Decorator Corwall

[edster00]

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On 3/26/2004 10:17:28 PM tubeglow wrote:

edster00, Those are gorgeous, what kind of veneer is that...never was too crazy about the decorator versions until I saw these. Nice stuff. Mark

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As you have probably figured out by now, the speakers are not mine, they are Chris'. I just posted the photo since someone was asking about decorator models and these are the nicest I have seen!

[ChrisK]

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On 3/26/2004 5:04:56 PM IndyKlipschFan wrote:

Chris King..

I also have the flat faced early 1980 model Cornwalls... If you do as nice of a job again as you did in your pic... And would want to do one more set...(If possible and $$ looks good for your time too..) I would love for you to do mine. Never stained...would look incredible just like yours IMO!!!

They look like pierced Corns above without the 1/2 stain job.

Indy

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IKF,

If your CW's are still unfinished, you should find a high quality refinisher in you area. I'm betting they could make your pair look wonderful.

Chris

[krustyoldsarge]

Understand the GAF. Strategies help (sometimes).

My plan for now is that should I move into different apartment, my KG-4s will be augmented by Forte II's or Chorus II's.

"Sweetheart look! The KG's grew up, got married and decided to have little ones of their own!...."

[IB Slammin]

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On 3/26/2004 12:19:11 PM garymd wrote:

No offense Mark but that's one ugly cornwall.

Ditch the cage and put some veneer on that baby!

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Gary, no working Cornwall is ugly. Just turn off the lights and turn up the volume.

I keep a photo on my night stand. The job that Chris has done on those CWs has allowed me to discard the Viagra.

Terry

[Jim Cornell]

Edster has the nicest Klipschorns that i have ever seen.

LOL. Jim

[HDBRbuilder]

OK...let me try to explain some of this "decorator" speaker stuff as best I can.

"D" style, or "decorator" style cabinets were a lower-cost alternative for the consumer of SOME of the Klipsch designs of the original "Heritage" series speakers, with the EXCEPTION of "D" style LaScalas and Belle Klipsch speakers. OFFICIALLY, there were never any "decorator" Belle Klipsch speakers made(although there WERE at least two pairs of BIRCH Belle Klipsch speakers made while I worked there (76-83)! The LaScala, or course, was always made out of plywood, so, in effect, ALL OF THOSE were "decorator" models.

The intent of "Decorator" models was that the consumer could use these in a wide variety of applications while saving some money on the purchase costs as compared to the cost of fine-veneered models. The "decorator" style k-horns are likely the major exception to this rule, since MOST of these were used in nightclub or other professional applications...or immediatley modified by owners into C-style cabinets.

The original decorator cabinets for Heresy and Cornwall speakers were what we at the plant called the "flush-front" models. On these models, the assembly of the cabinets was using glue and nails ONLY...with no glue blocks used in actual construction of the boxes, except for the rear of the cabinets, where they were used for mounting the speaker back panel to the cabinet with screws. This cabinet design was extremely strong, and could take falls from over 6 feet onto a corner of the cabinet, usually with no major STRUCTURAL damage.

The idea behind decorator models was that the owner could save money on his/her purchase and still have a number of viable options in which to employ the speakers. They could be built into the walls between studs (especially good possibility in rooms with closets on walls opposite wall speakers were mounted into); they could just be painted to match the room decor, and grille cloth matching the room decor could be stapled to the front with trim tacked over the edges of the grille cloth; or they could be stained and finished to match other furniture in the room.

You would be surprised how many were finished out quite nicely by home craftsmen...using inexpensive moldings and such to cover the exposed plys on the cabinet.

Now, here is the big clincher...By the time I began working at Klipsch, the company had been in a "new" building for just a very few years (2 or 3), but an addition to that building, which more than doubled the size of the plant, was just being completed when I got hired on (July 1976). Within two months, the plant had overflowed into this new addition and within another year and a half it was determined that even this new addition was not large enough for the expansion the company needed at the time! How did Klipsch manage to grow so fast at a time when other speaker manufacturers were going under? Simple answer is: Decorator Heresys!! Just figure it this way: In a normal 40-hr week of production, maybe 10-12 K-horns, 10-70 Cornwalls of all kinds(depending on orders), 5-7 Belle Klipsch speakers, 15-35 LaScalas, 150-250 NON-decorator Heresys, and at least 350-700 DECORATOR HERESYS, were produced! The Klipschorn is what made Klipsch famous, but the HERESY, and, in particular, the DECORATOR HERESY, is what made the company PROFITABLE, and KEPT the company SOLVENT through times when other speaker/audio companies were going under right and left!

OK, so just when and WHY did the company change the cabinet design for the "decorator" Cornwalls and Heresys? Well...as the decorator Heresys began to sell more and more, it was noticed that more and more often, the orders came for them to have grille cloth on them. Well, the flush-front models required the cloth be stretched across the front panel, then stapled around the edges of the front, then molding (screen-door moldings) be mitered to length and bradded-on to cover these stapled-on edges of the cloth. This was a time-consuming and labor-intensive procedure, and, ESPECIALLY since it was being applied to the low-cost version of the cabinets, the decision was made to change the cabinet construction so that the same grille-cloth panels installed on the mitered-corner finely-veneered Heresys could be used on the decorator style Heresys! Since the new cabinet-build had the front being "dropped-in" and stapled onto recessed glue blocks, just as on the mitered Heresys, we at the plant called them drop-in-front-style decorator Heresys. This change for decorator Heresys was initiated in the fall of 1977.

Since there was never a huge amount of Cornwalls built at that time, and since it was no big hurry in making the changes necessary to do the Cornwall build, it was not until around the beginning of the second calendar quarter of 1978 that the decorator Cornwalls got the same drop-in-front kind of cabinet design....for the same reason as the decorator Heresys got the change.

Another thing happened about the same time as these cabinet changes. The change of the NAMES of these speakers happened, too! Here is the "skinny" on that change.

The expansion of the plant in 1976 had brought about a small hiring spree of folks at the plant in order to keep production up. Many of these new hires were good workers, but there are always a few who just didn't "cut the mustard"...and were sent on their way to other pastures. As things went at that time at the plant, most new hires were sent to the cabinet shop to begin with, if for no other reason than to learn how the speakers were built and to help out in production of parts for them. If they turned out to be good at building, they were kept, but if NOT, then they were sent to sanding...to see how they worked out there. If they didn't work out in sanding, then they were sent to finishing, where they started out applying oil finish to oiled speakers...and hand-sanding sealer coats on speakers getting laquer finishes. If they didn't work out there, they normally went to final assembly or straight to shippping. Shipping was normally their last stop before having to find another job elsewhere. The major point here is that, although there were SOME old hands in final assembly and shipping, MANY of the new people in those areas had already "flunked-out" in other areas of the plant..and it was just a matter of time before they were out the door job-hunting again.

OK, remember that the change-over in the build of the decorator Heresy cabinet occurred in the fall of 1977. THAT same fall was a record sales period for the company, with November of 1977 being the first million-dollar sales month in the history of the company! The company had a number of new employees hired-on just to keep up with production in final assembly and shipping that fall. In final assembly, most of these new hires were basically doing mundane tasks that were time-consuming for the regular final assembly workers...such as filling-out the info on the labels for the backs of speakers, moving pallets of parts up to the worktables, dropping backs into cabinets for the regular folks to secure with screws, etc.

It was not noticed so much during the flurry of activity at the plant that fall, but it WAS noticed at many of the dealers, that not only were SOME of the labels on the backs of speakers NOT filled-out properly, BUT many were either not filled-out at all, or were unreadable. It was also noticed that many of the labels for Decorator Heresys and Cornwalls had the "D" left out of the model designation. Up to that point in time, an unfinished Decorator Heresy was called "HDBR"...and unfinished Decorator Cornwall was called "CDBR" ...but many of the labels just had HBR or CBR on them...WHY? Simply put...confusion of the new employees over model type variations. For example, HWL was Heresy Walnut Laquer, so why wasn't a laquered birch Heresy called HBL?...instead of HDBL? Many of these new employees just never could get it straight.

The "powers that be" made a decision at that point...to DROP the "D" from the decorator Cornwalls and Heresys in the designation on the labels...for a number of reasons. First, it saved time, by having one less thing to write on the labels. Second, since all birch Heresy speakers were now being sent out with grille cloth panels included, they were not as much of a "decorator" style as they had previously been. Third, since all the decorator Heresys now came with grille cloth panels, it was necessary to raise their price to adjust for the addition of that panel. It was easier to just call them something besides decorator models...something that more closely aligned the new cabinet style with the cabinet style of the mitered ones with the same grille cloth panels...and those mitered ones had a three-letter designation (generally speaking)...so the new three-letter designation was picked up for the decorator models....leaving out the "D" from that designation.

ALthough the "D" was left out of the new "OFFICIAL" designation for the birch Heresy cabinets, the plant folks still called them decorator models in-house. When the change to the Cornwall cabinets occurred in the spring of 1978, the same designation change to them occurred, the "D" was dropped.

OK...now let me cover the differences between vertical-horn Cornwalls and horizontal horn Cornwalls. From a cabinet-build viewpoint, the only difference is the orientation of the horns and woofer on the motorboard (front panel). Other than that, they are indentical in EACH build! IOW...the only CABINET difference is the router form used to rout-out the motorboard for them!

Some people claim they have "two-port" or "three-port" Cornwalls of either vertical or horizontal driver/horn lens orientation. Actually, the Cornwall only has ONE PORT extending along the end of the motorboard, opposite from the high-frequency "end" of the motorboard. The openings in that motorboard, FOR THAT ONE PORT, are either two or three openings. WHY? Just look on the port as ONE WIDE OPENING, but WITH a reinforcing "STRUT" in its center, to provide some extra frontal structural strength to that END PANEL of the cabinet. In the case of three openings, you have two reinforcing "struts". That is ALL THERE IS TO IT! NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS! BTW...if you measure the TOTAL area in square inches of the openings in the so-called two-port and so-called three-port Cornwalls, you will find out that the TOTAL opening area is almost EXACTLY the SAME!

One note here that may be of interest to some of you. The router forms' BASES for these speakers were originally made out of steel plates, which made them rather heavy and unwieldy to use on the overhead router. Those steel plates also tend to wear heavily on the pins on the router table of the overhead router. Since the easiest way to empty a router form of built-up sawdust is to flip it over, its weight tended to ALSO wear out the poor soul who was stuck routing these parts all day long (meaning ME...for most of the time I worked there!). Also, as time went on and modifications to parts became necessary, it was very expensive to have a machine shop lay-out and mill the openings into new STEEL router form bottom plates. So, sometime around 1978-79, we went to using tempered masonite for the base plates of the overhead router forms, since those could be easily made "in-house" and since tempered masonite had no tendency to wear down the pins on the router table. We still continued to use the steel-base-plated router forms until they either became obsolete or wore out, though. The first forms to become made of tempered masonite were the ones for Heresy fronts, of course, since they were the most used in the plant! When the new masonite bases were made for Cornwall fronts, they had three port openings in them, partly because it made the ROUTER FORM hold up better to use by new employees who tended to let the router pin SLAM into corners while routing the parts...which would have rendered the form useless in a short time if there had only been two port-openings in the base of it! Even with three openings, those bases on the Cornwall front forms had to be replaced regularly thanks to the slamming of the pins into the corners of the openings by router newbies!

One other note...although there is a distinct time at which the vertical Cornwall II became a non-standard build (IOW, it was no longer OFFICIALLY offered as a model), it was still built...even up until I left the company in 1983! It seemed that I had to rout out a few fronts for vertical-horned Cornwalls every year I worked there...due to special orders for them...NORMALLY a special order for a SINGLE one...to match one an owner already had purchased for his previous monaural system, but who was changing over to stereo and needed a second one to match his first one.

I don't know whether the vertical ones were offered on special order after I left in 1983 or not, but I doubt they were offered past the advent of the 1985 Cornwall II version!

[HeavyDistortion]

Here is a picture of my 1976 Decorator Cornwalls taken by their previous owner. I believe that they look even better in person.

Ed Hurdle

HeavyDistortion

[fini]

Andy,

As usual, a great read! As a carpenter, it's nice to hear a behind-the-scenes account of Heritage production. Seriously, you could write a book (and sell it, too!). It'd be a nice companion piece for the PWK bio.

[jt1stcav]

I agree, fini. Andy has a wealth of information to provide concerning the construction of our favorite Heritage loudspeakers. It's not only invalueable, but totally fascinating and fun to learn at the same time. It's not every day that you actually hear from the man who built your loudspeakers like Andy did with mine. I've learned so much by this man, and now I know how and why my Decorator Cornwalls came to be!

Andy, write a damn book for cryin' out loud! Imagine how many happy Klipsch owners like me would buy it and make it a number 1 bestseller!

[garymd]

Ed,

Beautiful corns! We definitely need to get together sometime.

[GRB]

Ed, great looking corns. I agree with Garymd, would love to get together and hear them sometime.

[HeavyDistortion]

Gary/GRB,

Thanks for the compliments on my Cornwalls. It would definitely be nice to get together sometime in the near future.

Take Care,

Ed Hurdle

HeavyDistortion

[ChrisK]

Ed,

Your Cornwalls are gorgeous! All this talk about multi-channel hi-rez formats has me wishing I could find another pair of Decorators and maybe an unfinished La Scala stained to match the CW's for the center.

Could you possibly post a couple more photos of your speakers? I'd like to put together a desktop backround picture of various CW's.

Thanks,

Chris

[JohnWhite]

Nice looking CW's Chris!

For those of you that remember I bought those CW Vertical Decorators off ebay sometime back. I had Chris Robinson pick them up for me and hold them till I could drive my butt up to Mass and get them. Well I finally took vacation and drove up and got them this past week. Very nice set! A couple small chips in the edges and one water ring on the top, Otherwise in almost perfect condition. I'll be moving this weekend and next into my new home so after that I will see about sanding and staining these.

PS Thanks again Chris!

[HeavyDistortion]

Chris,

Thanks for the compliment on my Cornwalls. Attached are 2 more pictures of the speakers individually. Again, these were taken by the previous owner.

Ed Hurdle

HeavyDistortion

[HeavyDistortion]

Chris,

I'm sorry that the pictures on my last post did not take. I have an internet link to 19 pictures of the speakers taken by the previous owner, but I'm not very good at downloading pictures. If you send me your e-mail address, I can forward you an internet link to the pictures, and you will be able to see them, and hopefully download them if you like.

Ed Hurdle

HeavyDistortion

[colterphoto1]

okay, we haven't heard from Andy for a while, so let's put this one back on board. Cornwall fans please read your history lesson- this is a GOOD ONE!

Michael

note the misspelling or Cornwall (corwall) so this thread didn't show up in most searches!

[jt1stcav]

Thanks for the bump, Michael, and the repeat Cornwall history lesson...great reading!

[Thumpelstiltskin]

I read the "history lesson". It contains some very interesting information, but it leaves me a bit confused when he talks about the motorboard changes and mitered trim strips around the grill. I am certain my CDBRs came from the factory with the trim strips, just like the ones cyclonecj, hallwalker76 and Tom Mobley have.

My point is....I believe the ones labeled CDBR (not "known around the shop as decorators") all have the flush motorboard. Not all of them have the trim, obviously, but I don't think any have a recessed motorboard with 3 port holes.

Has anyone here actually seen, or hopefully have pictures of a Cornwall that's labeled "CDBR" that does not have the flush mounted motorboard and a port consisting of two holes? Or how about one tagged as "CBR" that has only two port holes and/or a flush mounted motorboard?

Below are links to a pictures showing two of my Cornwalls. The speaker on the left (in the first pic) was made in the 16th week of 1978 and is labeled as a "CBR". The black motorboard is recessed in the cabinet and there are three port holes.

The one on the right was made about two weeks later and is labeled as a "CDBR". The black motorboard is flush with the front edge of the cabinet and there are only two holes in the port.

Just thought I'd add what I know to this discussion.

Rick.

CDR & CDBR

1978 CBR

1978 CDBR

[cyclonecj]

From what I read in the threads, the trim & grill was an option that slowly became standard after the Heresy moved to that. So your CDBR is right, flush motorboard with no grill option.

The part I noticed in them is the woofer. The CDBR has the larger voice coil. Have these been replaced? In 1978 I thought it should have the 3 bolt magnet with the small coil, like your CBR.