Which Heritage for Rock Music Listening?

[SWL]

Cornwalls are great speakers but I still just dont see how they are such great rock speakers

My experience as well. Nice, wide sounding speakers but I've yet to hear them rock out in a hard way. I've heard them with 150 tube watts and 500 ss watts. Personally, I like them but they seem to be lacking real "drive" in the low end when it comes to listening to rock IMO. Midrange can be overwhelming as well......but the same is true with other Heritage speakers.

[garymd]

Cornwalls are great speakers but I still just dont see how they are such great rock speakers

My experience as well. Nice, wide sounding speakers but I've yet to hear them rock out in a hard way. I've heard them with 150 tube watts and 500 ss watts. Personally, I like them but they seem to be lacking real "drive" in the low end when it comes to listening to rock IMO. Midrange can be overwhelming as well......but the same is true with other Heritage speakers.

Agreed. This is from someone who has owned CWs most of his life. When you listen to Khorns VERY loud, it's an experience you don't forget. Cornwalls sound great but at very high volume they can be ear piercing with many recordings. Nothing beats them with acoustic jazz at low to moderate volume.

As far as using more than one pair for non-multichannel music, it's fun but not for me. I'm a 2-channel vinyl guy and I like having a soundstage, imaging, depth and all that good stuff. Maybe some day I'll find a way to enjoy my tube gear in a multichannel environment but so far I always end up where I started.

[Mallette]

One of my favorites is to pin a newbie to the wall with Midnight Oil "Beds are Burning" at about 120db with my K'horns. The expressions are priceless...

I don't give them more than a few seconds of that, then crank down to a 100db or so.

Dave

[stormin]

Cornwalls are great speakers but I still just dont see how they are such great rock speakers

My experience as well. Nice, wide sounding speakers but I've yet to hear them rock out in a hard way. I've heard them with 150 tube watts and 500 ss watts. Personally, I like them but they seem to be lacking real "drive" in the low end when it comes to listening to rock IMO. Midrange can be overwhelming as well......but the same is true with other Heritage speakers.

Agreed. This is from someone who has owned CWs most of his life. When you listen to Khorns VERY loud, it's an experience you don't forget. Cornwalls sound great but at very high volume they can be ear piercing with many recordings. Nothing beats them with acoustic jazz at low to moderate volume.

As far as using more than one pair for non-multichannel music, it's fun but not for me. I'm a 2-channel vinyl guy and I like having a soundstage, imaging, depth and all that good stuff. Maybe some day I'll find a way to enjoy my tube gear in a multichannel environment but so far I always end up where I started.

I am glad to see that others are not afraid to admit the truth about the Cornwall. Indeed at lower to moderate volumes maybe the best or at least one of the best Jazz speakers on the planet. Also it does an admiral job at rock and roll at lower to medium volumes. But come on people, Klipsch made much better rock speakers than the Cornwall.

I think Colter is probably right though. Best bang for your buck or all around honors would probably favor the Cornwall.

[Fotog]

Are KLF considered Heritage?

That's what I was thinking. I thought Legends were a separate line (lineage) than Heritage. As a Legendhead I think they are grand - just sayin...

[Guest David H]

The KLF and CF rock the house nicely, but the Cornwall is an all around great speaker.

Dave

[Randyman]

KLF 30 got my vote for rockin out .............and they sound pretty good on all kinds of music.

Good source and alot of power behind them they sound excellent smooth and punchy[H][Y]

[Randyman]

KLF 30 got my vote for rockin out .............and they sound pretty good on all kinds of music.

Good source and alot of power behide them they sound excellent smooth and punchy[H][Y]

[odysseyrevolver]

Truly puzzled by this "CWs can't do rock" argument. My pair must be rare experimental models that were designed to play clear, crisp loud rock.

[stormin]

Truly puzzled by this "CWs can't do rock" argument. My pair must be rare experimental models that were designed to play clear, crisp loud rock.

It appears your doing all this with a very inexpensive receiver. I guess just enjoy some of us can't find what we are looking for even with taking out a mortgage on the house.

[sdr798]

YoBro...........I have some rockemsockem 1979 HERESYs powered by a 200w Rotel that will shake the walls! Pure Joy.

[Zeke_in_KC]

Truly puzzled by this "CWs can't do rock" argument. My pair must be rare experimental models that were designed to play clear, crisp loud rock.

If so, they made two pair.

Of course, we may differ as to what "loud" means.

Clearly, at some point, Cornwalls -- like all transducers -- "break up."

When that happens to mine and it does, eventually, I don't go any louder.

[cjgeraci]

Cornwalls are great speakers but I still just dont see how they are such great rock speakers

My experience as well. Nice, wide sounding speakers but I've yet to hear them rock out in a hard way. I've heard them with 150 tube watts and 500 ss watts. Personally, I like them but they seem to be lacking real "drive" in the low end when it comes to listening to rock IMO. Midrange can be overwhelming as well......but the same is true with other Heritage speakers.

Agreed. This is from someone who has owned CWs most of his life. When you listen to Khorns VERY loud, it's an experience you don't forget. Cornwalls sound great but at very high volume they can be ear piercing with many recordings. Nothing beats them with acoustic jazz at low to moderate volume.

As far as using more than one pair for non-multichannel music, it's fun but not for me. I'm a 2-channel vinyl guy and I like having a soundstage, imaging, depth and all that good stuff. Maybe some day I'll find a way to enjoy my tube gear in a multichannel environment but so far I always end up where I started.

I am glad to see that others are not afraid to admit the truth about the Cornwall. Indeed at lower to moderate volumes maybe the best or at least one of the best Jazz speakers on the planet. Also it does an admiral job at rock and roll at lower to medium volumes. But come on people, Klipsch made much better rock speakers than the Cornwall.

I think Colter is probably right though. Best bang for your buck or all around honors would probably favor the Cornwall.

Yep. I agree that at lower to moderate volumes that Cornwalls are one of the best Jazz speakers out there, and they do fine for rock at lower volumes.

But, let them really rip, and it can be a painful experience. And yes, different people have different impressions on what constitutes "loud."

You cannot really get around that squeezed short mid horn when you are talking about the original crossover designs.

That being said, the above comments do not really apply to Cornwall IIIs due to a change in crossover parts and philosophy. But, if one were to run some of the earlier crossover designs with the heresy mid found in the Cornwall III -- whoo!!

Carl.

[kaiser SET say]

Cornwalls with killer power will give great all around rock performance period and as mentioned and if you can afford it I would go Las with a fat boy sub that matches it well[]

[John Chi-town]

forte II. INMHO, the forte II or Chorus II are the best value in the Klipsch Heritage series lineup. They play any genre of music very well, but really excel with classic/hard rock . There are many people such as myself who believe that the forte II was "axed" by Klipsch because they canabilized the Cornwall. Just as much if not more sound with a smaller footprint.

forte = "Strength" in it's purest definition, and that is exactly what the forte II delivers. Rumor has it that Paul himself had a pair in his office. The real strength of this speaker lies in bass and mid range reproduuction with the Trac-Trix mid range horn. More than enough sound to fill any room. Can handle 100 watts continuos power, and 500 watts peak. With a 98 or 99 db rating with 1 watt of input power, your ears will bleed before you push these speakers too far.

You can pick up a mint pair for about $500.00 in todays market.

Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide to purchase.

John

[greg928gts]

Rumor has it that Paul himself had a pair in his office.

Have you seen how much crap he had in his office! It might be that's all he could fit in there! []

IMO I think the smaller midrange of the Cornwall is well suited to rock music. Proportions.

Greg

[rockhound]

I bought a set of cornies, however due to me relocating I will not be able to pick them up until June. once I do I will post my thoughts.

[garyrc]

I bought a set of cornies, however due to me relocating I will not be able to pick them up until June. once I do I will post my thoughts.

Since you bought the Cornies, and since the Cornwall was named because it could be placed in the Corner or against the Wall, I must say:

I used to hang with a dealer who could make Cornwalls sound a lot more like Klipschorns by carefull placement. Not that K-horns sound better across the board -- the Cornwalls seem to have more slam and punch in part of the mid bass, and should retain it when placed in corners, depending on the room. The K-horns have overwhelming impactive power and air moving, floor shaking bass an octave or two below the Cornwalls' best bass range. Both benefit from judicious boost in the bass, IMO, but be careful, it is possible destroy them.

• Do try them in corners, as well as other locations.
• If they don't sound damn good palced tightly in corners, try a little Sonex or something similar at the point where the midrange would first hit the walls, as well as the entirely different place where you can see their reflections in a mirror placed along the wall, from your listening chair.
• Corner placement is out of style, but it remains true that you can get 3, 4, or 5 dB more clean SPL if a speaker is shoved into a good strong corner, and your bass EQ will go farther, or be needed less. Somewhere on the forum there is a color picture depicting how much more even the bass is throughout the room with corner placement, in a favorable room.