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Primaluna & Klipsch Cornwall frustration HELP

Well this is a little frustrating. I have a Primaluna preamp and Primaluna Dialogue 5 power amp. Found a great deal on some Klipsch Cornwalls. Heard Klipsch and tubes were made for each other. Hooked them up and it had very little bass. I was expecting a BIG sound. Sounded almost anemic. Hooked them up to a class D audio amp through the Primaluna preamp and it was fantastic. Lots of slam. A great rock and roll sound. These are very efficient speakers so I don't get why they don't sound good through the tubes. 42 watts per channel at 8 ohms. Happened to talk to a Primaluna guy and he told me I needed a more powerful Primaluna amp. That has got to be BS. Do I have bad or weak tubes?? These are KT88's! Maybe they are going out. Who knows. Tried to call Kevin Deal at Upscale but he is out of town. I am not buying a bigger Primaluna amp. Kind of offended that I was even told that. Would the KT120's make a difference? Could it be something else wrong with the amp. Thanks for any help. By the way the amp sounds sweet with small monitors where I don't expect much bass. Thanks for any direction.
128x128dylanfan
dylanfan's avatar
dylanfan OP
139 posts
 
I use the power amp with some KEF ls50's and Dynaudio X12's. They sound great for their size. I picked the Klipsch up so I could have a rock and roll set of speakers when I wanted to play Stones etc. I am used to the monitor sound through the Primakuna but I gotta say all the speakers sound much better through my Luxman 505U or through the Class D Audio power amp playing through the Primaluna preamp. Thinking about trading in or selling the Primaluna power amp and going with a really good solid state amp. Thought I might check the forum for other ideas before I do anything rash. I have 2 good solid state Amps now snd I like the tube sound so wanted to try to figure this thing out.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
You need more power. Just because the speakers are efficient doesn't mean that you can under power them. Your amp is having a difficult time controlling the large woofers used for bass.
dylanfan's avatar
dylanfan OP
139 posts
 
Would changing tubes help? Moving from the KT88's to KT120's or should I just write this amp off and move on?
zd542
5,339 posts
 
If you can borrow some tubes, try them. I doubt they will make a big enough difference to fix the problem.
oros's avatar
oros
43 posts
 
Cornwall's with no bass slam with a valve amp that is a no no.

In the corner against the wall they must go.
Running KG 4's 94db with a Line Magnetic 211IA in 12w triode in the corners close to the walls and they shake my privates, more slam more dynamics I do not need.
And Cornwall's @98.5db stomp KG 4's in both regards.
Bigger amp no don't think so, play with it.

See the Stereophile review of this power amp some interesting observations. Bias settings etc.
Try the different output taps, play around.
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