Cornwall I's (about time!)

[alex336]

After years of waiting, I am getting a set of Cornwall I's (1976) in beautiful oiled walnut. What should I look for (and hear for) when auditioning them? Also, will the cable connectiions in back be a lot different from my McIntosh XR-16 speakers (the monster cable wire is pushed into a round hole connection)? If it is different, what will I need to do? I am really excited about this--the seller says they are in perfect condition....THANKS!!!!

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Johnny

[Al Klappenberger]

Johnny,

I think Cornwalls of that vintage used barrier block connections. That will be two #6 screws. These are best connected to using spade lugs.

The first thing you will notice compared to McIntosh speakers is they will be MUCH louder with the same power. You will have to turn your volume control down to keep the neighbors for complaining!

Al K.

[Stu Pidass]

There are many free or cheap tweeks you can do on Cornwall l speakers in an effort to "improve" the sound. Do a search and you'll find a wealth of information. I personally have not tried any of them and am more than satisfied with the sound as Paul W. Klipsch intended it to be.

Maybe I'm am minority but modifying these beauties would be like putting fender flares, a hood scoop and dingle balls on a vintage original 1967 Z28 Camaro. YUK!!!

The single best thing you can do is experiment with speaker placement. Hopefully you'll have a large rectangular room with free corners on the short wall. The soundstage (imaging) is drastically effected by the placement. Make sure they are away from the back wall and in from the side walls. Experimentation is the key. Again a search will yield a wealth of information.

Another consideration is your front end and specifically your amplification. Cornwalls will "cruze" with amazingly low power and as such do NOT require gobs of expensive amplification. Instead be concerned with the quality of power in the low wattage area. Many amps publish their THD (total harmonic distortion) levels at their best possible power output which normally is way more than you'll use for the Cornwalls. These same amps will produce huge amounts of distortion at low wattage which is precisely where you will most often run your Cornwalls. Remember about 32 watts will produce 115 db of "concert level" sound. You will often use less than 1 or 2 watts.

Tube amplifiers , YES old tube amplifiers, provide excellant low wattage power and this is one reason why the people who use them swear by them.

Again there is a wealth of info on this very topic. Search away, read away and enjoy away.

Cornwalls RULE !!!

[Ray Garrison]

As Al mentioned, you will probably find barrier blocks on the Cornwalls. Not many speakers use these today, and you might be a bit surprised. Here's a shot from one of Al's other posts:

http://www.klipsch.com/ubb/uploads/little spades.jpg

If you go to Radio Shack and get the "audiophile approved" big gold plated spade lugs, they will not fit. You can (a) get the smaller spades and try to scoogie your monster cable into the dinky little sleeve on the back of the space lug, ( get the large spade lugs and cut one leg off the spade so you have one narrow flat strip of metal to attach, © get the flat, pin-type connectors (NOT THE ROUND ONES!!!), (d) use different wire, (e) rig up some widget to go between your monster cable and the barrier strip. I have La Scalas, same connectors. I took a short length (like 1") of very heavy gauge high purity copper wire, made a loop in one end, used a machine screw and nut to bolt the spade lugs on my cables (Striaghtwire Duets) to that loop, then attached the other end of the little length of wire to the barrier strip. Works great.

Ray

[Ray Garrison]

oops. Sorry about that. The gods of computerdom have stated that "Thall shalt NOT upload image files with spaces in the namezes".

Let's try again...

[Dr. Dave]

Ray: those are pretty little connectors! Does your picture show the Straightwire Duet cable? I've never seen it...what price range is it in? Gracias.

[Stu Pidass]

Why are people posting the same message twice? Why are people posting the same message twice? (I'm SUCH an *******!)

[Ray Garrison]

Stu,

sometimes when I hit the "submit reply" button nothin' happens for, like, 30 or 45 seconds. So I figure I didn't hit the button, and hit it again.

If I missed the button on the first try, or moved the mouse off it before the mouse click registered, no problem.

If I hit the button on the first try, was experiencing a delay from the server side while it processed the submit post request, and resubmitted the post before the server responded, I will (a) get the infamous flood control warning if I was quick on the trigger and hit the Submit button a second time within a few seconds, or ( post the same thing twice post the same thing twice if I waited long enough before I hit Submit a second time that the server accepted both posts that the server accepted both posts.

Ray Ray

[Ray Garrison]

Dr. Dave,

that's not a shot of my rig, that's a jpeg I ripped off of one of Al's posts. My setup is much dustier.

Ray