Lowther Hegeman horn speakers
John Howes has been involved with audio electronics all of his life, his father was a radio and television engineer and he followed in those footsteps but his passion has always been valve or tube amplifiers. As far back as the sixties he was building valve electronics and that enthusiasm lead to John starting the Audio Jumble, which is still the best place to find bargain hi-fi equipment and runs every spring in Tonbridge, Kent.

Today he spends a lot of his time restoring and upgrading classic valve amplifiers, he also builds these substantial beasts from the ground up and has a very good reputation despite being an artisan rather than a manufacturer. John also has a museum for vintage audio equipment with a particular emphasis on Voigt corner horn loudspeakers, but he is also very interested in contemporary examples of the art, notably those from Lowther.

Lowther is a classic British brand whose speciality is full range paper cone drive units with whizzer cone tweeters and which in its heyday was a large and successful organisation. In recent times it had dwindled to pale imitation of its former self but in 2018 Lowther was bought by Martin Thornton who has set about the task of rebuilding the brand, he has done this by going back to full loudspeaker production of both classic models and new designs such as the Almira that we reviewed in 2022. The latest and most ambitious model to be revived is the Lowther Hegeman, this is a large folded horn design that runs a single drive unit, it was originally created in 1950 by Stewart Hegeman in the United States. He worked with Donald Chave who took over Lowther when its founder Paul Voigt left the company.
The Hegeman was the first Lowther to feature the PM4 drive unit, a full range 8 inch design that was to become emblematic of the brand and which is still made today as the PM4A. It had an alnico magnet and the cabinet was originally made of wood and plaster of Paris chosen because it is stiffer than wood and easier to form if not as robust. The new Hegeman is all wood and superbly built, the examples in John Howes’ room have an olive veneer that really sets them off.
They also incorporate field coil powered drive units with a new Premium cone that is doped in a special new formula for enhanced performance. This driver allows significantly greater throw than the standard driver, plus or minus 5mm rather than the usual 1mm, which means greater power handling especially in the bass. It also has a new spider suspension which is perforated around the voice coil to accommodate higher air pressure. Lowther are also offering a silver voice coil for this driver which is included in the Premium version and this apparently results in better bass performance in the Hegeman.

You can see a red glow in the horn mouths top and bottom, this is created by LEDs that switch on with the power supplies for the field coils and gives an indication of status that might otherwise be unnoticed. Apparently the only real issue with field coils is that they can be damaged if run without power, so it’s handy to have a visual cue on.

John was powering the Hegemans with a pair of Thomas Mayer 45/2A3 SE single ended amplifiers that offer 2/3.5 Watts depending on valve choice, these consist of two chassis per channel which can be seen between the speakers. Their low power is more than sufficient for the 98 – 105dB/W plus sensitivity of these speakers.
The system sources include a rare PTP idler wheel turntable from the Netherlands that is based on a Lenco, this has a Corian plinth and runs a 12 inch Ortofon arm with Audio Note field coil cartridge. The latter is connected to a Music First step up transformer and an Artemis Labs PL-1 tube phono stage and matching LA-1 tube preamplifier. This drives the Thomas Mayer amps and helps to deliver one of the most effortless and refined sounds I have heard from any system anywhere. Some might find it overly soft and smooth but this is because conventional systems tend toward the opposite end of the scale, if you want to hear what acoustic music in particular really sounds like this system will let you know. We didn’t play any orchestral music but I’m willing to bet that it does strings better than almost anything.
We did put on Kham Meslien’s double bass playing on Fantômes… Futurs and that revealed mountains of detail in a presentation that is totally devoid of electronic influences, there is absolutely no sense of grain, just fluid richly detailed sound. You also get a different sense of volume with the Hegemans, they drive the room much more efficiently than conventional direct radiating speakers, so you get level without loudness. It’s a bit like a line array and clearly a better if more expensive way to reproduce music in the home. That said you need a decent size room to get the best from these speakers, John’s is 30 feet long and he considers that only just enough, if you have a properly large space to energise then these horns warrant investigation.
The bass is similar to that found with speakers that run larger drivers, 12 inch plus, which is dynamic at low levels. This means that you get extension and control without the boxy colouration that is so common with reflex designs, it’s a very appealing sound that is much more natural than the majority of speakers. High sensitivity has many advantages but dynamics are certainly high on the list, unlike some direct horns however there is no forwardness with brass for instance. The Hegemans are much better suited to domestic, OK large domestic, listening distances than conventional horns.

Playing Anthony Joseph’s spoken word Elbows of the Land through this system produces a warm, rich sound with huge scale. It reflects the studio manipulations of the recording and the depth of tone in the voice superbly, and the overall experience is powerful in an unforced and enveloping way.
Lowther recently rebuilt an older design than the Hegeman that is simply dubbed the Voigt 4ft Tractrix Horn. John and his long time ally Mike Blackmore went to hear this at launch and were mighty impressed by what they heard. John has a pair of these horns in his collection, one an original and the other a copy. They are not exactly optimally set up in the museum but you get a sense of the tremendous immediacy and dynamics that they are capable of by sitting right in front of them, if you’re brave enough that is!

Elsewhere in the listening room is a wide variety of valve amps including a pair of Quad IIs that John has rebuilt with 807 tubes rather than the traditional KT66s, these tubes are both more affordable and more rugged but require a modified UX valve base. These sit alongside vintage radiogram cabinets and tape recorders from back in the day.
The Lowther Hegemans with field coil drivers, silver voice coils and premium cones will set you back £96,000 (inc VAT) and require a bit of space to breathe in, but I guarantee that you won’t find a full range driver powered loudspeaker that can compete in either sound quality or build and finish.
Jason Kennedy