Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:49 pm
OK - Lowthers. Bit of a saga. I arrived at Owens to filthy looks from Shirley for filling her living room with them. Owen, ever diplomatic and sensitive to another mans feelings, declined to be drawn on my "what do you think of them" probes, so clearly he thought they were shit. He took me in to listen to them. They were shit. However, he has a listening room around 25ft long by 12-15ft wide, and ideal for Quads (he has both 63's and 57's he uses in there). The Lowthers were in the position the Quads occupy - 6ft apart, 6-8ft off the back wall - listener 15 feet away. QUad heaven. Not Lowther heaven by a long way. No bass - shouty upper mid - tubby sound. Prior to removing the Audio Nirvana drivers they came with, in the vain hope EX3's might transform this sound, we shoved them back to within a foot of the wall.
My my. Hardly good, but no longer shit. Actually, now a curates egg - good in parts. Bass adequate (they only had to see off ESL's) and a certain "fast" "live" sound. Still coarse though. Removing the drive units was revealing. The cabinets appeared to be well enough constructed, with no obvious defects, although a bit of a heath robinson feel inside. But the heavy drivers were fixed (sort of not really fixed) with self tappers into MDF instead of captive nuts. And when we offered up the Lowthers, the mounting holes didnt match, and there were no others, so we had to rotate the drivers 5 degrees and drill new ones. (But the ad said the Audio Nirvanas $300 were chosen to replace the previous Lowthers - supposed to be EX3's £900 - because the AN's were preferred. Presumably the speaker fairy filled in the holes made by the Lowther drivers)
Then - the drivers were wired - using 5 amp mains single core - to their spade terminals, but looping the wire through the hole in the spade. Honest. Would I lie to you? I had a qualified audio engineer there as a witness. In fact I think the missus took a picture of the surgery - maybe later. The new EX3's have combination speaker posts (banana and clamp) so we poked the wire through the hole and clamped down as a temporary measure (no use permanently as they would work loose). Reassmbled and... the right driver was dud. Open circuit!
A few choice audio engineer oaths later, we investigated and pondered a repair. To shorten the story, contacting the vendor on ebay led to a suggestion we have a go, we started then bottled it before doing serious damage, contacted Lowther today who offer an exchange scheme instead of repairs (too tricky soldering aluminium wire on voice coils), and I have received a refund to cover the cost. Will get it done this week (maybe next - real busy) but Lowther are just up the road. So eventually we refitted the AN's using adequate spades properly crimped.
Surprise suprise, they now sounded less harsh, and definitely had points of merit. In fact we actually listened to them for half an hour or so, until the girlies dragged us out to the pub. Very precise imaging, and quite an attractive sound, if a bit coloured - but heaps better than the dodgy wiring in the middle of the room.
Enough for one installment - even on my own ramble. Night night till next time
My my. Hardly good, but no longer shit. Actually, now a curates egg - good in parts. Bass adequate (they only had to see off ESL's) and a certain "fast" "live" sound. Still coarse though. Removing the drive units was revealing. The cabinets appeared to be well enough constructed, with no obvious defects, although a bit of a heath robinson feel inside. But the heavy drivers were fixed (sort of not really fixed) with self tappers into MDF instead of captive nuts. And when we offered up the Lowthers, the mounting holes didnt match, and there were no others, so we had to rotate the drivers 5 degrees and drill new ones. (But the ad said the Audio Nirvanas $300 were chosen to replace the previous Lowthers - supposed to be EX3's £900 - because the AN's were preferred. Presumably the speaker fairy filled in the holes made by the Lowther drivers)
Then - the drivers were wired - using 5 amp mains single core - to their spade terminals, but looping the wire through the hole in the spade. Honest. Would I lie to you? I had a qualified audio engineer there as a witness. In fact I think the missus took a picture of the surgery - maybe later. The new EX3's have combination speaker posts (banana and clamp) so we poked the wire through the hole and clamped down as a temporary measure (no use permanently as they would work loose). Reassmbled and... the right driver was dud. Open circuit!
A few choice audio engineer oaths later, we investigated and pondered a repair. To shorten the story, contacting the vendor on ebay led to a suggestion we have a go, we started then bottled it before doing serious damage, contacted Lowther today who offer an exchange scheme instead of repairs (too tricky soldering aluminium wire on voice coils), and I have received a refund to cover the cost. Will get it done this week (maybe next - real busy) but Lowther are just up the road. So eventually we refitted the AN's using adequate spades properly crimped.
Surprise suprise, they now sounded less harsh, and definitely had points of merit. In fact we actually listened to them for half an hour or so, until the girlies dragged us out to the pub. Very precise imaging, and quite an attractive sound, if a bit coloured - but heaps better than the dodgy wiring in the middle of the room.
Enough for one installment - even on my own ramble. Night night till next time