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Cornwalls Rule - What else fills a big room at this price?


wantabeach

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I purchased a pair of Cornwall’s 5 years ago for $800 in Dallas Texas. They are vinetage 1978. I spent $100+ getting Bob Crites to rebuild the crossovers. I push them with a Dynaco ST-70 and PAS 3. They are in my living room which is 18x16 and opens up to my dinning and kitchen area.   These speakers completely fill all these rooms with deep, rich, clear, shimmering music. As has been noted many times, these speakers are not the last word on detail but what do you need to spend to get anywhere close to this experience?  I spent $575 on my PAS 3 after upgrades (striped it down to an input control and volume) and $685 for my Will Vincent upgraded ST-70. That’s rough $2,100.

 

I have been reviewing different speakers and amps online and everything I want is going to cost me $5000 or more.  I’ve  demo’d my Polk Monitor 10 and 7, Fostex full range, KEF and Tannoy monitors and they don’t even come close.  Is there anything current or heritage that comes close under $10,000 for the whole system at this quality?

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Nice set up, congrats! I'd look into getting the Crites mid drivers the A55-g's with new gaskets and a pair of his CT-120 tweeters, these upgrades while not cheap are worth every penny in my book and will really add to the detail you may be missing.

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I love my Cornwall's... they really do fill a room nicely and modified as I have done, they are any systems primary front channels... they sound quite nice.

That being said, I have relegated them to rear channel duty because La Scala's are that much better.

What I should have done is moved a single CW into center channel duty and put my Heresy's to rear channel duty... but that leaves one beautiful CW unused.

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I purchased a pair of Cornwall’s 5 years ago for $800 in Dallas Texas. They are vinetage 1978. I spent $100+ getting Bob Crites to rebuild the crossovers. I push them with a Dynaco ST-70 and PAS 3. They are in my living room which is 18x16 and opens up to my dinning and kitchen area.   These speakers completely fill all these rooms with deep, rich, clear, shimmering music. As has been noted many times, these speakers are not the last word on detail but what do you need to spend to get anywhere close to this experience?  I spent $575 on my PAS 3 after upgrades (striped it down to an input control and volume) and $685 for my Will Vincent upgraded ST-70. That’s rough $2,100.
 
I have been reviewing different speakers and amps online and everything I want is going to cost me $5000 or more.  I’ve  demo’d my Polk Monitor 10 and 7, Fostex full range, KEF and Tannoy monitors and they don’t even come close.  Is there anything current or heritage that comes close under $10,000 for the whole system at this quality?
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Yes. La Scala II, Mcintosh MC30s and Mcintosh MX110Z.
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Yes. La Scala II, Mcintosh MC30s and Mcintosh MX110Z.


Maybe a little tight getting this deal done for under $10k and I wonder if the bass response would be as good?

I really need to hear the LS as I’m sure the quality of the mid-range response is excellent. That said I do like a full range balance speaker.


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My Cornwall has a very slight puncture in the bass driver hinge but it sounds great so I never replaced it. Maybe I should though.
JJK


I understand folks repair stuff like that by brushing a bit of clear coat finger nail polish or superglue on it just to keep it from tearing anymore. But that it generally does not effect the sound. You don’t want to put anything to heavy on it for sure.


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I love my Cornwall... they really do fill a room nicely.
modified as I have done, they are any systems primary front channels, they sound quite nice.
That being said, I have relegated them to rear channel duty because La Scala's are that much better.
What I should have done is moved a single CW into center channel duty and put my Heresy's to rear channel duty... but that leaves one beautiful CW unused.


Wow...that’s one heck of a HT system. Talk about maximum slam. Sheesh


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I had cornwall IIs a few years ago. I also just sold a pair of Forte IIIs, and I am very confident the FIII is the better of the two. More detail and resolution. Bass is tighter. My room is 26 x 15.
 
Shakey


Have your heard the La Scala and how do these compare in the mid-range detail department?


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Before you do any of that try spreading those Cornwalls farther apart, then toe them in a bit. IMO they look to be too close together .


They could be spread some more. Right now they are 8 feet apart and I sit about 9 feet or so from the speakers.


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7 hours ago, wantabeach said:

 


They could be spread some more. Right now they are 8 feet apart and I sit about 9 feet or so from the speakers.


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Good idea. When I had my Cornwalls and Cornscalas they sounded the best when they were spread as far apart as the room would allow and toed directly at the listening position.

 

Shakey

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On 6/23/2018 at 6:31 PM, jjptkd said:

Nice set up, congrats! I'd look into getting the Crites mid drivers the A55-g's with new gaskets and a pair of his CT-120 tweeters, these upgrades while not cheap are worth every penny in my book and will really add to the detail you may be missing.

 

Is it really a Cornwall after you do all that?  No offense but that bothers me for some reason.  I guess there’s not wrong with doing some of your own speaker engineering to taste. 

 

I really do like the balance of a factory Cornwall. I want to try LS but my bet is that I might not like the bass and overall thinner sound. 

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23 minutes ago, wantabeach said:

 

Is it really a Cornwall after you do all that?  No offense but that bothers me for some reason.  I guess there’s not wrong with doing some of your own speaker engineering to taste. 

 

I really do like the balance of a factory Cornwall. I want to try LS but my bet is that I might not like the bass and overall thinner sound. 

 

 I totally agree.  No offense to Mr. Crites, but there’s not a chance I would modify my new Cornwall threes.    It’s amusing how on one the hand we are all about love and praise for Klipsch engineering then on the other hand we’re eager to start yanking out components without any clear empirical proof we are improving things.   But it is not just with Klipsch, or even speakers… There is a whole “I won’t be satisfied with it until I modify it”  subculture  within this hobby.   To each his or her own, personally  I leave everything I buy precisely as it was out of the box. 

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22 minutes ago, ODS123 said:

 

 I totally agree.  No offense to Mr. Crites, but there’s not a chance I would modify my new Cornwall threes.    It’s amusing how on one the hand we are all about love and praise for Klipsch engineering then on the other hand we’re eager to start yanking out components without any clear empirical proof we are improving things.   But it is not just with Klipsch, or even speakers… There is a whole “I won’t be satisfied with it until I modify it”  subculture  within this hobby.   To each his or her own, personally  I leave everything I buy precisely as it was out of the box. 

 

 

Duly noted. But I believe these are original CWs we are talking about, not IIIs.

 

Shakey

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Right, we’re talking 40 year old speakers here. 

 

Dual phase plug midrange is definitely an upgrade over the old K-55-V.

 

The K-77 tweeter is a sound I got used to, but it sounds like a kazoo compared to the B&C de-120. 

 

Cleaning up the network is normal maintenance at this point. 

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4 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

 

 

Duly noted. But I believe these are original CWs we are talking about, not IIIs.

 

Shakey

 

Are there noticeable differences between C1's and C3's?  If so, how would you describe them?  Thank you!

 

I guess if you have the money, one can swap components like they swap speakers for something different.  But you probably take a hit on resale values when you find what you like.  And then I ask myself:  should I change something that I already like, spend $500+ on something that may only yield marginal improvements like replacement drivers.  I'm not willing to cut or replace the baffles in the speaker so what do I do......?   Enjoy the speakers as they are and maybe someday experiment with other speakers.  

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