Advice for rewiring Klipsch Cornwalls

[efhjr]

I opened my 1977 Klipsch Cornwalls, yesterday just to peek around and get an idea of what shape the wires and such were in. I don't think the speakers had ever been opened before, and I was surprised at how dead-simple it all was in there.

It got me to thinking that it'd be dead-simple to replace and upgrade the wiring and binding posts. I'd appreciate advice and opinions about good wire, hardware, and so on for doing this -- those spades have got to go. They sound so good with the stock wire, I can't help but wonder how much better they'll be with pure, single-strand copper or silver.

I think that after the wire's replaced I'll start thinking about rebuilding the crossover. But that's gonna take some time -- I'm still a newbie with a soldering iron.

 

[mhardy6647]

I wouldn't recommend rewiring unless you have some obvious deficiency. If you do choose to rewire, I would recommend reversible modifications... like it or not, the original Klipsch "Heritage" speakers are collector's items now and will be even more so in the future... and they'll be worth more unmolested. Sorry to be so mercenary See also my comment at the bottom of this post.

Before attacking the wiring, have you damped the horns (esp. the MR horn)? If not, that's a good place to start on sonic improvements.

Since the back of the Cornwall is nothing but a big (unbraced) piece of plywood with (at least on my 1974's) a barrier terminal strip, I have been seriously considering making a new, externally braced back with "modern" speaker connectors (dual 5-way jacks). At that point, why, yes, I would probably replace the wiring from the back to the XO, for neatness' sake.

IIRC all the wiring inside my Cornwalls have spade lug terminations, so rewiring could be done in an "environmentally friendly" way.

 

[fredt300b]

Several Possibilities

The Cornwalls are great speakers, but the capacitors in yours are about 25 years old, and caps don't last forever. Also, the inductors are iron core types, and modern copper foil air cores provide better performance. I made several modifications to mine in several steps. First, I replaced the speaker wire connectors becasue none of my speaker wires fit the old ones. Second, I replaced the iron core inductor with a 12 guage air core and replaced the caps with Auricaps. This resulted in a significant improvement in the treble, which had all but gone missing with the old paper in oil caps. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and build a pair of ALK crossovers - the improvement with these was nothing less than phenomenal (which is should be considering the $300 cost for the parts). You can find info on the ALK crossover in the Klipsch forum. Al doesn't make these for the Cornwall anymore because of the cost, but he has posted a schematic, parts list, and photos of the completed crossover. I also reinforced the back of the enclosure with a full sized piece of 3/4" mdf and replaced the paper sound absorbing material inside with 3" fiberglass insulation. Or, as I said, the Cornwalls are great speakers and you could just leave them as they are. Email me if you would like to drive to Houston to hear mine. Also, some of my fellow members of the Lone Star Bottleheads have Cornwalls and have brought them to meetings, the next of which is in Austin on the 1st Saturday in October. Join us to hear some great horns and SET's.

 

[fredt300b]

Several Possibilities

The Cornwalls are great speakers, but the capacitors in yours are about 25 years old, and caps don't last forever. Also, the inductors are iron core types, and modern copper foil air cores provide better performance. I made several modifications to mine in several steps. First, I replaced the speaker wire connectors becasue none of my speaker wires fit the old ones. Second, I replaced the iron core inductor with a 12 guage air core and replaced the caps with Auricaps. This resulted in a significant improvement in the treble, which had all but gone missing with the old paper in oil caps. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and build a pair of ALK crossovers - the improvement with these was nothing less than phenomenal (which is should be considering the $300 cost for the parts). You can find info on the ALK crossover in the Klipsch forum. Al doesn't make these for the Cornwall anymore because of the cost, but he has posted a schematic, parts list, and photos of the completed crossover. I also reinforced the back of the enclosure with a full sized piece of 3/4" mdf and replaced the paper sound absorbing material inside with 3" fiberglass insulation. Or, as I said, the Cornwalls are great speakers and you could just leave them as they are. Email me if you would like to drive to Houston to hear mine. Also, some of my fellow members of the Lone Star Bottleheads have Cornwalls and have brought them to meetings, the next of which is in Austin on the 1st Saturday in October. Join us to hear some great horns and SET's.

 

[MikE]

Related Link

MikE

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=31414

 

[efhjr]

Re: Several Possibilities

Originally posted by fredt300b
Also, some of my fellow members of the Lone Star Bottleheads have Cornwalls and have brought them to meetings, the next of which is in Austin on the 1st Saturday in October. Join us to hear some great horns and SET's.

Thanks for the info, Fred. I'll definitely try to attend the Austin meeting -- I had a lot of fun at the last Bottlehead meeting in San Antonio.

This week I am rewiring the Cornwalls with DNM Reson copper wire. I intend to go straight from the amp to the speaker -- I'll remove the spade connections and go straight to the internal connection terminal. I'm sure that'll be quite an improvement.