Klipsch Cornwall IV


Hello all,

I'm interested in what people who have heard the speaker feel about it. I currently run spatial M3 turbos and have an all tube analog setup ( line magnetic, hagerman ) with an oppo 105 being the digital front end.


Previous speakers have been acoustic zen, reference 3A, Maggie 3.6, and triangles. I am more concerned with a huge immersive sound stage than I am with pinpoint imagery. I have a big room and have plenty of space between the back wall and my speakers if I need it.


Any thoughts?
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@jayrossi13 Are you on a suspended floor with joists, etc? The reason I ask is, I've had my new CW for a few days, situated on a concrete slab (covered by wood flooring glued down), and I have not been experiencing the bass boom and distortion you've mentioned. Perhaps the woofers' cajones haven't dropped yet, though. lol.

Just because Klipsch speakers are voiced with low-fi cables doesn't mean that everyone should follow suit and use the same thing, or that expensive cables are BS. Klipsch is not marketing exclusively to a high end niche. The designer needs to make sure that the speakers sound good for a wide range of users and not just for tweaky audiophiles who treat cables as if they're another component. So whatever Roy Delgado uses in the factory doesn't really have any bearing on what listeners prefer at home. 
Placement of the Cornwall was, for me, surprisingly more difficult than I expected.  At first, the sound was so big and beautiful that I thought they were easily positioned.  I was wrong.  

I literally had to get out the tape measure to ensure they were equidistant.  That resulted in a big improvement--like a new, better component.  

I find them more sensitive to equal/precise placement than a specific distance from the side/front wall or toe in.  Those things still matter though.  

At some point I'll re-evaluate my positioning to ensure I'm right on and to satisfy curiosity.  For now, I hate to change them because things sound so comprehensive, large, and dialed in. 

My room is about 15.5' wide.  I have them about 20" from the side walls. 

I only have them 8-18" from the front wall.  They are towed in so that's why one corner is 8" from the wall and the other longer. 
I am guessing, I might be the oldest Klipsch Heritage ( both in age and product familiarity ) follower, guru, user / owner, modifier, tweaker, out of all who is posting here ( even Mahlman ). I do believe to a large extent, the speaker needs to be matched to the room. I do not like the impression that I am " inside the horn ", as Mahlman and many of his devotees, taut highly. I am not suggesting that he and his clan are wrong, or that I am right, but it is an individual " taste ", or " flavor ", preferred. If I had a large enough room ( where I can be at a greater distance from the speakers ), I would own a pair of 3 way KPT Jubilee, and this is my personal take on it. I know of many on the Klipsch Forum who have these, and if they are happy with them in their smallish rooms.....well....that is fine........ The CW ( all of the 4 iterations ) can be easily used in a smaller room ( ex : 9 X 12 ), and can be listened to in the nearfield ( all ime ). Like anything, the room must be tuned / dealt with, when dealing with unwanted reflections and such. Cables and equipment....the higher the quality, the more they will give you. An older NAD 3020 amp ( recapped and gone over ), with 18 gauge zip cord will sound amazingly good. However, driven with a nice tube amp ( for specific reasons, I do not prefer tubes, or a Pass XA25 ( just as an easy example ), using the same wire, there will be an upgrade in overall SQ. Now, add better cables, and you just get.....MORE. Unless someone has had experience with better cables, and gear ( and I am referring to certain people here ), they will not know how much more they can get. Keep in mind....room acoustics, and speaker / listener orientation, has a huge impact on noticing and hearing these " more " sound qualities I, and many of us, speak of. Another thing.....I am the biggest advocate of eliminating ringing ( metal horns ) and resonance ( polymer horns ), and yes woofer frames and such, and the poster who did his CW IVs, knows the improvements he has received. They all have the imperfections ( at this and most price points ) and should be dealt with. We all are very specific, individual listeners, and the truth, after all...is enjoyment........This is all, for now. Be well !
I got my pair of Cornwall IV's last week, and am still breaking them in, but very impressed.  I have been a long time Devore fan, with dabbling with various Harbeths, and others.  I like to swap gear in and out, including speakers.  That cannot be easily done with these, so these require a more serious commitment than usual.  Even my largish o/93's were movable.  So these feel a bit like a marriage, rather than my usual gear swapping.
Out of the box, they sounded a bit stiff, very slightly harsh, and a bit constrained.  Imaging was not the best.  The tonality was not super accurate.  Even with these observations, there was something about them I really liked, and even had they not improved with run-in, I would have felt them worth the price.
I set about running them in, and they improved fairly rapidly, and became dramatically better.  They sound pretty natural now.   Imaging, depth, detail, and transparency, are all excellent.  They are a bit addicting.  I have zero desire to move the Devores or Revels back in.  The bass has thankfully improved immensely.  
I estimate I only have about 100 hrs on them.  Like many, I bought them with a return option.  But there is no way they are going back.  
I have run them with several quality tube amps and a couple solid state amps.  The Cornwalls very clearly identify the characteristics of each amp, yet they sound great on all of them.  There is no sense of the horn origin of the sound.  They just sound like excellent speakers that happen to also have great dynamics and huge scale.
Mine are in the Cherry finish, and look gorgeous.  They are HUGE, so pretty big in my 16 x 14 room, but they work very well nonetheless.
For those considering these, add me to the many who say these are the real deal.  Superb.