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Advice: New Amp for Klipsch Cornwall I Speakers

Will2225

Will2225

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Hi, I have a beautiful pair of Klipsch Cornwall I speakers that sound wonderful with my Fisher 500c. I recently sold another pair of speakers and am looking to see if I can upgrade my amplifier with this cash. I'm looking at SET amps by decware, the new rogue sphinx v3 amp looks good, and I'm also intrigued by the Cambridge audio cax 81. Anyone using SET amps with Cornwalls or have any recommendations for an amp around 1500 or less?
 
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I ran mine with McIntosh SS and a cheap Chinese tube amp. Both sounded great. The nice think is that they are so efficient, anything will drive them.

I'd look for a nice tube amp.
 
I'm using a giant 2 watts with my Cornscalas. I also rotate in a Magnavox 196 SE el84 amp with great results.
 
In my experience, it’s hard to beat a properly restored 500c. They are limited in the amount of modern components that can be used but, with a quality turntable, magic. That and they have enough current, for lack of a better term, to move those 15” woofers. Just my humble $.02.
 
The last thing I would buy is an SET amp with their compromised designs and poorly made transformers, There distortions are to high the frequency response all over the neighborhood and the distortions are many times to high. If I had unlimited funds and wanted to use tubes I would use a Mac MC 30 or 60. For modern sound a MC 275 MK IV pre-owned to save a little money. With an unlimited budget a Accuphase Class A integrated SS amp.

Yes SET have a sound all their own. Just like a Beatle VW had it own driving experience. But for a proven performance I would not own either especially with the fine speakers you own. To save a dollar if you want a smooth sound I would want a restored MA 6200 Mcintosh, or just for an amp a MC 752 SS amp.
 
In my experience you will need at least 5 watts tube amplifier power if you want decent bass. i have many tube amplifiers both SE and PP. I have a SE 45 tube amplifier with just a couple of watts and the mids and highs are fantastic but the bass but not outstanding. You will find that most SE tube amplifiers do not have outstanding bass, low damping factor. That being said my SE 300B amplifier has very good bass with the best sound I have heard in a SE amplifier. PP tube amplifiers have very good bass and if designed properly sound really good. There are some very good tube Chinese amplifiers available now at fantastic prices. Steve Gittenberg on youtube has a good review. Nelson Pass in a recent interview admitted as much as well.

In a SS amplifier I would look for at least 25 watts in a good quality amplifier.
 
Here’s my advice/opinion. I’ve been using a variety of Klipsch speakers for over 35 years.
Started out with KG4’s then Chorus I’s then k-horns then Heresy, plus some other KG speakers. Still have all with the exception of the Chorus’s, which BTW are great speakers also.

Anyway I started out with all Adcom, then went to all Sansui, which I still have and use, then to tubes. IMO. The Sansui Cap-Coupled amps and receivers sound best to me. Tube amps I use are a Dynaco ST-35, Scott 222b, and a SET amp. To ME the best sounding tube amps were the Dynaco and Scott. (Approximately 15watts/side each). I feel the PP amps have more dynamics and headroom. Could definitely tell the difference in the lower registers with the PP amps, as in it was more pronounced and balanced.

So if I had to choose one of the three SS, SET or PP, it would be a either the Dynaco or the Scott. I do use the SS amps yet, but the magic of the tubes amps is missing with SS.

My opinion, in my setting, in my home. YMMV.
 
When it comes to sound tubes still rule. That being said there are some SS amps that sound really good with a tube sound. I have 7 complete First Watt clones I have built that sound very much like tube amplifiers. Most of them use mosfets that behave like pentode tubes when you look at the curves on an oscilloscope. Right now I am using a very good sounding class A/B amplifier called a gainclone to listen with. Cost practically nothing to build for the sound you will have. Peter Daniels sells a complete amplifier already built by him for $1200, or at least he used to. Excellent class A/B amplifier that has stellar reviews from many sources. Most listeners these days prefer SS over tube amplifiers.
 
I found a good deal on a Dennis had inspire amp, and for the money I think that's my best option. If for nothing else but the sake of experimentation, I think it's worthwhile. It uses kt66 and kt88s and puts out about 6 or 10 watts respectively in a Single Ended Pentode design. The price is very good and I've wanted to try a single ended class A tube amp.
 
This sounds interesting, I'll have to look up the kit for the gaineclone. I'd love to build something if it's not too expensive.


wdecho said:
When it comes to sound tubes still rule. That being said there are some SS amps that sound really good with a tube sound. I have 7 complete First Watt clones I have built that sound very much like tube amplifiers. Most of them use mosfets that behave like pentode tubes when you look at the curves on an oscilloscope. Right now I am using a very good sounding class A/B amplifier called a gainclone to listen with. Cost practically nothing to build for the sound you will have. Peter Daniels sells a complete amplifier already built by him for $1200, or at least he used to. Excellent class A/B amplifier that has stellar reviews from many sources. Most listeners these days prefer SS over tube amplifiers.
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Valis16 said:
I second the Mc tube amp suggestion. I run my Fortes with an Mc225 and it is sensational sounding.
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I would love to buy a Mac tube amp but unfortunately I think it's a little beyond my budget. I was all set on buying this Dennis had inspire amp but unfortunately the sale got away from me. I'm still very interested in an upgraded decware amp with two silver inputs, one variable output and a few other mods. It's American made and it's about 6wpc. Plus I like the aesthetic of it, and it seems like a great company. If I'm not satisfied I'm pretty sureIsure can sell it again without taking too much of a loss. It's price is 1,100 and it looks in great condition. I doubt I'd be able to find any good Mac gear in the same range.
 
You would be surprised how great some of the new Class D amplifiers sound. My favorite is the TPA3255 board you can buy on Ebay for like $65. Buy a switching power supply from Parts express and you will have top notch sound. I have 2 TPA3255 amplifiers, one the original Texas Instruments board and one I bought from Ebay. Sound the same to me so save money on the Ebay Chinese boards. I built both my amplifiers with linear supplies but many have had great results with a Meanwell supply from Parts Express.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...tpa+3255.TRS0&_nkw=tpa3255+amplifier&_sacat=0

This PS will be adequate with our speakers but for full output you will need the more expensive one.

https://www.parts-express.com/mean-...g-power-supply-ac-adapter-with-powe--320-3169
https://www.parts-express.com/mean-...0w-regulated-power-supply-ac-adapter--320-317
 
Depending on your needs (how loud you might want to play it), I went through a handful of tube amps....

McIntosh MC-30's
McIntosh MC-2102
Quad II's
Viva 300B SE
Wright 2A3 SET
Jolida ??
Transcendent SE-OTL (1 1/2 watt per monoblock, bridgeable to 4 watts each, I had two)

I think that's all of them.

Of those, the ones that sounded the most spooky real were the OTL amps.

Personally, if I ever got back into tube amps, I'd be looking at OTL's first.
 
Coytee said:
Depending on your needs (how loud you might want to play it), I went through a handful of tube amps....

McIntosh MC-30's
McIntosh MC-2102
Quad II's
Viva 300B SE
Wright 2A3 SET
Jolida ??
Transcendent SE-OTL (1 1/2 watt per monoblock, bridgeable to 4 watts each, I had two)

I think that's all of them.

Of those, the ones that sounded the most spooky real were the OTL amps.

Personally, if I ever got back into tube amps, I'd be looking at OTL's first.
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I decided to go with the decware Rachel amp for now. It has the inputs I need and I love the design. I'll definitely do more research into OTL tube amps for future purchases.

I also think I might try to build that gained clone amp a previous user mentioned as a project. It's a very low initial cost and seems like a fun project.
 
wdecho said:
You would be surprised how great some of the new Class D amplifiers sound. My favorite is the TPA3255 board you can buy on Ebay for like $65. Buy a switching power supply from Parts express and you will have top notch sound. I have 2 TPA3255 amplifiers, one the original Texas Instruments board and one I bought from Ebay. Sound the same to me so save money on the Ebay Chinese boards. I built both my amplifiers with linear supplies but many have had great results with a Meanwell supply from Parts Express.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...tpa+3255.TRS0&_nkw=tpa3255+amplifier&_sacat=0

This PS will be adequate with our speakers but for full output you will need the more expensive one.

https://www.parts-express.com/mean-...g-power-supply-ac-adapter-with-powe--320-3169
https://www.parts-express.com/mean-...0w-regulated-power-supply-ac-adapter--320-317
Click to expand...

Do you have any links to good threads on how to build these? I'm definitely curious and I've found some information but I need to dig deeper to see if I can build it myself. I enjoy making component cables and can sodder reasonably well but I've never done something on this scale.
 
No building really. Much like hooking up speakers. Just hook up switching power supply, input, speakers and listen. For the price you should give them a go. I think you will be surprised with the sound. For me class A rules but just in a tiny bit. Many of the manufacturers of audio have switched to class D. I have tried close to a dozen of the class D boards available over the years and the TPA3255 is the best I have heard. Just look at the Ebay link above and you can see they are some that are already assembled waiting for the switching power supply. Class D is the way of the future for the general public manufacturers of amplifiers.
 
I was using a DG-SE1 maggie el84 build on my cornwalls to much delight... until I recently built myself a 2a3 SET amp with electra print iron driven by d3a in triode. As noted above, the 2a3 is a little shy in the bass department, but with cornwalls sounds divine. I won't be changing the set up for a while! Lots of folks say the bottlehead amps are great, and I think they fall in your budget.

I would not be shy of going SET
 
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