Single drivers just have their limitations. They have a lot of positives but counterbalancing negatives.....But, you have to live with a rolled off high end and bottom end.
All very true but when you do as Martin (MJK), myself, Dick Olsher, Jon Ver Halen and so many others have done, you play to their strengths rather than force them to show their weaknesses. Go open baffle or even back horn, heck, you could even put them in a 1 cf box but in all cases, actively (or passively) cross them over at about 100Hz (give or take 50) and let a big, vintage HiEff 15" driver fill in the lowest octaves.
If you think that they sound rolled above 12 or 14k, augment the ultrasonic with a super tweeter.
I'll be the first one to tell you that Lowthers used in a true single driver configuration likely won't work. I've only heard one design (the Teresonic Ingenium's) that actually provided fairly even, low bass. Though similar to a true Voight pipe, they used several Helmholtz resonators inside to flatten their bass response. These were the
only exception I've ever heard to "Lowthers don't do bass" rule....and those were extremely room dependent on top of it all.
When it comes to Lowthers (and in particular my PM2A's), I have never heard any speaker in
any price range that is as coherent and revealing as they are. Couple them with a good single ended triode (just my personal preference MJK
) and it as close to the Voice of God as you can come in audio. When you hear guys talk about '
presence', Lowthers coupled to SETs set
the benchmark for
all to strive for.
Oh, Lowthers in an open baffle pretty much eliminated the 'head in a vise', 2" sweet spot they used to have. The sweet spot still isn't huge but it definitely got bigger.
So, yes, there is a Lowther lover or two in these here parts
