Best Cornwall....?

[Dave A]

12 minutes ago, dtr20 said:

Heritage is meant for home use, pro is for commercial. That being said Pro speakers sound great in home use. Home speakers are designed for sound and aesthetics. They are designed for the all mighty WAF. Pro speakers are not limited by looks. Solid black cabinets and usually heavy duty drivers. I have a pair of kp201 speakers which is a heresy II. However, the woofer in the pro speaker is a heavier duty which is designed for higher power. Although I have not A+B compared the kp201 to the heresy II speakers, I believe from what I read that the kp201 speakers sound a little better due to the woofer.

There is no doubt about that. I can do that comparison today in my shop and those 201's and older KP-250's with the K-42 woofers are the best for me, not the K-42-KP sound really musical over the stock Heresy..

[Chris A]

On 11/15/2018 at 9:53 PM, Don McPhee said:

Before I pull the trigger on some new Cornwall 3's I thought I would chime in and see if the early Cornwalls are as good or better than the current 3's.

Plus the fact I could get some really cool looking cabs from Klipsch Restorations for less money. I understand caps should be replaced on older x/overs

and inspect driver seals but I'm just not familiar enough to know what to look for and what to stay away from.

Responding to the OP's questions (for courtesy's sake):

 

In my experience, they're all good--versions I to III.  If you can get a less expensive refurbished pair for much less than new, that would save you some real money that you can apply to other parts of your setup, notably acoustic room treatments, which in my experience have the biggest bang/buck in terms of in-room sound quality--over buying an expensive amplifier, for instance.

 

I own a pair of Cornwall I's (1979 version--also confusingly referred to as Cornwall IIs on their stickers) and have employed them for many years now as surround loudspeakers in my 5.1 array (Jubilees, K-402-MEH, Cornwalls, DIY TH subs).  The ones that I have had their tweeters switched out to Crites CT125 models by the previous owner. These tweeters are about 2-2.5 dB less sensitive (lower SPL) than the original K-77 tweeters. [The only harsh sounding driver that I can attest to is a pair of Klipsch Belle K-77 tweeters from 1981, probably without replacement diaphragms.  The CT125s sound a little subdued and much smoother in my experience.  Measurements show this slight decrease in sensitivity of the tweeters that probably accounts at least for some of the difference in sound from the K-77 tweeter.]

 

As far as the sound of these loudspeakers , they integrate quite well as surround loudspeakers in terms of their timbre relative to Jubilees.  The woofer of course has higher modulation distortion than the horn-loaded Jubilees, but the timbre is basically a match.  This means that they produce a very neutral sound that is not biased toward a certain timbre--as the home theater reference line loudspeaker models seem to be. 

 

As far as measurements are concerned, the Cornwall I's that I own are phase-aligned...meaning that their phase more or less aligns at the crossover frequency midpoints (600 and 4900 Hz).  The phase lag between the woofer and the midrange driver is about 0.5 cycles at 600 Hz, and the phase jump between midrange and tweeter is about 3.5 cycles at 4900 Hz (0.75 ms). This does not seem to affect the timbre of the loudspeaker, but it does subtly affect its soundstage and impulse response.  Moving the tweeter outside of the cabinet and placing it on top of the cabinet, aligned with the midrange compression driver just below, will increase the soundstage image significantly. This makes the Cornwall close to being time-aligned, and I believe this is why a lot of people like the Cornwall's sound. 

 

The Cornwall II has different drivers and crossovers than the CWI, and the CWIII has different drivers, midrange horn, and a higher woofer-midrange crossover frequency.  The CWIII notably uses a different profile midrange horn, and this has its adherents and detractors.  I'm not your source for the differences in sound, but I can say that Roy was involved with the design of the CWIII, so that means that his ears were employed in the "voicing" of this Cornwall model--and whose ears I trust.  He is also the designer of the original Jubilee bass bin and K-402 horn).

 

Chris

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