colterphoto1

Okay, lets presume I like the furniture placement options and wider soundfield that placing my system along the long wall on either side of the fireplace. I have the 3/4 knotty pine walls, heavily padded carpet floors, and plaster ceiling of the above given dimensions. I am starting with a clean slate in terms of viewing medium, since it would look awkward to have a 35" direct view monitor either beside or over my fireplace. (the firebox is at floor level, built flush into bedford stone wall floor to ceiling and about 8 feet wide in center of room). The Left Cornwall will be in front of the stone wall, and there is a 3 foot offset to the right of firebox that would be ideal for equipment tower and right Cornwall. I'll either have to use a second projection system or or go to flat screen for this to look 'right' (there is already a Canon projection system in the adjacent photo gallery room.) Acoustically, none of the surfaces can change drastically for now, other than I am open to putting bass trap units behind the curtains on right wall (about 6' wide x 6' tall), as they don't let in much light anyway. I would be willing to place diffusers/bass traps on other wall surfaces so long as they don't take up a large % of wall surface. There are doorways or halls to every corner, so no speakers or diffusers can be placed there. Furniture is wide open. I may go fairly modern for the sake of the 50's home, but placement is not decided and I can purchase furniture in terms of it's sound deadening properties if necessary. What should I consider at this point? I'm probably going to upgrade Dolby ProLogic Yamaha RVS850 for a bigger 6.1 Yamaha, probably 2400. Center for now is RC7 and surrounds are RB3II's, although I'd like to upgrade to more Corns or at lease RB5? for surrounds. Center may change to heritage line per all the heat I'm getting about timbre. Sub will definitely be upgraded from current inaudible KSW-15. I have two JBL 4562 (single 18" in ported cabinet) that I could install in the offset behind the right Cornwall and power with QSC or Crown amp. The sub could point out to the right, so it would bounce off the right wall, about 6 feet away. Any help would be appreciated. I'm looking to moving forward with curtain/furniture purchases fairly soon. THANKS! Architecturally, what can/should I do?

What GIlbert said. It is possible to recone your woofers more economicaly than a total replacement with factory units. Uses the same basket and magnet structure, replaces working parts with OEM cone and voice coil. This is a much better option than attempting to locate a non-mfg woofer with similar specs. You will never locate a woofer with exactly the same specs and the woofer/cabinet/port size equation is absolutely critical. It doesn't pay to save a few $$ and mess with the sound of your beloved Klipsch speakers. If you need another recone resource, we've got one in Indy I use, it's Spectrum Sound on west 30th Street. Good listening! Michael

Thanks for the photos Gilbert. If those are rough condition, then mine are definitely 'dragged through the mud' condition'. How many loyal Forum members will be bidding on these babies? I'd like to get my HT in an all-Heritage condition (thanks for the advice FRZ, sorry I was so hard headed), but don't want to big against a brother. I'd gladly love to get hold of these and have the ability and resources to recondition these along with my pair. If, however a Forum brother such as Gilbert values the historical value of these so greatly, I will gladly bow out of any bidding war. No point of running up the price. Perhaps another gracious Forum member would sell me another pair. Michael

On a related note: I used to live on a family farm and was quite the avid gardener. Used to grow everything needed for totally homeade salsa, peppers, garlic, cilantro, maters, onions, everything. Got the wise idea to heat it up one year by adding some habaneros (the REALLY HOT peppers) to the crop. Growing those little orange beauties was no problem, until it came time to bring in the crop. I knew from jalapenos and onions to do the trimming under water, so put on the rubber gloves and tried to do the same thing with my hot little beauties. After cleaning and prepping maybe a cup full, noticed a certain 'dry heat' in the room. My girlfriend stepped in and went into full-blown asthma attack. My eyes and windpipe started burning about then and we had to STEP OUTSIDE for fresh air. Enough of the dreaded hot oil must have leached into the air that it was burning our mucous membranes. Had to dump the whole crop and throroughly clean the kitchen after several days of airing it out. Don't know HOW they do this commercially, but I don't recommend anyone trying it at home!

AMY!! Don't we win some kind of award here, there have been over 100 posts to this thread, some of the most humorous ones I've ever read on the Forum! I love you guys! Michael

Nice display Picky! I see you're one of the true aficianado's in the crowd. Got any good chili recipies? Dave's RULES Michael

Thanks Artto, I take it that your post menas that in terms of room dimensions and nodes then, I'm in the ballpark means that I've got many nodes, therefore no serious bass problems re standing waves, etc? I worked out the ratios and 8x17-4x 26 is 1:2.13:3.25, all of which are a long ways off from the 'ideal' ratios I've been reading about. They do seem to have nothing in common in terms of doubles/halves which seems to be a good thing. Would you run these through your calculator please? From my old PA days, I noticed that lots of studios installed rooms with wood walls for a 'warm' tone when recording acoustical instruments like guitars, cellos, etc. I was hoping that this would be advantageous. I do like the sound of this room better than those in the house that are entirely plaster walls. Plaster is much denser and live than drywall. Better for construction, worse for sound IMO. The curtains behind speakers aren't especially heavy, they just shield the glass behind. I'd say it's about equal to a solid wall. Not looking to make that wall especially 'dead'. WIth the amount of door ways and especially with the grand fireplace, there's almost no other place for the system except the short wall adjacent to FP. I'm actually sitting maybe 1/2 way down room, the far end of the room is the 'dining hall' and entry as the home has no formal dining room. My only other possible room layout would involve facing the fireplace (on long wall), which would put the Corns about 15' apart, then I'd have to get flat panel or proj. tv to mount on beautiful stone hearth. I could then sit about 12 ' from that wall, view FP, tv, and have spacious sound field. I could also then open the curtains on what now is the equipment end of the room. This might also be good karma as my back won't be to the front door. Does this sound like a better plan? Thanks for your valuable input! Michael

Hey IndyK! My dad (you remember Richard), always had a theory about those multiple-blade razors. When he was living, the two bladed razor had just been introduced. The theory was that the first blade, if it didn't cut the whisker, would grab it and stretch it out, then the second blade would slice it off. Dad was going to introduce a razor that was so dull that the first and only blade would grab the whisker and pull it out by the roots, eliminating the need for future shaves! Dad was a crazy one, God I miss that guy! Michael

That's beautiful.

"So Here I am on the pc trying to find Klipsh so that I can phone or email a request for parts. however when I searched for Klipshorn it came up no match on this site?" check spelling, it's KlipsCh, as in Klipschorns. There's plenty of good people in Indianapolis Indiana and Hope Arkansas who can help you. Welcome to the Forum, you've found us!! Besides your bro's tweeters, stick around here and we'll help you spend plenty of buckaroos! wwoooooohhhooo Michael

I'm with ya Dale, DAVE"S INSANITY is the best. My little bro runs a Mexican dive in the party part of Indy, so we've tried literally hundreds of sauces. A 8 ounce bottle is more than a lifetime supply. Label states: THE HOTTEST SAUCE IN THE UNIVERSE Shake well and good luck. Keep away from eyes, pets, and children. Not for people with heart or resperatory problems. Here's how we let customers sample Daves. You take a single nacho chip. Just touch one corner to the tip of the bottle of Daves. Shake off any excess so it looks like there's no sauce at all on the chip. Let customer sample. Have the fire hose ready. Actually with the hot sauces, water or liquids will not quench the fire. The heat comes from the capiscan of the habanero pepper, a type of oil that sticks to your taste buds. Bread or other absorbing foods are the best antidote to the fire. www.davesgourmet.com GOOD LUCK people, Michael

Perhaps this is an estate sale or moving to retirement home sale? In any case, does the seller even know the real vintage value of what he has? Regardless of condition, might this be a good purchase for someone to revamp or just treasure the sound for the value, ignoring the visible problems? I ask because I got my Corns from literally a 'fire' sale for $300 the pair. Still ugly but sound great!

Good TroubleShooting Tom! When using Muddy Waters as a test source, which input do you plug him into? The one labeled 'Muddy"? LOL sorry I couldn't help it. Good luck with your new combo. The more you guys talk about tubes, the more I get a hankering to try em out!

From Klipsch spec sheets, Heresy II is -3db at 50, although there is a slight bump in response at 80 and it starts really giving up from there. 96 db/watt/metre Cornwall is -5 at 38 Hz, the curve shows a wide bump from 70 to 90, a notch at about 50, mini bump at 40, then it gives up. 101 db/watt/metre When all else fails use test tones and SPL meter, if that fails always trust yer ears! Hope this helps.

just a guess here, but could it be that the 'white noise' test tone although generally described as equal volumes of all frequencies, is actually biased towards the low end of the scale? I don't know all the technicalities of test tones, but the energy needed to create 20HZ at Xdb would be far greater than the electrical energy needed to create 10kHz at Xdb, kind of a logarithmic scale if you will. If that's the case, then the energy output in the woofer's regions would far exceed the energy output in the few higher octaves of the tweeter's regions. Your SPL meter is just measuring total output, not specific frequencies, so it 'misses' the fact that the top 3 octaves or so are totally missing from your test (due to binding post jumpers being disconnected). I've got a Yamaha receiver with test tone, SPL meter and pair of RB3II's, so will try to duplicate your test. Sorry for rambling, but it is an interesting question.

Very nice setup Scooterdog. I especially like your custom centre speaker design and build. Agreed that having all front three in alignment is a very good thing. Did I see two sets of RS-? splayed both directions on the side walls. Have you considered ditching those for direct firing speakers like RB3 or 5? It seems like most Forum members are abandoning the idea of bouncing rear effects around the room after moving to Dolby Digital+. Just a thought. Very nice room though and dimensioned thoughtfully. Artto would be proud! Cool finish on the LS btw! I'm in market for new DVD player. Would you recommend buying a 'combination' player that will handle SACD and other super audio CD's? What should I look for? Are there lots of good CD's in these formats available? Happy Listening Michael

There's prob a few, but I don't know of any. Just buy newer and put the old unit is basement, office, or garage, you need a few around anyway. Regarding Dolby improvements and obscelence (sp), pretty soon we'll all be up to 12. 7 sound and installing speakers in our ceilings, floors and chairs! Like Claude Nobs (engineer with Deep Purple and Jazz man) once said: "If God had wanted us to have Quadrophonic Sound, he would have given us FOUR ears! LOL Michael

I'd definitely get the BADDEST center speaker you can afford. I'd leave well enough alone with tweeters for a while. If the sound difference really bugs you , you should be able to switch it out for a matching unit. Pay no attention to 'monster cable' or bi-wiring.

good call Griff, with eq in preamp stages, ALWAYS cut to avoid distortion.

Hi guys, I'm thinking of doing several mods to my Cornwalls this winter, so I'm shopping for possible x-over changes. From what I've read, the choices, in order of system improvement, difficulty factor, and cost, would be: Repair existing x-overs with newer, stabler components where necessary Revamp existing x-overs with higher grade capacitors and wiring (Solen and Haviland come to mind) Purchase an entirely new set of x-overs and swap them out. How many different models are made for the Cornwalls? Replace the squawker horn and/or driver to accomodate the specs on new x-over. Can anyone give me approx costs and a 'grade' for what I'll call improvement factor? Mine are 1974 I believe, with horizontal horns. I have replaced tweeter units entirely and both woofers have been reconed. Thanks, Michael

Thanks Dean, I started this dern thread what seems like months ago. Don't believe in the bi-wiring (or esoteric wiring for that matter), but it sure has been an interesting journey hearing about the wide variety of experiments and outcomes from various Forum members! Now Bi-AMPING is another story altogether. It actually does something.,

sorry, I know you need ceiling height to compute. standard 8'.

Well, gang, I've been moving into and remodeling this old 1950's ranch home for several months now, and it's time to make some major decisions. The living room will be my photography gallery, with minor sound system and projection tv beautiful new hardwood floors but it's VERY live. I've decided against putting any major system in basement until further landscaping and waterproofing can be done. So I'm stuck using this enormous room in center of home for my main listening station and HT. Here's the basics, and I'll try to forward a diagram and photos shortly. The room is rectangular 26' long by 17-6 wide. Ceilings are 1" real plaster and flooring is very thick carpet and pad over framed floor over basement. The walls are very unique however. They are 3/4 " thick real 'knotty' pine that are original to the house and are nailed directly to the studs. The best I can tell there is almost no insulation in the two smaller walls which are exterior walls of the home. Both these narrow walls contain entry doors and very large window units. There is a doorway or hallway in each corner of the room. Along the center of one of the long walls is a masonry fireplace unit 11' wide, floor to ceiling Bedford (limestone) cut stone. Right now I've got my setup along the back wall, one of the short walls which puts it right in front of one of the large windows. There are heavy curtains which are okay to keep closed and I may put some insulation board behind them. Nothing vibrates though. I've got my seating position about 2/3 back from this, so I can visually see the fireplace to the left, yet view the 35" tv in front of me. The Cornwalls are about 8' apart, centered on a 17' wall and toed in pretty heavily. RC7 under TV and RB3II as surrounds slightly behind listening positons. So far I'm pretty happy with things, but of course the ears will adjust to the acoustics. Does this room have any hope? Or should I just sod it all and move the basement and start over? Suggestions would be helpful. I'm up to the challenge of building whatever bass traps are necesssary although I'd rather not cover up the paneling very much if I can help it. Furniture and draperies have not yet been purchased so they could be used for acoustical purposes if necessary. Thanks, and I WILL LISTEN TO YOUR SUGGESTIONS!!!! Michael

oops, sorry I fergot the link, hey it's 2:23 in am, whaddyawant? Here tis, it's rather lengthy, but just save as 'favorite' or print the whole dern thing and use it for the 'reading room' http://www.belgaudio.com/kcmap.htm happy reading! Michael

This woofer mod wouldn't be anything the rest of us could accomplish easily, given the vintage of your drivers. Would there be any other modern heavy-duty woofers that the engineers in the groups could recommend as 'replacements' for those of us willing to sacrifice true vintage for more slam? note: I once traded out some EVM15 (L's, I think) from some PA monitors I had while my Klipsch woofers were being reconed. I recall them as having a more powerful sound, probably a rougher response curve, but not having the same transient attach (crispness) of the original woofers. Not a bad mod, but more for the headbangers in the crowd, not for the more critical listener. (I tend to alternately be both, prob need two sets of Corns, hey hey) Michael