I have owned both, built many other loudspeakers with both fostex and lowthers ,pretty much all models.Abby is a nice loudspeaker but suffers from dynamic compresion fe166e [fe168e is better as is fe166es-r]has only a little cone ,cabinet resonace problems too but over all its a fun loudspeaker the De capos are more detailed play louder but dont have the filled out sound of the abby.As far as lowther being better than quality fostex my findings are that lowthers have a bit more space to the mids but have a rough trebile responce ,droning bass in most all cabinets ,cost way to much ,need regular maintance and only realy show there best side in front horns or front and back horn cab like tp1 or yamamura.F200a is much better across the board in sound quality , deeper bass with much detail plays just as loud but needs a bit more power than lowther has better trebile detail and is just flatter across its range no annoying peaks.I can see why lowthers are well liked but f200a fe208 e sig with tweeter are more enjoyable to me and the others who have heard these systems in my home or there own as alway YMMV and we all have dif taste