Alerion Reviews, Some Commentary
Nelson Pass 3/10/07
I started out to write a review of the Alerions from Lowther America, but reading Scott Faller’s review at www.enjoythemusic.com and Max Dudious’ comments in www.positive-feedback.com (you can link to these from www.lowther-america.com) convinced me that the ground was largely covered.
Yes, I am a lazy guy, but I don’t have any particular disagreement with either review. I do have a few of additional remarks:
I’ve owned several pair of DX55’s and C45’s for several years, mounted them in sealed boxes, baffles, big and small rear loaded horns, and driven them with all manner of amplifiers and correction networks. Personally I find them to have the best qualities of the Lowther offerings in the mid and top frequency range.
They have easily the flattest response above about 200 Hz, and they are faster and more accurate than their 8 inch cousins (Speaking of which, you really must hear the PM6A’s with the Ticonal magnets). (
A little elaboration as to why would be appreciated)Of course they also don’t have as much bottom end, and that has given rise to some creative solutions. You can put them in a sealed box and drive them with a current source or with an equalized voltage source amplifier. These work, but we are talking modest levels only.
You can do like Dick Olsher and put them in a baffle and mate them with a fast woofer. That works really well if you get the crossover right (not easy), but it does kind of compromise the aesthetic of a full range driver. If you want loud bass, this is possibly the most fruitful approach, as long as you are willing to pick your woofer carefully and tweak the crossover. For information, I recommend Dick’s web site www.blackdahlia.com.
Or you can mount them in a rear-loaded enclosure. I’ve used them in Mini-Medallions and also various homemade rear-loaded horns, and I find that it’s not too difficult to get a lot more bottom end at a decent volume out of these drivers with this approach.
The difficult trick is getting the horn loaded rear wave to mesh with the front wave. Often you find yourself with either a gap or a peak, and either case not only colors the spectrum but destroys the transient impact. Flatness is a necessary but not sufficient condition: many times the response curve is flat and it still sounds terrible.
This is where the Alerions really excel over many other back loaded enclosures for this driver. There is no sense of discontinuity in the mid-bass, and an attacking wavefront has good coherence.
Like Edison, the late great Terry Cain excelled at the "try everything and see what works best" approach. As he had very good taste, the result was a number of non-intuitive but very good sounding designs. I assume that his contribution here was significant.
(sounds like a good story, and I am willing to stick to it if you believe it helps. But the truth is Terry never heard a single note played through Alerions, he built them to my specs.)All told, I rate the Alerions as best of breed in this category – the transition from front to rear loading is the most seamless I’ve heard.
While praising the sound of the enclosures, I can’t help but mention that these examples of Terry Cain’s craftsmanship are some of the most exquisite. If your mate is particular about furniture, these may be your best shot at full-range speakers.
Scott’s review talked about the Alerions in a 9’ X 11’ room, and speculated that the speakers would need additional help in a larger room. I use a 30’ X 30’ space with about 11,000 cubic feet and I can say without hesitation that they are excellent in this large room.
Here is a composite curve I made of the Alerions. At 1 meter we see that the response is +/-5 dB from 45 Hz to 20 KHz. The response falls off rapidly below 45 Hz. This being a near field curve at these frequencies, I also looked at the response from the listener’s position.
In my favorite arrangement the speakers are 7’ apart and centered along a wall, 6’ from the wall. The listening position is centered between the speakers and 11’ to 12’ from the drivers. Remarkably, the low end curve had essentially the same response out near the middle of the room – relatively flat to 45 Hz.
The bottom end of the Alerions is really quite good. During the time I’ve had them, I haven’t felt the need to augment it, although I listen mostly to jazz. Contemporary lounge, and electronica. I haven’t dared the Vampire Hunters from the Dracula soundtrack.
(Thanks, the cones are expensive)One characteristic that I did not see highlighted in the two reviews is the stunning imaging of these speakers. More than one guest has expressed surprise at the accurate and far reaching placement of vocalists and individual instruments, and any speaker that does placement will have no problem producing the depth that everyone seems to love.
(Just a comment here. I agree with you and I never did see why the others did not say something here. )The peak in my un-adjusted DX55’s is found at 4 KHz. The network supplied by Lowther America took that down about 6 dB. It worked very well and was unobtrusive – as good as any approach I’ve heard.
I operated the Alerions monitored by a storage oscilloscope in what I call the "4 watt window", in which 8 watt peaks are at the top and bottom of the screen – by definition, any 4 watt amplifier can fill it. The DX55’s put out a very adequate level in my large room without exceeding these levels.
I spent months trying various amplifiers, from "flea watt" tube amps to high power solid state. The Alerions bass response seems to prefer amplifier output impedances in the region of about 1 ohm or so, for a damping factor of about 8. Less than this, and the bottom end gets a little bloated, more than this, and it starts to lose some life.
While the DX55 is not difficult to drive, its resolution is quite capable of revealing harmonic and inter-modulation distortion in amplifiers. With good complex material, you can clearly hear the veiling and congestion that accumulates with an amplifier at the 1% distortion level. Setting aside other issues, I would recommend amplifiers that can do less than about .3% distortion at 1 watt, unless you like simple musical material. I think it’s important also that the distortion is monotonic – declining below these levels.
Numbers aside, a really good amplifier fills the loudspeaker with life, and a mediocre amplifier drains it. This is a valuable characteristic is you design or review amplifiers for a living….
The C45’s in the Alerions sound very good "out of the box", but after a time you may find that the more precise detail of the DX55 is worth the extra money.
Speaking of money, at the current prices, the Alerions are still inexpensive for what you get. Offhand, I think you have to spend about twice as much to get better. Do I leave the impression that I really like this speaker?
I read reviews first and last paragraphs first. The last paragraph of this commentary says: Sell what you’ve got now and get these speakers.