I have just visited my friend Daniel Ciesinger in Munich. Daniel is the designer of the Cornu horn, a loudspeaker based around Lowther drivers. Daniel and his fiancee have shown me around Munich a bit, we've eaten, had fun, and met some real live Bavarian people, but the main portion of this visit was taken up by listening to his horns and other speakers of his design. Since his horns are based around Lowthers, I thought I'd share my experiences with all of you here at Bert's forum.

The speakers are horns split into four sections, which are wrapped around each other into a spiral. The result is that the speakers are in effect square panels with four mouths around it's edge. They're just 14 cm thick, so despite their size (1mx1m), they don't take up much space. The drive units, Lowther DX4, are placed in the centre of the spiral. Since the drivers are mounted in the centre of flat panels which are placed parallel to a wall, the drivers radiate straight into the room. When sitting in the optimal stereo position, you are effectively sitting 30 degrees off-axis from each driver.

Daniel has an equipment rack which is filled with good sounding components, but there's one piece which deserves more attention: his Behringer Ultracurve Equalizer. We used it extensively during the listening sessions, and it was a very valuable tool. One very important trait is that it does not alter sound in any way. It is impossible to tell wether it is in the signal chain or not.

OK, let's talk about music! Unequalized, the horns sound good. By sitting off-axis, the treble was undoubtedly reduced, and this balances the Lowthersound. There didn't seem to be a midrange shout. Bass was not as loud as the midrange, but very fast and even. I don't know if we can speak of linear, since it was softer in comparison to the rest of the spectrum, but there were no dips or peaks audible, and it allowed pleasure when listening to music. It's fast, dynamic, and uncoloured. Like I said before, I had no previous experience with Lowther, but as it was, I liked it a lot. There was space, dynamics, detail, and the whole presentation seemed to be very neutral. Looking back, the horns sounded a lot like monitor speakers, because their bass is a bit soft and imaging is very good. But they're more dynamic than most of those little boxes, though.

So far, I have been discussing clean, single driver sound. No notchfilters, no equalization. After our initial listening, Daniel fired up his Behringer Ultracurve EQ. He has measured the frequency response of the Lowther drivers in his horns, and has compensated for any anomalies. Now, I don't need to tell any of you that if you remove peaks and dips, and compensate for gradual roll-offs, sound will change. But you have no idea how dramatic this effect was with Daniel's horns! We are talking about linear response from 40 Hz to 20 kHz, and this is enough for some serious magic.

Tango music, played on a concert piano and a cello. Smallscale acoustic music, yes, but do not underestimate the impact of a concertpiano. The horns give it a huge sound, HUGE, and it really sounds and feels like the instrument is standing in the room. And besides getting the sound of the instruments right, the passion of tango was reproduced as well. The speakers invoked real emotion, not just ooh's and aah's because of the super-high, super-low, super-loud sound.

We also heard Erykah Badu's Mamma's Gun, Zap Mamma's 7, more reggae like Isreal Vibration and Burning Spear, and more acoustic music. What was really striking, was bass performance. Lowthers are not known for excellent bass, but I'm beginning to think this is a matter of quantity rather than quality. With EQ, Daniel's horns literally move a lot of air. Bassdrum kicks sound like a membrane coming at you, low bass is so solid one could almost grab and hold it. It stops as sudden as it begins. After a while, we turned the volume down because we had had enough. And all this without resonances or colourations. Wonderful.

Midrange is completely neutral. This is very strange at first, but after some listening it is becomes comfortable and very exciting. Since there is no warmth to hide anything, everything is exposed. And the little details! That ping somewhere in that Bob Marley song that I could never identify as a percussion instrument, turns out to be a lemonade glass... It is the most open sound I have ever come across. It is also highly dynamic, which only helps to expose details.

Treble is hard to judge. How does treble sound? How much detail can you hear up there? Clearly, it doesn't hurt, and it's in good proportion, and it does a good job at spatial resolution. So I suppose it is of good quality. It is as fast as the midrange and bass. The fact that I can't think of anything to say about it, is probably the best indication that is is very good treble. It wasn't worse than the outstanding bass and midrange!

By now, you will have understood how much I like these speakers. I liked them a lot without equalization, as a speaker with a special, not too bassy sound and good imaging and space. With equalization, it eats anything else for breakfast. The end of the story is that Daniel had a pair of PM6Cs (the Lowthers he used before he got the DX4s), and that I took them home to try the Lowther sound. That's how much I liked the Lowthers and his horns.

About a week has passed since I came home. I immediately put the PM6Cs in a pair of Bicor 200 speakers I was using with another driver. I will write about the virtues and flaws of this combination later, but I'll tell right now that in this short week, I've gone from heaven to hell and back a few times. I'm going through all the Life-with-Lowther clichees you've heard about. These things are great, but they really need a better frequency response. I can't stand the excessive treble. Already, I've copied one of Daniel's ideas, and am listening to the horns 30 degrees off-axis. This helps a lot, and I think it shows that Lowthers need a little work on their frequency response to achieve their full potential.

Conclusions: The Cornu horn is a good speaker, delivering another shade of Lowther sound. The off-axis listening makes it sound more friendly and relaxed compared to a pair of PM6Cs on-axis, despite the fact that it uses the brighter DX4 driver. The bass, although rolled off, is even and free of peaks and dips, and the design and construction are free of resonance and coloration. Good as it sounds, the Cornu horn (and I suspect many more Lowther-based backloaded horns including my Bicors) need equalization to achieve its full potential. This gives an unbelievable loudspeaker, which has a very open, uncoloured and dynamic sound, strong powerful bass, and the characteristic single driver coherence.

Questions or remarks about this review can be sent to me, Ivo Tichelaar. Questions or remarks about the Cornu horn can be sent to Daniel Ciesinger.