Charles Turner

Gil... Thanks...I appreciate your response. I think it might be interesting if it's still there.

I'll be driving through there next week and I was curious if there is a "little Klipsch museum" in Hope? Does anyone know or has anyone been there? I'm serious, I was going to stop and look if there was. thanks...charles

Friends...wait. I LUV my cornwalls. Between my wife and two interior decorators they have been repainted three times to make them aesthetically pleasing to living areas. If my family can they will bury these speakers with me. I'm simply suggesting if we understand the inherent sonic signatures in our head we might make better choices about components. As for the hum in my amp (MC225 for other readers)...it has been greatly reduced by careful separation of the cords, cables, etc and I believe a dedicated circuit will probably eliminate the remainder. I also found some orange, double shielded (consisting of heavy copper braid over 100% aluminum sheathing) with a single 18-gauge solid-copper center conductor interconnects at Radio Shack that seemed to help.

For the last 6 weeks I've had a problem with my middle ears and have been unable to enjoy listening to music. During the diagnostic phase I had a basic audiometer test at a pre-insurance cost of about $100. The test revealed I've always had a "cookie cutter" hearing pattern. Not good, not bad but it indicates I do not hear "midrange" as well as the norm. I've always enjoyed my cornwalls while many of my friends find their midrange a bit over powering. Does my inherent lack of hearing in the midrange cause me to like cornwalls over other speakers? I wonder how many of us might be well served to spend $100 on an audiometer test to determine our natural hearing patterns before we chose audio components? Perhaps if we all knew our hearing better we could tune our component selections, interconnects, and listening rooms to our ears rather than the ever elusive perfectly flat frequency response curve. Just a thought for what it's worth.

I listen primarily to rock n' roll and I would vote for the Cornwall Is. I've had a pair for about 20 years now and I originally chose them because they were the only speaker (to me) that sounded like live music. For rock I still like them better than the Klipshorns. I recently moved them from a much larger room to a 12 x 13 room because I like the sound better in a small room. You can "feel" the music at a low volume without the need to turn the volume to very high.

I echo the idea for a Tube n' Klipsch section. I came to this forum 2 years ago to research speaker wires and got side tracked reading about tubes. I've yet to get new speaker wires but I've purchased a tube amp, tube tuner, and tube headphone amp in the process.

To Mike Lindsey... I've had the Nitty Gritty 1.5FI for about 2 years and I've been very pleased with it. You'll need to keep a supply of felt lips that supply the fluid around because you'll need to change them every 2-3 months if you're cleaning old records. They're cheap though, about $5 a set. I've also found it useful to modify an old coffee cup and fill it with about 20 pennies as a weight to place on the label of the record during cleaning...if the lp is a bit warped it ensures it makes full contact with the lips when the fluid is being applied.

Chris... You must exercise GREAT CARE at this point else the vinyl addiction will take hold. I purchased a way-to-expensive turntable and even-more-ludicrous cartridge two years ago then I started adding to my collection of vinyl. I now have approximately 2000 high quality used lps in addition to a pre-CD collection of about 700. I make weekly trips to the nearby Goodwills and Salvation Army stores (Thursday is best before the Friday lunch and Saturday morning shoppers). I occasionally just buy a box full at a garage sale (you'll see a box with 5 or 6 good ones ....offer them $20 for the whole box...then get them home and realize the rest of the box is Christian records). Next you'll need a digital stopwatch so you can bid on the really good sealed lps on ebay in the last 30 seconds of the auction. Soon you'll realize you will not be able to clean and listen to all the records within your natural lifetime. I concur with an earlier post needledoc is a good source of objective information. I have reservations, however, about spraying Groove Glide on records. Needledoc sent me a bottle of this in thanks for my initial order but I've yet to use it...there was a miracle fluid back in the 70s they later discovered degenerated after a few years and gunked up your records. A couple of pieces of useful advice...even if you purchase a used turntable get a new cartridge. If your preamp has a phono stage check with needledoc...it may be fairly good. If you get a moving coil cartridge get the Cardias Sweep lp...it works wonders. I would highly recommend saving your pennies for a wet-vac record cleaning machine...you will realize more audible difference from a clean record than from an high end turntable and cartridge. Having both is like heaven. And yes Dorothy, vinyl sounds better than CDs.

Just tried a couple of the ideas posted here and the results are probably diagnostic. In response to your question, the amp was seldom played in the larger room because other family members complained...and the room was at least 5 times larger in physical volume and the distance between the cornwalls and listener much greater. 1) Changing the gain on the amp does not affect the hum 2) Reversing the plug does not affect the hum 3) The hum is the same with or without the Monster HTS2000 ($200) line filter 4) The hum begins approximately 5 seconds after the amp is plugged in 5) Unplugging the amp and replugging it causes a significant movement of the woofer and dump dump (techo jargon) sound then it quickly returns to the dull steady hum More research later

Lots of really good suggestions here...I'll check them out and let you know what I find. Sincere thanks

I recently moved my stereo to a smaller room and now I notice my old Mac 225 tube amp is emitting a low level hum through the cornwalls. I've tried switching cables etc and the only thing that reduces the hum is reseating the tubes but doing so does not completely eliminate the noise. The amp sounds wonderful except for the hum. Is this just a part of having an old tube amp? thanks for any suggestions.

As a follow up to those who watch for cheap used vinyl...November thru early February are good times to check out your local Goodwill and Salvation Army stores ...people donate stuff at the end of the year for tax benes and it takes these stories through late January to get all the vinyl out on the shelves.

I listen to vinyl about 98% of the time. About 2 years ago bought a new turntable/cartridge and wet vac cleaner and I only listen to CDs on planes. I was totally amazed when I heard vinyl on a good turntable. Next I started cleaning my records on the wet vac system and found it removed most of the background noise and really "opened up" the recordings. I now search the local Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Half Price book stores for old vinyl and pick up some at estate/garage sells and on e-bay...you'd be surprised how much good cheap vinyl you can find and how well they clean up. I started with about 800 records and now I probably have about 2500. I clean and listen to one or two most evenings. Rega Planar 25 Benz Micro wood body Nitty Gritty wet vac system Cornwalls Tubed MacIntosh components

Help...I've always listened to my Cornwalls in rooms with 8' ceilings and I recently moved them into a room with a 13' ceiling and they sounded very thin. Both rooms are approximately 12' x 15', carpeted, one window, and one doorway. In both cases the Cornwalls are located in corners on the 12' wall and the listening position is centered approximately 13' away. Has anyone had experience with Cornwalls in rooms with high ceilings? thanks

MacKlipsch... I've had both the Senn 600 and the tubed Stax...while the 600's are very, very good, the tubed Stax are truly magical. I also had a pair of non-tubed Stax from the mid-80s but there was a bit of harshness with those you had to accept to get the magical soundstage...not true with the newer tubed Stax.

I bought a Nitty Gritty a year ago and it's been great...I'm sure the VPI will be too. I haunt garage sales now and buy up old vinyl. If there are no visible scratches these wet vac systems bring new life back to these 50 cent records

Al et al... Last weekend I reassembled my Cornwalls (disassembled so I could repaint the flat black in a satin black) and installed Al's crossovers. I'm not enough of an audiophile to give a detailed review but here's my report. They now sound wonderful and sweet...a couple of years ago I had decided either they had become too harsh or my ears had aged since I got them in the late 70's. As I aged I started listening to music more and more on my old Stax headphones and stopped using speakers. I had looked around and found B&W made a nice line of speakers and I'd get a pair...never got it done. Now the cornwall's "harshness" is gone and the speakers sound "airy" and "unstrained". This is with my old Adcom solid state separates...I've yet to bring my ebayed McIntosh separates up. Thanks Al and everyone who lead me to Al. Best regards...charles

I've read some people recommend running a separate circuit from your main breaker panel to serve the AV equipment...supposedly it cleans up the power a bit. Anyone ever heard this or know it to be true?

There is a single Heresy posted on ebay, item Item # 1252911394, currently bid at $106.50. Owner states it was used as a center speaker for a set of cornwalls. I sent seller email and he states it has a K-77 tweeter. If I could I would but I've bought too much lately. Thought one of you might be interested. Auction closes in about 2 days.

About a year ago I bought a new Rega 25 turntable and Micro Benz Glider AND a Nitty Gritty 1.5 record cleaning machine. In retrospect, I think the Nitty Gritty may have made more difference in the sound improvement than the turntable/cartridge. It's amazing what this record cleaning machine can do to records. On really old, dirty records I augment the machine with a $25 brush from Nitty Gritty. I can now haunt garage sales and Goodwills and, if there are no visible scratches on the vinyl, clean it to the point there is negligible background noise. I would strongly recommend saving your quarters for this $450 machine...VPI also makes a line of similiar products. The main value add is these machines vacuum off the residue after the record is scrubbed.

I have to side on the 2 channel setup. Most of my friends "upgraded" to surround sound but they had to make compromises to their simple 2 channel setups. Also most of the movies I like are non-action type. Personally, surround sound is too much stimulus for my head...I enjoy a simple stereo soundstage where I can close my eyes and visualize the performers.

Thanks everyone for the input...I'm currently in the process of replacing several components...when I get all of them I'll try to bring them up one at a time and do A/B comparisions and publish them for anyone who's interested. thanks again...charles

I'm looking for recommendations on McIntosh tuners. I occasionally listen to FM and rarely to AM but I want a quality older tuner to complete my transition to McIntosh separates. I'm currently considering either the MR 74 or the MR 77...both seem to be priced competitively on ebay. Any thoughts are appreciated...charles

Al... One of my to dos is to research the idea of a center speaker for my cornwalls...does a heresy make sense in this configuration. If so, I would be interested. If there is one more person out there interested in a heresy as a center speaker it makes the project and crossover more feasible. Any thoughts...thanks...charles

First stereo (1972) Sansui 5000X receiver, large Advent 2-way speakers, Dual 1215(?) turntable. Traded Advents + $450 for six month old cornwalls...seller's wife hated the big, black, ugly speakers in her living room. Late 70s added Nakamichi 600II cassette deck, Stax elecrostatic headphones...upgraded to B&O turntable Late 80s upgraded to Adcom separates 1992...mistakingly switched to buying CDs...added Adcom CD player 2000...upgrades to Rega 25 turntable, Micro Benz Glider cartridge, Nitty Gritty record cleaning machine In process...upgrades to McIntosh separates and ALK crossovers for cornwalls Future...more old records from Goodwill and estate sales