Lowthers at Melbourne Audio Club 16 July

The unusual Omni Audio Euphony, and the Omni Audio Maestro. These use Lowther drivers (PM6C in the Euphony, DX3 in the Meastro) in a vertical cylindrical enclosure in a 360 degree design. Made in Melbourne,
Interesting meeting, lots of members and visitors to see and hear the Omni speakers which really are beautifully finished. Chris the designer said one of the aims was to make them domestically acceptable, metallic green and red paint.
The sound was something else. Lowthers are fussy about the source and amplifier, and sounded better after swapping the Topping class D amp for a magnificent Luxman valve amp.

WANTED JBL 2482 or Altec 290

Wanted, even in rough condition. The JBLs use a 4inch voice coil and phenolic diaphragm. (And a 10.5Kg magnet structure!)
These drivers are often used for driving horns from 300Hz up.
Please respond by usung the comments so I can get back to you quickly.

Westminsters with ribbons, and isolation table

Kwan’s levitated table

Comparisons of David’s Tannoy Westminsters using the Tannoy concentric mid/tweeter with the new ribbon speaker using the custom crossover revealed many things:

The flat panel driver proved to be very efficient with a wide frequency range, 4Ohm estimated 100dB per 2.75v. Not only plenty of highs, very low colouration (judging by the sound of cymbals) and very good transients with no overhang.

Most of the music showed little distortion, with the occasional lapse, but I couldn’t tell whether components other than ribbon were to blame.

Compared to Tannoy’s wide listening position and single point source, the panels where very directional, and imaged well as long as you were in the small sweet spot.

To do justice to Kwan’s panels a dedicated crossover is needed. I could hear a lot of potential, a sytem designed around these drivers will make a superb loudspeaker. Kwan described this as the middle size of three panels, all capable of handling frequencies obove about 320Hz. David is offering to use these panels for some of his hosted !meetings for the Melbourne Audio Club.

Another of Kean’s inventions is the isolation table we tried briefly under the Linn LP12. This made such a difference that the bass was taughter and “quicker” than I think I’ve ever heard on an LP12. Guaranteed we will hear much more of this product.

David’s Westminster’s and electrostatic tweeter.

The whole system

David has amongst the best sounding Tannoys in Melbourne, he made the boxes himself and had the crossover designed by Cawsey. Every visit has been even better as David constantly upgrades the components, CD player, turntable, etc.
The latest experiment is using Kwan’s newly developed electrostatic panels for the highs. Detailed comments about the sound tomorrow.