Thrift Shop Cornwall-ISH Find! What do you think?

[LandCrime]

Hello, I'm new to Klipsch forums and to Klipsch.  I need some of your collective knowledge.

 

So, I found these massive speakers in a second-hand store a few weeks ago for $150.  No badges or identifying info and I had no idea what they were. The build quality looked really good.  I tried to do an image search on my phone at the store but I was in a dead zone.  I've dabbled in speakers casually and recognized that I should just buy them now and figure out later what I'd bought.

 

After I got them home and did the photo search again, some Klipsch Cornwall's came up in the results (With a hefty price tag showing) and I was VERY pleased with my score. I made sure my wife knew what they were worth to help her tolerate them and me.

 

Well, that was a tiny picture of the Cornwall's on my phone and while I initially thought I'd lucked upon some super primo speakers, upon closer examination I realized mine were some kind of Cornwall cabinet replicas with Electro Voice hardware.  I was a  little disappointed but everything looks quality but I know ziltch about EV speakers and where they land in the speaker caste system.  I hope they're still a good find. Not telling my wife either way.  

 

I hooked them up for a test drive and all the components worked on both speakers and matched each other in output levels and tone.  The sound was mid-range heavy to my ear. The horns and tweeters seemed a bit subdued and the 15" drivers put out some gut-solid thuds and volume but still seemed light on bass IMO. 

 

I opened one up to find the Electro Voice components and found that there was a tone control knob inside! It was turned all the way down to 'Cardboard'.  I turned it up and got my horns and tweeters back in the mix.  Sound was greatly improved by that. More like what I was expecting but still not enough bass though. -Room placement to be figured out later to see if that helps and maybe tuning the ports from what I've read on other posts here.

 

Here's the stuff:

EV T35 Tweeters

EV 1823M Horns

EV 15" Woofers, EVM-15B 

EV X36 3500hz 8 OHM Crossovers

EV X8 800hz Crossovers

 

I've since dollied them out to my garage for a refresh on the dried out cabinet finish.  I applied three coats of tongue oil (sanded in between) and managed to get some life and depth out of the birch veneer ply.  I also decided to add the missing cabinet bases, which I built to Cornwall I dimensions. They turned out nicely I think.  I don't have a picture of the speaker grill and fabric at the moment but the builder of these speakers intentionally made the grill short, leaving the bottom ports of the cab fully exposed and it looks pretty great!

 

Anyway, I'll be bringing them back into my living room for a longer test drive and see If they'll work out in my space and ears... and wife.

 

Good find or Ehh?

 

[Bacek]

Looks like some DIY.

$150 for this set of components it's probably a steal.

But you can only say if it sounds good. If it's midrange heavy then probably crossover is not set properly for it, you would need to measure it to see how it was tuned.

 

Probably you could make it closer to real Cornwall by exchanging horn to Klipsch H600 or H700 and mid driver to K55V which seems to be bit better then EV 1823M, and use some Type A/AA crossover, but this still will not be Klipsch speaker and cost will be few times more than what you already paid for it.

[Peter P.]

Those are heavily modified, even if the cabinets ARE Cornwalls.

 

The different drivers, lack of crossover, presence of the tone control- I'd next suspect the cabinets themselves are not Klipsch.

 

But for $150 I'd say you got a deal.

 

Get rid of the  tone control and transformers, buy a REAL crossover from Crites as that might restore the bass, and be done with them.

 

Heck; you could sell them for $300, double your money, and just call it an interesting experiment.

 

[DizRotus]

Those EV DIY “Cornwalls” were a bargain at $150.

[Schu]

I dont think...

[Toz]

I think what you have there is fantastic! Nice work on the risers too. Those are all great components, I wouldn't consider changing them at all.

  The lack of bass output could come down to damping. That driver looks to have pretty good mechanical damping, it's how things were in the era of amps with low damping factor. You could try to lower the damping, which will give a fuller bass note. Either a different amp, a tube amp, or insertion of a small resistance in series with the speaker wires can accomplish this.     Modern speakers with very compliant suspensions need a high damping factor or they sound round and boomy. It's not hard to experiment and see if this is the case.

[LandCrime]

5 hours ago, Peter P. said:

Get rid of the  tone control and transformers, buy a REAL crossover from Crites as that might restore the bass, and be done with them.

 

Are crossovers and transformers the same?  Asking because the transformer looking thingys are marked as crossovers.

[avguytx]

For $150, I would have definitely bought them, myself.  Cabinet construction is good and risers are well built.  You can see that the cabinet material looks to be a good 7 ply material and the bases are 5 ply of some nature.  That's pretty solid construction.  Drivers are definitely worth the cost of admission.  I would move the L-pads to the back wall of the cabinet so they can be adjusted as that woofer is going to be nowhere as sensitive as the mid or tweeters.  

[Islander]

Normally, transformers are parts of a crossover, and there are also some capacitors.  Try to get some pictures showing the crossovers from all sides.  A picture of the midrange horn and driver, plus pix of the tweeters, would be helpful.

 

Does the tone control really have a ‘Cardboard’ setting, or were you joking?  BTW, when you see a single Tone control, all it does is roll off the treble, or maybe the mids and treble in this case.  Some people think it turns up the bass, but that’s almost never the case; the bass just sounds louder when everything else is turned down.

[LandCrime]

2 hours ago, Toz said:

I think what you have there is fantastic! Nice work on the risers too. Those are all great components, I wouldn't consider changing them at all.

  The lack of bass output could come down to damping. That driver looks to have pretty good mechanical damping, it's how things were in the era of amps with low damping factor. You could try to lower the damping, which will give a fuller bass note. Either a different amp, a tube amp, or insertion of a small resistance in series with the speaker wires can accomplish this.     Modern speakers with very compliant suspensions need a high damping factor or they sound round and boomy. It's not hard to experiment and see if this is the case.

Thanks!

I had to look up mechanical damping and am instantly out of my depth haha.

Adding resistors is something I may be able figure out and I'm curious to see what happens.  What would be a good starting point resistance wise?  

[LandCrime]

37 minutes ago, Islander said:

Does the tone control really have a ‘Cardboard’ setting, or were you joking?

I was joking

I'll grab some closeup pics later today.

[TasDom]

4 hours ago, Schu said:

I dont think...

Yes, we are aware....

[Islander]

1 hour ago, LandCrime said:

Thanks!

I had to look up mechanical damping and am instantly out of my depth haha.

Adding resistors is something I may be able figure out and I'm curious to see what happens.  What would be a good starting point resistance wise?  

 

Electrical damping factor is very different from mechanical damping, and affects how the amplifier is able to control the drivers, mainly the woofer.  Wikipedia should have a good in-depth explanation of it.

 

As for adding resistors, I’d wait and do a bit more research first, plus there will likely be some comments from members who are very familiar with Cornwalls and their variants.  It looks like you have much of the hardware to make good-sounding speakers.  It will be interesting to see how you make out with them.

 

Also, welcome to the Forum!

[LandCrime]

BTW, where is the 'Like' button?

 

[Peter P.]

While a transformer is not a crossover, a transformer can attenuate or increase the output of a driver. A crossover will direct certain frequencies to the proper driver and alleviate the load on others. For instance, a high pass crossover will deliver high frequencies to the tweeter will sparing it from trying to reproduce midrange sounds such as voices.

[Marvel]

The midrange horn, seen from the back, looks like it could be a EV 8HD.

 

That horn has a 600hz cutoff, and is usually crossed at 800hz.

 

I believe Klipsch used the 1823 driver for a while, so the pairing for this non Klipsch speaker could make for a nice sounding piece.

 

13 hours ago, Peter P. said:

Get rid of the  tone control and transformers, buy a REAL crossover from Crites as that might restore the bass, and be done with them.

Those are 'potted' crossovers and probably fine. You are just use to how klipsch and crites crossovers look.

 

Attached are PDFs for the 8HD and some of the ev crossovers

 

 

8HD EDS(1).pdf X6_X8_X425_X825_X36_X336_X2635_Engineering_Data_Sheet.pdf

[Islander]

3 hours ago, LandCrime said:

BTW, where is the 'Like' button?

 

 

It should appear at the far right of your post, maybe near the bottom.  It looks like a small grey circle with a white heart in it.

[Peter P.]

10 hours ago, Marvel said:

The midrange horn, seen from the back, looks like it could be a EV 8HD.

 

That horn has a 600hz cutoff, and is usually crossed at 800hz.

 

I believe Klipsch used the 1823 driver for a while, so the pairing for this non Klipsch speaker could make for a nice sounding piece.

 

Those are 'potted' crossovers and probably fine. You are just use to how klipsch and crites crossovers look.

 

Attached are PDFs for the 8HD and some of the ev crossovers

 

 

8HD EDS(1).pdf 175.68 kB · 1 download X6_X8_X425_X825_X36_X336_X2635_Engineering_Data_Sheet.pdf 370.18 kB · 1 download

Thanks for the clarification. But I only see two crossovers in the photos. Shouldn't there be a crossover for each driver?

[Marvel]

53 minutes ago, Peter P. said:

Thanks for the clarification. But I only see two crossovers in the photos. Shouldn't there be a crossover for each driver?

I'm taking a guess here, but there is probably an x8, an 800hz for the mid and an x36, a 3500hz for the tweeter. I would need to read the ev sheet again, but I think they are high pass filters.

[Bacek]

Both x8 and x36 have low pass and hi pass connection so 2 should be enough.