Subwoofer with Cornwalls

[Klipschguy]

I have a pair of Klipsch Cornwall I speakers circa 1975. The speakers are corner loaded and toed-in on the short wall of a 20'x30' room with vaulted ceilings. The sound is really amazing with a great soundstage and excellent clarity. The bass is also decent, but seems to need some help in the 20hz to 40hz range. I've looked at a number of subwoofers, but I am largely unimpressed with their musical abilities, unless they are quite expensive. Given I only want to use the sub for music, I am thinking about making a sealed enclosure sub, and then blend it with my Cornwalls to "fill in the bottom end." The Cornwalls would be played full range so the sub really shouldn't need to be turned up too much. The promising RSW-12 from Klipsch will be $1200 - which about 3x the cost of what I can build one for.

Peerless makes a 12'' extra long stroke woofer (XLS) that is designed for smaller enclosures. I have heard this is an outstanding driver and will even outperform the NHT. I was thinking of putting one of these woofers in a well braced 3cuft box coupled with Madisound's 300w sub amp which also gives 4dB of boost @ 25hz.

Does this sound like a good idea? Will it work for music when coupled with the full range Cornwall's, i.e. seamless? Will I go through all this effort only to not play it when I'm listening to music? Also, I dislike boomy bass and especially flabby HT subs for music. I feel a little guilty for wanting to add a sub to these most excellent speakers.

Any advice would be nice.

Klipschguy

[Dan F]

There aren't many subs that can keep up with a Cornwall. You should look into the KSW-15, however. If that doesn't do it, your best option then would be TWO KSW-15's.

Good luck!

-djf