1962 MATCHING PAIR OF CORNWALL II'S ALL ORIGINAL

[DVois]

I just purchased a matching pair of all original 1962 cornwall II's (A026) and (A027)the first year they came out. Cabinets are in great shape no dings a plant water mark though on top. The original woven cane grills need to be replaced ( man I hope someone has some old cloth left) They sound like brand new. Checked all the drivers and they are all original, we took off the backs for the second time since 62' I beleive. These cornwall's have some history the original owner was a friend of the person I bought them from. I will cherrish these for a long time and hand them to my kids. They also still have the original clear plastic basic KLIPSCH logo at the bottom of the speaker. All verticle drives, The only thing that isn't with the speakers is the risers, which I am assuming was an added option, ( no holes in the walnut never had them on )but on the back it does show in red the original verticle or horizontal posistion that they could be used in. I will be picking them up tomorrow. I will have pick's soon. One of the inspector's names I recall was last name of POWELL. This has been a great day. If anyone has any feedback on early cornwall II's please fill me in I am all ears.

Doug

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Look under updating older speakers under a thread called "need black grill cloth" If you grill cloth is teh same as the heresys, a company makes a similar product. It looks really close, but feels plasticy instead of more clothlike. the company sells it for $15.75 per yard.

klipsch no longer sells the stuff.

I don't know that much about the cornwalls except that they are supposed to sound fantastic. Sounds like you have a keeper.

Chris

[Deang]

I'm by no means an expert on the Heritage pedigree -- but I can tell you that if they were made in 1962 then they are not Cornwall II's -- which didn't come out until 1985. You probably just meant to say 'Cornwalls'.

Congrats!

[DVois]

I beleive that they made corwall II's from 1962 through 1972. The tag on back is like brand new and says cornwall II. They came with verticle horns for horizontal listening. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Doug

[Deang]

http://www.klipsch.com/products/cutsheet.asp?id=88

Maybe they called them Cornwall II's back then because of the vertical horn?

Don't know, I'm just going by the link, and the general info on the vintage stuff here on the site.

[mobile homeless]

They did call the early Vert CW the II version as well. Then again, trying to identify the CW distinctions has been a contant struggle for anyone. I tried to make a wegpage dedicated to that one thing and grew so frustrated, it never saw the light of day. It's about 3/4 done but on my HD it sits.

kh

[Chris Robinson]

Congrats on scoring a pair of those! You will love them, I'm sure. And yes, the first Cornwalls were indeed "II"'s, which was basically an icon for the two HF, vertically-mounted horns. After they discontinued them (you needed to buy matched pairs which made production a little more complicated), they went to the Cornwall I's with the horizontal horns.

I have a pair as well which I bought from the original owner last year, here in the Boston area. Prior to that (and concurrently for a while), I had a pair of 1985 vintage Cornwall I's ... I did some A/B comparisons and found the difference to be quite startling.

For starters, the II's seem to have a wider HF imaging since the vertical orientation of the horns permits wider dispersion than a horizontal orientation (sounds counter-intuitive, I know). When you set them up, the PWK logos should go in the upper right (for right side) and upper left (for left side). IOW, the logos should be out be outboard in orientation.

Secondly, the B series crossovers are a thing of beauty. They're very simple and lovely sounding. I'm sure they're still intact. They do very well with the Alnico magnets on your drivers.

I agree with you as well ... these are going to my son (my daughters so far have very little interest in this stuff) and I've already left specific instructions with my wife that if I kick off one of these days, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES (except poverty, of course) is she to sell these special antiques. I think she got the message

[mobile homeless]

Chris, didnt you say I was "like your second son" and deserved those Klipschorns?

[DVois]

Thanks guys for the good info.

Chris,

The name plates are like to old 60's khorns a clear plastic with the name KLIPSCH etched into them. at the bottom center of the speaker standing verticle. They are a mirrored pair.

[Chris Robinson]

Kelly, you want 'em, you got 'em ... Just don't send Luigi up here with the Louisville Slugger prematurely Carrie would be happy to see the Klipschorns go, if not me

Dvois, interesting comment on the Klipsch medallions ... Haven't seen those but if they're like the Khorns of that vintage, they have the "artsey" script Klipsch logo with two small brads holding them on. They must have gone to putting them into opposing corners to keep people from poking their fingers through the grill fabric trying to locate the horns

Anyway, once you find out which is which, the HF horns go to the outside upper corner

[HDBRbuilder]

Looks like we are gonna go through this whole mess of the Cornwall II nomenclature again.

The original version called the Cornwall II was the same as the standard Cornwall(which continued in production, despite what some think)...except that the mid-horn lens and the tweeter were mounted 90 degrees from their original orientation(ie., with the long end of the cornwall's cabinet standing vertically, those horns' lenses had a vertical orientation, also).

Production of the original version of the Cornwall II was not completely ceased in 1972. Whenever special orders for one or a pair would come in, they were built up...at least through 1983, when I left.

There is some misinformation about the original version of the Cornwall II having replaced the Cornwall in production during the time period in which it was a standard offering. That is simply NOT so. Both versions were manufactured simultaneously, although the "II" version was the model most-ordered, due to its being able to stand up vertically or lay on its side...and since dealers liked that feature, they tended to just order the Cornwall II, instead of the Cornwall....more-or-less relegating the standard Cornwall to a "special-order-only" status.

Risers for the Cornwall and original version of the Cornwall II were a special order option from day one! There are two versions of risers for the original version of the Cornwall II. One for attachment to its long side, and one for attachment to its "bottom"...or woofer/port end. But not all of the Cornwall II's out there have risers on them.

The Cornwall II version MOST people are the most familiar with was the latter version, introduced to replace the standard Cornwall in 1985. Its horn lenses are mounted in the same orientation as that of the original Cornwall version.

Although, originally, the original version of the Cornwall II was the most-ordered of the Cornwall cabinet-types, with the standard Cornwall being still in production, but not as often-ordered...by the beginning of the 1970's, the popular trend toward having "BIG" tall-standing speaker cabinets had begun to leave the necessity of the Cornwall II's option of being on its side or standing up less needed for the dealers who ordered them...eventually bringing on the demise of its offering as a standard item...as the original Cornwall began to again take-over in numbers of orders received!

One must remember, that although the Cornwall was an excellent speaker, its sales were never huge compared to the other Heritage line models...especially after the introduction of the Belle, in the early 1970's! The Heresy was always the sales leader...by a HUGE margin! With the introduction of the LaScala, the Cornwall sales began to drop somewhat...and with the introduction of the Belle, they dropped even further. I would venture to say that once the Chorus, Forte, etc...became available, the Cornwall (by then, the second version of the Cornwall II) sales dropped to such a low number, that the decision was eventually made to just completely drop production of them.

When I worked there(1976-1983), I watched as each year, the total percentage of Cornwall units sold compared to other models in the line-up, consistently dropped in number. It was just a matter of time before the speaker was dropped from the line-up, I am sad to say! We can blame that more for its size, than its quality of sound reproduction, though...as most of us already know! With the public trend leaning towards apartments and condo-living during that time frame(the "I/Me/Now" generation that drove Porsches and Mercedes, while living in apartments, instead of buying homes...partly due to the high mortgage interest-rates, and partly due to their tendency not to stay in one place for very long as they moved up the corporate ladders), there was just less room in floorspace, etc., to accomodate large-cabineted speakers for sound systems...leading them to ignore the larger speakers and go with either bookshelf models or floor-standing units that took up a smaller footprint in floor space.

[ShapeShifter]

Also, placement of the PWK Pie-Sliced Logos on the earlier CW IIs is not the best indicators as to placement of the speakers with respect as to their Vertical Horn position.

Those arrows you alluded to on the rear of each speaker are indeed the best source for determining the orientation of the Vertical Horns when the speakers are placed in a horizontal or vertical (upright) listening position. The placement of those Pie-Sliced Logos on many early CW II models varies almost as much as the various Cornwall model configurations.

[Cut-Throat]

HDBRbuilder,

BTW - What does the HDBR stand for?

Question - In your post you made it sound like the Belles really displaced the Cornwall Sales more than the LaScala. It seems like I see a lot more LaScala's for Sale than the Belles. Were the Belles selling more than the LaScalas?

Thanks,

[Invidiosulus]

DVois,

These people might have something you could use for speaker cloth that would look alright.

http://www.wendellfabrics.com/index.html

I don't know if that helps or not but there you go.

Peace, Josh

[HDBRbuilder]

Cut throat,

HDBR stands for Heresy, Decorator, Birch, Raw.

The LaScala always had a market share of its own...as a theater/stage/sound reinforcement type of speaker...due to its folded horn bottom end, it was also bought for home use...especially as a center channel for two k-horns...that is where it tended to cut into the Cornwall's domain somewhat, but the Cornwall was still preferred in many instances because of its appearance(WAF)...until the Belle came along...then that all changed...the Belle took over as the center channel of choice between two K-horns, further eating into the number of sales of the Cornwall...and many folks preferred a PAIR of Belles over a pair of Cornwalls, simply because of the appearance, too....again eating into the number of sales of Cornwalls.

That is what I meant....remember...a pair of Walnut Cornwalls listed for about the same as a pair of LaScalas in black laquer...so there WAS some head to head competition between them...and when somebody wanted a pair of speakers he could use in the home, and not worry about throwing outside on the patio, or hauling somewhere for a wild party...the LaScalas are what generally got the nod come buying time! Belles never outsold LaScalas...but they did help bring about the end of the Cornwall...by taking some of its sales away.

[mobile homeless]

Andy, nice summary of the models. Now if someone could actually come up with an EXACT summary of all the drivers from beginning to end, including models and when all the changes occurred (cabinets, drivers, and crossovers). IF you do, send it to me and I'll incorporate it into a page. I have tons of info but many contradictions.

kh

[HDBRbuilder]

You know what Kelly? That is in truth, an impossibility! Even when changeovers occurred in drivers and such, there may have been one worktable in final assembly that still had a few pallets of a particular superceded driver sitting there...being installed into cabinets, while the table right beside it had been installing the newer ones for a few weeks! So that leaves out a pin-pointing of the serial numbers when a change occurred. Add to that the fact that there really were no "model years" involved...since these changes could take place anytime within a calendar year...and it further compounds the problem!! As for cabinet styles...look at MY HERESYS as an example...they are the flush-front models that were superceded by the drop-in front model HDBR's in mid-to-third-quarter 1977...but I built dozens of these for up to two years later!!until all the parts for them were gone...including MINE!!, which were built in January of 1978! Another big problem occurred with the changeover to the ferrite mud magnets from the alnico magnets...even though the "official" changeover had already occurred...fact is that there were a few dozen pallets of the old alnico drivers sitting back...and when problems began with the new mud magnets, the Alnico-magneted drivers were again installed in the new cabinets until shipments of mud-magneted drivers, with the bugs worked out of them, arrived at the plant!!...So assigning an exact time frame, or serial number to those changeovers is impossible, too! LOL! This kinda stuff went on all the time, too!! Same for the PWK pie-slice logos and such!! It makes it confusing as hell...but you gotta remember that these were NOT model changes in most instances...they were "ongoing improvements to already existing models"...so in that sense, it was easy for the company to not have to worry about cut-and-dried date of manufacture/serial number changeover points...and therefore they didn't!! LOL! I sincerely doubt that this data will EVER be compiled to a point any closer than an "approximate time of changeover" or an "approximately at this serial number" format!!

EDIT: Hell, you can't even depend on the serial numbers...there was a MAJOR uproar at the plant while I was there! Something had happened that had screwed up the serial numbering of the speakers...and there were a number of speakers that went out the door over a period of a few months that had the same serial number as one already made that year...the lists the final assembly folks kept got screwed up somehow or something...and in the process of setting that new record in 1977...another serial number screw-up occurred...something to do with allowing only so many digits FOLLOWING the letter in the serial number, but we had built more than that number of digits allowed, so some of the final assembly folks began using the next year's letter because they had been told that they could not use any more digits!! They finally got both of these problems solved, but not before a number of speakers had already been shipped both times...and they were never recalled to have their serial numbers changed, either!! Those are just the serial number instances that I am AWARE of!! No telling what other glitches occurred over the years!

[khorn58]

Ok I have some more info to add even more mystery to the cornwall history!

I have a 1960 cornwall serial # 118.

the sticker on the back says CW WO 15

the 60 corwall has it port in the rear (for added bass bost in the corner)

It has vertical horns and the the front sound board panel is identical to the short horn (same layout and size)

you could swap the fronts they are the same.

the 60 cornwall shares the same dress up tv style panel as the short horn

I would say the cornwall evolved out of the sort horn.

This might be the 18th made if klipsh started production with 100 like they did with the khorn.

I also have the 60 klipsch broucher and it shows the cornwall vetical model (same as mine with vertical horns.

I think they made two dressup panels to cover the early corwall the verticl one with id tage at the botom and the sideways one . both model had there horns mounted vertical.Just he dress panel was diffrent.

I think the name Cornwall II came out in 61 or 62 when they change to the front port and did away with the TV panel front

[HDBRbuilder]

Khorn58,

The early versions of the Cornwall are a menagerie of different cabinet designs...some ported to the rear, some ported to the front, hell, even a few were ported to both the front AND rear...LOL! I have even seen one that was ported to the freaking sides!! LOL! The placement of the tweeter and midrange horns and their orientation also varied widely in those earliest models produced! LOL! It is obvious that PWK was still doing lots of experimentation with them at the same time he was producing them for sale! The Cornwall is probably the most changed-around of the cabinet designs of all the heritage models!! It truly was a work-in-progress from day-one of its manufacture! LOL!

When I first started working there, the foreman told me to route out some Cornwall fronts. I had been routing out Heresy fronts for a week or so, and building other parts, but had not routed out any Cornwall fronts yet. I asked him where the router form was...he pointed over to a rack against the wall. I went over there, and there were SEVEN DIFFERENT router forms for various Cornwall front designs over the years!! I went back and asked him which one he wanted me to use...and he showed me while spending over 30 minutes explaining which ones were the oldest, or still being used on occassion for special orders, etc....a real eye-opener!! By the time I left in 1983, 7 years later, we had narrowed down the number of router forms needed on a regular basis to just three(and ONE of them was a new design from while I worked there!!)! LOL!

[mobile homeless]

Some REALLY interesting history here. I copied this stuff down in a word doc and might post on a page (with credit and blame..heh). Khorn58 and Andy, thanks for the info.

kh