I bought the Cornwalls!

This is a followup to a previous thread. Thanks a lot to everyone who replied and helped out.

Yesterday I bought a pair of Klipsch Cornwall E speakers. They were made in 1977 (according to their serial numbers). They're huge, the wood is beautiful, and they perfectly match the paneling in my living room.

After some careful cleaning and dust removal, I disconnected my Magnepan 1.6QRs, which I was biamping with two McIntosh MC30s and a Dynaco ST70, and connected the Cornwalls to the MC30s with DNM Reson cable.

I listened for about two hours. Wow. I heard more detail, air, and presence than I've ever heard from my system. Listening to Mozart on vinyl was entrancing -- I could hear and see the solo violinist and feel him interacting with the rest of the orchestra. Listening to Robyn Hitchcock's "Eye" on vinyl I could hear his breath on the microphone, and the human behind the guitar. Listening to Beck's "Sea Change" SACD was thrilling.

These are the most engaging and non-fatiguing speakers I've ever had in my system. They love the tubes, and actually seemed to open up after the tubes warmed up (the Cornwalls had been driven by a cheap Sony SS amp for 15 years, so I think they need to stretch their legs a bit. I'm sure I was sending them frequencies they hadn't experienced in quite a while).

It's a completely different listening experience from the Magnepans. It's gonna take me some time to adjust, but I think it'll be worth it. There's just something about high-efficiency speakers I can't resist.

Of course, I can't expect 25-year-old speakers to be in perfect condition. I think one of the tweeters is a little weak, so I'll have to get inside the cabinets and check out the wiring, solder connections, screw tightness, and so on. And on the other speaker, the tip of the black cone in the middle of the woofer fell off. I didn't hear any distortion out of that speaker, so I guess the missing tip isn't a problem. Good thing replacement parts are easy to come by and easy to install. It might be good to replace the speaker wire terminals on the back, too.

And I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time at Klipsch.com, too. That is if I can pull myself away from my system.

 

Sounds like it's possible you need a new diaphragm in that "weak" tweeter. Replacement kits are readily available on eBay. I had to replace both sides on my 1978's. BTW, the damage to your woofer cone sounds like it's only the dustcover. It doesn't affect the sound and is easily repaired. You can see in my avatar how mine were redone. They do sound sweet, don't they?

Chris

 

Hi,

Congrats! Sounds like a great pairing w/ the 30's.

Enjoy,
Jeffrey

 

Congrats!!

I can't wait to start putting together a vintage system someday. Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

Congratulations on your purchase of the Cornwalls. It sounds like you are already happy with them, and if hopefully they will sound better the more you listen to them. That's what happened to me, especially when I switched from solid state to tube amplification.



Enjoy,

Ed Hurdle
HeavyDistortion

 

Glad to hear you are enjoying them.Makes me want to run into a pair.

 

They are very honest speakers

Man, the Cornwalls are *ruthless* with bad recordings. I almost feel like I suddenly have a reference system in my living room. But I love 'em.

But boy, do they make music. I popped on some Ray Charles vinyl yesterday and had a blast. My wife and I dance much more often with the Cornwalls. And that's what it's all about, right?

 

Congrats on your purchase, I'm glad you like them. I guess that's why there is chocolate and vanilla.

I can't imagine giving up Maggie's for any Klipsh speakers.

If I ever get the $$ some day I'd love to upgrade from my Apogee Duetta Signatures to Maggie 20.1's.

 

Maggies for Klipsches?

Well, you've got a point. The Maggies are lovely speakers, and I'm gonna miss them.

I just don't have the amp power to make them do what they're capable of. Yes, they do sound good with my 30w tube amps, but they don't sound magical like the Cornwalls. If I had 30 more watts coming out of the amps, I don't think I'd be missing anything.

But it's time to sell the Maggies and move on. The Maggies were my first real, true audiophile speakers, but hey, my Cornwalls are here to stay.

 

How's the imaging and 3D soundstage of the speakers? Also, better update your profile.

 

Re: Maggies for Klipsches?

Enjoy them!

What are you going to do with the extra space now that you don't have to place the speakers so far from the wall behind them? The WAF is the main problem with planars, IMO.

 

Re: Re: Maggies for Klipsches?

Extra space? What's that?

Even though the Maggies required a lot of space behind them, the Cornwalls are *w i d e*, so I gained some space and lost other space. But they sound great, so I don't care.

Also, WAF isn't much of a problem with me. It's CAF -- Cat Acceptance Factor. Having Maggies with two cats always made me nervous. And even though one of my cats tried to climb into one of the Cornwall's horns, they ignore them with the grills on. I think the cat was trying to sniff the leg of the saxophone player on the LP I was playing .

 

Re: Re: Re: Maggies for Klipsches?

Same here! I had some maggies in for review and an old cat that sometimes likes to "water" any new vertical surfaces in my lounge . As you can imagine I was a little concerned about the maggies.

My solution was to get 8 takeaway coffee lids, arrange then around the maggies and place garden cat repellent in them.

Sure, it did make the lounge smell a little, but that's a small price to pay for Maggies...