Klipsch Heritage Series

The heritage series is what really put Klipsch on the map. Many Klipsch owners swear by them. Me I swear at them. My son started with kg 4.5's then moved to the klf20's and now the klf30's. They are very efficient but extremely forward in the mids. Some female vocals will drive even my son out of his room. He loves them because he refers to them as having concert levels in you house.

Is there anyone out there that upgraded from say maybe Dynaudio to Klipsch Cornwalls?

Sorry as a Dyn owner you have that backwards. Even my son will admit when he wants to hear what is really on a cd he comes to my house. I do have the C1 monitors and they don't get anywhere near as loud as his Klipsch but they are very transparent with a great sound stage and very neutral. Even the female vocals that will make my son run out of the room he can listen to here with no problem.

My suggestion would be to ask the dealer if you can take them home for a demo to be sure that is the type of sound you are looking for with your current electronics and room.

I'm not sure I can help. I'm not really sure what your question is but I'll give it a try. I'll address the quality issue first, yes Klipsch Heritage is a quality line and have very good durability. Some systems from the 40s are still in use with just some minor upgrades. Also being a horn design they work very well with tube equipment and are a good match for gear of this type.
Now the confusing part, you say you want to improve your sound stage. That implies better 3D sound with strong imaging and placing the sound into an exact space. The master of that kind of sound are panel speakers or perhaps moving up the line with B&W to the 800 series. But none of those work well with low power tube gear.
Having said that I wont be selling my Klipsch speakers anytime soon. If I live another 30 years, I'll still have them, they are a timeless design. I think you might want to listen to some examples first or define exactly what you are looking to do.

Thanx, Russ

Klipsch has been around since the 1940's and specializes in making horn driven speakers that are highly efficient - can get very loud with very little power. I've been through a number of designs over the years, from LS35a's to Theil, Magnepan, Totem, Paradigm, Linn, B+W, and so on. To my ears, Klipsch speakers are capable of a musical realism that I don't get elsewhere. It's hard to explain, but instead of focusing on what the sound is like I focus on the music itself.

You can take a visit to the Klipsch forum at http://community.klipsch.com/forums/ and get a lot more information there. It's a very friendly forum. Good luck in your pursuit.

I've owned Heresy's and LaScalla's and I always thought they had the potential for great sound. Like with your setup, I ended up running them with "not so great" electronics and dumped them in search of a smoother sound. Horns have inherent strengths and weaknesses. One thing I have noticed about the big Heritage line speakers (LaScalla, Belle, Khorn) is they need the right sized room and the electronics. I have read quite a few SET reviewers that use the big Klipsch speakers and say they are in heaven. From my experience, a small, high quality tube amp and a good sized listening room would be a great match for Klipsch Heritage speakers. I ran the LaScallas with a Nakamichi PA7 for a while and I thought I got pretty good results but the midrange was not to my liking. I believe at least part of the problem was the room size. I spent some time on the Klipsch forums and there are many, many tweaks to alter the sound to fit an individual’s taste. As my musical tastes transitioned from mostly hard rock/metal to alternative, and now blues, up tempo jazz and vocalists, my taste in speakers has changed as well. Not that Chicago on a pair of LaScalla’s isn’t a great match but Nora Jones was another story. Again, this is in a smaller room with SS amplifiers. I can say in my hard rocking heyday; nothing and I mean nothing could compete with the LaScalla and a good 18” JBL pro sub.

A few months back, I got to spend a week with an old buddy who had a set of Cornwalls and a pair of rebuilt Dynaco tube amps. I was amazed at how much smoother his speakers sounded than my LaScallas did. It was dramatic but he had a large room and the amps had been maticulosly gone through. I finally sold my LaScalla's and bought a pair og Heresy's. I did better with the Heresy but again … my taste seemed to favor a monitor speaker with a soft dome tweeter. The Dynaudio C1 is my current favorite match to my Levinson23.5/Modwright SWL 9.0 combo. Since I can’t quite afford the C1, I am running Proac D twos and I am very, very pleased. Getting back to the Klipsch; Bob Crites has done a lot to change the crossovers and upper end of the heritage line. From all that I have read – it makes a big improvement and that seems logical – the crossovers I was using in my LaScalla’s were almost 20 years old. Who knows what condition the caps were in? Ultimately, I am planning an addition to the house for music and movies – the plan is to finally buy the Klipschhorns I have always wanted. That should tell you something. I still want back into the Heritage line. I would love to pick up a rebuilt HK Citation II or a Marantz 8b and let those babies sing. My advice it to look at your room size and dimensions then post of the Klipsch forum and see what people think. I would at least consider trying a small ARC, Cary or better yet a rebuilt Dynaco or HK tube amp and compare it to what you are currently using. You might just me amazed.

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Klipsch is a love/hate proposition. The Heritage series was head an shoulders above most dynamic speakers 30-40 years ago. Transducers got so much better, now clean sound can be had without horns to keep diaphragm excursion low.
This doesn't mean I dont like Klipsch horn loaded speakers. I have some Forte IIs and they are very fun to listen to. High efficiency opens the door to a variety of amps that would fall flat with average efficiency speakers. The newer horn design "tractrix" addresses the baffler interface and reduces some of the negative horn effect. The Heritage series does not feature the tratrix horn design. I have read of an upgrade recommended by a Klipsch tech, changing mid the horn, but not the original driver on the Cornwall.
The perfect speaker would have no signature of it's own, just sound like music. I guess that could be said about any part of the chain, right down to the microphone recording the original event. It boils down to subjective preferences.