Fire Tower "free air" tests on Lowthers and Quads
Acrosound
Here are Bob's introductory comments:
::Guys get a load of this "Blast From The Past" The Famous Jute Lowther Tower
::Test...
::This is where the great Dr. Jute claims he hauls speakers to the top of a
::fire tower for "Free Air' testing.
::He even say he hauled Quad ESLs up there. You have to see it to believe it!
::He even claims that a Lowther in free air goes down to 16Hz. What a hoot.
::Catch the part where he claims a manufacturer in Denmark wants to license
::his speaker designs. Boy are we in the midst of greatness.
::Then take a look at the phony Modular Amp story near the end of the post
::below. Same bull-crap two years ago. Jute, aren't you due for an oil change
::yet?
(edit. note: the following post was submitted by Andre Jute to Joenet on
5/15/97)
********************************************************************
>
> Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 20:12:19 +0100
> Subject: Re: Lowthers in free air
(edit. note: the following text marked with a single carrot is andre jute
speaking)
> At the moment, having conducted the true free air listening test up a
> fire
> tower, I have a Lowther driver hanging by string off the back off a
> metal
> frame chair on the other side of my studio. On the other channel is a
> B&O
> speaker that I like which would probably today be in the same price
> bracket
> as a pair of horns. The B&O is padded down by being facedown on the
> floor
> and covered with an eiderdown to a lower output than the Lowther, so
> that
> by moving around I can get 'more' of the sound of the one than the
> other.
> This is better than an A/B test for me because you can make an instant
> comparison by just leaning your body this way and that.
> The open air test was conducted with a Sony Discman as a source and a
> QUAD
> 405/2 tranny amp. The test in my studio is with a Quad 67 CD player and
> the
> Miyabe PSE 300B amp I built a couple of weeks ago, simply because it is
> plugged in. Test music: Handel/Samson/16/Symphony of Harmony and
> Invention/Christophers/3 discs/Collins 70382
>
> Open air test, 60ft up an open-frame fire tower. Midrange nothing
> special.
> Treble shrill. One of the firemen to whom I give old LPs and duplicate
> CDs
> because he has a liking for classical music, and a spare pair of QUAD II
> on
> loan, rolled his eyes when on being asked the price, I guessed a pair of
> PM6A would cost maybe seen or eight hundred bucks. He wasn't impressed.
> His
> mate, who had on another occasion helped haul up ESL for test, and a lot
> of
> measuring equipment, said, 'The big flat one sure sounded better. A lot
> better. That was worth the effort.'
>
> Studio free air test. Midrange nothing special. Serious distortion on
> treble even in male voices when the wick on a 16W amp is turned up.
> Distortion on all voices audible close up even at very low volumes. Not
> impressed. My son said, 'I hope you haven't paid a lot for *these*
> speakers.' The only good thing to be said is that the bass, what there
> is
> of it in these circumstances, is actually of a good quality--I am right
> now
> listening to the end of track 18 on disc 3 where the big bass drum does
> its
> funeral beat and, except for having not having the lowest, impact
> frequency
> (would a horn give it to you anyway?--isn't that down about 16 cycles?),
> it
> sounds right.
( edit. note: the triple carrot text is by Tom Ronan and to which Andre's
response is
then marked by a single carrot... read on it gets even funnier!!!)
> >>In any event, the free air and the pipe have already been discarded as I
> >>move on to the next planned phase, a reflex box, with an Acousta and
> >>saxhorn to follow.
> I'm afraid not, Tom. As I have already announced, I shall not be
> publishing
> my further findings on the list. In the first instance, I will not let
> you
> and Pat choose what I can or cannot publish. You had your go and, master
> salesmen that you are, shut me up right after I finished the least
> favourable part.
>
> In the second place, whatever makes you think I am a masochist who
> should
> want to expose myself once more to such a torrent of ill-informed and
> carbon-copy abuse? Read my reply to Steve Marsden for examples of both.
> (If
> I decide to write up my report, I shall send it privately to those who
> offered help and constructive criticism offlist and those who wrote on
> and
> off-list to say they would be interested in seeing it, about a dozen or
> fifteen people in all. It is symptomatic of what is wrong with this list
> that so many members in good standing choose to write to me offlist
> rather
> than on it, for fear of being treated in the same RATty way.)
>
> Thirdly, it is no longer mine to publish. I always intended to publish
> my
> horn for DIY as well*. But when I rose this afternoon the bigotry,
> intolerance and outright stupidity I read on the list pissed me off so
> much
> that I called a manufacturer in Denmark and asked him if wants to
> licence
> whatever horn I decide to make with whatever driver catches my fancy. He
> does. My lawyer in New York was up, we agreed terms, contracts were
> exchanged by fax, and a check is in the post.
>
> That ship has sailed.
>
> Andre
>
> *When I came here first, I promised that, in the spirit of the ARRL, I
> would publish an amp design for DIYers. Because all my existing designs
> at
> the time were committed to manufacturers and thus not mine to publish, I
> shall later this year publish a modular 300B series which I have
> developed
> for amateur construction, of which the protoypes are currently on the
> bench.
>
> Andre Jute
> an...@indigo.ie
> Communication Jute
>
> http://www.foundmark.com/ComJute/ComJuteF1.html
>
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