Khornukopia

My Klipschorns are now tri-amped with a digital electronic crossover set to Linkwitz-Riley 48 db / octave slopes. Plugged an ECM 8000 microphone into unit, ran automatic time delay set-up, stored settings then removed mic. Using 3 matching stereo, complementary Single Ended Push Pull SS amplifiers with specs of 0.008% THD @ 10 watts. 0.01% THD from 1/4 watt to full rated power. 0.008% Intermodulation distortion at 60 Hz : 7 kHz = 4:1 at rated output. Damping factor 100 @ 1kHz. Connected and adjusted the system last week, then went out and listened to some live music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Three different bands, three venues, three different brands of high price pro sound speakers. My seats near center aisle at 45, 20 and 30 feet from the stage. Some people may not care for amplified live music at 100 db, but live performances are fun and I enjoy them on a regular basis, so that is my reference for validating my home stereo sound quality. Back home yesterday and today, I played some vinyl albums, CD's and Blu-ray music discs, quietly and loudly. My tri-amped speakers sound really good. Individual music instruments are now more tonally distinct and singers voices are very natural and clear. The speakers sound precise, lively and powerful. The soundstage is bigger and deeper, and I want to listen to my entire music collection all over again.

People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do. - Lewis Cass

Here is a nice view of the top.

Here are two snapshots from the Paul W. Klipsch paper in the link provided by Moray James.

Here is a link to Heresy specs. https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/149819-heresy-and-heresy-industrial-ported-specs/

Here is a link to a good write up by forum member ClaudeJ1. https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/150280-heretical-heresy-1-mod-baby-cornwalls/

The later version Cornwall II does not have removable wood panels. To install new capacitors on my crossovers, I unscrewed the rear speaker wire terminal cup, pulled it and the attached crossover out and replaced the caps, then re-installed the cup. If you will be installing a bigger modified crossover board, then you will need to remove the woofer from the front to give you a 350 mm access hole. The mid horn and tweeter also are directly accessed from the front panel.

The Cornwall I and Cornwall II are both good sounding speakers, so based on your current choices I would pick the one that is in excellent condition. Also, be aware that there is an early version of the C II and a later version of the C II. The early version is physically more similar to the Cornwall. The later version (1986-1990) has the flush surface mounted mid horn and tweeter horn and the crossover is attached to the rectangular speaker wire cup on the back of the speaker, which is easy to remove. If you plan to buy a larger style high end crossover for a later version C II, you will need to remove the woofer to install the bigger board and to snip and splice some wires, then re-install the woofer. https://2d73e25b29782b6d6766-9c8af5cbfef16739445bc76457060528.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/CW_Time_Line_MK_070522_635120773187750000.pdf Any listeners with lack of bass from Cornwalls may have a speaker wire polarity problem between the amp and speaker, or between the internal crossover and the woofer, or possibly a room acoustics condition. I like my Cornwall II's. Later version Cornwall II pictured below.

The first few pages of this thread have a great story and some beautiful tube amp pictures. Even though it is almost two years old, I just became aware of it. My compliments to everyone involved.

Thanks for posting your specs on the Belle at the start of this thread. I realize the specs will be different for K-horns or La Scalas, etc. but yours are a good guideline. I have read the pros and cons about going active tri-amp, especially the extra complexity, so as a first time tri-amp planner / user I just want to know the proper way to install. My loudspeakers have matching drivers and diaphragms, all three (bass, mid and treble) amplifiers are identical models, my electronic x-over has auto-time alignment, all the wiring and connections are good quality. I understand that squawkers need less and that tweeters even less power, but I already have the amps and the ideal set of amps should have matching sensitivity, gain and frequency response characteristics. I just want to get this right the first time and not have a short cut become a weak link in the system. When I read about bi- or tri-amp dis-satisfaction, I wonder if there was a component mismatch or a calibration problem. If upgrading a three-way speaker system from single or bi-amp configuration to a tri-amp configuration, is it recommended to add squawker and tweeter protection? When performing auto-time alignment of drivers, should I place the calibrated measurement microphone at the primary listening position? Any other installation advice is welcome.

Here is a picture of an original Type AA crossover network for comparison. It is hard to follow the wiring of your re-capped units, but even if it is correct, you should consider "fixing" it. The ideal would be some new high end crossover networks as recommended in prior posts. Your wife's opinion is very important, we want her to be happy that you have K-horns in your home, so you can also consider the re-cap kit option. Really good looking walnut K-horns pictures on your other thread. Congratulations.

Your local theater is lucky to get such a generous donation of Klipsch speakers, and fortunate to have you around to set them up for maximum listening enjoyment. How many seats in your theater?

I am a recently joined member, and have been reading thousands of old topic threads in an effort to learn the subject matter. There is still much for me to learn, but I have found the answers to many frequently asked questions. I may have read just enough to answer you, but the following is only my limited observation. Al K is a smart man. He builds quality crossover networks. He is a good technical writer and contributed much to the forum in the past. He has his own website. ( I have edited this post to remove the information previously in this spot, because it might have been what some people call gossip. I joined the forum because I like speakers, not gossip. I also like people, and there are many good people associated with the forum, past and present, and I want to treat everyone with respect. Sometimes when I read the old threads, I wish that the past members were still actively posting on the forum, and that includes Al K. )

Saturday night I was the guest of an invited guest at a fancy party with live entertainment. When the first band finished and the stage hands were moving things around for the second band, the sound man played some CD music through the expensive pro speakers. While that music sounded great on its own, there was a big difference in the fullness and impact between the recorded music and the sound of the two different live bands played through the same speakers in the same room. It seemed that the recorded medium was a limiting factor in the dynamic range. There is a lot of good knowledge and advice in all the posts on this thread about getting the most from your home stereo, and one point I like is about wanting the home stereo to sound better than live music, in the sense that it is not as raw and loud, but has finesse. As much as I enjoy the energy of live music on a frequent basis and having a powerful home stereo, I also like my home listening to be "comfortable".

My only exposure to tube amplification is hearing live bands a couple times a week and sometimes being on or near the front row, but the on-stage guitar amps are miked and SS amplified through the sound reinforcement speakers, so the reality is I hear only SS if I am more than a few rows back. Besides, if the guitarist used SS and added digital tube sound effects, I would just think that is how the musician meant for it to sound. At home I have K-horns, transistors and I am happy with that sound. I am learning a lot here on the forum, enjoy reading about tube amps and everyone's warm glowing praise for them, but I often see statements about smoother sound and wonder, isn't an amplifier just supposed to amplify the signal, rough edges and all? Then I read the following description, one of the best I have found, understand it better and think that I need to try tubes. mdeneen, on 04 Apr 2014 - 08:38 AM, said: "Of course pure personal preference is ultimately the only thing that counts when people lay down their money, but aside from such tastes, there are other rationale for noting the distinction between SS and tube amps. A tube simply behaves different from a transistor, and the difference is absolutely important in audio because the difference involves distortion. There is absolutely no reason on earth to use tubes to build a GPS, or a computer, or a television. Transistors in all those cases are by far superior. Ahhh, but in an amplifier, the clear cut advantage of the tube is not based on tastes or preference, but rather on the fact of how tubes operate. They are natural linear amplifiers with low distortion and need no feedback to control them. The clip softly and symmetrically. Less components are needed for any particular amplifier design. They have more dynamic range. The are ON all the time. In short, they produce less complex distortion signatures just by the nature of their physical operation. In spite of all their disadvantages, heat, size, cost - they have a niche application in which they are inherently superior: audio amplifiers." My original post edited for grammar, punctuation and attitude.

When you sell them, please tell the new owner to set his subwoofers to operate best with B-6 filter alignment. DSP or sub amp settings are +6db boost @25hz, Q=2, HPF @ 20hz. These subs are very powerful and sound really good with K-horns, La Scalas and other large speakers. Re-sale value is not high because most people don't have room for the appropriately large subwoofer, try some undersize subwoofers, then say subwoofers don't sound good with their system and quit looking. Better yet, make sure your B-6 is set up correctly, add a bass trap to an opposite corner and amaze yourself.

The EAW spec sheet calls for a 350 Hz crossover. Your K-horn low pass crossover spec is 450 Hz, which is close enough for your purposes and power input. You might also need to use the squawker 450 Hz high pass section of your K-horn crossover to prevent bass frequencies from getting to your mid horns (if your EAW built in squawker-tweeter crossover does not perform that function). Those are awesome looking speakers.

But you have written many important technical articles here on the forum, and I imagine much of that knowledge was learned the hard way, so I thank you for sharing the results of your good work.

Charts and graphs will not tell someone how good or bad something sounds, but the measured response of a speaker documented on a chart or graph can give readers a representative image of the frequency response characteristics of that speaker and anything inserted into the signal path that affects the sonic output of that speaker. That documentation offers an outside observer a universally accepted standard of reference with which they can make a preliminary judgement of that component's potential suitability to an application. The characteristics of the crossover slope "intersection" is not too important, but all the overlapping frequencies above and below that point have an effect on the speaker output. A few posts back, forum member mdeenen gave an excellent description of this significant process that he calls "blending."

I have Klipschorns at home that can reproduce an "almost live" sound for me, but just for fun I go listen to real live music a couple times a week. Most of these music events have large, premium sound reinforcement systems that sound extremely good, and I think the main "hard to duplicate at home" factor of that big sound is the big space. The excitement of watching and hearing a live performance makes the experience sensational, but I have also heard some of the DJ (disc jockey-no live band) events produce that big live sound in the dance clubs. Some might sugget that you get more power, more speakers or use signal processing for ambience effects ( I use all three at home at times, depending on my music choices), but if you just want your current high quality stereo to sound more dynamic, you should study the effects of your room acoustics.

Those high end crossovers look very good. I have not heard one, but see many positive comments about these products, and reading through forum archives I see that the builders and members have generously shared their technical expertise with the community for many years. Higher quality parts usually corrolate to improved performance, and the cost vs. benefit ratio is ultimately determined by the consumer. Potential buyers could benefit from seeing simple frequency response charts with crossover slopes, new vs. old comparison graphs, etc. Visual aids sometimes help people understand the science. Reading many of the crossover threads on the forum and from my experience, I have the opinion that anechoic chamber testing and design can lead to systems that sound harsh in average size, reflective rooms. So the aftermarket crossover builders are offering products/solutions for the real world of resonant listening rooms. The high end crossover builders also offer premium quality upgrades for people who want the best speakers, and at significantly less total cost than many of the so called "exotic audiophile" speakers. Just sharing my thoughts, I am not affiliated with any forum members, products or enterprises discussed on the forum. Before learning about the forum, I had some frequency response issues in my listening room and knew that my La Scalas sounded better outdoors. So I approached my situation as a room problem and used acoustic tile, panels and bass traps to get smooth sound from my horn speakers, but a plug and play crossover is much easier to install and if it helps you, is probably "worth it".

You could get some white plastic child safety covers to hide the unused outlets. Nice speakers!

As a fairly new member I find some of the bumped topics technically relevant. I am not bumping. Like some have already said, I would prefer a "bumped" notice. This forum has a wealth of information, but dozens of threads asking the same questions, with some of the newer answers not as precise as the "old" answers. Seeing that many new members sign up just to ask a couple questions, and that many of us like to research and expand our knowledge, a forum FAQ section and wiki's would be very useful, and probably reduce the bumping.

The veneer is very thin so the edges blend in, but you may want to glue on the sides first, then the face trim and then the top veneer piece in that order, so you cover the thin edges from the main viewing angles. On the face trim, the veneer corners are 45 degree miter cut with a razor and those ends are butted together. A forum search of "re-veneering" will connect you with many good forum member's instructions. After studying those, I suggest practice gluing veneer, trimming and sanding on some blocks of wood the size of a DVD case. Later on these blocks can be used for trying different stains, lacquers or oil finishes.

Scrappydue, I like your speakers. You are set up for serious audio performance. What are your most recent listening impressions?