. Interesting solution to put holes into the whizzer cone. Certainly was a lot of testing where to put them and defining aperture.
I do not believe, that the holes will help very much. The cone gets air resistance when it moves in. moving out is no problem because of the cone edge folded as an sourrounding arrow.
It is nessesary to eliminate the shout. That is of importance.
It is nessesary to eliminate the shout. That is of importance.
Carefully designed LCR network(s) would help or dsp.
Nelson Pass made an active EQ helping fullrange drivers. Any of these will eliminate the shout.
It simply it is not true that application of EQ takes the life out of a fullrange driver.
However many people because of a lack of experience with EQ of the more sophisticated type get used to false sound.
Before the use of EQ I could not imagine how sensitive the ear is to deviations from the ideal.
Nelson Pass made an active EQ helping fullrange drivers. Any of these will eliminate the shout.
It simply it is not true that application of EQ takes the life out of a fullrange driver.
However many people because of a lack of experience with EQ of the more sophisticated type get used to false sound.
Before the use of EQ I could not imagine how sensitive the ear is to deviations from the ideal.
I believe that Jon ver Halen of Refined Audio has the Lowthers, having previously
Handled the product. I have a pair of their latest arriving shortly.
Handled the product. I have a pair of their latest arriving shortly.
The membran of Filip keller is a must have.
It eliminates the lowther shout to large extend.
It has good punch, voices have breast, piano has corpus, instruments much wood. My ticonal g lowthers work fine with it. Treable is sweet, smart , and light like a butterfly. Perfect combination with a fine tuned LCR paralell to the driver. It can reproduce a direkt to disk heavy drum disk with full controle. It is realy awesome.
It eliminates the lowther shout to large extend.
It has good punch, voices have breast, piano has corpus, instruments much wood. My ticonal g lowthers work fine with it. Treable is sweet, smart , and light like a butterfly. Perfect combination with a fine tuned LCR paralell to the driver. It can reproduce a direkt to disk heavy drum disk with full controle. It is realy awesome.
Nice cabinets in green finish. Please let me ask you what has improved in its sound in comparasion to the older serie of lowther. Is it pm6a, 7a, 2a what is in the cases ?
that is a PM4A , the extra room on the backloaded horn should be able to get to 55hz rather than the original 70hz. But still room improvement, probably designing a new spider to allow lower Fs.
The Premium has the English feel to the tonality, no shout which they probably have addressed in the new design. Good control of the midrange and not harsh compare to the older Lowther.
The Premium has the English feel to the tonality, no shout which they probably have addressed in the new design. Good control of the midrange and not harsh compare to the older Lowther.
any updates on the drivers?
asking because I am interested and I inquired about purchasing premium line PM4A in the USA, was told $3400 for the pair. Not sure if that is for the silver coil as I forgot to specify silver coil and it was not mentioned.
Anyway the cost is up there into the range of Voxativ, AER and Cube and I'd like to know how the Premium PM4A stacks up to them?
asking because I am interested and I inquired about purchasing premium line PM4A in the USA, was told $3400 for the pair. Not sure if that is for the silver coil as I forgot to specify silver coil and it was not mentioned.
Anyway the cost is up there into the range of Voxativ, AER and Cube and I'd like to know how the Premium PM4A stacks up to them?
Just wanted to post an update to my previous post. Lowther can now supply directly to the US. Martin at Lowther was super responsive to all my questions, and I ended up going with a pair of classic PM6As. The premiums are about 38% pricier.
The new Lowther comes with 5 year warranty, so the price increased is reflected by it.
Lowther also has a big community that support customers with after market products and solutions as well
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lowthermodificationsupportgroup
Lowther also has a big community that support customers with after market products and solutions as well
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lowthermodificationsupportgroup
I have had low end lowther from different period including square frame pm6 pm7, plastic frame, as will as new black frame flipped and none flipped whizzer driver. I recently heard silver VC premium pm6a pm7a as well as aluminum VC premium pm7a. I can provide my feeling about this to the best of my knowledges. Please bear in mind that I am only 25 years old so have not got too many other high end equipment and could be biased.
A brief conclusion first: you should get silver VC premium pm7a or aluminum classic lowther pm6.
First, premium cone are designed for silver VC so they work best with silver VC as a direct radiator.
Second let’s talk about what is good about silver premium driver comparing to standard aluminum VC classic lowther. The mid range of the silver voice coil premium range is perfect. Apart from being a none shouty driver, the mid range is more detailed. The attack is very realistic and punchy, as if the string would break in the next second. This is especially true when playing piano and guitar. The vocal is less emphasized and more precise. Violin solo sound richer and more vivid due to the dig around 5k being solved. Also, shouty track from 21 century japanese animation OP and ED (usually mixed for headphone) sound less harsh. The dispersion of the mid range up to 7k is also smooth. You get ruler flat (+-3dB) frequency response from on axis to about 60 degree off axis up to 7k. And the THD is way below 0.5% for all frequency from 500Hz to 10kHz. I can not test other frequency due to lack of professional equipment.
Also the bass is very good as a full range. You get a well controlled and bouncy bass from acousta 115 with premium pm7a silver VC. The bass is audible to 40Hz, but subjected to some distortion from 40-60Hz which is not a issue with music. This is however due to the limitation of acousta 115.
Finally some improvement I hope. The driver does not give enough treble. On axis up to 12k off axis up to only 7k. It is at this moment I tried a pair of aluminum VC pm7a premium. The driver do give more treble, but the extension is the same. More emphasis on 7k-10k but not going higher. Too much hiss but no air. Also the aluminum VC pm7ap seem to lack the punch and transient in mid range that presented on silver VC pm7ap. You should easily get a super tweeter blending properly with the silver VC premium lowther. The roll off is rather quick and clean comparing to aluminum VC premium. Well, the treble of classic lowther has more air and more spark, at the same time being a bit tinny (treble roll off not smooth) comparing to premium range silver/aluminum VC lowther.
Also, if you listening to music in Mandarine you will find consonant “j,q, zh” a bit harsh. This is as expected as most language does not contain these consonants. I have not notice any issue with other language including Japanese, Italian, English, French.
A brief conclusion first: you should get silver VC premium pm7a or aluminum classic lowther pm6.
First, premium cone are designed for silver VC so they work best with silver VC as a direct radiator.
Second let’s talk about what is good about silver premium driver comparing to standard aluminum VC classic lowther. The mid range of the silver voice coil premium range is perfect. Apart from being a none shouty driver, the mid range is more detailed. The attack is very realistic and punchy, as if the string would break in the next second. This is especially true when playing piano and guitar. The vocal is less emphasized and more precise. Violin solo sound richer and more vivid due to the dig around 5k being solved. Also, shouty track from 21 century japanese animation OP and ED (usually mixed for headphone) sound less harsh. The dispersion of the mid range up to 7k is also smooth. You get ruler flat (+-3dB) frequency response from on axis to about 60 degree off axis up to 7k. And the THD is way below 0.5% for all frequency from 500Hz to 10kHz. I can not test other frequency due to lack of professional equipment.
Also the bass is very good as a full range. You get a well controlled and bouncy bass from acousta 115 with premium pm7a silver VC. The bass is audible to 40Hz, but subjected to some distortion from 40-60Hz which is not a issue with music. This is however due to the limitation of acousta 115.
Finally some improvement I hope. The driver does not give enough treble. On axis up to 12k off axis up to only 7k. It is at this moment I tried a pair of aluminum VC pm7a premium. The driver do give more treble, but the extension is the same. More emphasis on 7k-10k but not going higher. Too much hiss but no air. Also the aluminum VC pm7ap seem to lack the punch and transient in mid range that presented on silver VC pm7ap. You should easily get a super tweeter blending properly with the silver VC premium lowther. The roll off is rather quick and clean comparing to aluminum VC premium. Well, the treble of classic lowther has more air and more spark, at the same time being a bit tinny (treble roll off not smooth) comparing to premium range silver/aluminum VC lowther.
Also, if you listening to music in Mandarine you will find consonant “j,q, zh” a bit harsh. This is as expected as most language does not contain these consonants. I have not notice any issue with other language including Japanese, Italian, English, French.
Thanks for taking the time to write that up. Too bad it doesn't go much higher than 12K but at 58 yrs old I doubt I hear much above that anyway.
Given that it’s mid range and bass are so outstanding, it is still something that I think worth the price. And also there is not too much information above 12k in most genre of music. And also voxativ does not goes too much higher then 12k as well if the standard is +-3dB.
What do most DX4 users against the "shout"?
Classic LCR network or some EQ - be it analogue or digital?
Classic LCR network or some EQ - be it analogue or digital?
I scored a used B5, but Pa was nice enough to give us this…
https://diyaudiostore.com/products/eq-for-full-range-drivers
Otherwise try sitting off axis…playing with phase plugs…crossing speakers in front of you etc etc
https://diyaudiostore.com/products/eq-for-full-range-drivers
Otherwise try sitting off axis…playing with phase plugs…crossing speakers in front of you etc etc
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@chromenuts
yes nice design by Pa.
Wanted to know what most users do - more mechanical measures like you mentioned or if EQed more classic LCR or EQs on the amplifier side.
Maybe there are not enough users of this driver here to give a feedback.
yes nice design by Pa.
Wanted to know what most users do - more mechanical measures like you mentioned or if EQed more classic LCR or EQs on the amplifier side.
Maybe there are not enough users of this driver here to give a feedback.