FredT

Want to see and hear a pair of modded Cornwalls? Come to the Lone Star Bottleheads meeting at my house in West Houston on August 9th. I have a 1982 pair of Cornwalls with ALK crossovers, internal braces, an added sheet of 3/4" mdf on the back, 5-way binding posts, etc. You will also be able to hear how they sound driven by a variety of tube amps including a 300B, a 2A3, etc. Email me for more information and directions, and to get on our distribution list at fredthompson@pdq.net. BTW the Lone Star Botts met in SA a few weeks ago. You can see pictures of past meetings at http://www.wardsweb.org/audio/index_audio.html. Look for the Lone Star Bottleheads page under Tubes. Hope you can come.

Thanks for all the input on my question about cabinet reinforcement. I especially like the idea of reinforcing the back; this can be done on the outside without changing the cabinet's internal dimensions. I didn't see any comments about remounting the two horns flush to the front rather than the back of the cabinet face. Any opinions about this modification?

Has anyone experimented with remounting their Cornwall I horns to the front of the panel? It seems the flush mounting (as done on the Cornwall II) would produce more even frequency response than the stock rear mounting. Also, would the installation of internal bracing offer any sonic advantages? The Cornwall is a large speaker, and it seems like the large unbraced 3/4" plywood side, front, and rear panels would contribute some unwanted resonance. Comments?

We have something in common. Last week I bought a pair of 1982 vintage Cornwalls with the B2 crossover. Previously I have been listening to Magnepans driven by a high power (700 w/ch dual mono) SS amp, so the Cornwalls driven by an 8 watt/ch 300B SET sound very different, mostly in the treble: there just isn't much of it, and the midrange is a bit distorted too. Then I started tweaking the crossover, replacing the original caps with Solens. To my ears this has made quite a difference - the midrange has cleared up and the treble is suddenly there, and it's crystal clear. I suspect the 20 year old original caps had deteriorated over time. This upgrade was well worth the few dollars for the Solens. If you do this upgrade, take a careful look at how the crossover is wired before you start. I got hopelessly confused doing the first speaker. Luckily I still has the second one in its original condition for reference. It seems the ground bus runs from the negative input lug to the negative woofer output lug, then to the positive sides of the horns' output lugs. That's how they get the out of phase wiring for the horns. I've ordered the parts for the ALK crossover. Some are on backorder and it'll be about a month before they arrive. I'll post my impressions of the ALK when it's installed.

Well, I suppose the absence of replies to this post answers my question. I'll be looking for a good used pair of Cornwalls instead.

I need a reasonably priced hi efficiency speaker pair for use with an 8 watt 300_B single ended triode amplifier. The RF-3's 98dB efficiency and $800 price look good to me. I have seen some generally favorable reviews of this speaker, but I have also seen conflicting comments on whether it has large impedance variations and/or a high order crossover, which might make it unsuitable for use with a SET amp. Has anyone heard the RF-3 with a 300B SET? Comments will be appreciated.