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Cornwalls rebuild or mod?


Madman1

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I have a friend that is giving me a set of Cornwall 1, he has robbed the mid and highs out of them so I’ll be getting the cabinets, k33 woofers and the b2 crossovers. I’m looking for opinions on what I should do from here. Do I just put some oem Klipsch mid and highs in them. Do I use some upgrades from crites or fastrac or do I go off the rails and build some Corscalas out of them...maybe Ds? Also these are black birch so not as collectible and not as necessary to keep all original. I’d appreciate your opinions.
Thanks,
Mark
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Well it really depends on what your end goal is i guess, are you looking at keeping them or to sell? A complete pair of original Cornwalls are worth some bucks, even if in poorer condition. You could clean them up, restore them to original and suddenly have a $600-$800-$1000? pair of speakers on your hands depending on how nice they turn out. 

 

If you butcher them up and add what, $500-$700 worth of parts to them you'd probably get the same amount of value out of them money wise so not good in terms of investment, would have to want to keep them to make it worth while IMO. Unless you just want to have some fun and experiment, in which case since you're starting out with a bunch of free stuff you can through some high dollar parts at it see how it turns out and in the end be pretty much guaranteed to at least break even on a resale if they don't turn out to be keepers. 

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Thanks for response. So since these are a gift I don’t plan on reselling them. I’ve been intrigued by the cornscalas but, I’ve never heard them and yea it would take quite a chunk of cash to build them. I could just freshen up the crossovers a bit and then throw some mids and highs in them. I really want these to rock but, I want to keep some kind  of a budget in mind considering this is just 1 if many projects I have, 😁.  On second thought I know that a larger mid horn upgrade would be great but, I’m not technical minded to know what crossover mods I’d have to do to make sound balanced. Decisions, decisions. 

Mark

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The original Cornwall is a nice speaker on its own but there are a number of ways to modify them. One relatively inexpensive way to update them is to add the forte II / Chorus II mid horn instead of the older metal horn, they show up on eBay quite frequently but that would still involve cutting the cabinets. I believe someone here has done this recently @geoff. along with other Cornwall mods, maybe he'll chime in?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Klipsch-Forte-chorus-II-Midrange-Driver-Horn-K-61-K/222632482770?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D49917%26meid%3D2bcd9479705b4143ab0f13194245f761%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D322970186810&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

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Great.Actually I own forte I, Forte II and Chrous II. I’ve just rebuilt the crossovers in the forte II, used Jantzen superior caps on the mids...wow very happy with the results. I’ll give that some thought as I do like the sound of the tactrix mid now, not so much before the refresh. I’ll try to go back thru past posts to see what other guys have done. If anybody else wants to chime in, especially about any Cornscala experience please do.

Thanks,

Mark

 

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Mark, you have all of the steps up the Klipsch chain there. And a nice chain at that!

 

I have yet to hear a pair of Chorus ii’s, but with Klipsch, bigger IS better. They must ROCK.

 

I started with Heresy's, RF-3’s, then Forte ii’s, which I sold within weeks of getting my first pair of Cornwalls. Sometime after the second pair of Cornwalls I found CF-3’s, which I sold within weeks of getting LaScalas.

 

As a sidebar, if you haven’t put the Crites titanium tweeter diaphragms in your Chorusesess yet, put that on the extreme shortlist.

 

The Chorus ii/Forte ii midrange fits pretty simply into the Cornwall cabinet with a few cuts, but I think the B-2 crossover is for the K-55 driver and not the K-57/K-61.

 

The Cornwall box would LOVE a Crites woofer, and the bigger the horn you can surface/flush mount, the better. The Cornwall box really shows off the extra few hz on the low end when they are there. If your CW1’s have the square magnet K-33-E you are golden, they are supposed to go lower than the round magnet version. 

 

Two-way is the way to go if you have the option, and you do!

 

Any Cornscala you build will impress you. 

 

But I have to add a caveat here. I would be remiss not to suggest giving a decent pair of LaScalas with good amplification an ear before your next project.

 

I probably would have skipped a few of mine. Probably be on to tubes by now!

 

 

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Thanks Geoff. I do have the ti diaphragms in my fortes II and again fresh crossover recap on those too. I was so happy with the results that new caps for my forte i and Chorus II will be here today. I wanted to see how they sounded before doing the ti diaphragms in them just out of curiosity. I run everything on tubes, forte II are upstairs and running off an Eico HF-81. The others are in the basement and I switch them in and out running off a Bob Latino vta-70. Anyway...enough of about that. I do believe these have the square magnet but, I don’t have them in my hands just yet, plan to drive next state over to pick them up in the next few weeks. Just waiting for his schedule to free up. I wonder if I could simply change the value on the midrange cap to match with a larger horn? I still would love to build a cornscala d but, the internal parts for those are like 1200-1300$ yikes! Oh yea, and thanks for giving me another speaker to look at(Lascala) lol. I haven’t persuaded them because I’ve read that they really lack bass but, I’ve never heard those either. 

Thanks,

Mark

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I have said this in another post, but it bears repeating.

 

The person I bought my Forte ii’s from had his Klipsch Belles playing in his basement when I arrived.

 

I descended the stairs, rounded the corner and was hit with a musical presence I have only recently attained.

 

I asked him with great enthusiasm if the music was coming from the speakers I was there to buy (read “could afford”). He then switched over to the Forte ii’s. My heart sank at the pale lifeless sound (in direct comparison to the Belles).

 

In his basement, 15 feet apart, the Belles had more “perceived” bass than the Forte ii’s. Let’s not even get into imaging and detail...

 

Two years later and LaScalas sit where once Heresys, RF -3s, Forte ii’s, Cornwalls (1s and 2s), and Cornscalas used to flourish.

 

And you already have tubes too!

 

 

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Unless you want Cornwall’s to live with, wait for a buyer.  If your not sure, talk to Bob.  He can advise you on crossovers, maybe his 4500’s or refreshing what you have?

He can sell you Tweetes and Midrange drivers as well, just be sure you have the space and can live with the finish.  (I found out the hard way I was not a fan of 

Light Oak).  

If they came BR ( Birch Raw) Maybe, just for fun, sand um down and expose the Birch.  You may discover something you really like and help you decide if you want to keep them or not.  Maybe not if Black from factory.  Good luck and have fun.

How about some photos when you get um home?

 

Larry

 

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Hi there

If you want to have some fun and have the time I would mod the Cornwalls. I have built my own using the Roger Floth method (Equalising the Cornwall) to create a better bass response, you can do that quite easily. Then, as others have stated, found a much better mid range and horn configuration. I originally used Bob Crites Cornscala parts and have now built my own crossovers. Taken me a few months but what I have achieved is short of amazing. I have owned Heresy, Forte II, Cornwall and Khorn (AK-4) but I think these things I have built are better than all of these and I have had fun learning.

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What part of the country are you in Mark? I bought some beat up Cornwalls and refurbed everything, including new veneer (some missing factory plywood), new built by me grilles, and ultimately a Deang crossover. Fun project for sure that not only created an awesome looking speaker but one that sounded great too. I did have the original tweeter and mid though...

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Hey guys!

   Sorry for delayed response, my mom is in the midst of a “C” battle.  So I’m spending quite a bit of time at the hospital and traveling back and forth. I appreciate all your input, still undecided on exactly which way to go. I guess I’ll wait till they're in my possession before purchasing the parts so I know exactly what I’m starting with. As far as I know they are factory black/ebony, which means birch underneath...I think. I probably will look at stripping/sanding the down to bring some wood to the surface. Ryanm, I’m in west Georgia, looks like a bit of a drive from you, thanks for the offer tho. I do think I want a larger mid horn and might as well start with that. I’d like to keep the b2 networks but just refresh them. This could also be ignorance on my part. I’ve tried to look on fastlane audios website several times to get some ideas but, it seems to be crashed. Consitent I will research Roger Floth method, this is the first I’ve heard of this. Shew! Have I mentioned my head is spinning, lol. I know you all have been there a thousand times too.

 

Thanks Gentlemen,

Mark

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hi Mark. sorry to hear about your mom. good wishes to her so she can kick cancers ***.

a friend & I are both in the middle of building cornscallas which originated from wanting to make his 1977 cornwall 1’s “improved”. I have the fastlane hf horns with b&c de120 drivers & they are great. very laid back, huge detail & great soundstage. my friend has the baby buttcheek horns with jbl driver. superdetailed, a little too bright & overpowering for the cornwall mids (but is stunning with his lascallas). I have the crites a55g drivers with original cast horns. they are a great match with the fastrac hf/b&c. listen all day with no fatigue. I would highly recommend if you want to keep stock mid horns.

because we’re building from scratch we’re both going with larger horns & 2” drivers (fastrac, volti, jbl) not sure which yet, same story with drivers (which also means new crossovers)

as for the crossovers if you stay with original mids maybe just new caps & maybe add a resistor to the tweeter. if you go larger horns & 2” drivers I’d look at the alk cornscalla crossover 

keep us updated when you get them & what you decide to do with them 

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Madman1 said:

Just ran across a pair of k-61-k drivers and horns from a set of Forte II for a good price. Would it make sense to use these in the corns?

Probably one of the cheapest and easiest ways to go, that's essentially what Klipsch did with the mid '80's Cornwall II but the k-61 in the forte II is a newer, "better" horn. Crossover should be upgraded to or switched to the B-3. 

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23 minutes ago, Madman1 said:

Ok, so mids are in route. Still need to decide on highs but, I've narrowed that down to just a few. Now is it only necessary to change the squaker to a B3 or do I need to completely change the crossover to a B3?

Thanks jjptkd.

Looking at the schematics it appears they changed just about everything on the B-2 when they went to the B-3, depending on how handy you are with Crossover modifications it may be easier to just replace the B-2's completely with B-3's. The B-3 was designed for the k-77 tweeter, k-57 mid (same driver as the k-61) and k-33 woofer in the Cornwall cabinet, if it were me I'd probably just switch to the B-3 to be correct by Klipsch standards. 

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