PSUSkier

Currently I have a pair of La Scalas and a Cornwall in my theater's front sound stage. I've all but given up on finding a single La Scala to complete the set, so instead I'm thinking about strapping a k400 on top of the Cornwall and updating the crossover to match. While going down that path though, I did stumble across some other threads where folks were talking about upgrading the squawker horn to something better. So now I'm asking for thoughts, try and track down a single K400, or get some readily available and better horns/compression drivers and upgrade all three of them. If the latter, what would be a good combination for a worthwhile upgrade? Edit: Also appearances don't matter. These are all behind an AT projector screen.

I just recently got my hands on some LS so I no longer have a need for the RC-64. It's located in the Charlotte, NC area, but I regularly travel out to Raleigh as well if you wanted to meet anywhere in between. They're in good shape overall with a few small surface scratches if you look close, but otherwise nothing else to note. The grills are in great shape with no tears. Asking $550. More photos can be found here.

Thanks a bunch. I finally got them dialed in and they sound just as great as I remember. The really good news is I also like they way they meld with the RC-64. At this point I'm trying to decide if I should dampen the horns or not (or add some polyfill on the walls for that matter. I know some model years had it and some did not). One final photo for the books.

So, after getting wrapped up on day-to-day crap I didn't touch these things for a while. The last few weeks I spent a lot of time finishing these speakers. I got the drivers and networks in the first one tonight and I'm going to finish the other tomorrow. In any event, here's the potentially final product. I'm still deciding if I want to take my polisher to the shellac to give it a really nice gloss. So without further waiting, I present an incredibly rare set of hickory Cornwalls [] Also, this photo was taken before I dusted the motorboard. She looks much cleaner now.

Cool. I'm actually looking to avoid the stains at this point just so I can get the most out of the unique wood patterns. After all, at this point they really aren't worth squat because they aren't built by Klipsch, so I'm going as far as I can to differentiate the boxes from the original product. I would think you choose Hickory because you liked the color and variation in the wood so IMO, to stain it anything medium or dark would defeat the purpose of picking that wood, but you're the one that has to like them. Yep, you're pretty much dead on. That's why my attention turned to oiled finishes. I'm new to the whole woodworking thing but I saw a few photos of hickory objects with this type of finish and it really seemed to accent the grain differences. It seems a bit more obvious now how to proceed now so thanks for the advice everyone. The only other question I have is it seems like for the oil finishes you want to sand the ever-living crap out of the wood with regards to moving up the grit tree. I saw someone mention they went all the way up to 1000 grit (!) dry sanding though that seems overkill. With the oil finish would 400 be a decent sanding end point or should it be pushed further?

Thanks all. I looked into the oil options and I must say I think I like the look of BLO rubbed into the wood (I'm thinking probably somewhere between 5-10 coats of the stuff). The sanding has yet to commence so that's why you still see the glue in some areas, but I'm waiting until I can get the edge banding on the fronts. One question I do have though... Everything I've read about using BLO tells you to mix it with something different, whether it's terp, mineral oils or a vast variety of other chemicals. For anyone who's worked with it, what is easiest to work with?

Definitely agree. The plywood layers were separating on the old cabinet so there was no saving it. But yeah, I'm going to see if I can get some oil to try the finish because I'm curious how it will come out.. My local SW has some amazing customer service and invited me to bring some scrap in to try a bunch of finishes in store so we'll see where we go from there. Even if I wanted to I don't think I could've afforded anything deeper in the living room space-wise. Even though it's too late now, what would be the benefit from deviating from the original cabinet dimensions?

Oops, thought I included that in the initial post. They're hickory plywood.

So this past weekend I finally got around to building replacement cabinets for my beat to crap Cornwalls. So far I'm really happy with how they're coming together, but I realized today I need to figure out how to finish these. I tried some different stains on some scrap pieces and it really subdued the variations in the wood grain. Most everything in my living room is a rather dark reddish/brown color (see the coffee table in the background), but I think these will have to go much lighter. So anyway, to the meat of the post, what is everyone's thoughts on how to finish these? Oiled? Light stain? Something else?

For me, the biggest savings come from not having a router to cut out the port/horn/driver holes. I am checking with Mr. Crites to see what his price for those would be for a pair. I didn't really entertain the thought that the cabinets without the drivers were really worth anything.

They're the former... Looking closer you're absolutely right, I do see some glue residue in the corners. The delicate porting (in that there's a lot of wood missing) at the bottom has me a bit concerned so I may hit them with heat off the start. Thanks for the response. I'm trying to take them out because the cabinets are pretty much destroyed but the motor board is in great shape. I ordered some maple plywood to rebuild the cabinets from scratch.

Is it possible to remove the old motorboard from an old pair of original Cornwall without damaging it? I only saw what looks like finishing nails in the front but there must be some wood glue in there somewhere. Any recommendations?

Yep, that's exactly what I'm doing (the originals were the BRs). I am changing things up slightly though... I went to a local building supply place and they had some great looking void-free Hickory plywood. I got two sheets of that and some finishing veneer strips. Are the sides nailed to the tops though? I was looking at my BRs and there didn't seem to be any nail holes; I was just planning on gluing the panels together then reinforce with the blocking. Think that'll be sturdy enough?

Another thought is may be to start from scratch. I'm looking at one of my cabinets right now and the construction seems pretty straightforward. I figure two sheets of really nice 3/4-in plywood would be plenty to rebuild these boxes properly. Could the motor board be reused if I were to disassemble the current cabinets? Looking at the inside of the box it looks like everything is just nailed together via the internal supports with glue on the joints, is that correct?

Thanks for the reply. I actually did read over the first document when trying to figure out if I could do just that. Ultimately though, I feel these guys are too damaged for me to trust myself to restore them properly and have the new veneer stick. I got a quote of $360 for a shop to redo both speakers (minus the staining which I will do myself) which doesn't seem too bad.