Cornwalls with blown woofer and tweeter :(

[jimmy3535]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on this forum. Over last Thanksgiving I visited a family member that has
Cornwalls, which I had never heard before, and, well, that started me on the quest... I
got some good looking Heresys, for $300, and suprisingly, now I could Stand to listen to music again! So, after that, I had
been keeping my eye open for something larger in the heritage line that I could
afford. I responded to a craigslist ad for Cornwalls, and managed to negotiate the [now
suspiciously] lower price of $450. Being naive and trusing, I did not test them at
all, and just bought them and took them home. Some sound came out of the mid horn, but
nothing from the tweeter or Woofer. The guy I bought them from surely was perversely
happy with the transaction and was not at all open to me bringing them back.
I opened one of the cabinets to check them out: the woofer is open circuit measured right at the speaker. I disconnected the tweeter from
the terminal block and it is open circuit too. The disconnected mid horn measures 11.8 ohms. So, I guess I bought some expensive sequential cabinets that are a bit beat up with chips in the wood in a few places. I was not overly concerned with cosmetics, I just wanted the music.. One of the grills is has broken sections on the lower bass port area. The crossovers appear original and will likely need updating too.

So, I need to round up the drivers, and I might even need mid horns too [cringe]. I can't guess what the guy did to them..

considering that the cabinets are not in the best shape, I am looking for ideas about getting the drivers without spending too too much money. Maybe someone here on the forum has upgraded theirs, and has drivers that need a new home. I would like to get the upgraded woofers, and could buy them new if not too pricey- Where best to get them? Also, I am getting custom subwoofers made from a friend, so maybe that will effect what woofers I get.

I feel so lame, being an electrical engineer- I could have simply measured the outer terminals before buying them (both speakers were open circuit measured on the outside).

Any help, ideas and/or recommendations will be appreciated!

My enthusiasm clearly got the best of me..

Jimmy

[CapZark]

Jimmy, that's a tough deal and shame on the guy who sold them to you without telling you the condition they were really in. That is very un-Klipsch like. I've found most people are honest about what they are selling, but as always it's buyer beware. Also, if something is too good to be true, it probably is. There are lots of folks selling individual drivers and crossovers on E-bay. You should also check with Bob Crites. He will sell you quality materials at a fair price. You can call Klipsch direct and get new drivers direct from the factory. All in all buying new componets won't break the bank and luckily we aren't talking thousands lost here. Chaulk it up to a learning experience and move on. It's never a good feeling to get ripped off, but now it's time to put that behind you and work towards rebuilding your Cornwalls into something you can enjoy for years to come.

[djk]

All the drivers can be re-built at a fraction of their replacement cost, no need to buy new woofers and/or horns.

[CapZark]

True, you can have the woofers reconed for about $100 verses $130 new. You can order new diaphragms for your tweets from Crites and install them yourself. It all depends on how much work you want to do. For instance, you will have to ship your existing woofs to have them reconed or you can just order new ones and not hassle with it. Same with all the rest. Bob will ship the parts or rebuild them for you. The choice is up to you.

[jimmy3535]

I'm leaning towards just buying the cast replacement woofers for $250 +25 for shp, & maybe getting some tweeters on ebay. Should I just go with the stock tweeters? Mine have metal horns. Are they specifically more worth rebuilding? If I'm going through the trouble of buying tweeters, is there a modest upgrade? Are diaphragms the part that can electrically burn out? This is all so new, its hard for me to digest all the options, variations, and such. I'm wondering if the mid horns might be damaged too, but I will probably wait to see before looking in to that. They do put out some sound. Also, I think I remember reading about some tweeter protection polyfuses that folks have used too, that might be a good idea. Meanwhile, they make perfect stands for the Heresys .

An aside note- when initially hooking up the Heresys, I compared them with the 10" Cerwin Vegas that I had been lugging around for years, that I finally just did the refoam myself on..I'm not sure what to do with them now.

Thanks for the ideas!

[WMcD]

Bob Crites will sell you a new "tweeter diaphragm / voice coil assembly -- no soldering." I see on his website that he doesn't have the "diaphragm only you solder it in" in stock.

You can also call 1-800-Klipsch and ask for the service department. See what Steve says.

If the mids work, I'd stay with them for now. It is rare that there is a partial failure -- but it could happen.

Regarding the woofer. I've been investigating the many threads on the different versions of the K-33 and doing some simulations.

It appears to me that the modern K-33-E as sold by Klipsch is right on the money for the application in the Cornwall. From memory, the Qts is about 0.4 and the Fs is about 35 Hz. (For others here: I read that the Qts of 0.4 is optimal for vented enclosures. When you calculate the possible Bessel, Butterworth, and Chebyshev alignment enclosures, they are all very close. And from what I see, the CW is just about what is required.)

Of course I have high regard for Bob Crites. He is selling a woofer (stamped and cast) very similar to what sold some years ago. Klipsch may have optimized it for the K-Horn, LS, and Belle, but it might not be optimal for the CW. Ask him.

Wm McD

[dtel]

Welcome Jimmy stick around.........but I bet the midrange sounds great......sorry couldn't help it, you'll be fixed up in no time, not a bad price including the repairs. [Y]

[djk]

Parts Express will re-cone your Klipsch K33E or K43E for $65 plus shipping.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Bobs TI replacement dia units are more than worth the money even if there was nothing wrong with your tweets. I replaced the working dia units on my CW2s and it was a marked improvement. It took 1/2 hour to do the first one and once I knew what I was doing, it took 10 minutes to do the second one. Easy to do with only a screwdriver and an adjustable wrench.

[djk]

The Ti units do not fit the metal horn (K77) tweeter that he has.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Bummer, they are a great upgrade.