Klipschguy Posted March 27, 2001 Share Posted March 27, 2001 I have a pair of Cornwall I's with the K33-B woofers - you know the ones with a two inch dust cap with a dime sized nipple glued right on the top. The K33-B apparently has a smaller voice coil than the K33-E (which is 4ohm intead of 8ohm, which in my opinion makes it an unsuitable replacement for the K33-B since the crossover point for the woofer would be 1/2 of the original value (300hz vs 600hz) if used with an unmodified crossover). But anyway, given the rare replacement drivers and my mild fear of a fragile voice coil, I have become a little paranoid about blowing one of these woofers when driving these speakers fairly hard, especially with some of the new recording which have a lot of intentionally low bass. Has anybody out there ever driven their cornwall I's hard, i.e. in excess of 100w, for an extended period of time without damage. Has anybody ever blown a Cornwall woofer? If so, how did you do it? Comfort me, tell me they'll take it. I would also be interested if anybody has ever blown a Klipsch midrange - I've never heard of it. I once blew a tweeter in a pair of La Scalas when driving the speakers very hard with an 80 WPC amp (SAE, I believe) at a big party. Any war stories? One other thing, my brother needs a K33-B. Anybody got one for sale? Klipschguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boa12 Posted March 27, 2001 Share Posted March 27, 2001 kg, was that an SAE party. i was in SAE in college. seriously, i have the vintage '84 cornwalls w/ the K-33-E. until about a year ago i always drove then in stereo w/ a '75 kenwood kr-9600 160Wx2 .08%thd dual power supply receiver (top of the line back then). but the unit finally blew mar/00 late on a fri pm & took both k-33-E with it. up until then the unit had driven the corns numerous times previously for hours at a time while the watt meters were bouncing off 200W peaks. never any trouble w/ the corn drivers. the kenwood is now back to operational & sitting in mothballs waiting to become a power amp or a 2nd system receiver. they don't make em like that anymore. hopefully it & the corns will meet again. moral: bad power out of even a nice clean receiver can blow about anything. but it took 16 yrs to blow anything on those cornwalls (& it wasn't their fault ------------------ Klipsch KLF-30 (front), KLF C-7, Cornwall I (rear) Velodyne HGS-18 sub woofer Monsterbass 400 sub interconnects & Monster Z-12 cable Sony STR-DE935 a/v receiver Sony DVP-C650D cd/dvd player Sony Trinitron 27" stereo tv Toshiba hi-fi stereo vcr Technics dual cassette deck Technics direct drive turntable Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000 digital cable box rock on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschguy Posted March 27, 2001 Author Share Posted March 27, 2001 Boa12, I know you were only kidding, but the amp was an SAE, not the party, although I've been to some good SAE frat parties in college. Again, your Cornwalls use the K33E not the K33b. The K33E seems more rugged looking to me with its four inch voice coil cover in lieu of the two incher. I tell you those La Scalas could REALLY CRANK. The next day after a party, the guy next door in an adjacent brownstone which was separated by a brick wall said "could you guys keep it down, the whole building was shaking last night." We said, "Oh sorry, we did have it a little loud." He replied "I don't think you understand. The WHOLE building was SHAKING last night." That wasn't the time we cooked the tweeter. The cooked tweeter involved a party in large barn where the La Scalas were the featured artist. Gosh, I sure do love my Cornwalls. They have provided me with endless hours of entertainment over the past 10 years. You know it's funny, I'm still amazed by these babies every time I use them. I am in love with the midrange. I think that is where people miss the boat today. Many of the speakers made today have terrible midrange. I like the voice right up front and chrystal clear - just like in a live performance. With many new speakers the midrange is neglected and off in the distance buried under a bushel. Klipschguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boa12 Posted March 27, 2001 Share Posted March 27, 2001 o yea kg, i remember those amps. believe a few SAE house guys had SAE amps those were the days - lux, phase linear, carver. some still around i guess. afraid those 33-B are before my time of having the $. couldn't afford my corns til i got out of undergrad good luck on the B! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted March 28, 2001 Share Posted March 28, 2001 Hey Klipschguy, a K33E only has a 2" coil behind the 4.5" dustcap.Same as yours.Take an ohm meter to yours.I bet they measure 4 ohms too.Two ways to kill a woofer A) overheat the coil.An AGC3 fuse will take care of that. B)overexcursion.Limit yourself to a 200 watt amp maximum and use a 30hz high pass filter with a Q of one.I have never seen a blown Klipsch midrange.I have had to repair a couple of the K52,57 mids due to a bad leadout wire.Tweeters burn due to clipping.An automotive type #561 lamp in series will cure that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschguy Posted March 28, 2001 Author Share Posted March 28, 2001 Hey DJK, Thanks for the reply. The high pass filter with a Q of 1 sounds like good idea. How would I make one? Just a large 6dB/octave iron core choke with a value to match 30hz @ 8ohms? Klipschguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschguy Posted March 28, 2001 Author Share Posted March 28, 2001 DJK, Correction to my last post. I mean a large value capacitor, not a choke which would effectively make my Cornwalls into subwoofers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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