Klipsch Cornwall III - What Can I Expect?

Interesting. My babies are from 1976 or 77.

New ones are nice but I much prefer my pretty decorators.

 

Did you power the Forte and the Heresy with the Fisher? Did you pair them with any other amps when you had them?

 

Wow, that is a pretty wild statement. So a speaker that is three to four time the size as another with a completely different crossovers, woofer, squawker and horn are the same? Not to mention the sensitivity goes from about 93db to 101db. Odd that the only difference he could recognize was the size. I would take that as more of a statement about his ability or personality than anything else.

Also, Klipsch has a horrible dealer network. At best you can find a dealer that will have Heresy or Forte in stock and available to demo. The size, weight, cost and looks of the rest of the Heritage line keeps them out of most audio shops. Add to that the fact most shops make most of their money selling powerful SS amps and Heritage speakers will rarely garner praise from a an audio shop. Most guys I know that have to sell stuff to feed their families talk highly of what they have to offer and are somewhat critical of competition to their customers.

 

The differences between the H-IIIs and Cornwall IIIs are the cabinet size, bass woofer size, and the crossover, possibly (850 vs 800 Hz from woofer to mid). They have the same mid and tweeter.

 

all very meaningful differences. No?

 

I'd expect the midrange and treble to be very similar. Cornwalls can overload small rooms, so even if they sound the same sans the bass, it's not a logical reason to not carry the line. Maybe that dealer just prefers the old Klipsch sound.

 

The dealer prefers smaller less expensive speakers because they are easier to sell. Saying that a heresy sounds the same as a Cornwall is crazy talk.

 

My favorite speakers I’ve ever had were a nice set of Cornwall 1’s. Picked up a local set at a great price, as soon as my wife saw them she said “get those the f*** outta here!” Sold them within the week

The 3’s would be my dream speaker and my wife would probably accept them now that we are in a bigger space with a downstairs level that she would let me have. If you’re thinking my wife was overly strict, she was fine with horn loaded Lowther alerions and my current emotiva honkin stealth 8 monitors. The Cornwall’s have zero WAF

 

The squawker and tweeter are the same between the Heresy III and the Cornwall III.

 

I am always amused by the wimp factor displayed in these "wife disapproves" posts.

 

Have you ever seen a pair of la scala’s, k-horns or jubilee’s. Perhaps bring a pair of those home and she will be relieved to see some Cornwall’s.

 

I haven't heard Cornwalls in a long time. I wonder if the Cornwall IIIs suffer from lively-cabinet-syndrome, like the H-IIIs. I'm convinced it's the cabinet that people are actually hearing and mistaking for horn coloration. It can work for some music -- adding a chesty character to otherwise lean recordings. Adding bitumen pads to the cabinet walls of my H-IIIs tamed it some.

Still, they should have made the cabinet much stiffer, or looser (BBC-style).

 

Oh yeah - what I should have done first is got the k horns, then downgraded to the Cornwall’s. Will remember for next time

 

If that’s the guy in Bethel Park he wanted to charge me $50 to audition a pair of H3.

 

You must be kidding? Someone wanted to charge you to demo a pair a speakers he is selling? Are you taking about an in home demo? That I could see and would be willing to pay for but a fee to listen in the shop would be insane.

 

it might be, but no way they sound alike

 

It was to hear the speakers at his place. I laughed at him.

 

Yes and no

 

Correct sir!

 

Just a not while we are on the subject of the same horns.

The La Scala's that I own have the same Woofer, squaker (midrange) horn and HF tweeter as the large K-Horn's.

That doesn't mean that they are anything like K-horn's because they are not.

Different Altec speaker's used many of the same components. That did not mean that they were not different products with different price points and different sound signatures.

And Altec used commercial sound products in some of their home stereo speaker's.

Their pre-sound speaker's and their home speaker's were different products also.

 

There were a few years that a Ford Mustang and f150 had the same 302 v8. Doesn’t mean you can bring home 50 bags of mulch in a mustang or get the f-150 up to 130mph on the highway.

 

I'm with you on that (and I used to sell Ford's).

 

Sometimes you bring the hay to the horse, other times you take the horse to the hay.

 

Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean I’m not being followed.

 

I ran the first iteration of the Prima Luna Prologue - 35 watts? - with Cornwall III's - though it's been several years. Up to that time I'd had Maggie 1.6's and various flavors of high current amps necessary to drive them.

I still have the Cornwall's but "upgraded" to a Cary integrated thru Upscale Audio's trade in policy. I run the Cary in triode @approx. 30 watts as anything more is unnecessary.

Still floors me whenever I listen - I imagine the Corns would sound equally great with 22 watts - or your 35 watt Dialogue.