Hello,
I just purchased a pair of Cornwalls with the B3 crossover, 1983 I believe. I bought them very spur of the moment from a shop as my wife was with me and gave me the ok (I am still in shock she said yes to be honest). Anyway, I hooked them up to my vintage mac gear (tube preamp) that I recently recaped and they sound 1000x better than my previous pair of speakers. The high end could bring tears to your eyes, but I am having some problems with the bass sound. Its there and its clean, but it just doesn't seem to be in balance with the levels of the high end. I want to keep turning up the sound to bring the bass out, but obviously that turns up everything (the bass preamp adjustment also doesn't fit my tastes). Maybe I am just not used to such high end speakers, but in a way my chest kind of feels empty when listing because i want some more low end to balance with the high end. So I was wondering if this was typical of the Cornwalls, if a recap would help, if I should maybe do a remod and add some resistance, or if I am just an amateur and need to appreciate real speakers.... Thanks for the input!
I just purchased a pair of Cornwalls with the B3 crossover, 1983 I believe. I bought them very spur of the moment from a shop as my wife was with me and gave me the ok (I am still in shock she said yes to be honest). Anyway, I hooked them up to my vintage mac gear (tube preamp) that I recently recaped and they sound 1000x better than my previous pair of speakers. The high end could bring tears to your eyes, but I am having some problems with the bass sound. Its there and its clean, but it just doesn't seem to be in balance with the levels of the high end. I want to keep turning up the sound to bring the bass out, but obviously that turns up everything (the bass preamp adjustment also doesn't fit my tastes). Maybe I am just not used to such high end speakers, but in a way my chest kind of feels empty when listing because i want some more low end to balance with the high end. So I was wondering if this was typical of the Cornwalls, if a recap would help, if I should maybe do a remod and add some resistance, or if I am just an amateur and need to appreciate real speakers.... Thanks for the input!
If you move mid (HF) from tap 3 (0-3 taps) on the T2A autotrafo at -6dB to 2 (0-2) you get -9dB, or ~/plus 3 dBs at LF. (I'm no expert for the project and this is based on info available on the web). I would link to crossover, trafo and pictures of your system and document the project before deciding.
Before anything check you have the right drivers and the right connections on the autotrafo and crossover phases. Also check the caps.
Before anything check you have the right drivers and the right connections on the autotrafo and crossover phases. Also check the caps.
Room placement has really helped, but seeing as they are 30 year old caps, I think I'll change out those too. Except for the leaf cap, I hear those don't really go bad.
You cannot just move the taps without lowering the mid cap. You would be changing the crossover frequency and the crossover would not work correctly. On some after market Klipsch crossovers the designers have floated the secondary ground and installed a swamping resistor to keep the resistance of the driver constant. One simple way to have more bass is to lower the mids but the way to do it is with a L-pads. Cornwalls are supposed to speakers with good low bass. Something is not exactly right.
Are you absolutely positive you have the wires connected in phase. I think we all have hooked speakers up in incorrectly at some time in their lives. I would double check it and if you are not sure reverse one of the speaker connections and see if you have more bass that way.
A lof of people would be shocked at how often drivers get wired out of polarity, too. Repair shops don't often put their most tech savvy folks on the task of replacing the blown drivers. Previous owners who did it themselves also often got confused or distracted or didnt care other than if they made sound. I.o.w, swap polarity to one speaker and see if the bass improves - if it does you then still have further work to find what polarities the various drivers and speaker output terminals are wired as. Dont assume that Paul K himself wired them up.
My pre amp has a phase switch, when I flip it, it sounds very out of phase, so I assume I'm good there.
One suggestion would be to get yourself a good audio test disk. Most, if not, all, would have a track for testing polarity. Your phase switch might not be sufficient.
sounding out of phase in bass? (which would manifest as weak bass). Or in mid/treble (manifests as vague image)?
Listen only for bass to get stronger/weaker, woofer could be reversed with other drivers ok.
But if thats ok, try repositioning, too. DON'T pull speakers forward away from the wall.
Listen only for bass to get stronger/weaker, woofer could be reversed with other drivers ok.
But if thats ok, try repositioning, too. DON'T pull speakers forward away from the wall.
Hey guys, I just checked the speaker impedance and I was getting something around 4.6 off the back of the speaker terminals. I thought the speakers were supposed to be 8 ohms, but it looks like I could hook them up to the 4 ohm terminal. Any thoughts?
I found this thread from 2003: https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/27349-nominal-cornwall-impedance/
I found this thread from 2003: https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/27349-nominal-cornwall-impedance/
Well, I went ahead and put the speakers on the 4 ohm terminal and I found the bass!!
What happened here? Are these really 4 ohm speakers?
What happened here? Are these really 4 ohm speakers?
Never mind, I just accidentally flipped up the loudness switch.... Going back and forth between 4 and 8 ohm, I think 8 might sound a touch better, but that could just be because the volume is a tad louder when I would switch. But I felt that 8 ohms produced a better high end presence.
I am not sure about the Cornwalls but my LaScala's are 4 ohm woofers, 16 ohm mids, and 8 ohm tweets but the overall specs are called 8 ohm. And actually that is not the exact impedance of the drivers and as most know the impedance changes with the frequency. There would nothing wrong using the 4 ohm tap on your amp if that is what you like best.
For my taste all of the Heritage line that I have heard are to hot in the mids for my room and taste. Lowering the mids with resistors or L-pads makes the sound much more pleasant for me and you would get the effect of more bass to boot.
For my taste all of the Heritage line that I have heard are to hot in the mids for my room and taste. Lowering the mids with resistors or L-pads makes the sound much more pleasant for me and you would get the effect of more bass to boot.
Here is an impedance curve for a Cornwall II. The vertical scale is 2 ohms per minor division:
Below 5 Hz, the plot looks to be in error: the DC resistance of the K-33 woofer plus crossover network is more like 4 ohms.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Below 5 Hz, the plot looks to be in error: the DC resistance of the K-33 woofer plus crossover network is more like 4 ohms.
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You measure voice coil DC resistance, right? Not speaker impedance (which is a complex frequency dependent impedance, not only DC resistance).
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