P Bear

Apparently some speakers are more influenced by the type of cap than others. I haven't changed the caps on my Cornwalls yet but changing caps on Magnepans makes a monumental difference. Every person that replaced the stock caps that I read about on the Planer Asylum at AA was thrilled with the difference, and we are talking about dozens of people here. Using the stock values of caps and coils I at least doubled the sound quality. The Obbligato caps from DIY Hi-Fi supply in Hong Kong were the best. Hovland caps were great. Motor run caps on Maggies aren't bad, but not as good as the other two.

Here is a source that you can search for records worldwide. http://www.gemm.com/ If I were you I would go for the Parlophone re-issues done in the 70's made in the UK. The sound quality of these are equal to that of the original Parlophones, except the pre Sgt. Pepper monos, and better than anything else. The chances of you finding one in good shape are also much better. The English are hard on their records. On the average they play them much more than Americans. I haven't checked the prices out recently. If you see a purple label Capitol in mint shape for a reasonable sum I would go for that. While many of the Capitols were pretty bad in the 60's compared to the Parlophones by the time they were making purple labels, something like '75 to early 80's, they were making good Beatles records. I have 3 purple labels that are very hard to tell for my Parlophones.

First off there are some non-Japanese oriental brands floating around that sound really bad. All records made in Japan since about '72 have a tiny circle on the lead out with the letters JIS inside. Do they sound better than the originals? Depends on which original you are talking about. The best Beatles records are made in the UK under Parlophone. Germany, Holland and Japan placing second. On the other hand I have 3 copies of the first Cars album. The original in the middle, the "Nautilus Super Disc" being the worst and the Japanese being the best easily. There is no hard and fast rule to recording collecting. Best bet is do a search on Vinyl Asylum on the record you are thinking about.

My, that's a big horn! I take it you built that yourself.

What's a Cornscala?

Thanks for welcome guys. Alright Frzninvt! That's what I wanted to hear. I just gotta get some Khorns. Judging by how the Corns and the Belles sound, they must be outrageous. I plan on building one of Al K's XO's for the Khorns, which one do you suggest? Colin, looks like it. I have an all tube system when I am playing records. E80CC's and 12SX7's being the money tubes in the Wright pre. 2A3 and 12AX7's in the ASL Tulip. As far as George Wright knows I was the first one to try the European E80CC's in his WPL-20's 12AU7 socket. The worst E80CC is much better than the best 12AU7 that I have in this preamp. I just got the Tulip Saturday. Gonna try Sovtek 2A3's and the new Chinese 2A3 C's. This is my first SET. It sounds much better than the ASL AQ1008 100w monos I used for the Maggie mid/tweeter for use on the Corns. Fun hobby.

So what is the effect of a smaller room on Khorns?

Thanks for the info. Do you think with the Khorns 17' apart and sitting 10' back that they would have a hole in the middle? My biggest fear is if the bass would overwhelm the room? I don't really know what kind of bass they have.

11.3' by 17.3'. I don't want to put them on the long wall because I have a 65" TV and I would be too close to it. But I was measuring last night and I could put the TV in the corner and a Klipschorn with 4' false corners on each side and still see the TV. Some of the folks who do the Home Entertainment shows with their gear in a hotel room set up diagonal and it seems to work well.

Right now I am thinking Klipschorns with 4' false corners. I have never herd these placed correctly, only years ago out in the open. How much more do you like the Klipschorns over the Belles or Corns?

Thanks everyone! And thanks Chris, maybe I will just have to check those guys out. I can see the advantage of being able to build Al K's flat impedance XO, which doesn't work for the '86 drivers. I've been able to spend some real time with these speakers and every record I play sounds the best I have ever herd it. Still in Shock, Pat

Thanks guys. Chris, I have George's WPL-20 pre with basically the same phono as the WPP-100C. There is a pair of vertical Corns for sale about 2 hours away. What makes you say that they are great with tubes? Pat

I bought a pair of '86 Cornwall II's on e-Bay last week. It was local so I had a chance to demo them and a pair of near mint '84 Belle's that were also for sale on the owners 300B and 45 amps. I preferred the Cornwalls due to what I thought was a better top to bottom frequency balance, but I think the Belles are the best looking speakers I have ever seen. The seller was the original owner of the Corns and has only added some insulation to the interior walls. When I got home and played the same tunes on my 1.6 Maggies with the right amps, 6 strut stands, best crossover and Aurum Cantus G3 ribbon tweeter XO'd at 5K hz for a true 3 way speaker, it was the first time in the 7 years I have owned the Maggies that I was disappointed with them, and I have been to 4 bottlehead meetings, been to several Hi-Fi hobbyist homes and to every high end dealer in Western Washington and NW Oregon. None of the 4 amps I have at home really matched the Corns that well but I was lucky to find a 4 month old current model ASL Tulip 2A3 stereo amp locally Saturday. Wow, I tell you I am in shock. I can not believe it. I plop down a $900 pair of speakers dating back to the early '60's, pay $800 for a stereo amp with stock tubes in it and they smoke my Mighty Maggie system. I was just listening to Norah Jones first album on vinyl. Amazing. These are far and away the best speakers I have ever heard. Having experienced a two fold increase in sound quality by changing crossover parts to those of better quality but the same value with the Maggies I am currently looking for what to use as coils and transformer. The Obbligato oil caps that I recently tried on my Maggies were much better than the Hovlands so I will probably go with them. Nice forum, Pat

Hey guys, thanks! Pat

Ah! Schematic: S-c-h-e-m-a-t-i-c Got it.