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Cornwalls rewired (hotwired)


Jim Cornell

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Jim!!!

I just finished "Hot Wiring" my KLF20s with 12 ga. Monster Cable. I started the project last night about 9pm thinking this couldn't take toooo long. Then took one 20 minute break and finished the other side about 4 o'clock in the AM !! Too sleepy to put them through any paces and what little music I played was new to me (no reference to compare from) so with tears in my eyes I picked up the half-a-ton of garbage with shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed off to the city dump(?). Anywho, I hope to give a full report in a few days. The immediate and impromptu cd's were George Winston's "Autumn" and The Dave Brubeck Trio's "Greatest Hits". I'll soon play something that I'm familiar with. I did notice more depth in the soundstage but that was played at pretty low SPL.

AHHHH!! More freaking testing..... Smile.gif

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Tom

KLF-20 Mahogany (Cornell Hotwired)

McIntosh C33 Preamp

McIntosh MVP-841 CD/DVD

Rotel RB-1080 Amp

Yamaha PF-800 Turntable/ Sure V15 Type V Cartridge

Ortofon VMS-30 mkII Cartridge

Stanton 999SS Cartridge

Yamaha K-1020 Cassette

dbx 1231 EQ

H.H. Scott 830z Analyzer

Monster Interlink 400mk II

Monster Interlink 300mk II

Monster Video 2 (DVD to TV)

Studio Tech U-48RW Cabinet

Monster Power HTS-5000 Power Conditioner/Surge Protector

Original 12ga. Monster Cable

Enough empty boxes for a fire hazard!

This message has been edited by tblasing on 10-06-2001 at 11:49 AM

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Congradulations,

Sorry to hear it took ya all night!!

The crossovers prabably slowed you down a bit!!

Now when you listen to your system, youll hear the difference, the next time i do a pair of KLF 20s, or KG5.5s, academy, or ? ill post progress pictures!!

Let me know what you think, in a few days!!

Regards Jim

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I am travis williams and i have something to say about Jim Cornell,s hot wireing work. He is a genious. The work he did has improved my Kg4s beyond compare they were damn good to begin with. Now they are absolute king of the world compareativley versus there size comepared to other klipsch models. I am thouroghly impressed with the sound improvment of my Kg4s and this mans work can improve anybodys klispsch speakers. From the bottom of my heart for all time sincerely Travis Mac Henry Williams!

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Jim,

Well, I did some preliminary listening with Donlad Fagen's "Kamakiriad", Michael Franks' "Passion Fruit", Windham Hill's "Simple Gifts", Fleetwood Mac's "Tango in the Night" and (forgive me) Mariah Carey's "Emotion". So far the bass is a bit more pronouced and controlled. The blaring midrange has settled a bit but the tweeters are still belting it out although they're not piercing anymore.

A really great piece to demo this on is from Fagen's "Kamakiriad" entitled "Florida Room". It is already a "happy, bouncy" tune but it explores quite a bit of the full range available to us humans. The low end has a sharp cut off about 60Hz. I had to back off the loudness control on the Mac C33 (it's variable) since the bass was totally saturating the room.

I wonder if the extra bass is somehow interfearing with a few of the sound waves coming from the midrange. Say every 50th wave or so (I realize it depends on the two wave signals measured). Now that I think about it I don't think I could tell the difference between a control level and a half percent drop in the attenuation. Sorry just rambling....

It'll take some getting used to but the first session looks promising.

More later on...

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Tom

This message has been edited by tblasing on 10-07-2001 at 05:10 PM

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Nice mellow sound and a bit more bass, that does sound better,honestly i might not notice a midrange difference here with the corwalls, but i do know at a certain volume my ears distort!

They do actually sound more powerfull !

What i did notice really big time, is i can hear every detail in the music, thats still fun, listening for!

Give it time, and after you expierence the hotwire, youll really hear the difference, with stock Klipsch!

Regards Jim

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Jim,

Sorry about not gettin' back with a report. That darn "work" thing...Anyhow, through ten or twelve more disks I found myself walking around the room trying to find any "dead" spots. Since the mids and highs are now softer the directionality of the horns has narrowed quite a bit. Bass, however, no longer has only the sweet spots in the room, bass is just about everywhere inside the confines of the three walls. This was unfortunate because my one of my seating positions (call this S1) has a open ended hallway behind me and is pretty much only supported by two walls. Then there is seating position S2. Which is off to one side about 45 deg. from center and about 8-9 feet from the right speaker. #S2 is still within the three main walls. Stereo seperation is still dicernable even in S2 at the great angle that it is in. Of course, all this is going to change. The girlfriend wants to move all the furniture into the "Winter" position--and that changes everything. It means the right speaker will not have a side wall for support, it puts the equipment and speakers on the long wall, broadens the stereo imaging and wipes out a lot of dead spots in the room. I kept the bass settings on the eq the same but backed off the loudness control about 10% and with some recordings it's still too much! This is great!! It'll take a few more weeks to get used to it but that's not a bad thing at all.

Glad I did it and glad Jim provided the inspiration to do it.

Blast away!!

Tom

This message has been edited by tblasing on 10-10-2001 at 10:02 AM

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Call me a doubter but I can't imagine rewiring a speaker would make a discernable difference. To me it would be like rewiring your cars headlights with larger gauge wire. After you spent 4 hours per side on the job you strain to see any extra brightness which isn't there. However, you've convinced yourself it is due to the time/money invested in the project.

mind over matter?

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Does anyone have the Olympus Camedia CD that I could borrow via the USPS?

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Bigbusa

You should look at the wire they used, and i think if it wasnt a great big deal, Klipsch wouldnt have started using the wire in their new line!

Sorry if i seemed like a smat --s, didnt mean to!

It sounds so much better, with the copper wire all the way into the speaker, it is such a thin cheap wire they used, i couldnt believe it!

Klipsch loudspeakers sound so much better than most speakers, even without ALK or hotwireing them!

My cornwalls are as clear as a bell, i hear every detail in the music, everything!

Home theater makes my freinds jump out of their seats!

Off to work soon, Regards Jim

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LOL Hey thats ok,

I started this post for the idea, whoever wants to do it, cool!

When i first started doing this, i though id have to replace the speakers! LOL

But they all went well, and enhanced the sound, not drastically, but enough to hear it!

I was going thru my other post can we ever own enough Klipsch, it was funny as He--!

Boy that was a fun issue!

Think i set a record on replies there!

I dont think id play with the folded horn speakers, i think id leave the wire alone!

tblasing wired his, and i think evertime ive seen his post he still turning the loudness down!

Well, off to work, you guys are great.

Jim

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I will have to agree with Jim here on the fact the wire makes a very big difference depending on the resolution of your system. The more you get your system tweaked and have properly revealing components, and the more your ear becomes attunded to subtle differences, the more you notice that ALL aspects of the reproduction chain have the potential to affect the sonics. In a Single-Ended Triode amp with only a few parts, you can easily tell the difference between the types of coupling caps, resistors, and wire.

Of course, wire is a hotly debated topic within the audio community. You will get those that claim "wire is wire." I challenge any of you to come here and I will show you the differences that wire makes; in other words, you WILL be able to hear them as differences, and not all for the better.

Personally, I would have not wired my Cornwalls with the wire that Jim picked out, but I imagine it is better than the stock wire contained in the original Cornwall. I just find multistrand wire of that nature to sound more coarse and lack a refinement. I prefer solid core wire on the whole. In addition, the insulation, spacing, twisting, and makeup of the wire all has affects on the signature. Just because you are unable to perceive it, does not mean the evidence is not there.

Many using horns are gravitating towards the use of Magnet wire and getting very good results. Also, different wire tends to work in different systems. My $700 Transparent speaker cables with the RFI networks really sound horrible and contrained via the SET 3.5 monoblocks. Indeed, twisted, runs of Radio Shack 18awg solid core actually bettered this wire..and all for about 75 cents. On the other hand, the Transparent cable did very well with my solid state monoblocks.

I bet Jim and others would receive even more of a benefit with wire experimentation. And for what it's worth, standard Monster Cable is some of the worst wire out there; it is VERY grainy compared to other designs.

kh

f>s>

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s y s t e m

Linn LP-12/Linn Basic Plus/Sumiko Blue Point

Rega Planet

Cary Audio SLP-70 w/Phono Modified

Creek OBH-12 Passive

Welborne Labs 2A3 Moondog Monoblocks

DIYCable Wire - Various

ProAc Mini Towers

Alternate System:

EICO HF-81

ASUSA A-4 EL-34 UL

EICO HFT-90 Tube FM Tuner

Sumo Aurora Tuner

Nakamichi CR-7af>s>

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Thank you moble homeless,

Ill look into a better wire!

Wouldnt take to much time to install better wire, whats a good one?

The sound i have here is to fall in love with, right now im listening to alan parsons I-robot, BEAUTIFULL!!

Hey, ill post later, im almost hitting the late factor for work!

OOPS!

Regards Jim

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