Cornwall Questions

[Klipschguy]

TDP

I'm not sure what that stamped RB is, but I don't think it means "raw birch." Raw birch Cornwall cabinets used unfinished butt jointed nine ply plywood and was unveneered. What I see is black painted lumber core with the veneer being walnut (right Fini?). Walnut veneer lumber core is consistent with Cornwall type CWO. My 1977 Cornwalls, type CWO, look identical, except they are stamped with a "BB" - which I had erroneously thought meant "baltic birch" until Fini, our resident carpenter, set me straight.

Look at your risers edge on. You'll probably see a light colored lumber core (like poplar) with a walnut veneer (same stuff the top, bottom, and sides of your cabinets are made of). Also, if you look at the edge of your motorboard, it will likely be nine ply plywood - in contrast to the veneered sides of the cabinets.

These speakers appear to be: 1975 Klipsch Cornwalls type CWO (Cornwall, walnut, oil). Drivers: K77 alnico tweeter, K-55V alnico mid compression driver coupled to K600 metal horn lense, K33(B?) CTS ceramic magnet woofer. Crosovers: type B balancing network. I'm not sure if the caps are stock. Most of the time one sees oil filled metal can caps in these speakers. However, with those metal brackets, they look original.

Also, these do not appear to be designer series. The designer series had the staple holes filled and invisible on the motorboard - like my CWO's, yours are visible.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Andy

[fini]

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm having fun with this.

TPD- Again, compliments on the great photos. I'm stumped as to the meaning of the "RB" stamp (or am I stamped on the stump?). On closer inspection of my Cornwalls (they're fun to move around, huh?), the C-WO's have no such stamp, but the C-BR's have an "N" stamped near the top left side. My guess is that it's some sort of inspection stamp.

Andy- I guessed Designer series early on because of the two-segmented port vs. three-segmented on mine. Also, the dustcaps are smaller than on mine. I have no idea if these features were unique to the Designer series, if they were just another way they made them, if it was an earlier design than mine, etc. It's a clue to something, though. I think. Mobile's CW's are like this. His are '77's, so maybe they changed the port design in '78 or '79?

fini

This message has been edited by fini on 04-11-2002 at 08:32 AM

[Steve Crowley]

TBD,

Sorry for the confusion about the email address. It is Steve.Crowley@faa.gov .Sounds like you got a great buy on those Cornwalls. Have you hooked them up yet? I think you will be extremely happy with your purchase. The soundstage is huge with those speakers. At the time when I bought my Heresy's at Listen Up in Denver I heard the Khorns and cornwalls at the same time but could not afford them at the time. Give them a listen and I think you will probably want to keep them. It never pays to not ask. They just do not come up very often for sale as shipping them is rather out of the question. As far as refinishing them you can probably use an extremely fine steel wool to remove the water spots but don't rub to far down. I will get the name of the stain I used this weekend as I can't seem to remember it. Guess age is catching up. Enjoy.

Steve

[TPD]

Steve,

You're right, I gave them a good listen last night.

(i.e. more than just hooking them up one at a time to

check to see if they work.) I cranked up the THX tag

at the front of "Star Wars" and it knocked my socks

off! Then the first note of the opening credits, you

can actually hear the bow being drawn across the

strings of the double bass in the orchestra... WOW!

(enough of me gushing...)

Fini,

Yea, I'm having a ball! I find this fascinating. Let me know if there are any other clues I can provide...

I've lugged them into the living room now. I'll be going in for hernia surgery tomorrow...

-TPD

[Klipschguy]

Fini,

The port configuation must have changed. My 1977 CWO's have the two section port and the smaller dust caps seen on the K33-B version of the CTS square magnet K33. The smaller dust cap is interesting in that it has a little piece of cloth in the middle to vent the voice coil. The later CTS K33 used a larger dust cap, but is still basically the same driver.

By the way, I'm having a good time with this thread too.

TDP, your Cornwalls are sweet. I have been listening to mine for ten years and they still make me grin. Also, the caps on your crossovers are the stock caps.

Regards,

Andy

[TPD]

Steve,

I've tried everything, I can't send anything to that address. I get the following error...

User Steve.Crowley (Steve.Crowley@faa.gov) not listed in public Name & Address Book

Do you have a yahoo account or some other email?

Thanks,

-TPD

[HDBRbuilder]

the "RB" you found stamped in the upper rear side edge of your cornwalls is the builder code used in quality control of that era...your builder was Ronnie Barhams...he was the one who trained me to build them...my code was originally "A", but later became "AB"....if the cornwalls were built between 77 and late 83...i probably built them(along with almost every birch heresy...and quite a few veneered heresys). Your cornwalls are either CWO or CWL models...cornwall, walnut, oiled or laquered...you need to clean up the side and top veneer, and replace the front walnut veneer and you should have some very fine speakers...use some of that iron-on veneer found at home depot or lowe's. It works just fine. Remember not to push the speakers over 100 watts RMS...they dont need that much power anyway unless you need new window glass in your home...HA HA!!!

[fini]

HDBRbuilder-How cool that you've joined the discussion! We've been scratching our heads and making guesses here for some time. It's great to have THE expert on board. I'm serious when I suggest that you should be given moderator status in some new forum.

As a professional carpenter/woodworker myself, I would love to hear more on your experiences at Klipsch. How long did you work there? Are you still an employee? Or, were you a subcontractor? Have any cool memorobilia?

As far as the letter stamps, my '79 CBR's have an "N" (or it could be a sideways "Z"). Do you happen to know who that was? The '80 CWO's have no stamp.

Also, do you know the meaning of the hand-written letters in the corners of the labels on the speakers?

Sorry for so many questions.

fini

This message has been edited by fini on 04-14-2002 at 06:53 AM

[HDBRbuilder]

Fini,

I started working at K&A in July 1976...left in september of 1983. For the first 6 months or so, i was relegated to parts...finally settling into the overhead router as a more or less permanent position...routing out the "holes" in heresy, cornwall, BelleKlipsch, LaScala, and K-horn parts...for the drivers/horns in the fronts and also for the motorboards for the folded horns. In addition to these duties, I began to build Heresy HD models (birch cabinets) and then Cornwalls of both the CD and fine veneered series' (CDBR, CDBL, CWO/CWL, COO/COL, etc.)

At first the decorator series of both of these speakers used an overlapping butt joint construction system...the fronts were nailed(5 nails each for heresy) to the tops and bottoms, and then the sides were attached, lapping both the front and the tops and bottoms(4 or 5 nails at each joint)...blocks were stapled into the back edges of the speaker for the back to be screwed to...the corners of these blocks were sealed with caulk. Similarly the CD cornwalls were built, except they had to have a block on each side added on the blootm of the sides inside to support the "shelf" port, which was stapled to them. White glue was utilized throughout this construction on these models. Fasteners were duofast 1-1/8th staples, and senco 1-1/2" finishing nails. Safeties were removed from these guns and the tips buffed on a wire wheel so that there would be no scratches when dragging the senco nail gun across the surface while nailing...made for some interesting times when the foreman wasnt around...since the nailguns could be fired full automatic if they were set up right...LOL!...nothing like a bunch of kids with automatic nail guns and safety glasses donned having a war...LOL!...oh...my misspent youth!!!!

Sometime around winter 1977-78, the HD Heresy and CD cornwall cabinets were redesigned so that "drop-in" fronts were utilized, as on the mitered cabinet types of the fine veneered heresy and cornwall models. This was due to a number of reasons, but probably mostly to consistency of parts, allowing one set of fronts to be used on both decorator and mitered cabinets...thereby allowing parts interchangeability between the different models and cutting down on saw set-up times. Now the CD and HD models were assembled with butt joints overlapping the sides to the tops and bottoms, BUT the addition of a set of inset glue blocks to the inside front edges of the cabinets to have something to attach the "drop-in" fronts to. These fronts were pre-painted black prior to installation. After the front blocks were caulked at their corners, the fronts were dropped in onto the glued blocks, and (normally) pulled to the top, the gap on either side "eyeballed" even, and the top/front edge stapled in, then ditto the bottom, then each side..this was in order to produce a not-out-of-square cabinet...then of course the back blocks were installed...and the cabinet was off to the sanding room.

As for the mitered fine veneered models, both the heresy and cornwall sides, top, and bottom were originally assembled using two sets of chains with sliding cast iron corner clamps on the chains and a screw-type binder. the chains were laid out one outside of the other, the mitered edges were glued up with brown glue, and the sides, top and bottom were set up back edge down while the first clamp set was attached, then completely flipped over so that the other chain clamp could be attached to the front edge while it sat on the table, but this clamp wasnt tightened as much...the entire thing was again flipped over and a mallet used to line up the front edges at the corners, before tightening up the front clamp assembly...the cabinet in its clamps was then set upright, and a mallet used to "knock the bow" of the panels out so that a nice clean mitered edge was accomplished...next came the interior reinforcing corner glue blocks...stapled in with duofast 1-1/8th staples then the front and rear glue blocks (and in the case of the cornwall, the shelf supports. The fronts were attached as above mentioned, and the cabinet was sent to sanding dept. Again...in the case of the cornwall, front was stapled to the shelf (sometimes nailed, but usually stapled. With the exception of the mitered edges using brown glue, the rest of the parts were glued up with white glue.

Around 1979 new equipment was installed where the mitered heresy was assembled, negating the chain clamps and vastly increasing output...a pneumatic box clamp machine that rotated allowing ease of glue block installation...but the cornwalls remained being assembled using the chains.

Generally, anytime a mitered fine veneered speaker was being assembled, if there were any minor loose chips in the veneer, they were glued back into place using a very strong glue...much stronger than the original veneer glue. Often a fine veneered cabinet would get a scratch into its veneer or had some pith wood showing in the veneer(like that cream color wood sometimes seen on walnut veneer)...and the speaker cabinets would be laquered black and sold as a decorator model...ie., CDBL or HDBL...when in reality it was not originally intended to be a decorator model...there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with these cabinets...but it can create confusion among owners now over whether the speakers were later painted black by some idiot owner...LOL!

My own Heresy models are the earlier decorator cabinet design...HDBL...but i have industrial motorboards(like those found in the heresy stage monitors) mounted inside for the woofers(flat black metal grating in front of the woofer) to protect it, and no grill cloth...I built these after the changeover to the newer type cabinet from perfectly matched grain parts i had saved back for this purpose...really some awesome cabinets. when you worked there, the builders would start saving back parts for whatever model you intended to buy so that you would have some really beautiful cabinets...such is the way of life...HA HA!! When the company changed over to drop in fronts on all models they also changed the logo mounted onto the speakers...mine have the older "pie slice" logo....and since mine are built as exact book matches of each other, the logos are on opposite sides of the speaker. Even the backs are exact matches and i had them clear laquered also, but after having everybody in the plant sign them with different colored flair pens...a trend I started and may others emulated.

The main point here is that if one is able to get his or her hands on a pair of speakers built for an employee of the company at the time, they will be custom items...most likely one of a kind pair..with beautiful cabinets and possibly a touch of flair in them in one way or the other.

As for some of these wierdnesses that occassionally crop up as Klipsch speakers...I may have a possible explanation...

I personally know of three sets of miniature K-horns built by employees while they worked there...klipsch logos and all...and numerous miniature lascalas, cornwalls, and heresys were built also...I even built a few pair...before the management put a stop to it. Most of these speakers were used in automobiles or as bookshelf models by their builders...but here is the catch...in most cases the drivers used in these were more or less an acoustical match for the larger drivers found in the full sized speakers...let me explain:

In those days, almost every driver manufacturer in the world was sending examples to Klipsch to be tested in their anechoic chamber...and these were freebies...normally all you had to do was ask to get em or pay a very small fee. Whenever somebody would talk about building a downsized version of a Klipsch speaker they would ask about smaller drivers that were close acoustical matches for the larger versions and this was determined by the testing in the anechoic chamber of the raw drivers...therefore, these smaller scale speakers, although generally not as effecient, gave similar acoustical performance at lower decibel yield, and in the case of miniature folded horn versions, the drop off of bottom end directly corresponded to the respective diminished size of the folded horn...this was very interesting to me...a half-scale K-horn i know of (actually about 1/4 size) performed very nearly like a heresy...cool, huh?

I will take some pics of my heresys sometime and put it on here...most of my equipment is old but good stuff, with the exception of my cd player. My heresys have never been pushed over 90 watts rms...and generally are pushed at 32 watts rms.

I have a HarmonKardon 900+ 4-channel receiver, Technics RS-676AUS cassette deck, Technics SL1300 turntable, Teac A2340-R 4 channel reel to reel going into a DBX II model 124 4 channel noise reduction unit and two soundcraftsmen 20-12A equalizers. The Harmon Kardon has a setting called enhanced stereo that produces 4-channel surround sound to die for!!!! Pretty good to be using 1975 equipment to listen to DVDs on today!!!!LOL!

[ShapeShifter]

HDBRbuilder,

I really enjoyed reading your post! Lots of great historical information and I certainly hope you maintain a presence. I have a question regarding the placement of those Pie Slice Logos on a pair of 71 Vertical Mounted Horn Cornwalls that I own. When facing both speakers, the Logos are in the upper right corners of each, not in "exact book match" positions as you described for your Heresy Models. Any idea as to what this placement denotes?

Appreciate any response.

Wes

------------------

"KLIPSCH IS MUSIC"f>

This message has been edited by ShapeShifter on 04-14-2002 at 07:00 PM

[Klipschguy]

HDBR,

Great post! Good to have you on board.

Andy

[HDBRbuilder]

Wes,

As for the placement of the pie slice logos, the company always put them on the upper right hand corner as your cornwalls show. Some dont realize that for heresy and cornwall speakers not decorator models, the veneered panels were not matched up for pairs at the building stage of the cabinet, but rather at final assembly stage, after the cabinets were finished and components were being installed, therefore...since there was no guarantee of speakers being matched until that point, IF EVEN THEN!!!, all the grill cloth panels received the same logo positioning treatment. Mine were custom built by me at the plant and the panels were book-matched, so i decided to place the logos on opposite sides up top to follow the bookmatch format. An interesting aside is that the logos you have on your heresys are SOMETIMES actually between the tweeter and squawker instead of above the tweeter as in yours...the format was standardized shortly after the changeover of logos. By the way...try this sometime...put a soft towel or something on top of your cornwalls and turn your heresys upside down on top of the cornwalls...this is how i often saw pairs of heresys or cornwalls set up in homes of employees in those days...just give it a try...it will look funny with those slant risers up in the air, but that is the price one pays for having the risers screwed to the bottom of the cabinet...LOL! For risers for heresys, we used to just take a pair of cut-outs from cornwall woofer holes and make the equivalent of a small framework between them so that they could sit on top and not have to have factory risers screwed into the cabinet bottoms...that way we could use them upright or upside down for out set-ups. we never paid for risers for our speakers since we could make these for free...LOL!

[ShapeShifter]

HDBRbuilder,

Thanks for the clarification. Many members with their logos oriented in upper right and left corners will be pleased to know that their speakers appear to have been customed ordered. I presently have towels between the Heresy and Cornwalls, so will flip them to hear the difference in sound vs. upright position. Should be an interesting experience since their tweeters will be within inches of each other. BTW - the Heresys are 84 Models w/Walnut Lacquer Finish.

Many thanks,

Wes

------------------

"KLIPSCH IS MUSIC"f>

This message has been edited by ShapeShifter on 04-15-2002 at 10:15 PM

[HDBRbuilder]

Wes,

When I was building heresys, I had saved back a few really nice sets of parts for cabinets...for employees who may want some built up. I was intending to build up a pair for myself after we got our 4th quarter bonus due in late january (in those days there was a quarterly bonus paid out to employees, often exceeding the wages earned in that particular quarter). I had narrowed down the cabinet parts to two sets and I was having difficulty deciding whether to go with a flame-looking set in various shades blonde to light brown color...or to go with a set of parts with almost every imaginable color swirling around all over...green, red, blonde, purple, red, you name it...absolutely gorgeous wood...BUT it was also something that just wouldnt necessarily go with any other fruniture in a room...LOL!

Anyway, one of the gals in final assembly was wanting to get a pair built up for a Christmas present to herself...I told her to come over and pick out her parts from what i saved up...of course, she picked the multicolored ones, which left me with the flame looking set for my own. after they were built up for her and finished, she found out she had a problem...she had no place to pu8t them in her apartment where they could be on the floor without being blocked by furniture.

So, i built up some shelves for them...these shelves were basically shaped like a baseball home plate so that they would fit into a corner, and were angled downward about 20 degrees off vertical(so that they would fire directly toward the center of the listening environment) with a lip at the front to keep the speakers from sliding off. We also had to use something to keep them from toppling off these shelves, so we screwed eye-screws into predrilled holes in the center of the back edge of each speaker BOTTOM, the speakers sittin on the shelves UPSIDE DOWN, with eye-screws in the corner of the ceiling behind them...and a section of chain connecting the eyescrews. I hope you are picturing this...LOL! the shelves were lined with green felt so as not to scratch the laquer finish of the tops when they were placed upside down on them.

Needless to say, this placement created awesome sound, utilizing the CEILING as a conductor of the resonance, instead of the floor. The house was an old one with high ceilings...10-11 feet high...and was perfect for this application. the small holes this necessitated in the rear edge of the speakers was no big deal and didnt lessen the appearance at all. She loved it!!!!

I have often wondered what a listening environment with a couple of, for instance, k-horns down below supported by some INVERTED AND DOWNWARDLY ANGLED heresys high above would sound like...or....maybe some cornwalls below with inverted heresys above? What do you think? You never know til ya try it...LOL!

By the way...PWK often recommended inverted ceiling mounting K-horns as an alternative to floor mounting them if the ceiling was of similar acoustic quality and the floor space wasnt available...I have seen this set up in high ceilinged night clubs and it is not only great sounding, but it keeps the patrons from messing with the k-horns. There used to be a club many years ago in Little Rock that had a set-up like this and it was great!!! The key is to have the downward angle and the vertical angle right for non k-horn speakers...with the K-horns it wont make any difference since they would be inverted up tight into the corners.

[bigdnfay]

HDBR,

I have a pair of supposedly factory white k-horns('74 vintage). this was marked on the type line on the label..KC-BW. Is this correct? If so, were there many pairs of white klipsch produced? k-horns or otherwise. Was wondering if I had a rarity.

Thanks in advance

Big"D"

[HDBRbuilder]

Big "D",

I was there for 7 years and a few months, 76-83. In that time I saw maybe 10 pairs of HDBW(white) and a pair or two of white lascalas, but i never saw any KDBW's, although I had heard of them. As you probably can glean from a 7 year stretch and having seen NO white k-horns, they are likely EXTREMELY rare, but I doubt that adds very much actual value to them over any other Decorator model k-horn. The difficulty of coming up with a really good white paint job is obvious, especially since it required a special set-up in the paint department to shoot them white. In late 1976 the plant size was doubled, with the cabinet and sanding shops on one side and the paint and final assembly(and warehouse), and testing booth on the other side. A waterfall type of paint booth was installed at that time. Prior to that, it would have been necessary to shoot white speakers very early in the day so that overspray from all the sealer, clear laquer, and black laquer didnt have a chance of affecting the finish while wet. I am not sure if the white ones cost any more to the consumer, but i can guarantee one thing...they definitely SHOULD HAVE, since it created such a hassle to paint them that color. Remember, they had to be sealed with a white sealer, then shot with white laquer...with a significant drying time and a light sanding needed between the two coats. I would imagine the sealer was shot after hours in an overtime situation, and the light sanding and final coat was shot the next morning BEFORE regular work hours in another overtime situation...or maybe on a saturday when other painting wasnt being done...in order to cut down on the hassle involved. Either way, even though KDBW's would likely be a bit more valuable than KDBB's, they could never approach the value of some nice rosewood or ebony k-horns...my opinion.

[JCturboT]

HDBR,

Great stories of your days with Klipsch!

I always wanted a pair or rare wood Cornwalls or Klipschorns-something in the way of Mahagony,Rosewood,Teak,or Zebrawood.I see a lot of Oak & Wanut out there but hardly ever any of the woods mentioned.Just how rare are these wood combinations while you worked for Klipsch and how much more costly were they?

Thanks,

Jeff

[HDBRbuilder]

Jeff,

I was there from 76 to 83...here is what i remember about exotic woods from that time:

Walnut...the vast majority of the NON decorator models of cornwalls were built out of walnut...probably about 80% of them. Most of them were oiled or clear laquered....probably more were laquered.

Oak..of the remaining 20% of the NON decorator models, most 17-18%? were oak...some of these were stained dark but most were natural...and most were laquered, but some were oiled

Other veneers...the most commonly built were of rosewood, next was a toss-up between ebony, mahoghany, and teak...for the teak, it was highly recommended that the finish be oil, since teak is such an oily wood and the laquer wanted to peel off over time as the wood wept its oil and lifted the laquer from the surface...the same went for rosewood and ebony, but these woods tended to hold the laquer much better.

There were a few sets built up from a werid looking wood at one time...we called it rambling rose...there were two types...one was basically white/cream/pink and red alternating color...the other was white/cream/light purple and purple color...the colors swirled around all over the panels...looking like grain patterns, but not following the natural grain of the wood. We were told it was some kind of African wood that had been dyed...I never looked into it...and I personally thought they were butt-ugly...but we built a few pairs up anyway.

I know for a fact we built a few K-horns in zebrawood...maybe a few Belles too...but am not sure if any heresys or cornwalls were built...hard to remember...

I hope this helps some....you cant go wrong with rosewood cornwalls...not many were built and they were gorgeous...same for ebony...but the ebony was VERY dark. A number of employees bought rosewood K-horns and heresys...and a very few employees bought rosewood cornwalls. Matter of fact, few cornwalls were bought by the employees...they tended to upgrade from heresy to lascala, then to K-horn or belles....BUT a very few really nice rosewood and walnut cornwalls are out there...each built up with some custom touches such as no grille cloth on front and the fronts faced with the same veneer as the sides and top/bottom...they really looked nice that way in walnut or rosewood...i know of at least one pair that was made with "industrial metal grills" protecting the woofer cone...My own heresys have those too...same ones as on the stage monitor slant heresys...but the ones for the cornwalls were custom made for them because we didnt have anything being made that used them.

I will take some pics of my heresys sometime and post em on this forum so you can see what a nice custom pair looks like....just birch decorator models...but very nice.

If one can grab a pair of speakers built for former employees, then the pair is one of a kind. Most of these pairs had the owner's name stamped into the back edge just like the serial number...and the serial numbers were consecutive ending in either 00 and 01, or 99 and 00...employee's choice. Also, some of the backs were grain matched birch veneered and clear laquered...mine are...but i had all the plant employees sign mine with colored flair pens prior to the clear laquer being put on em...some of the employees liked this idea and did it too.

STOP THINKING THAT!!!...YOU KNOW DAMNED WELL I AIN'T GONNA SELL EM!!!!!...LOL!

[edster00]

HDBR,

I have a pair of '77 Heresy's that end in "ML" which I think is Mahoghany Lacquer? Would there be markings on the back to tell me if you were the builder?

I also have a pair of Rosewood K-horns from '78:

I'm kinda disappointed in the match of the veneer...was it hard to match or what do you think?

Thanks for all your great information!

[HDBRbuilder]

Edster,

As for your question about the builder of your heresys...I am not sure we were stamping our code in the back of the cabinet when yours were built...but if we did, then look at the back EDGE of the cabinet...on the upper left side...may be on another place, tho...like lower right side...there will be at least one initial...and possibly there will be another initial below that...the top initial or pair of initials will be the builder code, the bottom will be the sander code...some just have the builder code...some have no code at all.

As for your rosewood k-horns, they are very nice examples, but...hey...dont be too upset about the match on em....some looked alot worse...here is how we matched up pairs for fronts:

This applies to wood panels other than walnut, ok?

You have to understand the these panels arrived supposedly matched with the edge veneers already installed...they were pre-cut to size for the k-horns at the mill...and a fair match was made at that point, then they were shipped face-to-face and back to back with maybe 20 pieces to a pallet...banded together with of course some protection for em.

Once they arrived at the plant they were lightly sanded, and then checked for a match for the veneers. Remember the top panels were also matched up to the front panels at the mill. Then they were lightly sanded on a panel sander, and were re-checked for a match...then the employees would look thru them on their breaks to pick out pairs for the ones they wanted to have built for themselves...IF they were intending to build some...

The most highly prized were panels with beautiful color and grain, perfectly matched, with a book match down the centerline, and as FEW as possible veneer strips used on the panels...NOTE: yours had SIX STRIPS...and most of the employees wanted just two or four strips on theirs.

Then next came folks who had custom ordered rosewood k-horns and either came to the plant themselves or had a representative come and hand select the wood for them.

Then, whatever wood wasnt picked over was built up into pairs for general sale as rosewood ones.

Alot of dealers wanted a pair of rosewood horns in their listening rooms...and alot of those were hand-selected by whoever their dealer rep was at the time...he would just come over and set aside a pair of tops and fronts for em...and label them for who they were to go to.

Then you had honchos at the company who meandered around all the time...they would see a pair of really nice speaker cabinets in the paint room or final assembly and say..."I am gonna buy those...hold em back for me"

Hell, my heresys were sittin in final assembly waitin to be boxed up after being tested, and the then-president of the company saw em and said to Gwin Cox "Damn, those are the most beautiful laquered heresys I have ever seen...I want em"...Gwin said to him "those are already taken"...he said "by whom?"...she told him and he said "well, if they are his, I better not try to get em or else I will never get another pretty pair of decorator heresys or any kind of nice cornwalls as long as he is building them up"....LOL! He even came over to my workbench and remarked about em to me...LOL!...He REALLY wanted em bad, but I held my ground!!!

SO....you can see why a pair of regular rosewood k-horns had less and less of a chance to have great beauty as the manufacturing process went along...

Another thing to remember is the process of laminating the veneers to the substrate...in the case of yours, it definitely appears that the veneer panels came from the same original board, but it also appears that one set was laminated face down on on one panel and the other set laminated face up on the other panel...if you understand anything about laminating matching veneers, you will understand that a correct method would be to take the board, saw it down its center, then take a veneer strip off each resulting piece...the sides that faced the ORIGINAL saw cut will go face up and be designated for ONE panel's center...the next slices of veneers from each piece of wood will be likewise matched up for the veneers for the next panel's center...then the next two slices for the first panel, but to the outside of the two center veneer strips....then the next two likewise for the second panel..etc..etc..etc....BUT....SOMETIMES...the strips for one panel are flipped over accidentally before they are applied...and that is what it looks like happened on yours.

Custom quality veneering is becoming a lost art...and big companies dont pay their employees enough to make em give a damn when they are doing this. When I worked there we were always going round and round with Georgia Pacific over this quality control issue for our veneered panels...we even went to other suppliers, but same crap...

Most folks believe that the biggest reason for Klipsch stopping its offering of rainforest exotic woods is the conservation of rainforests issue, ie., tree-hugging...and that may be a big part of it, since it is so politically correct these days....BUT the difficulty in getting WIDE strips of fine veneers so that fewer strips are used in panels like K-horn fronts...AND the quality control hassles of dealing with vendors who make these panels up had to be a big part of that decision by the powers that be...even in managed rainforests, the diameter of these rainforest trees is constantly dwindling, which makes the boards from them narrower, and thus the veneers from those boards narrower....this in turn jacks up the price of wide veneer strips to astronomical costs...and when a speaker company is already charging a fortune to its customers for a k-horn, they have alot of difficulty explaining why it costs 50% or more over the cost of walnut to get rosewood!!!! This is NOT just a recent problem!!!!

Therefore, be glad you have those rosewood k-horns and try to overlook the your veneer issue, because they havent been offered for some time now, and (unless some bigtime honcho in the company or one of his best friends wants some) they will likely NEVER be offered again.