Tube amp Friendly Speaker That Sounds like Klipsch Cornwall


Hi All, 

I am shopping for a tube friendly speaker after a long time with Magnepan 3.6's and then Thiel CS5i's.

I was able to spend a couple of hours with a broken-in pair of Klipsch Cornwall 4's. These were in a dedicated dealer space with corner bass traps and some treble absorption. They were driven by an all McIntosh setup (7200 Receiver and T500 CD player).

The Cornwalls were dynamic, and I loved the palpable sound of the 15 inch woofer. Loud rock in roll was great with them. However, I was less impressed at lower volume levels and finally decided they were not very detailed and a bit too much in my face, at least in that setup.

When I left that room, I wandered over to where some Magnepan 1.7i's were playing in a casually set up open space. I thought the Maggies were much more resolving than the Cornwalls and a lot more laid back.

Any suggestions on a tube friendly speaker with good sized woofers that is dynamic but with good weight and detail to the sound?

Thanks for listening,

Dsper
dsper
@james633 , The Cornwalls are very nicely put together for a box speaker. The quality of the veneers and cloth are excellent. As for bracing, the front panel is braced by the woofer and horns, the sides, bottom and top are narrow and stiff. If they resonate at all it would be upe where the midrange horn is which is, by virtue of it's construction isolated from the enclosure. The back panel is the only one that might benefit from bracing. Just tap it with a mallet and see if it rings anywhere. If it does see if you can identify the frequency. In the old day the rear panel was screwed on and the speakers were mounted from the rear. Not sure how they are doing it today. But, if you think they need bracing you can always add it. My guess is they do not particularly if you are using subs.
With the active cross over you have Cornwalls with good subs would be absolute killer!
The CW IV does have two internal braces between the motor board and the rear panel. This is what I mentioned above and it has clearly cleaned up the midbass resonance the older cornwalls were known for.

Oz