Cornwall iv
Hello all,
I have been eying these for a little while. Since they have been out for a few years I am curious about those who had had them a while and how you still feel about them. If sold them what you changed to.
If anyone has had both Tektons and the Cornwalls would love to hear those impressions as well.
The Cornwalls are good for those who want speakers closer to the back wall. Or someone who uses low powered tubes or Class A. Buy the XO upgrade from Danny Richey if you go this route. Too bad Klipsch doesn't offer that upgrade.
LaScalas are considered the best sound Klipsch offers but the Cornwalls are easier to live with.
Only Tekton I ever liked had the s/b acoustics Beryllium Tweeter upgrade. Moabs. Must be out from the back wall 3'. They still look like a kids toy-to me anyway.
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My experience with Cornwall's goes back to the late 1970's. The local hifi store had a pair owned by an employee set up in one of the soundrooms. Compared to the Snell Type A's in the other soundroom the Cornwall's sounded irritatingly bad! Nobody who worked there wanted to listen to them! They are badly flawed speakers! |
Mofojo,
yeah the measurements are ok on the forte, watch the video for good explanation. The general frequency slope is fine. You would have to play with toe to get the highs where you want them which can easily be done with horns. When I demoed them I felt they lacked bass. You can see that in the measurements with the bass shelf (downward). These are clearly tuned to be placed 1-2’ from the wall. I heard them out into the room 4’ or so. With a good set of subs they are probably fine. The mids were nice. The only other thing is you can see the resonances in the speaker (peaks up and down) but those are probably different in the Cornwall… the Cornwall IV was a big step up to my ear with deeper more textured bass and I felt they had better driver integration from low mid to mid. as a whole I think Klispch are ok speakers. They have good dynamics which is very hard to find in cheaper speakers as dynamics normally come with efficiency and efficiency comes with size or the cost of bass extension. What they lack is refinement, refinement of ultra smooth frequency, low box noise and a smoother off axis response. So I think it comes down to what you value. I put dynamics at the top of my list and if you have never used horns you will quickly see the advantages. Sadly I think speakers that are as dynamic with more refinement will cost a lot more (JBL, maybe Volti). I ended up buying the JBL 4367 over the Cornwall (bought a few things in between too lol….). The 4367 is similar in size to the Cornwall but has much better drivers and box (thicker more solid horn too) but with that and the JBL name comes much higher cost (3x!). As a whole package the JBL keep the dynamics but add audiophile refinement over the Klispch to my ear and in the measurements (4367 measurements on Erin’s audio corner). as for Klipsch, I think I would take the Forte with subs over the Cornwall without subs. But I would take the Cornwall with subs over the forte with subs… subs for the win, always subs lol. the La scala is well worth a try, a local pair on Facebook was listed for $7500 (awesome deal). I kind of wanted to buy them just to try it, but they sold as thought about it. The La Scala bass extension is very poor and subs are a must IMO. I felt like the horn loaded bass was a step up in dynamics over the Cornwall. Though I did feel like I heard a bit of the cabinet, could have just been in my head though, Hard to say. |
@james633 I've heard that the Klipsch are popular with folks using lower powered tube amps. Do you think that some of the negatives you mentioned about the Forte go away with the right approach to power? Thanks. |
