Audible Nectar

I sense a strident tone here. My comments aren't about disparaging or even insinuating that your rec isn't good. The point I like to make with these older gears is there are a BUNCH of "ways" to look at having a unit like this serviced, and "which angles" are available to the owner are more numerous than most realize (which is why people come here to ask questions). It's not meant to be an "gotta be this or that", but a springboard from which the owner can ask questions about the overall approaches of the techs they are considering to do the work. It's much like a discussion around a classic automobile. There's a number of variables, right down to the upholstery. As one who has "walked the walk" like this with a myriad of vintage gears, asking questions gets you answers, and if you're considering shipping your prize across the country or region to have that unit serviced you will want to do the best possible to "shoot straight and true" with the first choice. I know what it is to "choose poorly" for the job and have to pay to do it again, too, although I'm not sensing that's so much an issue here. Interesting thing was the "poorly chosen tech" in my case was one of the most renowned people around that gear, but it was the wrong approach for what I was really needing to have done. That guy doesn't do "rebuilds" and that's what my gear needed. Some of us have had "year-long-sagas" right here on this forum with these sort of projects. It's how I learned who and what to ask. And in many cases, the "one not chosen" still can be a really good option for a lot of work - many of us here have built a good network of service people just through interacting in places like these. I would say that whoever ends up candidates that the OP should talk with ALL of them and find out what they have to say. The techs are usually more than willing to serve up opinions on this stuff, and as one who was in the market for this type of work am all ears and want to hear all of the opinion and thoughts I can get out of them. I will always suggest that people seeking these services do the same. I will say that on a 20 year old amp I want to talk to the "experience in the room" to ascertain if parts not yet failed in that unit are "due" that have not yet failed. If so, that's more of a "rebuild" situation where parts that have a habit of failing/wearing/drifting out of spec are replaced while the other fix it surgery is done. It' doesn't have to be "one good the other bad", in fact I've had to choose between some pretty good people in this biz and felt bad I couldn't choose both. That happens too, but it's all in service of finding the the RIGHT solution. I know the internet tends to imply the opposite, which is why I make a point of responding here.

If I'm a lifer "Cinema Grand" guy I consider taking it to the specialist who has the most experience and can get the most out of the piece. In five years when you are still listening to that amp (people who own them seem to really like them), you won't think much that it took six months instead of three or four to get that done. I looked into buying a Cinema Grand amp for my home theater (ultimately went with McIntosh) but had I bought the Cinema Grand it was probably going to Flannery's for the fullest updates that guy had available. For an amp like that, I go to 'The Go-To". Especially if you like it and want to keep it another 20 years. What's another few months?? Not to mention that five channel HT amps are a dime a dozen out there and a "spare" can usually be found such that you use it, get your Sunfire back then sell it, or just keep it as a "just in case", especially if you bought it just to be a backup and got a good price on it, etc. People seem to talk about these as one of those amps that's a "cut above" and deserving of the total service/rebuild/etc to keep the operational for another couple decades. If this is you and your "angle" you might think further about who you want to do this for the "long haul". That's the sort of scenario where I ask the repairer/restorer for not just a "fix" but a total inspection/internal parts restoration to make that piece the best it can be, or at least discuss that concept, rather than just "fixing stuff as it fails" which can end up a repetitive process repeating visits to the tech. This is how I approach a lot of vintage gear - I don't just want it "fixed" for what's failing I want it ELECTRICALLY RESTORED and that's an angle worth pursuing for the "lifer" owner who really likes the piece. But that said, inquire of any tech about these issues/approaches and learn what your on-hand options really are. Every tech has "their way" of doing this and those points can be of consequence where a 20+ year old amp or other electronics may be concerned.

I agree with the point on female vocals. Women have done more to influence my gear, cap, and tube choices/rolls than they will ever know. If the equipment fails this test there's gonna be other problems too. "Rumors" in in my "30 stack" - the stack of discs I use to make basic assessments as to what is happening in my systems, especially the 2 channel.

How about waiting to announce the fact that the Jubes would be there until the Thursday before the show? If you want to drum up interest/buzz on an upcoming product it seems a bit of a "miss" to wait until the Thursday ahead of the show to announce that fact. Maybe there would have been more buzz if people were given some time/announce to make sure they could be there....and that begins HERE. You can do the "announce show tomorrow" thing if you're Metallica playing the Double Door but when marketing a 35K pair of speakers a bit more lead time would have been better......even if it IS Klipsch.

If Mark Deneen took on Randism my name is Tom Brady. That's "Naseum" 🙂 I liked the guy and didn't have any issue with him. Like his Peach preamp too. He also had a habit of getting under the skin of the right people, and had a moral center very few I ever knew had. One of my favorite people here, despite the "exit strategy", proof that "breaking up really is hard to do".

I spent two years trying to figure out if I should, and how I should brace my three Cornwall pairs ('68, '74, '76). The '68 and '74s are super solid cabs in the original state, and I arrived at the conclusion that it was better just left alone as opposed to getting it wrong and just moving the "sonic anomaly" somewhere else on the spectrum. The 76 decorator cabs make the best case for bracing, but as they are surround speakers, and boast some of the most beautiful woodgrain faces you'll ever see on a speaker, I decided to leave those alone as well. I got tons of sonic mileage double dynamatting the horns and woofer baskets, actually did A/B tests here and it's pretty clear. I could do these by way of taking my time to get that right. In the case of bracing I didn't trust my ability to get them in there properly, such that I didn't damage the cabs or fail to lock the braces in solid enough to end up "Pillsbury doughboying" the the situation by just moving the problem somewhere else, and risk cosmetic or worse damage to the 50+ year old cabs. I spent just over 2K per Cornwall pair in network and total parts replacement and the results don't have me regretting the "non brace" one bit. We had our own little "Axpona" over here and blew a few minds this weekend. Soiled underwear are back in fashion again. The only braces we needed were the ones protecting the listeners' jaw from hitting the floor. And these are people who own Heritage speakers, and know them pretty well. So - If you don't feel comfortable modding those braces in - that's OK. And if you can't afford the extra 4K for Cornwall IV (bracing problem solved) it's not the HUGE deal people want to tell you it is, especially in '75 and prior Cornwall cabs. It IS an improvement in that specific area if done right (that's a big if). I notice this on Belle Klipsch and OG LaScala more than I do the Corns, but in the end I decided it was not worth the expense to attempt to solve that vs other improvements I could do on my own or in the case of networks just hire it done. Later cabs might differ but those "sweet spot" late 60's/early 70s cabs are pretty solid, especially the Cornwalls. I expect that if I did this with some of the 80's versions I might get differing results too.

This stuff happens. Had a u-terminal come disconnected from the speaker wire one time and learned a bit about the idea of "tension over time". A simple bump or just the fact that one day the tension on a wire was the proverbial "last straw" the problem surfaces and is corrected by a cursory inspection of the equipment.

Ahhhhh, everything old is new again. To the tune of Star Wars Theme..... "Spec wars, let's have more spec wars, nothing but spec wars, dah dah ta da......" As I used to hear said in audio rooms across the landscape while sales guys and audiophiles alike would shake the manual and say "CAN YOU HEAR THEM SPECS?????" Not to mention that as illustrated above the KIND of distortion and where it rests along the chain is a HUGE deal. I've got tube amps run a half a percent THD in a lot of instances but the listener would never know it, especially when fed by teflon capped upstream signal that is supremely high bandwidth, ever exacting in its details and delicacy, yet a little THD in the final output stage vs a competitor amp with "better specs" isn't the point or necessarily indicative of a better result. Stuff like TIM and other problems are a much larger issue but oft get overlooked as does the topic of "tonality" which is really hard to measure, at least to the extent that we haven't come up with one yet, akin to "degrees Kelvin" that we use for lighting. My head imagines a similar infinite palette of choices/degrees if we had such a system/"spec" to measure that. I'll recall our dearly departed brother Dave Mallette who stated "If it sounds good, it IS good!" and while the stuff beneath the hood and attention to detail does matter it's not always in the way that you think.

Good. Then I don't have to hit myself in the head with a frying pan for missing the memo. OTOH we might have made special arrangements knowing. That all said, is there any applicable scheduling aside from the show schedule itself (for those of us who would have to drive three hours then back then still work a shift at said job)?

Is this new news today? Was this announced before and I just missed this?

Everything in the audio path has a signature, whether or not you allow it to matter to you and to what extent you will go through to address that is up to you. It's the hell and beauty of highly revealing horn speakers and I wouldn't have it any other way. Copper vs. silver vs. tin, Philips family factory tubes vs. American vs. modern production. (and all the flavors within them), caps of all kinds and formulas galore. It's because I put my money into speakers that I had to start putting money and time in to the GEAR that feeds them. Part of the deal........

I want in on one of these. PM cometh........

Did you furnish the original Forte cabs or were they cabs he had and then just sold the whole works restored as pictured here? I am just finishing complete component rebuilds on three Cornwall pairs here, and short of the veneer they are as good as I can make them. I have thought about having these cabs reveneered in the future but they have everything else they will need for the next 50 years. So I do have that curiosity as to a potential "suitor" to reveneer my cabs but would want them to be MY cabs (no trades) and wouldn't need the inner components replaced, short of maybe the "batting" for sound absorption. I love the character of these old builds and thoroughly love having them in reworked condition. The Forte is one of Klipsch's all time greats; that speaker had a balance in its presentation that made it sooooooo good for sooooo many who couldn't necessarily handle the bigger stuff. Outstanding.

Yeah, that's the thing about using Cranky's crossovers in Cornwalls, in that if all goes right they won't be seen for another 10 years (and that only because of being totally maintenance freakish by rotating the woofer). My Belle Klipsch do afford me the occasional benefit of seeing that handiwork every once in a while. Point of fact I ended up with said Belles because I couldn't quite get the KHorns in the corners no way no how, but only by an inch.......Probably could have bought KHorns ten times over a stretch of about five years here, but just don't have the spot for those. Point being I sure tried, but literally moving brick is too much of a project no matter how much I wanted them back then. OP is in for a good little journey here. Decorator '76's with laser badges, it looks to me......lots to work with; some extremely capable devices indeed despite the pared down nature of the "decorator" series.

The way those caps are built and sealed one would never come into contact with that, assuming that PCBs are in fact present in the Russkie caps (I don't really know the details on those). I'd probably have to swing at one with a hammer to get it to crack open, though.

What you need to do is have Elon take over an electronics/audio component company, such that you can run your equipment on battery (DC) and therefore no "dirty power". If you could isolate the system from the grid on a strictly DC powered setup the noise floor would be non-existent; the system would have the absolute blackest of backgrounds. There was a company doing similar some years ago (Red Wine Audio??) where they had an "amplifier" device that used a battery as power that yielded the quietest setup in the business. Seems like an idea that could easily be expanded upon.

Nope, we're not kidding. There's a ton of vintage caps and tubes laying around in old stockpiles over there which were built with real "effort", many from prior to the "fall of the wall": Say what you might about what they could and could not do, but those caps were some of the most bullet proof stuff you'll ever see for these purposes, these caps are sealed and "built to the hilt" in a lot of ways. They also impart a sonic signature that many horn enthusiasts really appreciate. I've fiddled with a number of these caps and know well why people like them. I've come to develop more of an appreciation and preference for modern Teflons and polypropylenes but that's my way of "riding the audio wave" and not necessarily a requirement or anything.

These are very nice. I have a pair of '68s with removable grills that are otherwise pretty much identical to these (well, that is until I finish the rebuilds and that will be another matter). Mahhhhhhhvelous home theater possibilities with these too, you can "lowboy" one in the center (lay on its side) and have a really interesting center channel (with full range speaker capabilities), or have them be front and rear centers in a 6.1 (both lowboyed) or use them as surrounds in an all Cornwall or Heritage theater too. Many. many many ways these can be put to good use. One of my favorite Klipsch releases of all time.

Don't forget the K's and the V's. We can play another little game with this too, where we substitute some of these drug names for Ukrainian cities in the news and see who can tell what's amiss.

I've used Shuguang KT88 for the duration of my VRD ownership with no issues. Penta Labs, the VA KT100 (which is pretty much a KT88-98) and the Ruby are all pretty standard tubes in the "echelon" and they always worked pretty well. The Russian KT88 usually failed within 100 hours (assumed from the high screen) but I never had a problem with the Chinese versions; I do know a number who used the Russian KT120 and such with good effect. That said, nothing wrong with the Chinese KT88 versions as others state and no drop-off in performance - maybe slightly different but nothing earthshaking and in fact I liked the Sino versions better anyway. The SED 6L6GC was another matter when it was in production but that's another discussion/subject, and that tube hasn't been made for years.

I'm as big of a fanboy of the concept of "modding" as you can get around here, because any company who manufactures products have a thing called "bean counters" who have to make sure that resource inputs are appropriately balanced with the need to turn a profit (which Klipsch or any other manufacturing concern has to pay attention to). Even the most high and mighty gears in audio history had bean counters behind them, we spent years here chocking the venerable Mac 30 with the best of high performance parts; to very good results, too..... ........but with all that said, the Cornwall IV is the speaker for one who wishes to "buy it and forget it" in terms of those issues. For those who want to do those modifications I would suggest the older series, such as Cornwall I, or even better for models Belle Klipsch and Khorn, where aftermarket horn setups have been successfully fashioned and don't require you hack on your cabs 🙂 The Cornwall IV is a speaker I wouldn't even mod myself as so many of those tight tolerances have been done for the end user, where I find the simpler networked laden early series to be the "modder's playground", not just because it's so easy, but because there have been a number of options presented for that. But with the Cornwall IV, you just set them up and feed them well and forget it. You appear to have done that. That's what you pay your money for 🙂

I'm grateful that I loaded up on Penta Labs KT88 and Valve Art KT100 when they were $150 and $100 per matched quad respectively, I bought lots of 30 each from dealers when they would restock so I could get these in a pretty tight range and use out of those whenever I need. In addition I collected sufficient NOS that I have very few holes in my stash (12AT7s are a bit short as I never had a use for those until very recently). I certainly did an "Oh S..." knowing what this was gonna do to tube geeks and that's a pretty tough place to be. The Russian side of tube making filled a lot of holes for a lot of people. One thing I did was when I got my gear choices settled I stocked the hell up as to not have worries on those kind of issues.

Those look really nice. but I sure wish I could lay on one before buying. If I could know in my own mind what firmness I really need from specific manufacturers it would make it sooooo much easier. Suspect that I would be happy with ONE of their mattresses but sure wish I had a chance to sample - maybe at some traveling home show or something......

Wow, that's nice. I'm thinking about finding a K2 to run my HT subs that doesn't look like it just got off the tour bus. That "No fan" plus the auto-power-off in the absence of signal might well prove itself useful here......

It's what I use between a pair of '74s.......