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Klipsch Cornwall IV vs. JBL Studio 590


jdmccall

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It's an unfair comparison, for sure, but I wanted to do a little side-by-side just, out of curiosity and for fun (yes, I'm a weirdo).  Results are as follow:

 

Cornwalls are rated 102 dB sensitivity and JBLs are rated 92 but I only measured about 6 dB difference (in favor of Klipsch).  The JBL's were about two feet closer to the mic so subtract a dB or two from the JBL's number maybe?  That leaves the corns about 7-8dB more sensitive.  Regardless of readings, the difference was quite obvious to my ears.  In the JBL's favor, they are rated 6 Ohms, so that will pull a bit more power out of your amp.

 

Spectrum analyzer showed amazingly similar looking in-room frequency response for the two speaker pairs but they didn't sound similar at all with music.  Maybe the room was having it's way with the speakers?  Actually, both graphs looked pretty darned good....almost too good...and too similar ro each other.  Maybe Dougy screwed up but I don't think so...unless what I thought was the klipsch graph was actually a recording of the jbl graph.  Hmm.  [I just got an i-phone (first smart phone) and just put the spectrum analyzer app on about a minute before testing, so...test results may be considered suspect.]

 

The only musical selection I listened to was Fleetwood Mac's "Monday Morning" from their 1975 self-titled album.  The JBL's sounded awesome cranked up to the 95-100dB peak level.  Bass was like a jackhammer but there was an obvious coloration going on; a chestiness, or thickness in the upper bass / lower mids, but still...wow!  Then it was the cornwalls turn.  Hoo-boy, the sound pinned my ears back!  I had to reach for the remote and bring the volume down a bit.  But my oh my were they clean!  Much more neutral than the jbl's and much cleaner.  Bass was powerful, clean and articulate.  No jackhammer effect, but full and solid.  There's something about dual 8's or dual 10's IMO.  They can really punch you in the chest.  My old RF-82 II's had that quality, too.  No point going on with the listening.  As far as I'm concerned, it's a first-round knock-out...as it should be considering the price difference.  End of comparo.  Guess I won't be selling the C4's anytime soon.

 

Not much of a test, I know, but what do you expect for nuthin?😄

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For a little more insight into the differences that you were likely hearing:

 

The JBLs have 8" woofers, while the Cornwalls have 15" woofers.  So the Cornwalls have 75% more woofer diaphragm area.  Additionally the Cornwalls are crossing over an octave lower to the midrange horn (700 Hz, vs. 1500 Hz) and even one more time to the tweeter (7 kHz) that the JBL doesn't cross.  This prevents the build-up of FM distortion at higher frequencies and at higher SPL. 

 

At the SPL that you said you were listening at (95-100 dB peaks), those differences would come out as much cleaner output without loss of clarity. Some of the difference in the bass impulse sound (your "jackhammer" effect) may be due to the heavier 15" cone in the Cornwall, and the much lower modulation distortion (amplitude modulation distortion, or AMD) of the Cornwall at these SPLs not changing the sound of the bass as much as the JBLs.

 

The JBLs are in fact just like the Reference Premier RP-8000Fs with 8" woofers and crossover at 1750 Hz. They would sound very similar to each other when played at the SPL that you did. 

 

So the point is: when you listen well above the so-called 83 dB mastering level (average SPL at the listening position), you're going to hear the real differences between loudspeakers having different sized direct radiating diaphragm areas or horn mouth areas.  So in a way, it is true that a lot of Klipsch owners are "SPL heads" that often listen at very loud levels.  For music recordings that are quite dynamic, the larger Klipsch Heritage series loudspeaker models will actually reproduce them much cleaner/clearer and without compression effects-- more natural and true to the recording.

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Life-like levels is where the rubber meets the road, that’s for sure.  And that’s where Heritage speakers really come into their own.  Top end was much better with the Klipsch too.  I can see why there some who might consider Cornwallis somewhat bass shy relatively speaking.  But I don’t hear them that way.  They’re just really clean and well balanced.

 

All that said, my Studio 590’s aren’t going anywhere either.  They’re one heck of a value at 1k per pair.

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