[McIntosh C11 preamp with Cornwallswith wooden mid and upgraded crossover]

I live near Peter Bliss and had him do a pair of Cornwalls in a similar way to the ones he has written about here. I already have KHorns(stock from 1984) in another room. I initially thought the redone Cornwalls were nice but a bit forward in the mids and top for my taste. I have been using a pair of Mac Mc75 amps from the 60's for the main power. I bought a nice but not perfect C11 that was on this forum to complete the combo. It came with reissue Tung Sol 12ax7s. I initially thought there might be something wrong with the preamp; there was very little bass and almost no midbass. I am in the audio business so great gear presents itself all the time and much to my wife's dissappointment I am loath to let a bargain pass. So about a week ago a guy who used to work with me and now works for Transparent Audio brought in an old HK A500 integrated and matching tuner which I bought for $275.

It had all original tubes including 4 Telefunkens in the preamp section.

I plugged it in place of the Mac gear and was blown away. It killed the Mac stuff by a wide margin. Being a Mac guy from way back I knew something was amiss. So I hunted through a bunch of old gear in my garage and came up with 2 more old Telefunken tubes so I could replace the full set of the new TungSols to see what happened. Now all the Telefunken tubes tested between 25 and 30 on my B&K tester where 22 is the minimum for still being good, so their best days are behind them. The Tung Sols all tested over 100 so they were new. I had also tried some NOS GE tubes; better but still not great, which is why I thought there was something wrong with the preamp. I was truly not prepared for whatI heard. All of a sudden the old C11 sounded like a world class preamp. The balance was amazing. There was now a full lush sound that I had been totally missing. The detail was equal to the new Tung Sols but the edge was gone the sound was smooth and natural. The sense of depth was at least twice what I was hearing before.

Now the Mac system was light years ahead of the HK ,as it should have been, and all was right in the universe. I loaned 4 of the tubes to a friend to try in his newer Mac preamp. He had the exact same experience with his speakers which are not Klipsch but cost over $20,000 a pair. I just bought a bunch of used Telefunkens on ebay and I am going to throw some into my demo Mac C500 preamp at work as soon as they arrive. I guess the point of this is that these tubes sounded better after most af their life had been used up and the noise floor was close enough to the other new tubes that if you can find some cheap give them a try. They may just transform your system without breaking the bank. I didn't write this till I had bought enough used ones to last a good while.

I tried the C11 on my Khorns and my Thiel speakers with similar results. The Thiels were horrible with the new tubes and displayed everything Thiel haters complain about and when the Telefunkens went in the Thiels became the speakers that Thiel lovers covet, detailed, spacious, textured with a tonal correctness and orchestral layering that few speakers can display at any price. The tubes may be the cheapest upgrade you will ever make that can transform any system. My friend asked me why no one has ever been able to duplicate this sound and I remembered that about 15 years ago the old National tubes were very close but did not have life expectancy of the Telefunkens mine were done in about 3 years. The Telefunkens I am using are all at least 45 years old and still sound fantastic and are still quiet enough to use in the phono stage with a moving magnet with a 2.5 millivolt output. I don't write much in forums even though I belong to several because as a jaded old audiofool and being in the business I never want to be promoting anything I sell but his experience was so profound I needed to share it and this is not something I can sell. This is what makes audio fun, a true find that doesn't need a mortgage and seems to be universally matched. If you have a 12ax7 preamp just go find some Telefunkens. I hope you have the same experience.

Also never post after taking pain medicine. You are right this is long.

[Golden Tube se40]

I run a pair or SE40s in mono on my Belles and they sound great. They are very smooth with a lot of excellent harmonics. I had one and it was very good but when I added the second it was truly amazing. More of everything and the slight softness in the bass was gone. Good luck with the amp. The main issue is that a couple of resistors are too close to the board and overheat. Once you fix that the amps will be trouble free. Regards, John

[What center for a pair of Belles for a 2 channel guy?]

Simple question: As a mainly 2 channel listener, what center would most closely match a pair of 1984 Belles? I will be powering these with N.E.W. DCA 33 amps in mono ( 80 watts each in Class A, battery powered)and a Rotel RSP 1066 pre/pro. Thanks again, John

[Cornwalls- Mahogoney1968]

Thanks for the help. They are in excellent condition. I'll get some pictures up in a couple of days when I get home. I understand the mahogony finish is fairly rare, did they make the Heresy in this finish. If they did I may keep them for a theater system if I could find a matching Heresy. How close can you get the Birch to the mahogony if they are stained? Again any help will be appreciated. Thanks again. While I'm new to this forum I've owned Klipsch Khorns and other "Heritage products" off and on for 20 years. It doesn't matter what else I am using at home I always end up coming back to the emotional impact of the Klipsch. I have over 7000 records and 1500 CDs so I guess I'm more of a music lover than an audiophile. I do play the high end game but I have the most fun with the Klipsch and tubes. I have to say that I'm really loving the Belles. It had been a while since I'd listened to them. They do so many little things right like the leading edge of notes on the piano and the big finishes on larger works classical or jazz that most of the higher end speakers just can't come close to unless your in the $20,000 range. The Heritage products are a true high end bargain. When the mood hits you they can rock. I was playing some old Beach Boys the other day at stupid levels and they still sounded great. So I went into a time warp and put on "Who's Next" the classic Who album (vinyl)and wow that's what the hobby is all about. The only saving grace of putting in my new theater is it should be great for concerts and multichannel music with DVDA and SACD. Thanks again for all the great reading on the forum. John

[Cornwalls- Mahogoney1968]

I have recently found a near mint pair of 1983 Belles in Cherry and so I'm going to be selling my 1968 Mahogoney Cornwalls. These guys have perfect old style brown tweed grilles with the old style clear plastic logos. They have the II designation but that was the original II ( Cornwall II, Cornwall then Cornwall Version II) not the later version II. Like all the really old ones they have the vertical horn setup. I would rate these as follows: a 9.5 and 1 an 8. The 9.5 has no visible marks that I can find but I'm sure someone will, so the rating is for safety. The other has a couple of small marks in the laquer and stain on the top; everything else excellent. These were updated in the mid 90's. I am the second owner. What are these worth? I've been checking the auctions but haven't seen any Cornwalls that are anything like these guys. Looking at these from the front they are both perfect. There are scratches on the bottom; they were used in the regular maner). I need some help with this one. If anyone is interested I'm using a pair of Golden Tube SE40 amps (80 watts mono) with amazing results for short money. I would recommend them highly. I was selling my amps but have decided to keep them. $900-$1000 has been suggested for my Cornwalls, but I have no way of knowing if this is high or low. I almost forgot that all the caps have been upgraded to silver foil which has really opened up the whole sound palette top to bottom. Thank again , John

[Wow MAC's are $]

Did anyone mention that one reason the 30s are less is because they were being built before there were stereo amps and they continued making them for awhile after stereo came out. So they had a long production run. There was also a kit version for a short time. I bet there are more 30s out there than any other Mac tube amp.

The 30s were a lot less than the 60s so more were sold and the Mac preamps had a center channel output so a lot of them were probably used for that as well. (Remember the old Klipsch lit with the Khorns and a center channel.) I've owned every Mac tube amp but the 300watt monos and I think the 30s and the 225 are the best sounding in the bunch. I've driven my main system with Mac tubes for years (Belles now and Cornwalls and Khorns earlier in life) In the late 80's I recreated the old 3 channel stereo days with a Mac C22, MC225 and an MC30 for the center with Khorns and a Belle center but I couldn't see wasting the other Belle so I set them up in the basement and went back to 2 speakers in each system.

A long winded way of saying there has always seemed to be more Mac 30s around than anything else and I don't think it's because they are less desirable from a sound standpoint but are less collectable because they are more common. I think they sold a ton of them when they were new.

[Tuner poll for vintage]

My favorite analog tuners in order of sound quality: Marantz 10B, Fisher FM200B and the Sansui TU919and 717. The best for distance reception I ever owned was the Mac MR 78 and it did sound very good but not quite to the level of the ones I listed. I know this isn't a popular sentiment but the Denon TU 767 Digital tuner is very good sounding and a relative bargain at around $120. I presently own 14 tuners and love to play. Scott tube tuners are generally good sounding and cheap by tube standards. No matter which tuner you end up with find a good FM tech and get it aligned and you will be amazed at the difference in the sound. Most of the older tuners are way off and the distortion is much higher than spec till you tweak it up. I've bought stereo tuners that had stereo separation of only 8-10 db before being brought up to snuff and then some times they get all the way up to 25 db or more, what a sonic difference.