Mike Dubay

The sheer size of the D408ti compared to the D250X.

The drivers mounted.

The 'baby cheeks' horn for the tweeter.

Here the mount for the tweeter is attached.

Here is the version 1.0 of my Cornscalas, with out the top cabinet. The blacked out midrange just does not get it for me visually.

Front view.

To improve the aesthetics of the system the horns will be exposed with no upper bin or speaker cloth. The wood horn is a 200 hz horn. With the left and right side clipped by 1.5 inches will give an 2:1 (W:H) aspect ratio and will match the 25 inch width of the bass bin. The horn was build with oak laminated plywood and flexible 3/8 inch plywood. The horn was finished with an exterior spar varnish. This helped fill in the voids on the flexible plywood and gave an even honey tone to the different plywood. I also noticed that the flexible plywood became more rigid after the 5 coats of spar varnish. Here is the horn fresh from finishing.

And the popular selenium 220 ti for the tweeter.

Nope, no questions as of yet!

I put together some nicer drivers. The selenium 408ti driver for the midrange. This is a 2 inch driver, ti diaphragm, and about 4 db more sensitive than the D250X’s. Got these used at a good price from a forum member.

I have been planning an upgrade to my Cornscalas. A couple of things I want to address. 1) With my current Selenium D250X midrange the system does give some distortion at higher listening levels. 2) Improve the visual impact of the system. As you can see my Cornscalas give a somewhat monolithic view.

On the first track of David Sandborn's "Closer", Tin Tin Dio, you can clearly hear Davids' breaths between phrases, some thing that get lost in midfi systems.

Yep, going to "Records and Tape Galore" is my way of spending a rainy Saturday morning. Same store in the same location celebrating over 35 years of business. Printing off my album list and getting ready to go! Here is a nice write up on the store: http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2010/02/post_39.html Geeze, what was the chance I would be there for an interview!

I would give it a shot. 1) How would you identify your allowable budget versus time? I never, never, never use credit for my hobby stuff, so I would have to use cash on hand. I would probably budget about a years worth of 'spending' money over a 2 year period. 2) Would you buy all used, all new, or a mix (including source material, audio input devices, amplifiers/processors, speakers including subs if any, cables, room treatment devices, architectural updates)? BIG question. What would you buy used and what new? A mix. Source material: new CDs, used vinyl, used CD player with modded tube output, used turntable great sounding stuff in the $150 to $300 range, amplifiers: either Dynakit MKIII monoblocks or a Lation stereo KT-88 amp, speakers: DIY Cornscalas with new crites parts, probably skip the subwoofers for now, hand wired phono preamp, cables DIY with PE express wire, a DIY bass corner trap, and I would build an open cabinet about twice the size I have now. 3) What would you be trying to achieve - i.e., as close to a realistic performance as you could afford, or "something that sounds good to play stuff that you used to listen to when you were young". Some were in between, I only will get a glimmer of live sounding male volcals with my SET amp and squawker, but the CS's sound so much better than just "good". 4) How much would you be willing to pay for visual attractiveness instead of performance (% cost of the component)? This includes tubes and non-audio devices. Almost nothing, just make the cabinetry for the speakers and the cabinet look professional. So I would spring for oak laminate probably about $400 total instead of painting flat black. 5) How much would you buy-and-sell in order to achieve your ideal system goal(s)? Almost no selling. Would you try to minimize this? Yes, try to do it well the first time. Would you buy without first hearing the equipment? Yes, I never listened to Cornscalas before, but with the copious reviews here I would have no problem putting a pair together. What components would that be? The KT-88 amp kits, and the speakers. 6) How would you go about listening to the equipment before buying? My used CD player and turntable was purchased from the local record store, I can listen before buying. I would follow my 50/50 rule: spend half on source material, of the second half, spend half on speakers, and the other half on all the rest. so: 50% records and CDs 25% on speakers 25% on amp, cd player, turn table and tt preamp but compare apples to apples, calculate every thing based on retail cost, not the cost's used or through DIY. So; Cornscalas with passive crossover (look to new Cornwalls for cost) $3,800 KT88 amp(s) $1500 Used turntable: $300 Tube Turntable preamp: $150 Used CD player: $25 CD player tube output: $200 DIY cables: $150 That seems to hit the mark well. and many trips to CD Universe and various used Record Stores....

Hey, I used to be in trains not so long ago. How about a picture?

Another thing to check is the biamping is correctly done with each left channel on the left drivers and each right channel on the right drivers. I cross wired my mid's once, left switched with right, which caused very poor imaging.

The surrounds on my KG4 are butyl surrounds, but not sure if they have been replaced. Parts express also sells replacement surrounds.

Bump, lot's of pictures, frequency response plots, and listening impressions.

So how did we do against our stated goals: Be able to provide bass at a system with at the very most 115 peak dB, but normal listening levels of 95 dB. Exceded, can keep with the th KG4s to very high volume levels. Be able to provide tight slam with low distortion. Strong visceral slam with the multidrivers, exceeded expectations. Will give up low frequency extension to provide a solid tight sounding system. Sealed enclosure gave tight bass, met. Frequency response at a maximum of -5 db down at 30 hz. Does not have to dig to 20Hz. No, had a -5 db of around 35 hz, will use larger drivers next time or a ported design, not met. Be cost effective in driver selection; want to keep the budget to less than $300 for drivers, but no foam surrounds allowed. For a total driver cost of only $120 we are well below budget. The use of multidrivers at $20 each greatly exceedes the performance of subwoofers with single driver cost in the $150 to $200 range, by far exceeded expectations. Have cross over frequency and driver balance be easily adjustable. Met, the low cost crossover provide easy adjustment, just not the most transparent cross over, the KG4s sounded more solid state like. Be able to apply what I learn for the next upgrade of my Cornscala system’s subwoofer. Yes, now I'm confident to move to a multidriver system for my Cornscalas, just need to have larger drivers. Could investigate the use of lower powered woofers (instead of subwoofers) in a multidriver configuration. Running multiple 12's ported, or 15's sealed. Also want to provide full floor to ceiling coverage. 5 12's each side with 4 inches between drivers is about 7 feet tall. 4 12's with 4 inches between drivers is about 5 feet tall.

With the 3 drivers in each of two cabs at 3.3 cu ft the sub takes on an entirely different sound. The bass now sounds that it envolopes the entire room. The system can deliver much higher volume levels, it readily keeps up with the KG4s to the point when the KG4 sound a bit stressed and at volumes not normally used. Even a moderate volume levels there is a visceral slam that was not present with the single drivers. The frequency plots attached were generated with a test tone CD and a RS SPL meter. The single driver is plotted againt the response to the 3x10 left, 3x10 right, and both 3x10 cabs at the same gain setting on the system. The point of measurement was 9 feet from each speaker at the midpoint beteen the speakers, at ear level. You can see the dramatic increase in gain as you add more drivers, so you get more volume with the same power, or same volume at lower power. So you are running the drivers in the more linear lower extension range at the same volume levels. The multidriver does help with some of the frequency problems with the room. The 100 to 300 Hz range appears much more smoother with both towers compared to a single driver. But the dip at 80 Hz and the peak at 60 Hz remain, with the ample head room some equilization might be in order to help even this out. Use of multidrivers does not appear to be able to lower the -5 db Fz of 35 hz.

Initial testing was done with a single driver in a 3.3 cu ft box. At low levels the driver sounded nice, low distortion, tight bass. When pushed to higher volume this is where the driver began to have problems, less controlled sound at higher levels,more distortion, and could not keep up with the KG4 volume wise. Would go into oscillations and a few times would hit its mechnical stops with a loud knock. Well enough of that, on to a multidriver system.

Each DVC driver was wired as 16 ohm, the three drivers where then wired in parrallel, to give 5.3 ohms per cabinet. I use speaker spikes, which kind of take a set in the concrete floor, provide isolation, and prevent vibrations. Due to the top heavy nature of these I have each of them bolted to a wall using an "L" bracket. Just in case a young niece or nephew decides to pull or tug on on them. I can lean on them and they don't move. They are vibration free.

See my multidriver subwoofer for my 2 channel in my work shop. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/146758/1510912.aspx#1510912

Over all view. This is my view while I ride my stationary bike. Not small singe driver cabinet used for initial testing of the driver. Maybe this week or the weekend will have some measurements and more listening impressions. Steel head season is upon us here in the Midwest, which can take up my spare time.

With the KG4 on top, no grill.