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Cornwalls Refurb/Restoration/Update Nearly Done.....


syzygy

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Picked up my first pair of Heritage Speakers. They appear to be CBR circe 1983. 35Y265 and 266. The GOOD, they were quite inexpensive (less than $1 per lb.). The Bad, both Tweeters Blown, and a "rattle" in one Woofer (which sounds pretty bad). The cabinets have also seen a few moves and parties, including colorful drinks and at least one band. Anyway, I need advice on replacing/rebuilding the tweeter/woofer. Should I upgrade change the woofer/tweeter or just try and fix what I've got.

Speakers have B-3 croosovers which appear to be in good shape but I don't know how to check them.

Finally, should I just get the sander out and hae at the speakers, or is there a preferred method of getting the cabs back into shape. Thanks in advance.

Jeff

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Guest David H

Have the woofer and tweeters rebuilt. I think Bob Crites can do both.

It seems you have a desireable Cornwall and the condition is not all that bad.

Then I would get some nice veneer and re-skin them.

Check out Bliss's Cornwall upgrade thread, he did some very nice veneering, and take a look at "Gregs audio pages" for tips, and to see some amazing work.

Here is a link to the restoration I did using tips and techniques found on Gregs Audio Pages. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/109163.aspx?PageIndex=1

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Guest David H

GH,

Since he has Original Birch plywood..............if he did Not want to veneer, could he just Lightly sand and Stain the Birch a different Color ?

Very possible, but I would venture to guess those stains penetrate deep into the ply.
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Buy new diaphragms for the tweeters from bob crities or have bob install them. Also have bob fix the woofer.

As for the cabinets with the stain shown in the picture you would have to sand to far down into the birch to get them out not to mention the fairly deep scatches in the cabinets so I would not stain them as it will show all imperfections. I would either reveener them or fill in the gouges with bondo, sand them down, prime the cabinets then paint them. If you decide to veneer the heresys are about as easy as a beginner cabinet as you could ask for there just a rectangular box. There are a few of us here on the forums that could help you out if you have questions on the veenering plus the wealth of info available on the internet.

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Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to sand and then use Watco to leave them a stock finish but there are some gouges as well as stains so we'll see. What about the B-3 crossovers? How do I know if they are working properly?

Also, are the EV tweeters Bob sells and improvement or should I just buy the K-77 drop in diaphragm kits from him?

Thanka again.

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Guest David H

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to sand and then use Watco to leave them a stock finish but there are some gouges as well as stains so we'll see. What about the B-3 crossovers? How do I know if they are working properly?

Also, are the EV tweeters Bob sells and improvement or should I just buy the K-77 drop in diaphragm kits from him?

Thanka again.

The tweeters are a nice upgrade IMO, and you can always ebay the K-77's to offset the cost. The replcement diaphrams are a little tricky to install, I managed to damage one myself, so I prefer to have someone else make thise changes.

The crossovers, again you can send them to Bob to overhaul and test, or Bob sells a kit so you can upgrade them yourself. The B3 crossovers use Poly caps so probably work fine as is, but I overhauled mine, just for peace of mind.

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new diaphragms are a lot less expensive than springing for new tweeters. They are easily repairable with K77M diaphragm kits available from Klipsch. Who's to say what's an 'upgrade' when this new Klipsch user hasn't heard them spring to life in their original form yet?

Those networks should be ok as is. Do they 'sound' broken?

My advice, fix em up to spec with original Klipsch parts, see if you like them or not, then and only then consider making modifications to them. Just because you spend a bunch of money with another vendor does not necessarily make the change an 'upgrade'. Unless you just like spending money.

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Good point Michael. He mentioned the word upgrade in his post and I got a bit over zealous. It is good to go through the process of bringing them back to original step by step amd listening a good long time at each step. I find that I hear differently at different times. Morning to evening, congestested, mood, different music. When going through my Cornwalls to bring them to orginal form I found that I liked the sound of the old caps better than the new becouse the old ones rolled off a bit more of the highs that were harshly reflected in my old room. Enjoy the process.

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I have a pair of K-33Es available if you're looking. They were pulled from my Cornwalls. #1 is intact save for a couple of inches of the top layer of the surround where it stuck to the motorboard and the other was reconed by SpeakerWorks after what the original owner (his son actually) described as "an unfortunate rowdy grandchild incident" :) $75 for the original and $50 for the reconed one.

These go on EB for $100 each but I prefer to deal with Klipsch forum members and will gladly eat a few $$ to avoid the EB hassles.

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