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Klipsch Cornwall IV, a look inside


Dawson's Ridge

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15 minutes ago, Edgar said:

That's the reality of audio economics -- BOM costs are typically between 10% and 20% of retail price.

Yes, and it´s mentioned in the review as well, high quality parts are desirable but un-economical in mass-production.

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48 minutes ago, Dawson's Ridge said:

Not a pretty sight. Now I know why the Cornwall IV is so heavy, it is the used 2x4's placed inside to keep the front baffle from caving in. Inexpensive horn material and low-grade x/o parts and cheap stamped steel woofer basket.

 

   

Those 2x4s are bracing which eliminated the boxy resonance that all previous cornwalls were known for. And it works.

 

I would like to see you open up a myriad of other high end speakers and see what you find. You’d likely be disappointed in many that cost much more than a CW IV. Sometimes it’s the whole that’s greater than the sum of the parts. 
 

Just curious as to what your point is here? Are you trying to educate us, or just trolling?

 

Shakey

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5 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said:

Sometimes it’s the whole that’s greater than the sum of the parts. 

 

And that really defines the "art" of successful design. Anybody can make a gourmet meal out of prime beef. But start with ground chuck and let's see what you can do with it.

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4 minutes ago, Dawson's Ridge said:

With most makers, aspects of their premium products trickle down to their less expensive offerings. With Klipsch it seems just the opposite, aspects of their less expensive offerings trickle up to their premium products. (Yes, ground chuck.)

 

Looked inside your Palladiums lately?

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Not a pretty sight. Now I know why the Cornwall IV is so heavy, it is the used 2x4's placed inside to keep the front baffle from caving in. Inexpensive horn material and low-grade x/o parts and cheap stamped steel woofer basket.
 
   

I don’t get it. Why would anybody spend 6K on a pair of speakers and take one apart? If I like a speaker I buy it because I like the sound it reproduces. I have no desire to dissect it.


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3 minutes ago, Tony Whitlow said:

I don’t get it. Why would anybody spend 6K on a pair of speakers and take one apart? If I like a speaker I buy it because I like the sound it reproduces. I have no desire to dissect it.

 

There's an old saying, something to the effect of: "If you really like sausage, don't ever watch it being made." I don't mind people taking things apart, but their reaction to what they find inside should be tempered with appropriate expectations.

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An interesting and sometimes surprising thing about a speaker is that it is not like an expensive watch, filled with tiny gears and mechanisms, all working perfectly to do what it is designed for. Open up most speakers and within, it is filled primarily with empty space, which of course is part of the design and magic that creates the desired sound.

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3 minutes ago, Shiva said:

Open up most speakers and within, it is filled primarily with empty space, which of course is part of the design and magic that creates the desired sound.

 

Yes, the real secret is knowing the exact size and shape to make the empty space.

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On 11/22/2020 at 9:12 AM, jimjimbo said:

 

Looked inside your Palladiums lately?

As a matter of fact, I am very much aware of what is inside and outside my Palladium speakers. Modern 30mm custom curved non-parallel  7-layer dissimilar laminated wood cabinet walls with extensive internal architectural "H" bracing throughout, 1/4" aluminum plate for baffle and high-mass aluminum and steel base plate to decouple cabinet from floor, heavy duty die cast aluminum baskets, magnetically-shielded, sealed and insulated enclosures for HF and MF drivers, highest quality air core inductors and capacitors with advanced fourth-order and separate X/0 networks and military-grade boards for bass and mid and treble, acoustically-damped proprietary carbon-infused thermoset composite material for horns, low mass hybrid sandwiched aluminum/Rohacell/Kevlar mid-bass and bass cone units with over-hung 1.5" voice coils, inverted half-roll low density foam rubber surround gaskets, thick copper and gold plated jumpers, more...

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2 hours ago, Dawson's Ridge said:

Not a pretty sight. Now I know why the Cornwall IV is so heavy, it is the used 2x4's placed inside to keep the front baffle from caving in. Inexpensive horn material and low-grade x/o parts and cheap stamped steel woofer basket.

The video is saying just the opposite of your (likely untrained) visual assessments of the individual pieces and assemblies. As far as I can see, the Cornwall IV is one of the best engineered loudspeakers that Klipsch has produced.  And their products have a very good reputation for longevity.  It's other manufacturers that have come and gone that have had moderate to severe issues with the long term reliability of their products (particularly woofers and crossovers, but also tweeter diaphragms, etc.). Trying the judge the whole design from a visual assessment of each of the pieces of the system is a beginner's way to judge the sound quality and longevity of the product.  Some of the worst loudspeaker designs that I've ever seen had top-dollar parts embedded in them, but the assemblage of parts was a train wreck.  What you are saying is what I'd expect of someone that knows very little about what makes a loudspeaker sound good.

 

The Cornwall IV is an excellent investment from my viewpoint. The only thing that I'd do is to replace the passive crossover with a three-way Hypex FusionAmp to eliminate the time misalignments and EQ the resulting SPL and phase response flat.

 

JMTC.

 

Chris

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