Cornwall IV vs. Volti Rival, Razz; Razz v. 1, 2, 3 -- what changed?

@mrdecibel

Over the years, I have had hundreds of customers following my directions on doing these simple, inexpensive but somewhat time consuming procedures, and some say it is a different speaker altogether, saying the " nasties " have gone away. Woofer frames also benefit from damping. And cabinets...there are endless things one can do.

Who are "your customers" and what is your business? I’ve seen some videos explaining how to do this. I suppose I could drop close to $7k on a speaker so I could take it apart and do time consuming surgery on it...in the many different ways the speaker apparently needs help...

@kennyc
Thanks for the additional options. I’ve heard Tekton and they are too raw for me.

@vthokie83 ​@larryi
There is a Razz used near me that has my attention. But the common response keeps coming, viz., about the Rival and/or the Lucera. I don’t want to go the Razz route and then immediately have the desire to upgrade, so waiting seems a better path right now. Charney is interesting! Probably the reason people are suggesting Tannoy, too? (Single driver path...)

@mofojo You say the CW4’s "just sound right" but you’re getting rid of them...why?

Most important addition to My Cornwalls by far was a pair of REL S812 subwoofers. They have as much to do with modifying the mids and highs as they do with modifying bass. By playing with the crossover in the subs and that interaction with gain many wonderful things can happen with sound including the ability to mitigate upper register glare. It was a revelation.

Many listeners assume that the Cornwall’s 15 inch woofers "take care" of bass. No they don’t. It is true of many speakers that a good sub arrangement gives you many more options for sound adjustment across the spectrum no matter how much bass you think your speakers have.

@hilde45 ,

I found another pair of speakers I like slightly better. At least I think I do. I still think the Cornwalls are very good speakers. I wasn’t looking for speakers just kinda popped up. 

Lots of great responses in this thread and interesting comparison feedback. Nice!

What I dont see however is a budget limit. One gets discussed and another speaker beats the last one mentioned, and we ramp up from $6-7k speakers right up to $20k speakers. Bring on the $25-30k horns before we know it.

You see this same upward spiral develop on $800 Magnepan threads that evolve into Sanders and then triple the price Soundlabs, and it keeps going to the moon, then Mars and Jupiter into the galaxy, LOL.

Keeps going up-and-up!:

I’m not a horn guru or anything but helped a buddy on a design to build three pairs of Altec Onken model replica speakers for him and two of his friends. It started out as a reasonable budget speaker pair design. Well that went out the window quickly too. Then he went back and resigned and completely rebuilt the crossovers a few times, all original drivers to start. Nope, then up another level there too - then on to Great Plains reconditioned drivers. This project reminds me of finding the best speaker we can with a budget set limit. Without a budget limit set, these purchases and projects can feed into themselves and get completely out of control, good grief. Then looking back spending 3-5x of what we started with in the beginning. Oh well, nobody ever said audio-foolery fun was cheap to do, lol.

Price Ranges:

It might be fun to read a thread with horns let’s say "best overall value" in the $4-5k range. Then $5-7k, best for $10k, best for $15k range, best for $20k range. Heck, bring on the $30k horns an up. Start shopping for a new Mustang and end up with a new Porsche Carrera payment. Good grief, and so it goes.

@hilde45 if some of these top out for ya, might as well throw some of the Great Plains Audio builds into the mix too if interested in something custom designed and built too in between some of these. Would likely need to find a regional-local person to listen to them if anyone in your state has built them. I’ve heard them a few times, can be nice too! Just another option as this spirals upward and outward!