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Lowther in bass reflex or Cain Abby

After looking at many of the speakers suggested in response to my previous post regarding suitable speakers for a low powered tube amp (Sophia baby 10wpc) and late night-low volume listening, I am still leaning toward the high efficiency full range driver camp.

I’m most interested in the Cain and Cain Abby and the bass reflex 1.3 model speakers from commomsenseaudio.com loaded with one of the Lowther drivers. The Cain speakers seem to be a well known and well regarded system. Does anyone have experience with the Lowther systems from common sense audio?

Price wise these are about the same, the lowest end Lowther being slightly less expensive, but it is close enough in price for that not to be a real consideration.

Anyone care to share some feeling/experience/biases regarding either of these tow (particularly the Lowthers)?

Thanks again!
kunja
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
I agree with Restock..you should listen before making the plunge. You may Love'Em and you may Hate'Em . The Abbys are beautifully handcrafted speakers. They also sound great with low power tubes. Wish mine were that perty!! :-)

Also you could go Open Baffle..

Go to Audiocircle.com and post your question. There are many on that forum who use and have experience with different implementations of single drivers. You could post it on Audioasylum.com in the HE forum..they're a rowdy bunch though.
darkmoebius
900 posts
 
Audiocircle is good, but the Fullrange Driver Forum is all fullrange, all the time. You name, they've done it. Doubt you can find more collective experience anywhere on the web.

If you can't find a Cain & Cain dealer near you, try shooting Terry Cain an email off his website to see if there is an Abby owner in your neck of the woods. You never know...

BTW, Terry does have a Fostex super tweeter that can be added to all his speakers for a little more "sparkle". I have the T-900A tweeter pods on my IM-Bens and like them, but they are no where near mandatory.
jtgofish's avatar
jtgofish
515 posts
 
In my experience these types of speakers are very cold sounding.If you like speakers that emote you probably need to look elsewhere.
The Goodmans Axiom 80 is the exception to this however.
Many of us have been down the single driver path.You can enjoy these immensely for a while but after a while you also come to realise their weaknesses as well as their strengths.
Some don't though,so they are probably still worth a try.
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
Just buy some Zu speakers..there the best speakers in the world and nothing I'm mean nothings better.. you know. LOL
herman
2,273 posts
 
Check out the new Lowther Alerion. The smaller Lowther in a Cain cabinet. http://www.lowther-america.com/ I have heard them and they sound excellent, but you will need a sub.

While I agree that single drivers are not for everybody, the last word I would use to describe a Lowther system is cold. For whatever weakness' they have, and all speakers have them, I have never heard them described as lacking in emotion. In fact, this is the one attribute that almost everybody uses to describe them. If they sounded cold it was not the speaker.
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