Need some new speakers...

[Zebo]

Ok have really old hifi stuff and my speakers the woofer is going bye bye....called Klipsh cornwalls .. really big with 15" subs in them and loud as hell if you want it to be...pushing with equally old 500W x 2 NAD amp.....had them since 1991. Anyway I went to BB and all they have is the small speakers anymore. Whats the deal with that? Don't they make big floor standing speakers anymore?

Have speakers got that much more efficient?

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Ok have really old hifi stuff and my speakers the woofer is going bye bye....called Klipsh cornwalls .. really big with 15" subs in them and loud as hell if you want it to be...pushing with equally old 500W x 2 NAD amp.....had them since 1991. Anyway I went to BB and all they have is the small speakers anymore. Whats the deal with that? Don't they make big floor standing speakers anymore?

Have speakers got that much more efficient?

I actually just bought a pair of Klipsh Synergy tower speakers on boxing day from BB, fantastic price for what they output. $249 for the pair of large towers.

http://www.technofile.com/articles/klipsch_synergy.asp

 

[alfa147x]

You also need to post in the right section...

 

[venkman]

just hang around a gas station in the ghetto and wait for the white van to come around. Best Drenon and Klisph speakers in town.

 

[alfa147x]

just hang around a gas station in the ghetto and wait for the white van to come around. Best drenon and klisph speakers in town.

seeoiusrly!!! Brb!!

 

[rchiu]

Heh, going to BB and you expect to find good stuff? try www.audiogon.com

 

[Zebo]

I actually just bought a pair of Klipsh Synergy tower speakers on boxing day from BB, fantastic price for what they output. $249 for the pair of large towers.

http://www.technofile.com/articles/klipsch_synergy.asp

Seems like an excellent price but I only need 2 speakers. Have a different setup for HT. This is for my man cave. e.g. garage.

 

[NutBucket]

You need to go to a real audio store, not BB. Why not fix the cornwalls? They're great speakers (as you know) and well worth repairing. Just my $0.02.

And speakers haven't gotten more efficient; people have lost their sense of hearing thanks to iPods and MP3s. They wouldn't know good sound if it hit them in the head. All they see is small speakers and think they sound great. Its all marketing hype. I refuse to give up my "large" (though not nearly as large as yours) speakers. High end audio still has large speakers. A true audiophile wouldn't touch a small speaker but would love your pair.

 

[ManBearPig]

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38

 

[Rubycon]

I don't know if the OP is posting seriously or not...

The Cornwall is a horn loaded system. The bass driver is not a subwoofer. It's called a woofer. The drivers are well made and can take considerable abuse compared to home speakers of today.

Klipsch speakers you find at Best Buy are quite different from those designed by Paul Klipsch! He is rolling in his grave today at the thought of overseas labor (slaves) assembling plastic parts - cheap knockoff designs of the real thing!

Take a look at the old, original compression driver and compare that to one of those wimpy horns you see in the new stuff. There is no comparison.

Efficiency? You got it with the old speakers. The new ones just don't have a BIG sound. Bass is exaggerated, loose and out of control most of the time and quite non musical. A kettle drum should have a tight dry sound not a rolling sound that flaps like dumbo farting in an oversized rain barrel. Elephants should not eat Taco Bell...

You can get parts and repairs still for these speakers! Hold on to them and fix them up! Many third parties out there offer services and are highly recommended. http://www.critesspeakers.com is one such place.

 

[Zebo]

You need to go to a real audio store, not BB. Why not fix the cornwalls? They're great speakers (as you know) and well worth repairing. Just my $0.02.

And speakers haven't gotten more efficient; people have lost their sense of hearing thanks to iPods and MP3s. They wouldn't know good sound if it hit them in the head. All they see is small speakers and think they sound great. Its all marketing hype. I refuse to give up my "large" (though not nearly as large as yours) speakers. High end audio still has large speakers. A true audiophile wouldn't touch a small speaker but would love your pair.

You know bro that's what I was thinking - they all sounded a little tingy light weight but I thought maybe it's I'm old or maybe it's surroundings or maybe it's the amp. I was terrified to buy them though. You're right call klipsch an see about repairing..

 

[Zebo]

I don't know if the OP is posting seriously or not...

The Cornwall is a horn loaded system. The bass driver is not a subwoofer. It's called a woofer. The drivers are well made and can take considerable abuse compared to home speakers of today.

Klipsch speakers you find at Best Buy are quite different from those designed by Paul Klipsch! He is rolling in his grave today at the thought of overseas labor (slaves) assembling plastic parts - cheap knockoff designs of the real thing!

Take a look at the old, original compression driver and compare that to one of those wimpy horns you see in the new stuff. There is no comparison.

Efficiency? You got it with the old speakers. The new ones just don't have a BIG sound. Bass is exaggerated, loose and out of control most of the time and quite non musical. A kettle drum should have a tight dry sound not a rolling sound that flaps like dumbo farting in an oversized rain barrel. Elephants should not eat Taco Bell...

You can get parts and repairs still for these speakers! Hold on to them and fix them up! Many third parties out there offer services and are highly recommended. http://www.critesspeakers.com is one such place.

Thanks ruby

 

[NutBucket]

Nah, you've been spoiled by good speakers. Its that simple. To buy something new equivalent to what you have would run you a couple thousand easy I would say.

Is the woofer actually blown or is the surround shot?

 

[Zebo]

Nah, you've been spoiled by good speakers. Its that simple. To buy something new equivalent to what you have would run you a couple thousand easy I would say.

Is the woofer actually blown or is the surround shot?

The black rubbery substance around speaker is cracked/split and every so often it makes a bzzz sound.

 

[iGas]

My dad was a Klipsch fan, and his Klipsch Chorus was very good & loud for classical music, but I much prefer my old trusty quad Boston Acoustic A-100.

 

[iGas]

The black rubbery substance around speaker is cracked/split and every so often it makes a bzzz sound.

As long as the cone isn't damage, you can buy foam repair kit for your speakers. I repaired all 4 woofers on my A-100, and it sound exactly the same after the repair as before.

Nah, you've been spoiled by good speakers. Its that simple. To buy something new equivalent to what you have would run you a couple thousand easy I would say.

I'm not sure how much it would cost to replace my A-100s, but it cost me $1200 CAD in 1988 for 4 speakers (it was used price for 2 years old speakers).

If I remember correctly the Klipsch Chorus (or was it Cornwall) cost my dad around $2K CAD for the pair.

They are decent speakers but there are many that are much better than what we got.

 

[EvilYoda]

Cornwalls are great speakers! If you're not careful, you might end up never getting out of the upgrade cycle with Klipsch's. xo's, driver mods, etc.

And you should also look into some of the more affordable tube amplifiers as the high efficiency of the Cornwalls is just begging for some triode action.

 

[dawp]

I would deffently repair them, new speakers just dont sound as good as the high quality old ones do. I have some KLH linear Dynamics sa1212x speakers that were given to me and they sound so much better than my newer infinity entra ones I have.

 

[PM650]

Those are indeed good speakers - you should at least get them fixed up and possibly do a comparison between whatever speakers you can buy (and also return ) or borrow. Then just decide to keep them or not - if not, sell the cornwalls and put the money towards the cost of the new ones. I have a feeling that you won't be too impressed with a lot of newer speakers, depending on how use to those klipschs you are.

You should, however, not use them when the surround has disintegrated enough that it buzzes - the voice-coil former is probably rubbing on the pole piece, which is not good if you don't want to be replacing the voice coils as well. Replacing just the surrounds is usually an easy diy job though.

 

[Squisher]

I have Cornwalls too. I can't imagine what you would have to do to them to wear them out. I have to think mine sound as good as when I bought them. I definitely would think about repairing them.

However, if I was buying speakers today I would probably not buy them. When playing back CDs they seem a little too bright (I don't do the mp3). Back when I bought them the center piece of my system was a turntable and maybe a cassette once in a while. With this as a source they sound plenty warm still today.

 

[Zebo]

I have Cornwalls too. I can't imagine what you would have to do to them to wear them out. I have to think mine sound as good as when I bought them. I definitely would think about repairing them.

However, if I was buying speakers today I would probably not buy them. When playing back CDs they seem a little too bright (I don't do the mp3). Back when I bought them the center piece of my system was a turntable and maybe a cassette once in a while. With this as a source they sound plenty warm still today.

I've kicked them, bumped them, they come out during our annual 4th of July party, been rained on, kids mess em and so forth. Like I said there in a stand alone garage. e.g my cave and are generally man handled through the years (unsellable I'm sure). Will do on repair I did not know they were so valued....wonder what my velodne ULD18 is worth I paid almost 2k for it...

 

[Meghan54]

Like has been said, if it's only the surrounds that have rotted away, just get them redone. Only course of action that makes sense.

Get rid of the Cornwalls and you'll regret it....for a loooong time.

 

[Rubycon]

The surrounds on these are accordion cloth like most pro audio drivers - not foam or rubber stuff. Should last a while unless physically damaged or stored in a place that exposes them to temperature extremes. Best way to test the woofers is hook your PC up to an amp and drive them with a few volts of sine wave at lower frequencies sweeping slowly to hear for rubbing.

You can get complete recones (replaces everything on top of the basket) or just the surround kits if the cone, dust cap, former and spider are in good shape. If the former has rubbed on the pole piece for a while a complete recone is required to restore sound to 100%.

You can also check the high frequency driver by doing the same just with higher frequency. Start at 1kHz. If there is any buzzing or harmonics your diaphragm is bad and should be changed, Note that some amps can produce distortion that's audible at this frequency if their bias is wrong so you may want to verify with another driver (or headphone) if you hear distortion with this test on both speakers.

Horn speakers are often criticized for being harsh. Many times this is the fault of the amplifier not the speaker! Some amplifiers produce highest distortion at lower levels (only to increase rapidly at the onset of voltage/current clipping as their power supply reaches its limit). Since horns are so darn efficient operating at comfortable listening levels puts some amps in the range where distortion is apparent. Switching to a direct radiator (i.e. cones and domes) speaker with much less efficiency results in the amplifier operating at a higher level (and outside of the range of producing audible distortion) and thus the sound is more pleasing to the ear. The listener immediately places the blame on the speaker!

This is why Paul Klipsch used to say all people need is a GOOD 5W amplifier. Indeed with the original Klipschorn producing 108dB 1W/M per pair with room gain one did not need a powerful amplifier to drive them! People will tell you a 30W tube amp is for the "over 30 crowd". Perhaps on a pair of 86dB/1W/1M bookshelf speakers! On a sensitive horn loaded system the valvebox sounds phenomenal. Highly recommended!

 

[iRONic]

To add to the din; YES, fix your Cornwalls! Follow Ruby's links to Bob Crites store.

There's also lots of help here:

Linky

and spare parts abound here:

Linky

Over the course of the last 16 months I bought my La scalas, Crites CT-125 tweeters, and the Crites A/4500 crossovers there. Good folks.

 

[Squisher]

Horn speakers are often criticized for being harsh. Many times this is the fault of the amplifier not the speaker! Some amplifiers produce highest distortion at lower levels (only to increase rapidly at the onset of voltage/current clipping as their power supply reaches its limit). Since horns are so darn efficient operating at comfortable listening levels puts some amps in the range where distortion is apparent. Switching to a direct radiator (i.e. cones and domes) speaker with much less efficiency results in the amplifier operating at a higher level (and outside of the range of producing audible distortion) and thus the sound is more pleasing to the ear. The listener immediately places the blame on the speaker!

I have Nakimichi AV-10 pushing a Tanberg 3003 A amp. According to the tech that fixed my amp 15 years ago, the 3003 A could be mistaken for a McIntosh amp on the inside. Both are considered fairly laid back and still I find myself dragging out vinyl when I really want to enjoy my music. Maybe one day when my ship comes in I'll venture into tubes