geoff.

Does lightning strike twice?

will an M-80 fit through the ignition hole, lol

^^^^ THIS! This is why we can’t have nice things in Canada, LOL! Nice score Emile.

I was going to suggest honing the barrel so if/when it does free up it rolls all the way out. Using heat to expand the barrel crossed my mind too. Dry ice on the ball?

Trim and handles... sweet

This is a pair of Cornwall 1s that had the B-3 crossovers. So ‘83 or ‘84. I flush mounted all the drivers... I did not add those metal feet, lol

@Escoffee, congratulations on the acquisition and stealthily accepted insertion of your Khorns, lol. The AK-2 has the T5A autoformer knocking the mids down -6db. The AK-3 crossover uses the T4A knocking the mids down -4db. The AA crossover, for comparison is set to -3db. This may account for the perceived “pushed back” vocals. I just built an ALK Universal clone and soldered the mids to the -6db tap and am finding a pretty even number of songs to sound way more recessed than I was used to on my La Scalas. Some are perfect, none are harsh, but a significant number of familiar tracks lack the “bite” I am used to. Pretty much any new caps you use will brighten up the mids because of lower ESR. You could pick up some new Daytons on the cheap as an experiment for starters. And if that doesn’t hit the spot look at bigger changes. Upgrading a, for all intents and purposes, 40 year old tweeter produces a subjectively better presence too. The bass issue you mentioned has me stumped though.

I have found, almost ironically, the higher the sensitivity of the speaker the lower the volume at which I become engaged with the music. On a quiet night with my La Scalas hovering just under 70db it always surprises me that I don’t feel the need to turn up the volume.

@Kelly Anne, I am sitting in the GO parking lot at the 404 and Davis as I read this, lol. If your pair of Cornwalls is in very good condition (and not black), you would not be out of line asking $2K in the current Canadian market. They do not come up that often. And I look daily. If you list them on Kijiji (Canadian equivalent of Craigslist for our southern friends) the first guy to respond will ask "what's your best price". Don't even answer him, he's one of dozens of re-sellers hoping to flip them because he knows what they're worth. A new pair of Cornwalls are 4X the price up here and used ones are not falling off of trucks up here like they do in Florida and Texas, sigh. Oh, and you can pretty much double the suggested prices on the other pieces. A good reference is "Hifishark", they list (almost) everything sold in the various markets.

...a third or a half pie?

CT-120s are excellent. Arguably better than K-77s. The elliptical lenses offered by Dave A to replace the K-77 are the SMAHL (small machined aluminum horn lens). With the same DE-120 driver as the CT-120, they are arguably better. I have both and agree with the recommendations from the other members. I would even go so far as to suggest the tweeters as the first, fully reversible step. Klipsch no longer uses the K-77 in the newest La Scala for a reason.

I think this is why Jimbo suggested painters tape BEFORE applying the damping material. And welcome to an awesome forum.

The Crites CT-120s will do those justice... wait, what? lol

“Industrial Art”

Wow, again, those are some vintage crossovers in there. ...jus’ sayin’, lol

Wow, I read early Cornwall 2s and thought mid ‘80s, but you got the OG version, lol. Congratulations. So, at the risk of offending the sensibilities of some, I will say straight up I am not a fan of the venerable K-33 and the B crossover isn’t doing anyone any favours. But, the “upgrade” path is a slippery slope of diminishing returns. I have owned four pairs of Cornwalls over the years, my least favourite was a ‘79 pair with the B crossovers, nice at low volumes, as is to be expected. But I also had an ‘84 pair with the B-3 crossovers at the same time, which I kept. I had a pair of ‘86 Cornwall 2s which despite having a different crossover and completely different tweeters was more alike than different from the ‘84s. I kept one pair of the B-3 Cornwalls, to play with. A pair of Crites woofers found their way into them and the difference was not subtle. Immediately recognizable lower and tighter bass. The K-33s are safely tucked away in the boxes they came in for posterity. There is an ALK B crossover schematic that, based on my recent experience with the ALK A crossover clones in my La Scalas I believe would be worth trying, but I have never seen any feedback on here about them. I had no idea the K-77 could sound as fine, and the mids are fully adjustable. Yours should have the Alnico K-77 versions that Bob Crites preferred, but are very low wattage drivers. More bass, steeper slopes, and the ability to tone down the K-55 would make for a sweet(er) sounding pair of Cornwalls. The Crites woofers will never go to waste and the mods are fully reversible. Of course, once you touch so much as a screw on them you can’t call them Cornwalls anymore and St. Peter may have a bone to pick with you, lol.

Hoping to repurpose these and not sure of the tap settings. There are no numbers on any of the taps, unlike pretty much every other Klipsch autoformer. Looking at schematics for the AL crossover, which seems to be the only one that used it, there are no indications of taps either. At the risk of assuming, the middle top would go to the squawker and the bottom in and out are inconsequential?

My working pair of 301s has the screws pictured below on four corners. They go into T-nuts on the motorboard. That silvery shine behind the cloth and under the logo is Dave A’s secret weapon, lol. My mismatched project pair, sans grilles, each have velcro in six places. As for the polarity of the driver, I just checked three pairs on the shelf and they ALL have yellow paint of some sort on the positive side. Check very carefully for some remnant of yellow around one terminal.

They start out strong and don’t loose their coherence like lower order crossovers do as you give them gas. The imaging struck me as well. You might say the torque and horsepower curves are a coincident straight line, lol

For the record, I’m living vicariously through you, lol!

...I can almost make out Al’s secret woofer filter from the picture of those ALK-450s @pcbiz, what tap setting are you using for the squawker, -6db? You may get a little more “distinguishing” if you let the squawker talk a little louder? Or not. Cheers to your journey!

Way to carp that diem! ...there is no worse feeling than “what if?”

See, that’s another anomaly, the soldered lug K-55-V drivers on my LSIs were actually stamped “LSI” in red ink, in a red circle. If those are “W” date code they should have the soldered lug K-55-V.

In case you’re curious, that inductor offers less resistance than what is in the stock AA crossovers. It equates to a half a decibel or more bass.

...I literally JUST built my own ALK Universal clones last weekend, lol