The Icon Audio PM6 loudspeaker system

The Ideal Loudspeaker?

At Icon Audio we have a belief that keeping things simple has enormous benefits in terms of sound purity, spatial quality and realism. This is born out by the reviews and testimonials we have for our amplifiers.

The new Icon Audio PM6 loudspeaker addresses many of the problems associated with matching loudspeakers to low powered mainly valve amplifiers, and obtaining high quality sound, without the electrical distortion or colouration caused by complex inefficient crossovers that many modern speakers use. These often appear as spatial and colouration problems.

Most conventional moving coil loudspeakers use two or three units to achieve the full range of sound. But this causes problems: for example at what point in the frequency range do you get one speaker to take over from another? It also follows that there are times when both the low, high, (and mid, if fitted) can be trying to reproduce the same parts of the note or tone.

Then there are several problems associated with the ‘crossover’ network which decides which tones go to which speaker. Crossovers are of varying complexity using capacitors, inductors and resistors, the first two have the property to store energy, the second to dissipate it in the form of heat. Not good news for two reasons, firstly no amplifier (esp transistor) likes to have energy ‘kicked back’, and secondly the crossover can waste most of the valuable watts delivered from the amplifier, especially tragic in the case of very high quality low powered amps such as single ended valve types, vintage Leak, Quad etc.

The solution that most designers use when dealing with an unwanted ‘peak’ in the frequency response is to ‘flatten’ it, which always results in a loss of efficiency, and every time this is done the loudspeaker will become more inefficient. Not only soaking up more and more power but also losing that realistic ‘live’ quality.

The legendary Lowther PM6 full range does not need a crossover, therefore at a stroke all the problems associated with it are dispensed with. With the added bonus that all the watts from the amplifier reach the speaker voice coil intact resulting in an enormous gain in efficiency, and a purity of sound that is virtually without equal.

Now you may think that the upper frequency response from a full range unit will be limited. Not true! This can be easily overcome by design in the use of powerful magnets (shouldn’t all speakers have these?) and special cone materials to give a top response beyond 20khz.

Lowther speakers perform at their best in horn enclosures which have two problems for modern living especially for the smaller room, and that is that they need to be large, and secondly horn enclosures are often an ‘unfriendly’ shape which can be hard to accommodate. The Icon PM6 overcomes this by using a 2.5m folded vertical horn which is vented at the upper rear. This means the speaker is a very ‘Living Room Friendly’ vertical shape with a small footprint of only 25cm wide, 34cm deep.
The height of 103cm is an ideal listening height without the use of stands.
An additional advantage is that horn speakers work well close to the wall or corners depending upon you bass preference.

Our cabinets represent incredible valve for money, accurately machined from 20mm heavy duty ‘Medite’ by one of the UK’s leading cabinet manufacturers The standard finishes are real veneers of light oak or ash.

Much has been written about these exception drive units which have been in production for many years and easily repaired or upgraded. The Lowther web site ‘lowtherloudspeakers.co.uk’ has further reading.

Specifications and Features

• Lowther PM6c Full range loudspeaker
• Frequency response: 35hz to 20khz
• 100 db efficiency @ 1w /1m
• Impedance 8 ohms
• ‘Pull off’ / ‘Clip on’ fabric covers
• 2.5m horn loaded cabinet
• High quality banana and spade terminals
• Cabinets ready for spikes or plinths
• Real wood veneers
• 25cm wide, 34cm deep 103cm high, 22kg
• Boxed 1.1m x 35cm x 27cm 24kg (PM6)

Price in standard form £1099.95

Downloads

For full details of this product (including options and delivery details) pls download the PDF and Word doc.

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