klipschorns & cornwalls/ alk crossovers

Definitely read the Klipsch Forum's as Jwc37 suggests. You can read my comments on MY experience and opinion of the ALK on my LaScala's by reading my comments on my Virtual System. In a nutshell, I prefer the Klipsch AA's, but if you like a cleaner focus at an expense of soundstage width and depth go for the AlK. YMMV though and it is well worth getting more input. I think it is pretty unusual to find that any of the Klipsch heritage products fall short in the midrange. Are you sure all your horns are working properly and that you have not blown out a diaphragm, or have a bad crossover, bad oilcap, loose wire, etc.......have you gone through everything on the Cornwalls? If you pointed to one of the extremes (high's or lows) I would not be as surprised, but the Klipsch Heritage speakers are midrange champs, especially with tubes. You start out by saying it's the mids that are lacking and later on mention the "top end". Which is it? Are your Macs tube or SS? If they are SS, well then, my truly jaded opinion is that you are wasting a pair of good horns. I have only heard these speakers sound harsh with SS amplification. With tubes they are heavenly to my ears. If it's the mids you are lacking in, I would check those drivers, crossovers and connections and make sure that's all working before taking more expensive actions.

Marco

thanks,ive allready had the horns re-done with new dioframs & it helped out in the tweets but not the mids,as for the x-overs they LOOK TO BE IN GOOD SHAPE but i know little if anything about the testing or maintenance of x-overs,HOW DO I CHECK THEM OUT,my amps are SS but perform awesome with my k-horns & the sound from the k-horns is perfect,any suggestions as to who is the best at rebuilding them.

If you like the sound of your amps with the Khorns they shouldn't really be night and day difference over the Cornwalls since they use the same drivers, albeit in an entirely different housing and crossover. Still, the sonic signatures in those examples I've heard side by side are pretty similar, with the Khorns having far more full-body and authority when done right. The Khorns, if placed well (in your room in the corners), are not going to be equalled by the Cornwalls in terms of how they sound overall and the balance of the acoustic spectrum. As far as X-overs, the wiring stuff should be pretty self-evident if anything is loose or worn. In terms of actual testing of the individual components you'll have to consult someone who knows better than I. I'm sure you'd just need a digital multimeter to do it. Obvious things to check for are oil leaking from the capacitors (those big mettalic towers on the X-over). If leaking you might see an oil stain beneath them on the wood. Rebuilding them with original parts may be difficult as some of the parts are no longer available and you'd have to find substitutes. There are threads on the Klipsch forum that address those substitutions and folks there who could help for sure. Other than that you could always keep an eye out for a pair on eBay, but that could be hit or miss too. AlK does provide plans for building his crossover....they may be on his website. I think the Klipsch forum will garner more information than you may get here on such a specific Klipsch question.

Also, this could be an entirely room-related problem. You did not mention whether these are in two different systems, or are you comparing them side-by-side in the same room. The room itself can make a whole world of difference in how a system sounds and could certainly account for the discrepencies. Just a thought.

Good luck Joe!

Marco

Horns & tubes rule, my friend. I once had Mac solid state (sand)amps on my K-horns & Cornwalls... not bad, but a bit harsh like you described.

Remember w/ K-horns, the first watt is the most important, actually the milliwatts leading up to the first watt. Solid state amps specifications are rated at full power & not very low output levels. That's where they suffer.

I would check out low powered triode amps for the ultimate sound for your horns.

I wouldn't go the ALK x-over route. Bob Crites makes awesome original crossovers (Type A & AA) from Paul W. Klipsch orginal specifications. I just hooked up a pair & they sound very, very good.

Good Luck, have fun & enjoy!

i took the advice & went to the klipsch forum,wow what a mess it is there,if you want to get your system trashed by a bunch of guys who dream of 1 day owning a optonica or a bose wave radio its the place to go but i wont be going back,i looked around in other area's of the klipsch site & its pretty sad,everybody throwing insults around & questions being answered by people who dont know when to be serious & when not to be,as much sweat as we all put into our gear its hard to believe that even a fool would behave the way they do,that kind of site might be fun for some but it isnt even in the same league as audiogon!