Dudeisms

Google “klipsch cornwall damping” and the threads you need will pop up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi John, What does the .35mh inductor to the squawker do? Also if I lift the tweeter to make this knee... does it change or effect values of anything else? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a pair of 77’ LA Scalas with AA crossovers. I’m looking for some recipes of sorts. I’d sorta prefer to just modify the AA’s if at all possible. 1. How do I cross the squawker to the tweeters at 4500hz? (I have b&c be120’s and SMAHL on the way, I know doing this to K77’s could zap them). 2. I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to attenuate the squawker I would move the tap on the original T2A from 4 to 3 and swap out the 13uf for 6.8uf in order to only attenuate the squawker. Am I right? Thoughts? 3. Is there a way to both change the XO point from 6,000 to 4,500 AND to attenuate the squawker? Thoughts?

K-55-v in my LS

Open to suggestions. I have located a second of a song that does it. It’s hard to tell if it’s just one or both speakers ... and the ‘77 LS have that stapled on screen so I can’t really get to the horns like normal from the front. I could however try swapping the k77’s

Correction turns out I have a k-51-v in my ‘83 Cornwalls.... can I use that in my La Scala momentarily to see if my issue is indeed the squawker?

Hi there. I bought a pair of ‘77 La Scalas. All in all they sound great, but there is a distortion gremlin hiding somewhere that only shows up in particular songs. When I use test tones I cannot reproduce the distortion gremlin. I am trying to figure out if its the tweeter or squawker. Is there any issue if momentarily I unscrew the squawkers with zero issues from my ‘83 Cornwalls and briefly place them in the La Scalas to try to ascertain if the LS mid drivers are the issue? Thanks in advance Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is something fishy about this seller. Email exchange has been odd. And he will not let anyone see or hear them, just agree on price and pick up.

Does the color look light for CWL?

FIRST IMPRESSIONS – AFTER CRITES – BURN IN PERIOD Ok, its been a while since I have posted an update. The beginning of this I wrote at the time of the crites updates to my Cornwalls. I am still including my thoughts at the time, but likewise as a believer in burn in, I will later include how things have changed since. So yet another section in which I wrote some stuff a while ago, and some today. Ergo, its gonna possibly be some confusing reading, but that’s how I roll. I’m thinking based off of the results of what I saw after I replaced the caps on the KG4’s that these Cornwall’s capacitors were quite done. There have been many moments specially using vinyl as a medium, where certain aspects or frequency ranges that are, I don’t know how to describe this, but I would say subtly dull or muted that normally aren’t. (I think there are multiple spots or bands in the spectrum doing this) So after replacing the capacitors on the crossovers, and the rubber washer on the mid horn (Mine where actually in decent shape, just super compressed) lots of things changed. The uber sensitive volume issue I had where I barely touched the volume knob was tamed quite a bit and now falls more in line with what I experienced with KG4’s… sort of. Don’t get me wrong, the potentiometer in the volume control is still crap, but we can’t all afford step ladder resistor attenuation can we. That harshness of sound pressure levels has gone away. And all the drivers are doing now what they are supposed to do. The 3D “Live” effect is still there, but it’s subtler. And MORE importantly The Beatles Love album on vinyl is special again, as is everything else. Now in comparison to the KG4’s there still isn’t quite that laser focus of things, but there is more focus with the new caps. I did notice that the old metal caps were just a tiny bit leaky. The Cornwall tweeter comes off more subtle like. Which is some regard ends up being more life like, but its still muted in comparison to the KG4’s. But this is to be expected in the comparison of small monitors vs large monitors, not to mention the horn is considerable larger, and I replaced the tweeters in the KG4’s with the titanium tweeters. All of this really has made me even further appreciate the KG4’s. Its actually pretty amazing all what those speakers can do. Yes all speakers come with trade offs, and many of these trade offs are ones of omission. Unless were talking about those Wilson speakers hooked up to four Dan D’Agostino’s in bridge mode at AXPONA that I saw and heard earlier this year. Something like 2200 watts was happening in that room, and I never have, nor never will hear anything as crazy as that. And we aren’t talking cheap watts either. That was maybe the craziest most magical setup I have ever seen and heard. The depth and clarity and POWER of that system had its own gravitational pull. My buddy who came with me to AXPONA and I decided to end the show with that room. I was still in awe leaving the venue, and my ears where recovering from those SPLs for 20 minutes afterwards. In the KG4’s for example, the bass sounds great, but obviously in comparison to the Cornwalls there is something omitted with the KG4’s, but this particular omission you don’t notice say as much as the omission of the laser focus in certain recordings on the Cornwalls. Is a tweeter in my future? Quite possibly, but not one that would require me to cut or drastically alter these Cornwalls. I know some of you essentially just have Klipsch cabinets at this point and for some even that statement is a stretch. To each their own, I just want to keep things semi original. I’m not a purist (these are the same folks running 40 year old capacitors). But I’m not in the change everything camp franken-klipsch camp either, sorry “modified”. And if you haven’t caught on yet, yes I am full of contradictions because yes I have seen pics of some very cool looking franken-klipsch with outboard horns etc. And yeah if I heard some of your gear, there is probably a very good chance that I would agree with you that these more severe mods sound better. But, that is just not my cup of tea at this juncture. Give me a minute and I may change my mind again, lol. Perhaps the bar that I will eventually set for myself will just be “no cutting of any wood or material in the Cornwalls”. Have I heard volti’s on more than one occasion and thought they have sounded great? I sure have. As far as this particular pair of Cornwalls go, I don’t have any driver that sounds harsh to me. I like that with the size of these speakers that I am not trying to defy the laws of physics. What do I mean? Well as a car guy, we have a saying… “There is no replacement for displacement”… and guess what? Same saying holds true for these Cornwalls. Are there other speakers that go lower? Yep, sure. I know with DSP’s and what not (or ice power modules fueling bass desires), that one can achieve great base with a series of smaller sized drivers. But these do bass quickly and it sounds tight and full. Ah here is where I should have paid more attention to words and phrases used to describe audio equipment in all my years of reading hifi publications, so I could describe my experiences with these speakers better. Transients! Coincidently I was reading something in my first day or two with these Cornwalls, and the result was I had to go google the word “transient”. And my take away is, it is that fast, quick, and extremely brief rise in energy or volume say right when a string for example is physically attacked. Something you definitely hear when you, yourself are playing an instrument. Meaning you actually hear the attack. Guess what? I GOT TRANSIENTS! And I’ve never had them before quite like this. I’m sure I’ve had them, but they were just not quite as noticeable. And this just further lends its way towards creepy live in the room with you, realism. Now yes I know that there are those audiophiles out there that turn their nose at Klipsch, but there are still plenty of us who know the real deal. Its funny, in my obsessive compulsiveness of doing a little post purchase research about Cornwall speakers, I found quite a few arguments online. Flame threads! Perhaps there are just too many people out there who need to justify their uber high cost drivers made out of un-obtainum, or their $25K speaker cables that consist of a thin thread of a wire wrapped in cellophane tape, or their $1K usb cables (yep I giggled out loud as I typed), or their $14K (giggle) audiophile network switch, or the Dac /server type device (I wont name the manufacture) that is essentially the guts of a $250 Squeezebox touch that has been hot-rodded and sells for $14K. (Ever wondered why that last bit of stock of squeezebox touches all but disappeared right at the end of the product run? And they then started trading on the private market for double the $$ because no one could get them. Now you know why they all disappeared). So maybe the whole Klipsch, you love it or hate it thing holds true to the masses… but I am loving them. Maybe it just plain makes some folks nervous that a speaker that was invented 70 years ago in the case of the Klipschorn, or somewhere around 1957-1959 in the case of the Cornwalls, actually competes with these mega dollar speakers. I have actually had a couple of conversations about Klipsch speakers with the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins about Klipsch speakers (I just didn’t type his name so it doesn’t show up in google searches) and their so called colorations, or as he corrected me… “Musicality” of the speaker. He’s a fan btw, in case you were curious. Actually the first set of speakers he bought when the band started making money were Klipsch Fortes. Little bit of trivia, he still has them, he still uses them at a place he owns. Actually the entire reason that I got to speak with him was that I recognized or thought they were Fortes. Klispch was the conversation starter. Yes he now owns crazier gear for his main system as he should. So yes these speakers have a musicality. Sure I can go in my other room which is more neutral and airy. But the listening room with either the KG4’s or the Cornwalls is more lively, more enjoyable. I’ve been moving the Cornwalls around again the last 3 nights. The first night I played a bit with the toe in, more toe in, and a little bit more off the wall to reign in the bass a little bit. The 2nd night was just an off night. If I’m in that room and have a chance to be alone, which is the norm, I’m probably always “critically listening”. Sure I enjoy the music too, but I never can help myself looking for those little details, effects, or straight up realism. By the 3rd night they came a bit more off from the back wall. Lets be straight here, most of the time all these speaker placement adjustments are not like leaps. They also got spread out more. The couch even got moved back and forward within a certain area to approximate varying the toe in. These Cornwalls are sure a pain in the something or another to move placement around. Plus with using my cheapie rubber puck thingys (Keep up with my technical terms ok) I need to tilt the speaker and release them from gripping the wood floor before I can get the speaker to move. Its not like the KG4’s were light per se, but I could give them a lil tappy tap at the base and control their movement. Dad also came over for a demo during this time period. He mentioned how impressive the size of them were. More importantly, he mentioned how it sounded like the performers were in the room with us. This evening (at least at the time I wrote this) Tame Impala – Lonerism – Vinyl was not only producing a decent sound stage, but sounds were floating around the room with depth. Leaf Hound – Growers Of Mushroom Vinyl (An original copy of this sold on Discogs for 3,581 British Pounds, yeah, no. I have the reissue that looks like a green bowling ball with a cost a mere fraction of that) I felt like I went back in time to the early Seventies, granted I wasn’t born for a few more years but who’s counting? Fuzzy guitars in a Led Zeppelin meets Pink Floyd sorta way. It was great. Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold as Love Vinyl I have to admit that while Jimi’s guitar did float around on the beginning as it should, It floats and swims around the room way, way more on the KG4’s. But perhaps that’s the new titanium crites tweeter vs the original K77M. Now here is one that I didn’t see coming. AIR - Premiers Symptomes Viny: So, sure, listen to something that is half totally digital on vinyl because that makes perfect sense. There are parts that are inherently low fi, mixed with hifi and all this has always been more dare I say lackluster, more background music or just mere ambiance on the KG4’s. On the Cornwalls, whoa! All sorts of things are happening and the album is so much more present and engaging. The Oscar Peterson Trio Vinyl Japan Limited Edition (God I love getting to the used bins before store employees do!) was SICK! It was so amazing. The plucking of the bass and the attack in doing so (Transients!) and everything else was so real and out of this world. I could even feel the percussion almost like plucks coming off the bass. I also jumped over to Tidal for some MQA’s and otherwise. Gary Clark Jr Live North America 2016 MQA… Yeah this got played twice. I actually saw a show on this tour in Chicago in an old theater (remember those, the ones that actually have acoustics). This was like being at the show again. Not that boxed in canned live sound, but live! The second time it played half the time I was out on the patio manning the grill. Oh yeah so that’s the thing about horns. So of course there is that sound in the room directly listening. But its like the sound turns corners, goes down hallways, and enters other rooms… and still sounds quite good. In this case a sliding glass door was open and music very clearly and still with heart, floated not only onto the patio, but I was curious. Yep it travels quite nicely into the backyard. I’m generally more picky with tunes when it can be heard outside the house, I will let my neighbors judge me for other reasons, not my taste in music. And no the neighbors have never complained. In my case with either the KG4’s and definitely with the Cornwalls, there is no reason ever for me to have outdoor speakers. Klipsch horn loaded speakers in the listening room take care of that quite well, provided that sliding door is open. I could go on and on with more tracks, but overall I’m quite pleased at the moment. More placement adjustments in search of the holy grail spot will continue, but I feel like I am close, maybe. I’m toying with the idea of tweeter replacements: ct 120? Ct 125? B&C DE 10,120, or 110? Though I am a bit confused there as I comb the other websites as well as this forum the things I read is more contradictory than normal. I say this vs when I did the same searches for the KG4’s, what I found was more of a linear “they’re great, what an improvement” type of reviews of upgrades. Yeah I know I should just listen a little more. And I will, but I know something is missing with that tweeter. Some of what I am missing can be found in my KG4’s which is inherent to smaller speakers like that. I know, no, I think that I can’t find all of that I am missing, but I am pretty sure that I can find the majority of that in another tweeter. But it has to be a tweeter that can just be placed into the CWs without any modifications to the cabinet or the B-2 crossovers. Next Up: I think I am burned in and Placement, Placement, Placement searching for the grail

The M2 has certainly got my interest, as does the whole Nelson Pass amp thing in general. So here is a left field question and you seem like a very good source to ask. Say a guy like me who has done soldering like 3 times (cap replacements for 2 different sets of klipsch speakers, and some wireless mic kit thing years ago), built computers, handy, etc... how hard would it be to say build an F5 for what 700-750$ish in parts as a diy virgin? If answer isn't "Run Forest, Run!", other than parts, a solder gun, and solder what would one need?

Thanks called Mark as you suggested, and for the price range that I dictated he suggested the M2 from firstwatt. Now I see that the m2 isn't know for its bass and many people apparently then upgrade to an F7, but that is a substantial $$ climb. So can you of someone help quantify or just plain help me understand how bass lacks in an m2? I would have just assumed that a m2 would just be all around better than using my nad integrated.

As some of you may know from my thread, I recently bought a pair of pristine Cornwalls circa 1982. You may also know from my thread that I have some decent but not stellar equipment. NAD C356BEE currently driving. Sources are a Pro-ject RPM1 Carbon and a BlueSound Node2 for digital. As I will soon put in my Klipsch-tory thread, I momentarilly brought home a Cambridge Audio 840A integrated, there were issues, but for a few moments I heard some of that Class A watts feeding my Cornwalls. My NAD setup sounds great, but I can't get what I heard from the Cambridge 840a v2 out of my head. But from what I can see on the interwebs both the 840a and 851a have some reliability issues, so I am moving on from that. MAIN QUESTION: What would be your thoughts regarding buying a used PASS LABS Aleph 3? Its 20 years old. Its class A, It has 30 watts. Yes this may be not advised or regarded, but the C356BEE NAD would have to serve for a little while as the pre-amp if I purchase this PASS Labs Aleph 3 for financial/cheapness/not doing everything at once reasons. I believe that I have read something to the effect of this pass amp having very low gain on the input or something like that so passive pre's are out of the question btw. Called Pass labs and it would be around $700 to have them go through the unit and replace things, though they have had no failures in yet... so it might be fine for a while, but not for super long. Should I do it? Are there better solutions for around a grand? Downsides? Upsides?

Duly noted and paragraph breaks arbitrarily added.

INTERMISSION #2 SPEAKERS AND WOMEN, BUT REALLY JUST WIFE.. AND MOTHER When I was a kid I remember there was a bookstore in the mall that sold a book in the humor section titled, “Everything Men Know About Women”. This book was about an inch thick and medium size in stature. It was blank. Every single page… white stark blank. That being said, before I get to the A.C. or After Crites portion of this story, I thought I’d respond to a question and give the current plight of my Dad and speakers in relation to my Mom, and the same in my household. So yes, my Wife is quite different than my Mother. Sure I love both my parents, but in my Klipsch-tory, I learned one very important thing growing up… find a woman who is ok with speakers, big speakers. Ok, so maybe things didn’t actually quite go that way. I met a nice, good looking girl who grew up on a farm. She had animals in 4H growing up. Me? City kid, well burbs kid, but always had quick easy access to a large city. Camping for me… it’s called a cabin, or lol a really cheap hotel. Don’t get me wrong, Dad grew up on a farm too. He had a very white collar job, but there was no easy street growing up. Now I don’t mean financially, I am talking chores here. And no, I didn’t appreciate all the work he made me do growing up… until I got older, and more specifically bought a house. Out of all the couples that I can think of, that we are friends with, maybe two other husbands in all these people know how to do stuff. Everyone else it seems, has a knowledge base that ends at changing a light bulb. So back to my wife.. and speakers. Well I will be honest, and nope I am not joking here one bit, every girl that I got a bit serious with, I covered two topics that I would be un-wavering about. Early on I let my wife know that there were two things that I would never give up, unless for some un-foreseeable reason were suddenly became destitute: 1. Sports Cars. I’ve always had a sports car, toy if you will, but we’re talking “no replacement for displacement” big engine sports cars and nothing exotic, but I would never give it up. 2. Speakers, specifically big speakers, would be in my life, and therefore her life as a married couple. See I never forgot about Dad’s KG4’s sequestered to that exercise room. And I didn’t want that to ever happen to me. Now when I met my wife, and eventually went to her condo for the first time, there was a detail in her condo that didn’t go un-noticed. And, let’s be honest, this detail won her brownie points. This condo was the former location of a former factory in the city, ergo it was brand spanking new to its tenants. One of them being my wife. What did I see? Bose speakers, full surround sound, 5.1, nicely finished off, with all the wires hidden, professionally installed. Now I’m not going to fault her for the Bose angle. But this is rarified air we’re talking about… a female with decent surround sound. She also had a big screen tv. She likes watching movies, and likes them to sound good. And as mentioned, my wife has always been able to hear the difference when I have brought home some piece of audio gear. Can Mom hear a difference to a point? Yeah pretty sure she can, but, sorry Dad. Now, in full disclosure, when I went off to go look at/ buy these Cornwalls, did I get real specific and descriptive about the size of said Cornwalls? Nope, what do you think I am crazy? “I was going to go check out, maybe buy, some vintage klipsch speakers.” End of description. I did mention they were large at some point, but was careful not to give any reference as to what kind of large we are talking about. I did mention that they were actually smaller than the other set of speakers I recently put a bid on (La Scala’s)… but once again, I did not provide any sort of real world example or measurements of what large was. She’s a smart lady, she knew there was a reason that I needed her car (SUV) to go “look at” these Cornwalls. And to go further in my disclosure, sure I took out my handy dandy measuring tape using Klipsch’s specs to try and visualize the volume that both the La Scala’s and Cornwalls might occupy. So I’ve never seen the La Scala’s in person, but I’m not gonna lie, the Cornwalls were so much bigger than I could visualize myself. And while I’m on the car subject just to further compliment my wife… See when we knew she was pregnant, my wife wanted to move from a sedan to an SUV. Oh! I guess I lied by omission up above… there was a #3. That I was also un-wavering about, and yes these three things really came out of my mouth. #3 Was NO MINI VANS EVER. And thankfully she is not a mini van kinda lady. But yeah, kid on the way, wife gets an SUV… and me? I swapped my 2 door daily driver sedan… for another 2 door sedan. Yes a kid car seat fits, and that’s all she cared about. So on Cornwall day, I did call my wife and mention that these speakers in their original boxes just barely fit into her SUV. Truth be told, if there was another millimeter or two to their size, they would not have fit. If I had bought La Scala’s either I would have to rent a truck or take two trips. My neighbor came over to help me un-load the speakers out of my wife’s SUV. While we were outside, perhaps I did ask my neighbor to get all his “wow, these are huge” comments out of his system before being in my wife’s presence. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing subtle about more than a handful of Klipsch speaker models available. And as mentioned before, we’re not talking about the gorilla in the room, we’re talking about the gorillas in the room. My wife’s only comment, “wow, those are big”. Now I knew that was code for “Oh My God!, those speakers are HUGE”. And I was not trying to have any direct conversation about that subject either, if I could avoid it. That was Saturday, and on Sunday I knew I was in the clear when she walked in while I was listening and she said, “Ok, I get it know, the musicians sound like they are in the room with us”. She also threw out a “I’m very happy for you”. So yeah, my wife is very different from my Mom. And I happen to think my wife is the Bee’s Knees and super cool. Now, my Dad’s plight with speakers… and Mom? Well, in fairness Mom has come along a bit when it comes to speakers. Now while my folks may not be spring chickens at this point, but Mom loves her Spotify and whatever else music streaming services she uses. And she likes movies. So over the years, when they would visit and my home theater had been raging… Mom loved it. And to help Dad, I continually have reinforced the fact to my Mom, that speakers need some degree of anti-decorating mass and volume to sound good. (Yes I know there are modern drivers and DSPs now that make small speakers.. blah, blah, blah) So at one place they do have big tall Definitive towers as the L and R fronts in a HT system… granted this is in the basement, so that’s still neutral territory. But at another place and right there in the main open area is a HT setup that has what I would call medium size speakers. So baby steps, Mom is slowly coming along, because she does enjoy the sound. Now for a right up to the minute update, my folks recently got a new place, not far from here. And I have been trying to work on Mom regarding speakers and Dad. I did very recently point out how cool Dad has always been, with things she wanted to do, or buy, over all the years. And I mentioned how Dad really wants a set of vintage Klipsch speakers in this new place. And I mentioned how such speakers would just float and waft great sound all over the main floor, and the adjoining deck outside if the sliding doors were open. What did she tentatively, and I mean tentatively, agree to? Well, to explain there are two rooms that would be perfect for a set of nice speakers. The first is like a den but not the biggest room, the other is a fairly big room which would be best suited for “big speakers” Klipsch of course. So tentatively, the little room is green lit, the big room not so much. I keep telling Dad he should score some big Klipsch speakers and ask for forgiveness later. On one hand I think he would kill for a set of Cornwalls in walnut, but seeing my Cornwalls in person has caused him to take pause… due to their size of course. My recommendation is to find a set of Chorus II’s as a more toned down speaker size without giving up too much, walnut of course in his case. Plus there are plenty of folks that prefer them to CWs. So maybe you’re reading this thinking, “Hey didn’t you get a set of Cornwalls, and place them in the room the KG4’s were in? The ones your Dad gave you. Are you even still using your Dad’s KG4’s? Shouldn’t you give those back to your Dad?” Well, to be honest, those KG4’s are probably more special to me, than they are to Dad. And I did put the time and money into fixing them up. But yes, the other day I told him when we were no where within any possible ear shot of Mom, that I would if he wanted to, “loan” him the KG4’s indefinitely if he wished, and as long, lol, as he took real good care of them. But I also let him know that I have never ever discussed any sort of detail regarding what I am doing, or going to be doing with the KG4’s to Mom, and that I would never discuss this offer of the KG4’s with Mom. Why? Because I want Dad to have a fighting chance at getting a set of Big Klipsch speakers. Although, when my folks were over just the other day, Dad actually showed Mom my speakers. Her comment was something along, “The wood is pretty, those are big! The size alone let’s you know there is something impressive about them.” So we’re looking (ok, he has me looking for him). I’ll keep you all posted. Keep your fingers crossed for Dad. COMING SOON – CORNWALLS – FIRST IMPRESSIONS – Part 1 A.C. (AFTER Crites)

Indeed, that part of the story to follow momentarily.

Just some pics

CORNWALLS – FIRST IMPRESSIONS – Part 1 B.C. (Before Crites) I wanted to maybe take a week or so and gather my first impressions, but I have wrote, and re-wrote this so many times. So basically if this reads choppy, it is only because it is. I debated should I clean this up? I’m certainly capable of it (shhh), but this choppy read is the embodiment of my experience of what is now about a week and a half with the Cornwalls. Its been a fun and crazy ride, which isn’t remotely over. It’s going to read scattered, as things have changed quite a bit during this time. Just think of this section as a Jackson Pollack painting of text entries from different times, just flung up randomly here to read, and an attempt to make some linear sense, except without the talent. Originally the play was to get some La Scalas, but these Cornwalls came up, actually I saw them first here. Plus the whole 60Hz with the La Scalas. (But I haven’t even ever heard them, so this just spec mumbo jumbo thoughts here). Yes I know one could get a nice set of subs, and yes I know they are La Scala’s, but the extra cost and that extra real estate in the listening room resulted in my mind being very open to Cornwalls. And no the door is never shut in regard to La Scala’s. I’ve actually never heard La Scala’s, at this point they just look cool. Is that enough, absolutely. Lust, hate,… Contradictions… rationalizations, ergo all big speakers hath spoken. So here are my initial impressions of the Cornwalls (1982) after about a week of playing around with them. Maybe I’m nuts, but I kinda just like looking at them. I don’t know, it’s like speaker porn or something. I’ve seen and been around much crazier speakers in: price; perceived performance; price; cabinet, oh my god you must be an amish craftsman, quality; price. I’ve even been in a room with a million dollars of gear (German Physiks) in a single room. And yes that room sounded like crap, but that was just a bad room setup, I hope. This was at AXPONA. Just because you can afford to grab the giant room at a show doesn’t mean that’s always a good thing. I notice when walking by my Cornwalls just how the light coming in the window highlights the wood grain just under the original buyer’s custom (definitely DIY, before DIY was a thing) polyurethane, or shellac, or whatever it is finish,… you know you’ve got it bad. And I do. They have a slightly glossy finish, but the texture of the wood grain finish is still present, instead of being completely glazed over. They were ordered COO for oiled oak, but the instructions on the boxes were marked for “no finish” (yep he had original boxes, and they are carefully stored in my basement now, the boxes not the speakers, get your head in the game). So they came home to the original owner naked. They are of the age where the back panel comes off nicely when you remove the screws. And unlike the new ones there is padding or deadening or damping material inside. I played with the wall placement and toe in till I got it to my own personal liking…. Or so I thought. Tentatively I don’t toe them in as much as a did the KG4’s. I say tentatively because if I know me, and I feel like I do, I will make tons of micro adjustments for months. Searching for the most magical placement sweet spot that I can find. And usually I do. I feel like mostly depending on the mix of manufacture suggested placement, and people’s own preferences that people usually fall into 1. Wide sweet spot camp, or 2. The narrow sweet spot, but its still a sweet spot and I sit in a particular way, and line my body up accordingly, but when everything is just right, there is more of a laser focus thing going on camp. (Oh umm, grammar Police, if you’ve made it this far into my story, you know by now that this is no place for you.) I fall into number 2 camp myself. Now compared to the KG4’s, these at least, at this point or possibly ever, don’t quite do the laser focus thing in the same way. So no I don’t have these way off into corners. The room is about 16 x 26, and I use the room in a fat, wide orientation utilizing the back wall. The speakers are about 9-10 feet apart in their front center points. They are toe’d in but not so as the horns are firing directly at me. They are backed off just a little bit from directly firing at me, so as when I am looking at them I can see, just a little bit, like an inch or so of their inner sides between them. At their closest point they are maybe 5 inches from the wall. And I personally like to form an isosceles triangle between the front center points of the two speakers and my head in my sitting position. Yes I am aware that there are variations on this, this is just what I like. What equipment am I using? I’m going to list it, but remember this is baller on a budget. No American Express black card in this household. I’m all about doing more for less. NAD C356BEE integrated, Vincent Pho 8 Phono Pre, Pro-ject RPM 1 Carbon, Bluesound Node 2, and an old EQ that only reads the signal for eye candy on the spectrum analyzer.. it is not hooked up to alter the sound. Some of you will think this is crap, some will think its nice, me I’m claiming apathy, but I’m satisfied to a point. Have I looked around on the web at cheap SET tube amps? … Maybe, ok don’t be silly, you know I have at least looked. Sidebar: the web and stores are filled with easy to find/read about/look at.. McIntosh dreams, and Audio Research, etc. But resources on the entry level stuff… not an abundance of info on the Chinese stuff per se. I take that back there is a ton of opinions, but this is like getting restaurant opinions from someone who you haven’t gotten an opinion from before… Sometimes people have no taste, sometimes people have amazing taste, but you don’t know until you taste the food how good their pallet is. I’d be open to a SET amp or better yet Monoblocks tube style… I just don’t want the room to get warmer than two rats humping in a wool sweater under a heat lamp. Right off the bat there is a crazy sensitivity to volume on every thing that I play. It is so vastly different than I have experienced with the KG4’s. Definitely a 3D, spatial, very much so “Live” in the room effect going on. On some tracks its like “you are there” vs “they are there” kinda thing going on, actually no, “They are HERE, with me in my living room”. The bass is quite full and nice, not too boomy, but much more tactile bass that touches you than the KG4’s could ever do. On one hand everything is great on certain tracks. On the other hand, some things are a miss. Over a few days in short term the sound pressures in the room appeared to be too much. This Klipsch harshness people speak of, but I haven’t really experienced that with Kilpsch berore. On particular tracks I barely ticked the volume knob a few notches and the VOLUME. “WHAT, WHO IS THIS, OH BOB FROM ARTILLERY, WHAT”… (Note: In case you aren’t following, I’m saying its LOUD). Initially I experienced a mixed bag when it came to listening. As I previously mentioned some tracks were live and 3d and special, and others something is missing, not right, and not special. And there is no rhyme or reason to it. Now Dudeisms you say, what is special to you? Well, to me yes I expect all the normal things my ears, and most people’s ears want to hear, but what I love are the little details, spatial effects occurring in nature or through technology during recording or editing. Sometimes its an album that pulls every studio trick in the book that can only be achieved through technology, and sometimes its just an amazing recording that is totally analog including the instruments.. like Muddy Waters Folk Singer for example. Which is usually a magical album… but with the Cornwalls it was not. TheBeatles Love album on vinyl no longer is special, I repeat the Beatles Love Album is not special… I tried listening to it 3 times and no cigar. On the other hand I can hear these types of things or details in Pink Floyd’s Soundtrack to “More” so go figure? The KG’s (Before and After Crites) do both albums very well and they sound special …. Actually on the PF album the Corwalls are doing everything I want them to. So there have been these moments of saving grace. So enough with the negative examples, here is some positivity… Darkside – Psychic (Vinyl) So this album,… So you wanna buy something off the radar that’s I guess electronica sorta, and it is like super audiophile (and 45rpm 2 vinyl album) crazy good, and it makes your speakers do things that analog instruments just cant, but really shows off the crazy things your speakers can do while sounding incredible. But Dudeisms, “I hate electronica, edm, techno, experiment stuff”, … yeah ok, maybe, but there is no way you won’t appreciate this one on some level. These two composers, or one of them paid lots of attention to details and effects that wouldn’t show up on ninety some percent of speakers out in the wild. The Cornwalls are doing crazy things with this album, it sounds like the 26ft long wall is the sound stage, but my speakers aren’t anywhere near the corners. Sam Cooke – Night Beat (Vinyl) So there is something just barely muted or smeared or something, but its so subtle, BUT it sounds LIVE in my living room in a magical way. My results are somewhat all over the place U.F.Orb – The orb Flac 44.1kH 16 bit Range per Roon 15 On one hand its otherworldly and that bass which is nice but tight and quite enjoyable, on the other.. that muted thing is going on. But I went back and cranked the volume (Sorry not sorry neighbors) and its magical, but I gotta get loud to do it. Phone says 81db ish… yeah I know the phone isn’t accurate, its sounds louder than that actually So what is a guy to do here? My results are all over the place. Well the capacitors are like what, 37ish years old or so. Replace them for starters as caps top out at 20 years. Crites crossover repair kit was on its way. A post will immediately follow this with nothing but pictures of the speakers, gear, and listening room. COMING SOON – CORNWALLS – FIRST IMPRESSIONS – Part 1 A.C. (AFTER Crites)

THE RETURN OF THE KG4’S So maybe I forgot to mention to my wife that dad was brining me his KG4’s. Maybe I mentioned speakers. Maybe my super cool wife had to adjust to the idea for a minute or two in having these “larger” (She hadn’t met the Cornwalls yet) KG4’s now located in the living room. Keep in mind the Polk’s in the living room are quite tall, very deep, but not super wide, ergo much bigger than the KG4’s and she was cool with those, but these were about to take over the living room (Which previously to becoming a listening room was largely unused. But thankfully she gets it when it comes to stereos and home theater. She can hear the difference and likes hearing all the little details. No, not as much as me. She’s not an audiophile, but she gets it, and that makes my life easier. When I say I bought “x” piece of equipment, her ability to hear the difference and know its better without me saying much.. well lets just say unlike many of my friends… I barely have any grey hairs, you gotta search for them. So Dad brings the KG4’s and the saga begins. I get them all set up with my Onkyo amp that used to power my HT before the XPA5, which I got a sweet deal on thanks to a questionable individual. You see I found the Onkyo at a store as an open box buy, but you could tell by the plastic protective coating, certain labels.. and the missing cord, that some idiot either ruined or lost their power cord. So they bought this unit, took the cord, returned the unit. Sadly yes this is just a standard IEC power cord that is on computer monitors, computers, stereo equipment, etc, that you can buy anywhere, you may even have tons of them left over from stuff. But that scored me a mint unit for less than the store paid for it thanks to my salesguy. Now this Onkyo likes to visit the repair shop.. for free at least. Darn thing gets so hot it un-seats the solder points of the dsp chips on the hdmi board… but that’s another story. Things were going good with the KG4 setup, but they could be better. So I took 3 different integrated amps home to demo over the next few weeks, always arriving to grab a demo right before the shops are closed for a few days to get a longer demo. Once again you are not going to see McIntosh or mythical tube amps here. Now if any of you are getting the impression that I am against exotic hardware or expensive hardware, I am not. You wanna throw 300-500 watts at a speaker that is maybe going to use 3-6 watts, more power to you (tap, tap, Is this thing on). I’m sure there is an amp change in the distant forecast, but I am quite happy for now. These integrateds that I was demoing are just regular stuff, but pretty great regular stuff. So I took home an NAD C356BEE because I read that Klipsch and warm tubes go nicely together… but tubes weren’t happening here. The extra cost, the extra cost in maintenance, the extra cost, did I mention the extra cost of tubes being prohibitive in my eyes. (Ok maybe I’m a softie, but I will admit I will not use the word “never” and tubes in the same sentence.) The 356bee is known to be slightly warm for solid state and it was really nice, no listening fatigue, just enjoyable, and potentially even under rated. I gave that demo back and store gave me a demo of an Arcam FMJ A19. I set that up and fired up my speaker setup/ demo tracks that I always use to audition stuff. In these tracks I look for certain qualities or things to happen or not happen, it’s just me reading my tea leaves. Typical Demo Tracks – Flac Format: Depeche Mode – Dream On (Single Version)(Here the timing of everything should sound right, aka positioning. It sounds right all the time, but should sound great when everything is in place) Belle And Sebastian – The State I Am In (Here there should be a particular nasal quality to his voice if all things are right) Jheena Lodwick – A time for Love (Should get a breathiness to her voice, you should clearly almost hear her wet lips open with a feint smack) Duke Ellinton – Live at Newport – Jeep’s Blues (the extended track digital version that ain’t available on vinyl)(Great for huge soundstage. The whole plane between the speakers should light up, and the horn blasts shouldn’t make you wince, and most importantly if you have your stuff set up right you should clearly hear the horns IN FRONT of the drums, sounds easy but go listen to the track, its not) Plastikman – Kriket (Another timing thing, and you should be getting some really crazy holographic stuff going on, if you don’t go play with your speaker placement again) Massive Attack – Teardrop (Just play it, read the rest, you’ll get it) Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall – Old Man (Has to be this particular version, if within 30 seconds or so of this track Neil doesn’t sound like he is sitting on a wooden stool right there in your listening room… go back to the drawing board and tweek positioning again) And now the really funny one that happened by accident and I’m almost embarrassed to share.. but whatever. So the wife kinda likes Iggy Azalea (Ok, continue reading after you’re done laughing,… you done? Ok, you need another minute I get it). It’s the whole “The New Classic” Album. Yep its rap, and a female rapper that other rappers make fun of. You don’t have to listen to the whole thing just most of the intro’s of each song. There is all kinds of very subtle effects that normally you just don’t hear unless the speakers are decent, and if they’re setup properly you should get all kinds of holographic 3D type effects. Nicolai Dunger – This Cloud is Learning – If I Were a Little Star (Umm yeah you should be getting a crazy unusually wide soundstage with this one) Yes I play more demo tracks and can list if requested. But all of them should do certain special things if everything is set up right, some of them will sound like crap to less overtly let you know you need to do some work. So the Arcam was razor sharp and detailed with the KG4’s. You could hear weird freaky details, but, and this was a big but, I couldn’t handle being in there for more than an hour. Oh is this what they mean by listener fatigue, YES, yes it is. And I LOVE hearing little details so much that sometimes the hair stands on the back of my neck or I get goose bumps. So the details were great, but it had to go back. Now I went to yet another store and had to buy and return a demo of Primare I22. So yes this was expensive and yes it was pretty, and well reviewed, and blah blah blah. But the digital or class D or “our acclaimed proprietary UFPD power technology” just wasn’t for me. It was supposed to be warm. I didn’t think it was. I found it sorta clinical and lackluster. I literally while I was in the store see a guy trade in his McIntosh tube amps for a higher end version of this Primare stuff. Yes its ok… you can say it, you can think it, you know it… that guy is flipping nuts!! So the Primare was not for me. Both my wife and me loved the sound of the C356BEE with the KG4’s and it was the least expensive option which was a bonus. So a new one with a built in modular dac came home with me. Time goes on and I am thoroughly enjoying this setup, which also had a Squeezebox 3 or classic or whatever you wanna call it. And yes there is an EQ in there with LEDs and a spectrum analyzer in the setup that I had laying around the house. So earlier I mentioned that I’m a tone defeat kinda guy, I don’t mess with tone controls… so an EQ?? Yeah its just eye candy, its hooked up to one end of the tape loop and it does nothing to my signal. But that spectrum analyzer is pretty to watch bounce to the music and I also loved the digital VU meter screensaver on the front of the squeezebox. Oh how I do wish I had VU meters… I am secure enough to admit that I merely think they look cool… and that’s it. So at this point in all these years I had amassed a huge amount of cds and files. One of my best friends was an on air radio disc jockey so I got lots of free stuff and bought lots of music as well. Its all converted flac, and I was openly embracing not just the cool stuff that I could play around friends… but yes that audiophile stuff that is amazing to listen to, but your friends don’t get it and think you’re crazy… or soft. Somewhere in there time wise Dear old Dad was helping me renovate our master bathroom and we took a break one day and went down the street to check out an estate sale. At the sale was some vinyl records for $1 each. Now I didn’t have a turntable, but at a $1 each I bought the whole lot. Now at this point my digital collection was pretty massive and mostly flac, so I always avoided vinyl because why do I need what mostly with be duplicates but in vinyl? But now I have vinyl so in turn I bought a Pro-ject RPM1 carbon and a very very cheap phono pre. And at this past AXPONA I got a deal on a Bluesound Node 2 to replace the Squeezebox. I was really torn between getting that or the Auralic Aeries Mini. But the Bluesound Node 2 won. And that cheap phono pre got replace by a Vincent model with a separate box for the power supply, ie. A 2 piece. Enter the Klipsch Forum once again in my internet searches because I was curious to read reviews and such about the KG4’s. And then I start coming across all this stuff on here and elsewhere, about Bob Crites. Pretty much just saw nothing but positivity so I had to bite. He was super helpful and I got some new titanium tweeters and the crossover repair kits. So to be clear before I did this I was SUPER happy with my setup. Things were detailed, there was sound stage, etc. There was a musicality of coloration that was just super enjoyable. Even at this point before Crites, I’ve had people over that have $20K systems, who ended up annoyed because my setup sounded better to both them and me. I can’t stress this enough.. that word setup.. and yes lets not forget this magical room itself can do wonders. Its almost a crime to have gear that good and not toil over or pay someone to toil over the setup. Little tiny movements of the speakers in relation to everything in the room can do wonders and produce massive changes. And yeah somewhere in there time wise the last tweek before crites was to use cheap lil isolators on everything, and I mean everything. So yeah some people buy those isolator snake oil thingys that run $600 each… think that times three for just one piece of equipment. I think my wallet just ran away in fear while I wrote that. So if you saw these little rubber puck thingys, yes it all looks legit, not cheap… but yeah they come in 4 packs from Home Depot for say $3.50 per 4. Nothing but class ladies and gentleman. You’re wondering if the little pucks did anything? Oh yeah, I know some wouldn’t agree with this but they even went under the KG4’s. Results noticeable clarity improvement, a bass improvement, and almost an airiness all just from these lil pucks. So I want to stress I am SUPER happy with the KG4 setup, but yeah I still ordered the Crites tweeters and crossover upgrade. And this all was finished recently, like maybe, maybe, a month of listening after burn in before I got these Cornwalls the other day. So burn in.. Yeah I get all the stories about some scientific type guy who used to be in the aerospace and electrical engineering field who sees no difference in measurement so therefore burn in is just made up fools errand. But you can’t measure subjective, and quite a few times I have heard the difference. And the wifey not knowing that something has changed in the system and she says oh this is nice, did you do something different? If you can hear it you can hear it, if you can’t you cant, do whatever you like and just be accepting of both camps. So Crites upgrades.. remember that whole thing earlier when I was in high school and I could hear bass down the street. Well that wasn’t occurring here, until the upgrades happened and my bass was back, the mids were sweet, and that detail on the tweeters … wow. I feel like the KG4’s got five times better, or new again, or who cares I was so happy. But darn it, it got me thinking again about that whole “what if”… and I started trolling this site looking at the garage sale section, the alerts (kudos btw to the guy that puts those lists together and the people that share these adverts… Because I found those Cornwalls. UP NEXT – CORNWALLS – FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I think he was referring to things moving to class H vs class AB.. and now at a higher price to boot. They use some of the same core topology as the XPR's did. But IDK, they don't make the XPR's anymore. And he had to raise prices supposedly for letting bricks and mortar retailers sell his stuff, but coincidentally a year later no such dealers exist, hmm. Then he (Dan Laufman) recently sent out a message saying no more discounting. So I got my XPA 5 G2 at an Emotiva event discount new at $700-ish, full tilt was a grand at the time... a couple (literally maybe just two years) of years later G3 version costs about double what I paid. Schiit on the other hand is trying to make pretty good schiit.. made in the US... but at as close to made in China prices that they can achieve. I heard this at AXPONA hooked up to some Salks and it sounded pretty good. It will be interesting to see how these do. Might even try one or two after they have been out in the wild for a year.

THE REURN OF THE KG4's. Here's maybe the last shots of the KG4's before things go all Cornwall Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Post College – and the beginning of better equipment So I’m going to kinda blaze through about 10-15 years here or so. But as a working man just starting out, yeah I still had the Bose Boston combo at this point in history and I went through a slew of receivers. More focus through these years was on home theater setup vs 2 channel. Don’t get me wrong I still played lots of music though. These were all decent receivers, perhaps better than most would purchase but yet nothing to get too detailed about in this crowd. Nothing that has any mystic or folklore. Each time an upgrade was made I either got a new technology like a particular dsp or eventually like everyone else I needed HDMI. The price of projection flat screens around say the year 2003 or so made a quantum drop in price to the magnitude of say from $9K to just under $3k, and they would continue to fall after that. I scored a 50 in Sony projection tv that I was fairly enamored with. That is right until one Super Bowl Sunday say 2.5-3 years into my ownership of said tv. I was having a Super Bowl party and the TV wouldn’t turn on. Heart rate was going up, frustration was mounting, and darn it, people were on their way. After about 30 tries with all sorts of clicking sounds with each try, she fired up. Well no cliffhanger here, things were about to get way worse. Fast forward to a 32in Visio was now sitting in front of my 50in Sony that wouldn’t turn over, but it did make a great series of clicking sounds. Sony was no help, I had a Best Buy extended warranty and all they did was sent out a tech who would come out and endlessly drop $500 bulbs in it to no avail. It was always the same tech, it’s a projection light bulb he is replacing that is on the front of the tv behind a plastic door, but for some reason he always made a million trips back to his truck. So maybe a bit over 6 months or more into this Sony Visio setup I had been going to grad school at the time. You know what, that Legal Environment of Business course sure paid off. Now it didn’t pay off the first round, essentially Sony made me a discounted offer on a TV. This didn’t sit well for me, and to boot I was working for a tech company that used all sorts of lines of distribution and lets just say I could have scored a replacement for less than this discounted offer. Now at some point Sony extended their warranty to cover a little plastic door that covered the bulb because it would melt a little plastic nipple that made contact with a pressure switch. So I am not a lawyer but I play one on tv. Ok maybe not, but I can write good legalese and I scared them and leveraged this warranty for a plastic door into a new TV. At this time I got a new customer at work who coincidently lived in the town I used to live in. Small world theory holding true, I don’t know how we never met before as we had some overlapping social circles. We wil call him Yoda for the purpose of this story, because he is my HT and Hifi Yoda. Super smart guy who is a great resource but he can be snarkier than the comic book store guy in the Simpsons sometimes. So its always entertaining. Lets put it this way, the wedding gift from him to us… It was an iron in a box in another box. The packing material for the iron box, yeah it was $300 in semi-dirty $1 bills that were painstakingly individually crumpled. Generous.. Yes, and we faired better than another couple who received the same amount pressed into a ball and then wrapped in 3-4 inches of duct tape creating a bigger ball. Gotta be careful unwrapping that. Told you he is a character. When I first met him his setup was the same Miller and Kreisel’s (Spelling??) speaker setup that Lucas Film used for editing and sound editing. At the time its hard to get a better endorsement than that. I almost bought that set since I knew he paid half price new… but that discount didn’t trickle down to me so I passed. I get it and don’t blame him, why not get more $$ for his stuff because he had Legacy Audio Whispers on the way powered by Parasound JC-1 monoblocks. There were Parasound monos everywhere. He kept the 2 M&K subs in the system. So this folks was essentially my reference system for years. Not mine as in mine ownership, but my reference system as I could go over there hear it and reference it as best my memory can sustain. So the first time I went over there for a demo, he popped on some Nirvana tracks. (And yes a lot of other stuff too). Now I know some folks think hey this isn’t a female vocal or live jazz so therefore it can’t be audiophile. Many Nirvana tracks might have quite a bit of distortion in the music but they were recorded very very well. Well news flash to some audiophiles… audiophilia exists outside of female vocals and live jazz. There are even some tracks that are what we now call today EDM, that do things that can really send your loudspeakers through their paces that don’t exist outside that genre. I know say on a later in the day on a Saturday or Sunday of most hifi audio shows say Metallica or the like is often used to get folks to shew out of the room so they can pack up earlier, but Audiophiles should be a lil more open minded. So knowing what my buddy just paid for all this gear, like any buddy I am ready and waiting to make fun of anything that might go wrong in this high dollar system of his. So in one of these Nirvana tracks while I am sitting in the sweet spot of these six feet tall 250lbs Legacy Audio Whisper speakers I hear a buzzing sound. Oh yeah I am going to seize on this one and make fun of my buddy…. And then it hit me, my hair on the back of my neck actually stood on end and I got goosebumps. So here’s the thing, considering my age, etc, I have heard this Nirvana track at this point at least a 1000 times. I’ve heard it on crap speakers, crap headphones, crap car systems,… all the way to great speakers, great headphones, great car systems. See I dabble in guitar and this buzz I heard, I suddenly realized it was a fret buzz of the guitar string and I have never before heard this buzz ever before… or ever since. Granted I haven’t been looking as of late, but perhaps I can see if the Cornwalls will reproduce it. This is an audiophile moment that I will never forget. So over the years my Yoda took me under his wing and I have learned quite a bit. Granted he takes a no compromise approach to audio that lets just say my bank account couldn’t bear, unless I gave up everything else, maybe even eating. But I had enough ramen noodles in college, so I was in search of a deal. I was just waiting for that magic set of circumstances kind of deal to score some speakers. Its weird when people would see the bose speakers in my place and be all “nice speakers”, and in your head while you appreciate the compliment on some level, you feel like a jerk but you have very opposite thoughts regarding these Bose. Bose gotta go! Finally one day in my random hifi shop quests I walked into a hifi shop that was on its last legs (multiple stores, big vendor.. but not a big box shop, still hifi). And they had a you’d be out of your mind, steal of a deal, wasn’t planning on it deal on some Polks. First I found the fronts, time when on, the center, then more time, the rears. I’m not a go out and buy an entire system in one swoop kinda guy. I like to lurk around the deals, years may pass by. Eventually this gear was paired with some Emotiva equipment right before my wife and I were going to move into a house, our first house! I originally bought the amp, XPA 5 G2, and their lower tier pre. So I never really understood the whole dynamic headroom thing before the day that amp arrived at my condo. I mentioned condo because the rooms weren’t huge so this burgeoned on almost a near field experience but not quite. So in there, everything was hyper detailed. And those polks aren’t the most efficient speakers, not horrible, but not great. But that amp was making all sorts of details that had never been there before suddenly and very vibrantly appear. Of course I call my Yoda in excitement. He’s all like yeah man dynamic headroom. That amp can turn on a dime compared to your last stuff. Its like a Ferrari (Emotiva this may be the one and only time you’re compared to a Ferrari) and a ’87 Ford Fiesta negotiating the same traffic. Sure the Fiesta is going to get there with a lil planning, weaving in and out of lanes getting through the traffic. But it takes work, planning, and it’s not perfect. Now that Ferrari, by no means is it going to use much of its power potential weaving through lanes to get past the traffic. But its going to just zip, zip, zip effortlessly and quickly, and gracefully in doing so. And darn it you’re going to look good doing it. That’s the analogy for dynamic headroom, hope you enjoyed it. That day the amp came my wife sat down with me while I was demo’ing to myself playing all sorts of blurays, asked me to put on Moulin Rouge (I had never seen it, nor do I ever want to in its entirety, too much singing por moi). So she has me go to some scene where some dude is walking down a hallway singing… and then after a few moments my wife goes, “Holy Cow!”. I’m all like what? No frame of reference here since I had never seen the movie. And she tells me that she has heard the singing before and its sounded nice and what not, but she’s like, “I’ve never heard the guys footsteps and the hallway echoing and all the subtle details while he is singing and walking down the hallway before.” There you have it ladies and gentlemen… dynamic headroom. So we move into the new house and the room that the home theater setup is in, is actually in a large open format setup with lots of glass and reflective stuff, and weird ceiling angles… and well lets just say lots of audiophile rules have to be broken at hello. No way around this, it is what it is. Fireplace, kitchen, windows, hard floors.. So I figure this is a perfect excuse to use my discount and get a Emo XMC-1 with dirac room correction. I tirelessly and continually repositioned my speakers over and over till I got things to my liking well before I ordered that pre. But it made a huge difference. When I run two channel in that room, I just run reference mode with no bells and whistles, no room correction, etc. It sounds great, airy, fairly neutral, fairly accurate, even with all the room problems. That I can’t quite explain. For HT I do have dirac running and 5.1 sounds amazing. Have a SVS sub and the Polks actually work really well on their own for bass in that room, but with the SVS sub and an action movie… the room can ripple with sound. I love it. I’m super happy and I know it would take quite a financial leap to top it. And here is part of my Audiophile philosophy and its parallel to wine. So while I admire my Yoda’s system which now has Legacy Audio V’s in it, which sound crazy amazing, you’re also talking about a crazy amount of coin for diminishing returns here. So while I have no problem with people either making sacrifices or perhaps effortlessly buying such expensive high end gear, we all know the brands and some are so expensive and obscure, and good for you, you got the bug bad. But me, I like to dip my toe in the audiophile pool and technically just be there in the shallow cheaper end, just not in the deep end. Those diminishing returns are a killer. So here is my wine parallel for audio gear… Sure there are those cheap $10 bottles of wine that are amazing and total finds. Then you have say a nice $20-30 bottle of wine (retail folks) and its definitely, unquestionably better. Then you splurge on a $60 bottle of wine and its darn good! But somehow its less of a leap “better” than the leap between $10 and $20 was. Now your wife talks you into going on a trip to Napa. And at a tasting you find this wine that is just utterly amazing to you for $250 a bottle. Once again its not that crazy leap of “better”. This goes on and on with smaller leaps of “better”… just like our equipment does. Now my Yoda? Mr. No Compromise half approves of my choices… and is in that audiophile camp of “you’re doing it wrong”. I digress, oh well… I’m quite happy with that room. So with this new house there is this other room that I am convinced that I am the luckiest guy on earth because anything sounds amazing in there. But there was nothing in that room… equipment wise that is. So once again… It’s Dad to the rescue. So remember those Klipsh KG4’s that I always loved of Dad’s that were you know, just sitting there unused. Well this time Dad brought the subject matter up. Writing this now just makes me smile. Well he mentions how those KG4’s of his and me being well… me, that they would get some great use in that room of mine and I should take them off his hands. Coming Soon… THE RETURN OF THE KG4’S

College So its time to go off to college, we’re not far enough in time for Dad to know yet about my experimenting with his KG4s when my parents were away, and you know they’re still just sitting in that exercise room. But I saw my way off to college as a clever way, in the way we think we are super clever and subtle in dealing with our parents as an 18yo, to ask Dad if, perhaps, since the KG4’s were just sitting there in the exercise room and all un-used, if I could maybe take them with me to college. Nice try folks but no cigar. Dad smiled and laughed and kindly provided me with a “No way”. But he did provide me with a very efficient set of realistic speakers that all considering were sorta low budget sleepers that were pretty good for what they were. He also gave me a pair of old KLH (OLD) speakers and some silverface receiver that did the job. Oh, and he also gave me this old Akai tape deck that I still have that at the time (cassettes still very much in use) had a frequency range wider than probably 99% of the tape decks available at the time. Maybe I should sell that to some hipster that is into tapes for a premium, lol. So that combined with a cinder block lined dorm room freshman year did the trick. Lets just say that in the entire dorm me and the kid in the other wing with giant cerwin vegas put the LOUD in the allowed loud hours. Lets put things in perspective here: I remember sitting in my dorm room watching tv when I heard that Kurt Cobain died. I had a hand me down 20 in tube tv (This was considered very nice compared to the tiny tv's most had in the dorm, that is if they even had a tv), and the previously mentioned system… this was considered pretty nice stuff for a college kid at the time. We didn’t have AC, fancy gyms, flat screen tvs. A huge tv in college was a 32 in tube. Maybe like just a few had a hand me down giant crt projection tv but that was rare. A few well to do stragglers would have some B&W, NAD, Carver, etc equipment. But nothing too exotic. This setup then moved to my fraternity house sophomore year where I had a what my house considered a 4 man room all to myself due to luck, circumstance, and being maybe a lil clever. You see freshman year once I was a brother we had a room lottery for picking rooms, I won. Now this room only had to have two people in it since the room was never going to have 4 people living there anyway and I chose a soon to be 5th year senior as my roommate. Now he is a nice great guy, but to be honest I knew his mom would never let him live in the house. And what do you know, I arrive sophomore year and voila the room is all mine. Now we did have rules and bylaws and such that came up every semester that dictated that I must agree to taking a roommate. If I refuse I have to take a single room. All I have to do to say I agree to a roommate and the room stays mine. So I am not being mean here, it is what it is, but the thing is most folks aren’t smart. So about two weeks prior to this meeting where I say I will take a roommate. I just stop. Stop what you ask? I stop cleaning anything in my room for two weeks straight. Scrounge some money together and go for a fast food run… yep that stays out for two weeks. Meeting comes, I agree to roommate, huh you’re a slob no one asks to room with me. Meeting over, room cleaned immediately. Next semester, repeat these shenanigans room mine, all mine, no one is the wiser. Musically there is a lot of grunge going on, Smashing Pumpkins were a big fav, Stone Temple, Pearl Jam, Nitzer Ebb, Pink Floyd, Soundgarden, Metalica, basically a lot of hard dark stuff that I just loved and loud. I also scooped some primitive box that did surround sound. The vhs tape Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii was in heavy rotation. My junior year I went to Pompeii while studying abroad in another country and made sure to eat my lunch in the very stadium/coliseum that is in the movie that I had enjoyed so many times. I came back from my time abroad armed with cd's I couldn't buy in the states and lots of techno/dj stuff that was ahead of its time in the states. Back to the fraternity room... This room consisted of two rooms; the first desks and beds, the 2nd or back room was larger with a big couch and entertainment center and bar. The listening ambiance of said fraternity room consisted of the sun from the Aoxomoxa album cover painted on the ceiling with a sky and fluffy clouds all painted as a mural. But I made heavy and selective use of red in this painted mural. Color theory here but red is an un-stable wavelength of light... Think Rothko chapel usage of red. Ok so you don't have to google this because even still its obscure knowledge, but if you stared at the ceiling at the center of the sun for a few moments, to your eyes it would look like its moving... sober. There were two seven foot wide inflatable pterodactyls hanging from the ceiling. Christmas lights with changing patterns everywhere. On a Friday or Saturday night right in the middle of the parties going on in the house it wouldn’t be out of the norm to find me and a select few blasting Tool Opiate at face melting levels while a series of empty absolute bottles were illuminated by strobe lights hiding behind them. Or perhaps some Phish and Fantasia.... You do the math. In the second half of college (think more along the lines of Van Wilder in regard to time here) my system changed again and so did my lodging and my first lesson in how physics can influence sound. See me and my roommate had an entire second floor of a 100 year old plus house with a deck on the roof. Music could get really loud in the apartment and surprisingly out in the open on the roof deck. Because of sections of flat roof and steeply vaulted sections, all the sound would reflect up and out. You could literally stand in the front yard and not hear a peep while we were bumping music. I also scored a deal on a $2K receiver from my roommates parents for $300. And dear old dad gave me a set of bose acoustimass speakers that he no longer wanted. Remember at the time for most, as laughable as it is, these were considered nice in most circles. Yeah I am man enough to admit that for a time I owned Bose speakers… those lil tiny satellite guys. I added a Boston Acoustics micro center which sounded close enough. So you’re asking where has the Klipsch gone in my life at this point. Well at the time Klipsch was just a mere aspiration. I also started getting into techno and electronica as well which at the time was still pretty obscure. Discovered 2Pac and had yet another rap resurgence for a while. Bass box in the back of my car, etc. At the time a more refined track for me was something like Van Morrison's Days like this… But at the time I would have never played anything like that in front of others. One favorite collegiate stereo related moment to note… At this point we were all 21, and some buddies who had a place down the road made a big point to have a party one night that was strictly 21, because they had a surprise in mind. So this college town I was in, cops pretty much ignored your rights if you were a college kid. Think town vs gown. Anyway the whole point was to be loud that night. He had these huge Infinity speakers. They wanted the cops to come for a noise complaint. Why you ask? Because there was someone on point watching every moment to tip them off when the cops finally arrived so they could promptly cue up that “Bad boys, bad boys” theme song from cops for the actual cops arrival. Cop #1 trying to be all hard, Cops #2, #3, and #4 were either dying laughing or poorly trying to cover up their huge smiles. Music was turned down, 3 of 4 cops very entertained and the world moved on. So as you may have noticed this is all one big tangent getting up to more on the KG4's and more importantly my audiophile journey. We're in the bumpy, non-Klipsch section, dont worry we'll get there. Coming up – Post College – and the beginning of better equipment

Another Cornwall tease... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cornwall pre-initial impressions INTERMISSION – the buying experience. The KG portion will resume after these messages Lately I’ve been trolling around this forum and local shops used inventory posted on the web, and craigslist ads etc. Due to some recent events involving the KG4’s (Don’t worry all good things) I started wondering what if? You see there was some moment in say high school or college where Dad was cleaning out some files and found his original bill of sale, Klipsch catalog/manual/spec sheet for the whole line booklet (He had 2, and yes I have both and everything else mentioned). I’m looking through the Klipsch booklet and this is the first time I ever saw a pic of a Klipschorn. I don’t even think I realized before that the KG4’s were hornloaded. Baby steps here folks I was still just a whee lad in High School. But those Klipschorns I saw in the picture mesmerized me and they were huge. Yep sorry kids no google yet to go find speaker porn to go look at. Those specs, that width, the size, that weight, those sharp angles… and frankly I just thought they looked fricken (Not my first choice of adjective but I am trying to keep it cleen-ish) cool! So right there in the garage looking at this Klipsch catalog my fascination and love of horn loaded speakers was just starting to become realized. And at some point I knew I eventually was going to find some big <Insert Adjective> horn loaded goodness to take home. Don't me wrong I think some of those crazy artistic huge exotic horns I have seen in magazines and the internet and at audio shows like Axpona are super sexy, and me likey, me likey a lot. But I don't drive a ferrari as a daily driver, or when I am bored with my three Aston martins because I can't afford any of that. I am more of the philosophy of do your research and work with less. Dont get me wrong my stuff is nicer than most regular non-audiophile folks, but I am a firm believer of audiophile on a budget. So I went over Saturday morning and bought these Cornwalls under duress , ok not really, really sorta. So the guy I bought them from had purchased them from a lady who happened to see him moving some other speakers (I saw Chorus II’s in there). So here’s me armed with my laptop and a dac and wires and my normal setup/calibration/demo tracks to play. I did ask if they were set up etc. And they were set up lying sideways and stacked in this tiny entry way hallway of an apartment. Hmm now when I said setup, this is not what I was thinking. This was a Cornwall sideways sandwich in close quarters in a small apartment of a guy who flips lots of different stuff so it was congested. And good for him and his entrepreneurial ways. Thankfully since I found out about these cornwalls on here in the alert section, all the positive comments about price and condition helped motivate me. Likewise even though I had to wing this demo quite a bit sticking my head in each sideways driver to make sure everything was working because this was as good as it gets and there were two other guys coming to check out the Cornwalls, I was just the lucky 1st guy. So the older lady that blindly approached him selling the CW’s, it was her late husband who special ordered the Cornwalls COO oiled oak, but requested no finish so he could do it himself to his liking. So it’s a gloss finish but when the light hits it you can still see the grain of the wood. The finish is pretty good, I mean myself I’m quite anal retentive and ok maybe I’m the bad guy but I’ll say it… I could have done better… and you know perhaps I will, time will tell. So back to this hallway buying experience.. So the guy did have a set of Chorus II’s in there but with his equipment and the size of the room there was no way he could swap those for Cornwalls. They just simply wouldn’t fit. He did play with the Cornwalls on a lil bit he told me. But here I am with a dac, a computer, and my Demo flac files testing away as best I can jammed in this hallway trying to decide if I should take these home. I’m sure there are reasons that hifi shops don’t demo speakers stacked on their side in a tight hallway. But uh oh I see the guy looking at his chorus’s then looking back at these playing my files and oh crap he’s having a I think I might wanna keep them moment. I quickly distract him and decided now is a good time to tell the guy that I want to take the back cover off of one of them and have him A;) Not freak out that I want to disassemble the back of his speaker even though he is not the kind of guy who knows this isn’t a big deal. B;) Stop thinking about keeping these and shoehorning these into your place. Two birds…One stone. So on Friday I called Bob Crites since I didn’t have the time to wade through internet posts and needed some solid quick advice. I had recently bought a bunch of fabulous stuff from him and he was kind enough to provide some guidance. More on that later. After our talk I personally was hoping to find the B-2 crossover inside of the Cornwall. Oh crap the guy selling the CW’s is getting all excited again snapping photos of the insides of the speaker. Nope I’m buying them. We haggled a smidge, came to a mutual price and the nice gentleman sold me my first pair of Cornwalls. Oh did I mention I noticed how much the he kept wanting the door locked and shut. I enquired about this (I got a positive vibe from him, he was alright so I knew it was something else) and find out that his neighbors were allegedly involved in an incident that involved firearms and kidnapping… just trying to give the full flavor of this buying experience. But fortunately he was super cool. So he kindly helped me load up the Cornwalls into their original boxes with all the original labels and matching serial numbers even on the boxes which explained the whole situation with the finish (Yeah Baby! The original boxes were the icing on the cake. Loaded them up in the car with millimeters to spare and that’s being generous, and I hope my wife doesn't see that lil scuff mark that I think I cleaned, and the Cornwalls were off to their 2nd home and technically 3rd owner. To be continued…