Are Lowthers a "full range listening" speaker?

I would say that if you mean "fullrange" to include the lowest octave(20Hz-40Hz), the answer would be no. But for my tastes, I would say that the Lowther/Voight Pipe system I have is quite satisfactory for "broad listening". I have not had any extended listening exposure to the BD AER or Reps-1 drivers or systems, so I cannot really give you insight into those systems, although I think they also have good merit, but are still limited to similar frequency range as Lowther. Since the new series of Lowther drivers have improvements in key areas over previous models, any advantages that may have been attributable to AER or Reps is now negligable in my opinion. Any of these brands will provide very nice crossoverless sound in a good cabinet design. They will play quite loud with low wattage, and give extraordinarily good sound quality and detail. At this time, I am very satisfied with the sound I am getting from my Voigt Pipes, and am not looking to change drivers in the foreseeable future.

I have not considered the Oris horns at all because they do not fit my requirement for single-driver system. Also, I am not a fan of front loaded horns, although I have heard good reports of the Oris not being as "honky" as most. The real disqualifier for them to me, is the multi driver arrangement. Many people feel that the extension into the bottom octave is worth having the crossover and extra drivers in the system. I don't feel that way. I prefer the coherence and point source of a single driver crossoverless system, and am willing to accept the 40Hz lower limit. That is just my personal preference. Nothing is perfect, and I would prefer seamless coherence in 90% of the spectrum, than to sacrifice that to get the lowest 10% of the least used area of the spectrum. Others, no doubt, feel differently. Obviously, I would like to have it all, but that is not possible at this time from a fullrange cone driver. Soundlabs provides single-driver planar that reaches deeply into the bottom octave, but requires a high power amplifier, and this requires a trade-off in that area. I feel that for my needs, which include a very wide variety of music, that the Lowthers with my SET ZOTL 45 amp provides the maximum transparency and coherence for my music, with the least objectionable trade-offs for me. This is considering everything together as a package. To go with any other method, would require either a higher power push-pull amp, or crossovers and multi-drivers, or both. Or possibly even a bi-amp system. All of these alternatives create problems that I consider to be more deleterious to the musical presentation than the lack of 20 cycles of response in the bottom octave. I am getting a very solid 40Hz lower cutoff, and many speakers that claim full range are actually rolling off around there anyway. The vast majority really only will get to the lower 30s, even if they claim lower. When you try to integrate a subwoofer, there are loads of problems that are the subject of endless threads on this forum. So "you pays your money, and you takes your chances" as the carnival barkers say. I'll stick to the path of least interruption and corruption of the signal. If that means I have to give up a few cycles in the bottom end, so be it.

Regarding the Hedlunds, I have the plans on hand to make them, but they are a true rear horn, where the Voigt Pipes are not. Voigt Pipes are a combination of rear horn, transmission line, and bass reflex. This big knock on the Voigt Pipe is the comb-filtering effects created by the interaction of the port and the direct radiating driver. In practice, I have not found this to be a problem in my system. My Pipes are modified for improved wave-launch and acoustical baffle-step compensation. Perhaps this has mitigated the problem, but I don't have any noticeable comb-filtering effects with my system. All systems are a compromise, and I tried to provide the cleanest, most direct signal path that I could, and powered it with a SET OTL amp that is not even available, and had to be custom built by the only person that can build one, David Berning. The match seems to work quite well. If a person wants to modulate the walls with high SPL subsonic bass, then this is not the system to choose. If a person wants to have the least interference and corruption of the musical signal during playback, then this is a very enjoyable route to take. To each his own.

Thanks TWL for such a thorough answer! This looks to be a great forum and site in general. The descriptions of the "immediacy" of the Lowther sound really pique my curiosity. Coherency as well. Though I must admit I like to "modulate the walls" occasionally, I really only enjoy volume when it is very clean, and not continually. Musicality matters more!
Where are plans for the Voight Pipes with modifications available from, or were they your own experiments? Do you recommend a driver that is compatible with the Pipes?

There are no plans available for my mods, but the basic design came from the Lowther Club of Norway design, and that is the best one I know of. To improve wave-launch, and handle the baffle-step problem, I added 12" wide "swinging doors" to each side of the enclosure, which provides acoustical reinforcement using the 1/8th-wave formula down to about 48Hz. Of course the majority of radiation at that frequency and below is out the bottom port, so floor boundary reinforcement picks up to bolster the rest of the way down to the 40Hz lower limit. This eliminated the need for an electronic baffle-step compensating network that would have cut effeciency by 5db, and obstructed the signal path. So instead, I reinforced the freq's below the baffle step point, acoustically, thus retaining efficiency and pure signal path. The "swinging doors" allow them to be angled to the rear, to keep them out of the diffraction plane, and still do their job. It also allows adjustment of the reinforcement, so I can tailor the response to individual recordings as needed, by adjusting the backward angle. This is all just a simple application of known technology, and it works. The trade-off is larger size of the speaker enclosure, and they are quite large in frontal area.

The driver I selected was the new series Lowther EX3, which worked very well in this application. This system provides good bass within its design parameters, but it is not a system for "bass freaks". If you want the "boom boom" then add a subwoofer. Most people who are "bass freaks" will only notice the deeper, more powerful bass, and probably wont't even notice the seams, or phase-shifting, or speed differential non-matching that is introduced. This is because they have always had multi-drivers and this was present in all their previous speakers, so they don't notice any difference. You only notice it, when you started from a single-driver perspective, and then tried to add the bottom end.

This is not a system for everyone. It has ultra-revealing qualities that will let you know everything about what is wrong with your system. In my opinion, transistor amps are not suitable. Only a high quality SET amp using 300B or under, like 2A3 or 45, is correct in this setup. Push-pulls will be revealed as push-pulls. Hums, noises, hash, distortion, record noise, all will be coming right out your speaker if you have any of these noises. Components must be musical and quiet. This means good tube components and great tube selection. Cables, connectors, vibration control products, and everything can be heard easily, and may require some changes. In the end, it will do certain things better than any other system can, and it will have its weaknesses also. It is up to you to decide if this presentation is what you want out of your system.

Hello Everyone,
I have been very persuaded by various comments here on Audiogon that the Lowther driver is the way to go. Has anyone compared the Voigt pipes to any of the other options such as the enclosure designed by Jena Labs? TWL's comments would be very appreciated, since I regard him as our resident expert in these areas. For those of us who will have to have a cabinet maker build these for us, the cost is probably similar for each of the options. Also, how large are the enclosures such as the Voigts? Thanks for such a great thread
Dennis

Hi Dennis. The Jena labs cabinet designs are some of the relatively newer designs on the Lowther market. The Medallion 2 is sort of like a Lammhorn design, and is good to about 60Hz on the bottom end. True horn designs, whether they be front or rear loaded, are limited by the length, shape, and size of the horn cavity, especially the mouth dimensions. Very low response is generally not achieved by true horns due to overall size considerations that are required for deep bass horns. I have looked at the Medallion 2 cabinet, and it looks like a pretty solid design, and should be quite satisfactory within its design parameters. The Voigt Pipe has a lower cutoff frequency because if its combination design not being a true horn. The transmission line and bass reflex characteristics allow deeper bottom end than most non-corner horn designs for the Lowther. Voigt Pipes are the cheapest and easiest to make, and are probably not the very best enclosure for the Lowther, but they are good. Some commercial designs like the Lammhorn 1.8 or Rethm systems will do better than the Voigt Pipe, but cost far more. I have found that the Voigt Pipes were fine for me, at the money I could spend. The sound is much better than would be expected from something that costs as little as it does. Mine were only about $1500 total including drivers, solid oak cabinets, and hardware. Took about a weekend to build using only a circular saw, jigsaw, hand drill, screwdriver, and glue. I used cabinet grade lumber, so finish sanding and staining was simple. The normal Voigt Pipe(non-folded) is 6 feet tall and has a 1 foot square footprint. Mine have extended sides that are hinged, and protrude out 1 foot on each side, for a total width of 3 feet when the "wings" are fully extended. So a normal Voigt Pipe will be 6' tall and a foot wide, and mine are 6' tall and 3 feet wide. Both are a foot deep. Lowther drivers take a very long time to break-in, and will need at least 100 hours to start "loosening up" and giving better bass. After 500 hours, they are fully broken in. They sound great from the beginning, but get alot better. I think the Hedlund horn is a very nice cabinet, but complex to build. If I had some money and time, I would give them a try myself. But I am quite happy with the Voigt Pipe, even if they are not the "ultimate" design. They will give you plenty of enjoyment and music at reasonable costs. When you read about the Voigt Pipe design, alot of disparaging comments are made about the "comb-filtering" problem, but that never was a problem for me. I think that too much is made of that, and is not really the problem that they make it out to be. If there is a problem with that, it is not noticeable in actual listening, so I don't consider it a problem in real world use. Welcome to the world of single-drivers.