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Cornwall I Crossovers - Renew or Leave Be?


Cornwill Is

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6 hours ago, henry4841 said:

Is this something you know or something you have read? If entirely true no one would remember a loved ones voice years later. Just saying not to disagree with anyone. Certainly hard to do comparing different equipment if not done quickly but one does have a sound memory.  

Coincidentally I heard my deceased sister's voice today after 7 years or more. Took a bit to recognize her. My niece (her daughter) has a message stored on a cell phone and played it for me. So you may recall when told but recognizing it w/o direction may be harder than you think.

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7 hours ago, henry4841 said:

Is this something you know or something you have read? If entirely true no one would remember a loved ones voice years later. Just saying not to disagree with anyone. Certainly hard to do comparing different equipment if not done quickly but one does have a sound memory.  

It's something I've read. search "echoic memory" for one explanation.

 

Here's how I would explain it to audiophiles: Listen to speaker "X" for however long you want. After this listening, wait say, 5 minutes, then you would be given a series of other speakers to listen to (of course, all the parameters would be controlled for volume, material, etc.), switching freely between them. It would be your job to determine which of the series was  speaker "X". Unlike our visual memory, our audible memory is significantly less accurate.

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I can agree with that statement when comparing speakers in an A/B situation unless one is just awful and one sounds a lot better. But let's get real guys, most can remember sounds like they do sight. If not how does one tell the name of a song from just a few notes.Then there are those that can tell a positive wave 2nd harmonic from a negative wave 2nd harmonic. If short sound memory how does one do that? This discussion is going nowhere and I will agree there are some that do not hear or remember much of anything. On that I think we can agree. 

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As you can see, there are lots of possible choices available!  I'd definitely get rid of physically leaking caps.  We seem to LOVE to have capacitor discussions around here but it's been rehashed quite a bit. 

 

As far as sound memory... I'm not necessarily sure what parts of the experience I am remembering but I imagine it is systemic... not just memory of sound waves vibrating my eardrums.  We might lose some various details but I think what is left of the whole is usually enough.   Just because you forget some doesn't invalidate what you do remember.  In the end, I just care how it makes me feel anyway.  

 

I was surprised lately when I put my Sonicap capped AA networks back into my La Scalas.  They hadn't been there for years but I've improved the placement of the speakers and worked on acoustic treatments over the years.  It sounded far better than I remembered.   Setup in the room matters a lot.  

 

I have Jupiter VT caps (the old square style) in most of my crossovers which many would say is crazy $ to spend.  My main system network is from Deang and has OIMP V-caps.  I think you can probably be happy without spending nearly as much but my crossovers are here to stay.  

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If the speakers sound dull and without the lifelike presence Klipsch is known for, you need a recap. My Cornwalls are 1981, with B2 and they sounded a bit muffled on top compared to my other Klipsch speakers. I recapped them and all is well again. 

In any case, every screw inside your cabinet holding drivers and the electrical connections and the mid driver to horn gasket have probably loosened and could use some tightening.

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On 2/15/2021 at 8:14 PM, Cornwill Is said:

 

Understand completely, I could do the change and save the old capacitors, but it looks like some of the capacitor seals are beginning to fail (leak). Do I wait for them to completely fail, or be proactive? I wonder what PWK would do?

 

 

 

 

He would get a set of replacement caps from his authorized supplier JEMperformanceaudio.com. 

 

He would rebuild one at a time so he could a/b them a little bit and you could hear for yourself what the refresh did.

 

Then he might try some of the other ones available to see if he preferred that sound or not from factory spec. He would test them in his chamber, with his lab grade equipment. He would probably conclude that the transfer curves didn't match his specs/design and might conclude they were inferior, compromising other aspects of the total design. 

 

That's exactly what he would do.

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5 hours ago, dwilawyer said:

He would get a set of replacement caps from his authorized supplier JEMperformanceaudio.com. 

 

He would rebuild one at a time so he could a/b them a little bit and you could hear for yourself what the refresh did.

 

Then he might try some of the other ones available to see if he preferred that sound or not from factory spec. He would test them in his chamber, with his lab grade equipment. He would probably conclude that the transfer curves didn't match his specs/design and might conclude they were inferior, compromising other aspects of the total design. 

 

That's exactly what he would do.

Those actions would be an incredible level of support to address a customer repair! Quite respectable...

 

Kidding aside, experimentation , testing and verifying is at the heart of audio excellence.  PWK did a good job with his designs. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, dwilawyer said:

He would get a set of replacement caps from his authorized supplier JEMperformanceaudio.com. 

 

He would rebuild one at a time so he could a/b them a little bit and you could hear for yourself what the refresh did.

 

Then he might try some of the other ones available to see if he preferred that sound or not from factory spec. He would test them in his chamber, with his lab grade equipment. He would probably conclude that the transfer curves didn't match his specs/design and might conclude they were inferior, compromising other aspects of the total design. 

 

That's exactly what he would do.

 

Love this!

 

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1 hour ago, Klipschguy said:

Plenty of good insight, different points of view, and solid, helpful recommendations here. Have you decided on your course of action?

 

Yes. I ordered Klipsch factory replacement capacitors from JEM Performance Audio. They are enroute. I'm planning to do the work as soon as possible, do just one at first and then perform a Left/Right comparison of the updated vs stock cross-overs to better know the difference.

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10 hours ago, Cornwill Is said:

 

Yes. I ordered Klipsch factory replacement capacitors from JEM Performance Audio. They are enroute. I'm planning to do the work as soon as possible, do just one at first and then perform a Left/Right comparison of the updated vs stock cross-overs to better know the difference.


Sounds like a good plan; please keep us posted on how everything turns out. 

Andy
 

(BTW, while you are in there, you may want to replace the old, rubber gaskets between your K55 drivers and midrange horn lens. The rubber gaskets get dry rot and crack with age. I made my new gaskets from a rubberized cork gasket material  (a far superior product for the application). The rubberized cork was bought from an auto parts store; the new gaskets should never dry rot or crack.)

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13 minutes ago, Klipschguy said:


Sounds like a good plan; please keep us posted on how everything turns out. 

Andy
 

(BTW, while you are in there, you may want to replace the old, rubber gaskets between your K55 drivers and midrange horn lens. The rubber gaskets get dry rot and crack with age. I made my new gaskets from a rubberized cork gasket material  (a far superior product for the application). The rubberized cork was bought from an auto parts store; the new gaskets should never dry rot or crack.)

 

I have two gaskets that I removed from my 1980 Heresys but they're still flexible and supple with no cracks or anything.  @Cornwill Is if you check yours and they are hard or cracked or brittle I'd be happy to send you the ones I have for free. 

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9 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

 

I have two gaskets that I removed from my 1980 Heresys but they're still flexible and supple with no cracks or anything.  @Cornwill Is if you check yours and they are hard or cracked or brittle I'd be happy to send you the ones I have for free. 

Interesting. The rubber washers in my 1977 Cornwalls were badly cracked and had spread significantly. I think they may have cracked when I tightened the horn drivers on top of the old gaskets (just one handed snug). Other than the bad gaskets, the speakers were and are pristine. I think PWK would have approved of the rubberized cork; I will be happy to send you a pair, if you are  interested. 
Andy

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