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?
128x128simao
Enjoying these more every day!  They continue to surprise me with their revealing nature.  They sound great with high power amps, and low power amps.  
I did add Herbie's Huge Sliders, and I think they tightened up the bass a bit and increased focus.  I did not know what to expect since I have seen a post saying they reduced the bass, but not for me.  No downside, all upside.
I do have some nice amps, but since these are so easy to drive, I ordered nice Line Magnetic LM 210IA 300B amp, and a Decware SE84UFO amp.  Kind of looking forward to seeing what a 2 watt amp does on these..
@dbarger 

I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback on the new amps. I just picked up a Triode Lab 2a3 amp, just waiting for it to arrive.

Having a lot of flexibility with amps was one of the things that led me to the Klipsch heritage speakers, ultimately the Cornwall IV. 


For sure dbarger tell us about the amps that you’ve tried the CW4 with and about the differences you heard. It sounds like you’ve already tried several with more to come. TIA
On the low-watt topic, I’ve been running my new CW intermittently with an old Moth S2a3 (modded with an external PS). Its 3.5w with Electra-Print iron sound quite good on these speakers, way better than on the Galante Silverdales (99 db) I’d been using in my office system. The Luxman LX-380 snagged for the occasion (18w PP 6L6GC) has more drive and dynamic capability, especially at higher SPLs, but the 2A3 is a special tube and sounds very engaging with the CW4.

An audiophile buddy is coming over this morning for the first time since Covid to listen to all my pandemic impulse buys (long list). We’ll sort through the various amps and topologies in the house to see what works best with the CW4. They’re finally broken in and dialed in and sounding really pretty amazing.

@dbarger, I’ve been itching to try a 300B on these, myself. Do let us know how the LM sounds.
So, for those interested, here are the results in brief. Of course, this is all my room, which is 600+ sq/feet with hallways that fall back from the front wall corners, which means little bass reinforcement. Sources were all vinyl though tube phono stages.

The 2a3 amp simply does not have enough juice to energize the room properly without straining. Would that it were otherwise because I am fond of it and have a wide collections of tubes for it. This amp is an integrated with stepped attenuation, no preamp. At low volume, though, it does all the SET magic, with palpable images and lovely tone. The LX-380 integrated handles the speakers much better, its 18w plenty for unconstrained dynamics. Tonal colors were not a match for the 2A3, with some comparative homogenization of horn voices on octet jazz and classical. Bass was just OK. As a caveat, this amp is new--maybe 100 hours on it; sometimes output transformers can take a while really to come into their own, in my experience. Definitely a good overall sound, though, whether using its internal preamp or a separate (VAC Phi Beta). The best of this session, my friend and I agreed, was unexpected: my highly modified Plinius SA-103 (125 Class A solid state) coupled with the VAC preamp. It controlled the woofers and organized the soundstage in ways that the tube amps could not and delivered a measure of SET-like tonality and richness, likely from the preamp. Dang.

I’m rethinking my approach the CW4. For me a 300B probably would not suffice, as much as I’d like to keep the SET sound. Maybe an 211, 805, or 845 SET. Or I might just surrender to transistors. Naturally, YMMV.