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Heresy 1 / Cornwall II stacked ???


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I have my first pair of Klipsch- original Heresies. I really liked them until I heard a pair of Cornwalls at an audio club open house- WOW!! Tons of tight, deep bass the Heresy couldn't come close to. I bought a pair of Cornwall II's and they're great. Only initial complaint was they're so efficient that my Dynaco 70 amp's buzzzzz in the right channel was ruthlessly exposed so it's amp repair time.

The more I listen to the Cornwalls, I'm floored with the bass! Incredible bottom end and efficiency. Compared to my Magnepan 1.6, Thiel 3.6 or Sequerra 7.7 the top end detail and extension is a bit overwhelmed by the bass. I'm looking for more sparkle on the very top and more detail.

I 'm gonna' try stacking the bass-shy Heresies inverted, on top of the Cornwalls. Has anyone ever heard or done this? I'm wondering what impedance load the amps will see and if damage can occur. I don't think the load will dip below a safe 4 ohms. All my amps (Hafler DH 500, DH220, Dynaco 416 and soon-to-be-fixed Dynaco 70 ) should be OK even with a dip to 2 ohms so, things look OK. I could also use a Dynaco Stereo 150 which is a great sounding amp but, I wouldn't trust it below 4 ohms.

So far, I'm leaning towards the Hafler 220 or the Dyna 416 with C100 cap bank. I'm looking for comments on which amp to use and if the load is safe. TIA for any advice....

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both the hersey and the cornwall use 4 ohm woofers (impediance not resistance) so you are right to be concerned.

depending on the answers you get back....an option is to use a end end speaker selector switch these have quality transformers in them that keep the load to you r amp at 4 - 8 ohms, even if you use upto 8 speaker pairs.

Before going down the path of using hersey's with cornwalls to get better sound in a 2 channel system....take a look at what folks do with cornwalls. look up cornscala on this site.

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I'm looking for more sparkle on the very top and more detail.

I 'm gonna' try stacking the bass-shy Heresies inverted, on top of the Cornwalls. Has anyone ever heard or done this?

Before you start worrying about the impedance load, theres a far more important issue to consider. Stacking multiple speakers, especially in close proximity to each other, with each producing exactly the same signal, produces something called the comb filter effect. Deep lobes in the speakers radiation pattern will occur due to cancellations at numerous frequencies. The only way to eliminate this is for both speakers to occupy the same space at the same time, which is obviously not possible (at least not at this time). Some people dont seem to notice the acute anomalies in frequency response produced by the comb filter effect, possibly because the acoustic environments they are listening in are poor enough that the room may mask the audible effect, but it is still there. The addition of sparkle to the high end frequency response is not what you want to accomplish. If you feel the Cornwall bass is overwhelming, this too is an acoustic effect caused by a combination of the room, speaker location, and listening position, and therefore changing any one of the above may be enough to solve the problem. If moving the speakers or listening position doesnt help then its definitely a room acoustical problem. Typically over the years Ive heard more criticism about Klipsch speakers being too bright than too much bass. And in almost all situations, its always better to start first by reducing volume level of the problem frequencies rather boosting the areas that are lacking.

BTW, just so you know, TAS & HP & Stereophool don't get much respect around here.

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I believe the cornwall has a dip down to 3.7 ohms and the heresy shouldn't go much lower than 6 ohms...which yields a hypothetical 2.3 ohm minimum when wired in parallel.

I'm also not a fan of stacking speakers for all the same aforementioned reasons...the only benefit is more SPL over the passband that both speakers share - which is going to further cause an increase in the lower midbass region that the cornwall has a slight peak in.

You are probably better off by changing the tuning of the cabinet...try filling up half of the port and see if that doesn't reduce the low frequency bloom. (In the meantime it will also help the speaker to dig lower).

And how old are your speakers? It might be possible that you've got a cap in your crossover that's gone outta spec - so you might consider refreshing your crossovers.

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Well you don't want to completely stuff the ports because it turns the cabinet into a sealed cabinet which will have no bass whatsoever with the K-33.

I would sooner start updating the crossovers before going all crazy style with the ports...

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GRAZIE gents!!!

Lotsa' good info here. I hadn't thought about the cancellation effect of the dissimilar speaker types- very good point. As for stuffing the ports, yeah, that would tame the bass BUT, once you feel/hear/soak in tight, deep 15 inch woofer bass- "fuhgeddaboutit" !!! I'm not giving up one cycle or DB of this beautiful bottom.

The Corn-scala IS intriguing but with all my addictions- motorcycles, guns, trains, cars, audio-audio-audio another project "ain't gonna' happen". These Cornwalls are the IIs but failing caps are a possibility. I'll try the stack with the Hafler 220 or the Dynaco 416 and listen to the changes.

Once I get around to fixing the Stereo 70 or the Dynaco Mark IIIs (and tear myself away from the Spanish dirtbikes and Harleys) I bet the tube amps will work even better.

Just had another brainstorm! I have another Stereo 70 and I could use one amp for each speaker set. How about that???

Postus Scriptum: Every forum feels the same about the magazines- I understand.

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I hadn't thought about the cancellation effect of the dissimilar speaker types- very good point.

I'll try the stack with the Hafler 220 or the Dynaco 416 and listen to the changes. Just had another brainstorm! I have another Stereo 70 and I could use one amp for each speaker set. How about that???

I just wanted to clarify one thing. The comb filter results NOT from using two dissimilar speakers. It will occur with any two speakers in close proximity to each other when producing the same input signal.

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Using separate amps for the Heresy and Cornwall will make no difference regarding the comb filter effect. This is an acoustical effect caused by wave interference between the two speakers

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