Audible Nectar

The current "center of attention" is the MC255 which is powering the five Cornwalls in my newly refashioned Cornwall Theater. It's very neutral/true of temperature/lacking in coloration, the newest iterations demonstrating how "beyond the good looks" exists in the actual performance capabilities of these amplifiers. Even in its direct coupled build (as opposed to the preferable autoformered) a very impressive device whose finer qualities show and grow on you over time......very refined. The transformer and filter cap casings resemble auto batteries 🙂 I've also run MC250s and MC30s on two channel rigs (MC30s - best midrange evah, my MC250s also pretty good although I think would benefit from rebuild). In my mind Mc pretty much is "The Amp Company" and very much so for Heritage speakers, and while you might find amps you like better sonically, there's an aspect to the fact that if you get a properly operating Mc amp for your Heritage you will get very good results. They can be beat but it's a helluvalotta work and listening, and they RRALLY like being mated with their preamps of similar vintage - for the person who wants "really really good" without getting TOO "in the weeds" swapping gears, one can get a Mac amp and pre to satisfy the desired feature set of the system, and it will be one of those "top percentile" systems that easily can take exorbitant sums and efforts to beat.

Ahhhh, just gotta love the "LaScalas have no bass" arguments (along with the tubes have no bass arguments). Always humored by those. I think it was Craig (NOSValves) who cured me of that misconception while the VRDs shook the sound room, while Craig shouts over the din "Whaddaya mean, LaScalas have no bass, hahahahahah...." like some sort of mad scientist, LOL.....nothing like driving seven hours to be proven a point..... As a Belle owner I can identify with so much of this review, and was the way I cured my "all horn loaded" desires (KHorns and Jubes being outta the question here). LaScala is still a very viable and formidable choice.

I have found that components routinely exhibit break-in characteristics and are especially noticeable in a number of circumstances on the highly revealing speakers that Klipsch are. The extent to which these characteristics are audible can vary from "not much" to "pretty substantial" depending on what exactly we are talking about: Crossovers, new "hard" gear (such as amps/preamps) digital gear, and then the "esoteric parts", like the RTX polystyrenes and the grand champion of "break in gestation period" - the teflons, which in the right spots can elevate a piece of gear markedly, but most don't have the money or patience to try it. Most other typical stuff doesn't vary as widely or for as long to be that big of an issue. MOST gears - from a new Mac to a NOSValves new amp with film and foils to a new pair of Klipsch Heritage will "get through" most if not all aspects of break-in within 250 hours, and most of that in about 100. Speaker woofers seem to settle in about 50. All of which is to say you won't be waiting long, but for NEW gear buyers, just run the stuff as much as you can for the first few weeks you have it, and put a signal on it as much as you can. For the "exchange/return" policy you should run the snot out of it for two reasons: one is break-in, two is for electronic viability, the defects in workmanship usually show early. For these same batch of "most" gears, they don't usually exhibit a HUGE change in that break in. If anything, I would say the most likely "break-in" change would be with a pair of new speakers -in a set of Heritage the caps and woofer will benefit from 100 hours of work in the finer details of imaging and "top side" (mid/tweet) and resonance with the woofer. At that point you either like them with the room and gears present - or you don't. There could well be gear mismatches, positioning problems, or other stuff at work but the majority of "break-in" should be done by now and the "house sound" (general characteristics) of your gear known at this point. The changes you get will be better images, more "snap/bounce/better resonance-acoustic", better "flow"/less "gear" sounding. It's subtle in most cases, and it applies to new builds primarily or gear that has been dormant for extended periods of time. With the esoterics (like polystyrenes like the RTX, it's sorta like 10 caps in one) and teflon stuff, these are another matter entirely, and out of the norm. RTX caps are a tough break-in, and there are points with these where you might well think you made a mistake from the super sharp edge these caps develop as they break in. But in time - a longer time (like 500 hours) they give up that edge and leave pure resolution faithful to that signal instead. They just smoooooooooooth out without masking a thing, but you would never believe it unless you knew to be patient. See also teflons, which in custom audio builds are the eighth wonder of the world once "aged", but they are only meant for stuff you already know you like and wish to keep, because it will take 1000+ hours to get the full max benefit of what these can do. Some of the earlier versions (which I have used because I got a deal on them) take 1000ish hours for the initial "bloom" and another 600-1000 for the "smoothout" - where the resolution gets past that "let me show you how deeeeeeeeeeeeetailed I can get" to a place whee it's simply transparent, extracting the signal/recording with nothing else. The newer formulas, like the V-Cap, are burnt in at rated voltage for a few hundred hour burn before they are sent out, to help the end user save time. But you will STILL have 1000ish hours before full maturation and smooooooooooth clarity desired and obtained from using these magnificent little devices. Listening to a teflon bloom in a piece of gear is a lot like witnessing a live birth, it seemingly happens all at once after months of waiting and then all of a sudden the skies open and the gear becomes a completely different animal. But these are the far-exception and are stuff that very few are using. Then there's the "each session" change from gear warm up - most notable on tube and Class A gears, which sound their best once hot/at operating temperature. My tube rigs always took an hour-is to start showing their best qualities, albeit the general "house sound" is present in a few minutes, once at proper operating voltages. But MOST new stuff is a shorter and more subtle change duration. Many don't notice those changes much at all. Much is based on listening habits too - Metallica at 100db doesn't quite come off the same way or have the same listening considerations as say classical or jazz ensemble, so habit and focus can make a difference. But for a buyer like one reading the Stereophile LaScala 5 recently published, who is likely to have high end electronics and best use recordings for system evaluation in use, where that "advance break-in time" is the way to go. They should NOT be reviewed until they've had that sort of advance work. If I bought a new set of LaScalas, I would run those for a week solid if possible, when I installed teflons in the NOSValves NBS I ran that for WEEKS at a time. It took SEVEN WEEKS for the initial bloom because I used NOS Cardas teflon caps (at about 1/5th the price) instead of V-Caps (which were $1400 for two). The mylars in a new LaScala aren't reported to take that long and seem more in line with most other typical caps and gears, the 100 hour rec from that reviewer seems to be pretty "on point".

I run two JBL 4638 cabs in my all-Cornwall theater. These have the efficiency and brawn to keep up with these high efficiency speakers. Another is the JBL 4642 (single 18"), then to look at Klipsch they have the KPT-904 and similar. These woofer cabs can run with the big Klipsch Heritage beasts and can do it and not be horn loaded - these are made for pro use. My JBL 4638 pair run effortlessly with my Cornwalls and make "keeping up" with the big Heritage a breeze, and modern pre-pros can adroitly blend these beasts with your existing mains. I am a big proponent of using these types of cabs for LFE on Heritage as they are capable of the job and relatively inexpensive as well (oft can be found used, especially out of "theater rescues"). You don't have to get fancy on power either, biggest issue is QUIET power, in my case a Crown K1 driving the two twin woofered cabs. I really believe these new Klipsch beasts are another animal entirely, that is if powered is OK. They do appear to have the ability to blend the liver, to be sure. Klipsch has really upped their game on subs. I'm a pretty hard bitten passive guy though, and I'll probably die with mine (these cabs do half a century in theaters and they'll do that same 50 years here).

Yep - as well as Tannoys, high efficiency JBL, Altec, etc etc etc...

I am amazed this hasn't sold yet, Listen to me now and believe me later, this is an amplifier that was BUILT FOR HERITAGE and as such is difficult to find such an excellent match at this price point. If I didn't have VRDs already I'd have this. I sold a fair load of vintage Mac gear because when it came down to it, I already had one of the best, most transparent amplifiers for my 2 channel Heritage that money could buy, which was the VRD monos. You'll miss pretty much not much with the stereo version, and unless you had them side by side you couldn't tell anyway.... Given the geography it appears in reach of a lot of people, for a buyer near Chi/Mil that's having a custom amp in their backyard. GLWS, can't rec this one enough.....

We didn't need the lava lamps when we had annual touring visits by the Grateful Dead 🙂 That's why we bought all those big speakers in the first place.....making our own "Wall Of Sound".....

Ahhhh, the CV AT Series, know them well. Worked in a shop that sold them and competed with Heritage dealers; very frequently we lost sales to Klipsch but understandable as ATs were about half the price. The 12s and 15s could really put out the volume though..... ....I will also compliment the looks of the system as it is quite attractive. It's neat to see pieces I sold back in the day be displayed in such fashion. It's not just Mc and similar that's deserving.....

That's the point - all the "other stuff" are work arounds for the fact that what is desired is real, natural grown cannabis - not "Delta 8" or or half baked formulas that work around laws, but REAL cannabis derived from provable genetics and suppliers where you KNOW just exactly what is in it. There are THREE essential "categories": 1) THC (the base "intoxicant" side of cannabis) 2) CBD (the base "medicinal" side of cannabis) 3) Terpenes (The HUGE aspect of all this that the black market has obscured that makes ALL of the difference when it comes to "directed use cannabis" - IOW, you are using it for a specific desired physical/medicinal purpose) Just the topic of terpenes alone is an essay by itself, but the terpenes in a given cannabis sample have more to do with the effects of that cannabis than do any other aspect of it. The varying combos of terpenes are as varied in result as a color sample palette in a paint section of a hardware store. There's THAT many possibilities! There's cannabis that is more energetic and allows an arthritic to function in a physical job that much more normally, there are types that are much more sedate and provide rest to chronic pain and disease sufferers. There's a range of possibilities. Not all cannabis has you sitting in the couch munching out, far from it (a number of sativa types in general are the opposite). Regarding CBD - unless you were provided a CDB cannabis sample through a dispensary or medical facility, chances are it's not an accurate or proper sample to really know if CDB is right for a given situation or not. An example is the Rick Simpson line of cannabis oils, who is the grower who created "Charlotte's Web", a specific strain for childhood seizures that shook the medical profession and dented the restrictions on cannabis in places where it is strictly prohibited otherwise, because the result of places like Iowa and other midwestern states watching their families move to Colorado to get access some 10 years ago finally got heard and noticed and laws started to change. This is a very specific genetic plant that's sold in medical states where specific outcomes are desired. You won't see that at a local thrift or vitamin shop, anywhere but a real cannabis dispensary licensed by a state, for all practical purposes..... They DON'T always work for everyone, but as I always remind those looking for medical benefit that it's not all created equal, and if not directed properly the wrong results are oft obtained. But the other side of it is that if a "trial" does fail it comes with a MUCH less forceful footprint than a lot of other prescription medications that might hit too hard for what is needed or involve too much risk (opiates in particular). So in states that have REAL medical cannabis preparations available, they are worthy of investigation. In states that don't, the "workarounds" are rarely any good (because they are just "legal workaround products). Even in legal states you see "Delta 8/CDB" sold in all these places and that stuff is pretty much bogus. If not from a dispensary where the contents are known and tested for it's not of any real value in the end, because "cannabis just isn't 'cannabis' " - there's a bit more to it than that, and those details do tend to get lost in a sea of noise and confusion on the topic. It IS difficult to investigate in states where good medical dispensary product is not legal or not available.

Is this an issue? It IS legal as beer here.....

The correct answer (I think, he may differ) is that the big Dynacos (like the Dynaco III and similar tube rectified simple circuit amplifiers) were the "inspiration" for the idea of building the VRD, but it's not really "in common" with the Dynacos aside from being ultralinear (front ends are definitely different). At the time the VRDs were released there weren't really much for good NEW options for high efficiency horn people like us on tube amps - Craig himself built an entire biz on rebuilding the vintage gears MADE for horns because those pieces rebuilt really WERE the best options back then (and are still often very good to near best). So the VRDs were in effect a custom made solution for high efficiency horn people, especially 2 channel Heritage types, who wanted a "reference amp" built to do that job. See also the JuicyMusic gears (Mark) which had similar aims with differing approaches (and who effectively built "The Preamp" for many on this forum). JM>VRDs got to be like a broken record here on gear lists and for good reason. The rest, as they say, is history.

I didn't attend enough. Yes, they had good sound 🙂

Kid Charlemagne definitely knew something about good sound combos. I use newer McIntosh (MX151/MC255) to drive my all-Cornwall theater (one might call it "The CornWall Of Sound") and it still "has it" - that body, presentation, "way" with the performance, albeit with a little fresher face. I spent a ton of time with MC30s as well as MC250 on various Klipsch and still believe that the Mac/horn combo is one of the best in the biz. It's not practical to use tubes or Firstwatt (class A too hot anyway), Luxman and Accuphase don't make five channel amps. When I rebuilt my Cornwall Theater and had to choose how to power that, the Mac seemed a good logical fit, and it still is. From the Grateful Dead stage to here, and all through the years, they most certainly were not wrong, and I still think of Mac first and foremost as "The Amp Company" because of it.

You DO want the 12AU7s to have matched sections (phase splitter). But Mark identifies the same tube sets I use (save for the fact I use real Mulalrd 5AR4s cuz I have them) and I find them to be excellent. This is what the amp is "designed center" for, it has other options but I don't recall how to set it up. Haven't relly needed to because the current setup with Amperex smalls and Penta KT88s have been sooooo good in that amp, and even as a cap roller (I now have all Teflons in my NOSValves gear) can vouch for the quality of that setup. To get into the specifics of the other tubes you could use, and in what specific combinations, I would talk to Craig, as I don't think any of those options were laid out in the manual. If you ask me, an amp performs and sounds best with the tubes it was designed for, and having heard VRDs with GEC KT66 and a few others, the stuff that works "stock" actually performed better, because that's what the amp is designed for.

There's a whole lot of conjecture in this thread, but has anyone here actually heard this piece?

Welcome. We definitely get it. Some of us found this when "Lycos" and "Excite" were a "thing"..... We also knew about Hope Arkansas BEFORE Bill Clinton was president.

No issue here. I had one, that's pretty much what I did.....

I thought discussion of mods on this forum was verboten 😉

Craig and Mark would set up their customers with preamp and amps respectively, then their customers (also known forum members) would come on here and do all of the talking. It was so ridiculously and consistently good that I drove across three states to hear what they were all talking about. A number of us did similar. Too bad I wasn't here when said subject was insinuating the build of equivalents for a third of the cost. Anyone who knew Mark and/or Craig's gear knew that was BS because I've run across very few who gave you so much sonic quality for the $$$ and anyone who has handled that stuff knows the same. I realize that a manufacturer has to start somewhere but the lack of track record might have been a tipoff. Did CBH ever deliver a product to a member here successfully?

I have Belles and Cornwalls with P serials and laser badges here.....these are "klipsch" with no pie slice

Yeah, they look yummy. Speakers look good too.

Once in corners they "hide" relatively well compared to their size.

We bought all of the good ones up already 🙂

I would LOVE to put that to the test. I REALLY want to hear the CIV against my OG CI cabs, and I am quite sure I would be able to tell them apart. They are MARKEDLY different in their setup (better tweeter and steep slope crossovers just for openers). While so much of this is truly subjective, I suspect the CIV would come out better in some aspects (less honk and less cab boom to be sure) and maybe some tradeoffs in others, with the edge going to the IV in the overall from that lack of boom and honk. The IV is made to be a more refined product.

They can/do "honk" on a good deal of program material (at least with the earlier versions). Some would call it "bite", and depending on your specific use and taste could call it a bug OR a feature at the same time. I play my Cornwalls at low-90s db at the listening position at a max by and large, and if not overdriven that "bite" becomes that "jump of life". If these are run like PA speakers, at 100+db at the listening position, they are going to "bite you" in most situations, and mine will in a lot of situations too. On clean tracks, like DTS in my Cornwall Theater, I can get away with much more on the throttle before having "the honk" be an issue. On CD and a good deal of 2 channel stuff this can show, but I'm not doing music at that level anyway. But I don't listen that loud, and really neither should you, and when kept within what PWK seemed to understand was normal listening volumes (before Flame Linears came along) they do just fine. On a technical level there's a lot better for "system crankers" within the Klipsch line than a Cornwall, but for reasonable to even a bit more volume the Cornwall is one of those speakers that performs a LOT better than it should when you look at its technical aspects. If you want more extreme adressing of that issue in a Cornwall the newest IV version would be one to investigate. Steeper slope pickled onions on a sesame seed bun.....