Extended Audition: Lowther Diary (SE amps)

Extended Audition: Lowther Diary (SE amps)

Lowther diary 2: more amps, including 801A
(Edited from the article that started the thread here, on 17/3/2001)

"..To pick up where I left off last time.

I had been listening happily to the Foreplay preamp + Wai Lee amp with cheap E130L tubes. But one of them intermittently emitted a noise. I substituted the San Ei 6BM8 kit but one channel is noisy too (from long term disuse), so I went back to the Wai Lee. My ICL 2A3 is on
loan.

Yesterday Thomas, David, and Richard C came over to listen to the Lowther TP1. The E130L was acting up so I put in a pair of (late) KT66. Sound was a bit smoother than the E130L, and good enough to me. Large orchestrals tightened up though at higher volume. We listened to a bunch of stuff before Thomas asked to put in the San Ei 801A amp.

A bit of explanation. I seriously believe the transmitting tube 801A is an excellent DIY tube (brand new Sylvania ~USD 40). It uses >600V voltages and puts out 3.5 watts. But it needs a 10k output, a problem. Mine is an old San Ei kit (now closed) with all Tango trans (Tango is
gone too), bought form all people my neighbor!!! It uses 12AX7 and 12BH7 also. ss rectification.

I used a 6mV DAC direct into the amp, and used the amp's volume knob. To my surprise, the sound, though even smoother than the Wai Lee, lacked some dimensionality and orchestrals lost speed. Someone said this combo sounded more like conventional speakers. One thing good
though; large scale sound gained some composure. Put the preamp back in and things came alive, though the dimensional qualities were still behind the Wai Lee. Finally we hooked up the amp to La Scala, and it was that much more lively.

The performance of the 801A was a little surprising to me. It works perfectly with the La Scala, and makes me want to sell many of my other amps as it is enough for me. With the La Scala I only need to run the CD directly in. But this is not the case with the Lowther.

Some thoughts again:

-Again this demonstrated that Lowther is NOT as efficient as La Scala (9x db vs 104 db on paper). You need more driving power, and preamp, to make the Lowther come live.

-The horn aspect of the sound quality is less pronounced and requires care not to lose it. With the La Scala you do not have this problem. Anything goes happy and its always horny.

-Aside from the location problem (mine are not in corners right now, they are in middle of room), careful titration between speed and power may be needed to maintain horn quality, yet make music loosen up at higher volume and complexity"...

Lowther Diary 3: 300B
(Edited from an article that started the thread here, on 20/03/01)

For the last few days I hooked up my Advance 300B amp to the Lowther. This is a 6AN8 driven amp. ss rectification. Japanese kit, acquired thanks to Eric. It is not the most powerful 300B but has a warm sound, perhaps due to its being driven by a pentode section and with
feedback.

I first used the Valve Art 300B and cheap Monster cables. Sound was more relaxed than the other amps used before, but it was a bit polite. Strange. I didn't realize the VA 300B were so polite before?

I changed to Svetlana and the Radio Shack cables and the sound balanced out by quite a bit. Actually this combo really loosened up the speakers by de-emphasizing the lower treble, and yet keep the treble afloat. I played even a Bruckner symphony last night.

The sound seems to continue to loosen up. Good. TKL asked me why am I posting this Lowther diary. Because I believe this experience can be shared with any Lowther user, even the
cheapest. One point I want to do is to have SOME detail in why I think this is this and that is that. Not just to say x is the best and y is the worst. I'd welcome any user to detail their experience in tube SYSTEM.

The matching of different amps to Lowther is a completely different experience from La Scala. It is just that much fuzzier. ALSO, cables prove to be a HUGH difference, as much as tubes, may be more. One can play many ways. Many HK people will probably just change all kinds of
tubes in 1 amp to see whether they can "transform" the system. I have never thought this productive. Better to see the system as a whole.

I have read a lot of threads on the Yahoo Lowther group (and has joined as member). It's interesting how many different types of amps have been used for Lowther. But few people do have several amps to compare at any given time. After I play some more I'm going to combine
the threads and post it in the Lowther forum. There are some HK people, including one person using M9 (switched to Klangfilm)to drive it!!!!"...

Lowther Diary 4: Humidity, new position, more 300B, Wai Lee re-visit
(From an article that originated the thread here, on 26/03/01)

"The Lowther sounds better these days to my ears. No doubt not at all solely due to my manouvers. I believe it's the humidity (alledged by many to be true). Seriously.

Well, uncontrollable factors aside, there have been important developements.

After the Advance 300B experience I got back my Audio Note kit one, in which I put my Valve Arts. No question, better line and speed and definition compared to the Advance. But a bit impersonal heh? Never noticed that before with the joyful La Scala...perhaps it's the Lowther?

Saturday, Hoi came over and with GREAT patience helped me move things around. As some of you know, I have so many things around that moving ANYTHING is like playing with Rubik's cube. We dismantled my 2 hifi racks, and moved a large rack (holding gears and CDs) to the opposite wall. This allowed the Lowthers to be more WIDELY spaced, now about
10 ft apart (7-8 ft from me), and they each gained ONE solid reflecting surface. The sound was immediately more easeful. I know these are still not ideal, but they will do for the moment. Next time I get help I am poised to exchange position of these with my far corner La Scala's. Tantalizing...

The effect of re-positioning:

-More easeful. Things just flow more naturally. The quickness of the notes do not become mechanical. Much better for large scale music.

-Due to the distance between the 2 speakers (relative to the distance from me) no doubt the imaging is less sharp than previously. This is less of a concern for horn users, but noticeable nonetheless, particularly on small scaled pieces. Amazingly even the bass outline loses slightly sharpness. In larger works, the ambience gained outweighs the slight loss in focus. There is little doubt these speakers prefer larger rooms.

With the new positioning, the amps sound very different, and more play is needed."...