Cornwalls? Altecs? Save me from myself!

[Carl G]

Just buy my Valencia 846B's and be done with it. They need a good home! lol

The above might be the best suggestion thus far. I've owned Cornwalls, Fortes and A7s and various modded versions of Valencia 846As, Belles, and Klipschorns. Certainly, the jump from Fortes to Cornwalls or big Altecs will give you a larger sound, but I've always preferred the sound of certain Altecs to that of Cornwalls. The mid horn for the Cornwall is undersized and shrill when pushed to any decent volume, and can be unpleasant even with tubes. Hence, some Klipsch modders have kept the Cornwall bass cabinet and replaced the upper end with similar horns that are in the K-horn or LaScala (nicknamed the Cornscala). Strangely enough, I have found the mid horn of the Forte I to be smoother than the Cornwall's mid horn (even given the relative sizes). That being said, I found the Cornwall II's mid horn to be an improvement over the original so if you are going the Cornwall route, you may want to look for a pair of Cornwall IIs.

As for bass, the Cornwalls do load the room with bass - especially for rock 'n roll. Valencia 846Bs are also great rock 'n roll speakers, but have a much smoother horn (811s). Some of the older Altec drivers did not extend up high enough for my taste, and if that is your experience, you could always add a tweeter up top (which is what I did) or change drivers (902, 906) to gain upper end frequency extension. I also prefer the Valencia's bass as being slightly tighter sounding than the Cornwalls, but there are many fans of the Cornwall bass response.

I'd say that the quest is worth it, but given the two choices, I'd go Altec. Of course, I'll always encourage the quest as I have little room to talk.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Cornwalls are good, I owned and liked them. I traded them to my best friend for some Altec 605As, I like those better. He likes the Cornwalls better.

IMO Altecs are just smoother and more natural sounding, especially in the midrange. I've seen many Klipsch users mod their Klipsches with Altec drivers and horns or go over to Altec but I've only seen one Altec guy go to Klipsch. You'll never see an Altec guy say "hey, how about replacing that 802-G with a Klipsch bullhorn driver?"

Get Model Nineteens if possible, if not next best get late model 8 ohm Valencias and build Model Nineteen crossovers for them.

Avoid A7s unless you're prepared for somewhat weak low bass.

My opinions ya understand.

 

[Bauhausler]

Cornwalls are good, I owned and liked them. I traded them to my best friend for some Altec 605As, I like those better. He likes the Cornwalls better.

IMO Altecs are just smoother and more natural sounding, especially in the midrange. I've seen many Klipsch users mod their Klipsches with Altec drivers and horns or go over to Altec but I've only seen one Altec guy go to Klipsch. You'll never see an Altec guy say "hey, how about replacing that 802-G with a Klipsch bullhorn driver?"

Get Model Nineteens if possible, if not next best get late model 8 ohm Valencias and build Model Nineteen crossovers for them.

Avoid A7s unless you're prepared for somewhat weak low bass.

My opinions ya understand.

I had K-Horns and La Scalas here, as well as Lowthers in Fidelio cabinets. I have Altec 19s now that I used more hours than all of the others put together. They have to go away, as I have moved on to other things, but I will miss them. By far the best looking big sensitive speaker, to my eye, although I'll admit to being hugely impressed by DGWOJO's Cameo White VOTTs. A friend was over here today who wants to lend me the Cornwalls I'll be eBaying off for him. He's keeping his K-horns. I'd take him up on the Cornwall offer, but we're pretty speaker-heavy in here at the moment, having acquired 5 pairs in 2 weeks (Celestion 5's, EPI M50s, Soundcraftsmen Lancers, JBL C38/D130/075/N2400, JBL C36/LE14A/LE20). No room for Cornwalls, even after I tossed 4 dead cabs this morning.

 

[Redboy]

Just buy my Valencia 846B's and be done with it. They need a good home! lol

Too bad you're in TX, or I'd take you seriously...

...of course, there's always the famed AK pony express. That would be one hell of a pony ride! :yes:

 

[dgwojo]

By far the best looking big sensitive speaker, to my eye, although I'll admit to being hugely impressed by DGWOJO's Cameo White VOTTs.

Those are stock plywood A7-500-8's, the original owner painted them white for more WAF but it didn't work and I ended up with them, they have 416-8A, 511B, N501-8A, 802-8D drivers, Dave. :yes:

PS - I think the guy said he bought these at Sun Appliance in Columbus Ohio, I don't know much about that store. :scratch2:

 

[mhardy6647]

When I brought the Cornwalls home and set them up, my wife took one listen, and then gave me her "bedroom eyes" look.

I think it's safe to say that pmsummer's in the minority on this front

The mid horn for the Cornwall is undersized and shrill when pushed to any decent volume, and can be unpleasant even with tubes.

What he said. For evidence, listen to (parts of) Alison Krauss's vocal on the lovely song "Ghost in this House" on AK & Union Station "Live".

 

[analog addict]

I'm not real flush on info....

What exactly is the "Green Monster"? I saw it posted in the pics of the NC gathering but was curious as to who the maker is and any other info you wish to provide.

...Here's a link to a past e-pray auction describing the G.M. It's a custom built 60 WPC (according to Cableguy ) green painted tube amp that apparently is auto/self biasing with a whole host of output tubes. I've e-mailed the seller/builder for some more info, and actually forget to ask him for the specs, but will when I hear from him....Cableguy may be able to provide more specifics....

:thmbsp:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290085592825#description

 

[JimJ[VT]]

Eek...why do Altec prices have to be so insane

All I'm trying to do is piece together something for $500...possible or no?

 

[macaltec]

Eek...why do Altec prices have to be so insane

All I'm trying to do is piece together something for $500...possible or no?

It's possible :yes: .

 

[geaugafletcher]

PS - I think the guy said he bought these at Sun Appliance in Columbus Ohio, I don't know much about that store. :scratch2:

When I was a lad near Cleveland, Sun Appliance sold ... appliances! Maybe a few SoundDesign and Yorx type things, but Altecs?

 

[dgwojo]

When I was a lad near Cleveland, Sun Appliance sold ... appliances! Maybe a few SoundDesign and Yorx type things, but Altecs?

I'd find it strange but the Clarkins department store on Brookpark in Cleveland also sold A7's, Tokyo Shapiro had a space in the middle of the store and they carried all the Altecs, they were called the "Voice of the Bathroom" by the salesmen, they hated them due to their size and lack of mobility, Dave.

 

[macaltec]

"Voice of the Bathroom" That's funny. Mine are known as "The Voice of the Neighborhood". What'll be said when I get 3 pairs going :scratch2: ???

 

[avguytx]

Mine are still sitting here...just waiting. Wanting someone with a nice size room and some tubes to run them! lol

I may have to lug them back in here and hook them to my Carver amp and preamp when they come back in tomorrow. I had them completely gone thru and updated by Rita and Mylinda (formerly of Phase Linear and Carver). I'm excited.

 

[Mike Stehr]

Eek...why do Altec prices have to be so insane

All I'm trying to do is piece together something for $500...possible or no?

With Altec parts? You could easily dump 500 on a pair of raw Altec woofers, or start with some Altec horns or something, maybe with drivers.

I pretty sure what 604 Duplexes pop up for sale are pretty spendy, I'd love to hear a pair sometime.
Love to hear a pair of Tannoys sometime as well, again they ain't cheap.

From listening to various speakers and frankenspeaker combinations with a local audio buddy for the last 6 years, then one that seems to really stand out to me was the B&C 12CXT. He really liked it as well.
It was a 12" concentric, kind of like a Tannoy.
It only had a fs of 50 Hz, but in a 4 foot cabinet tuned to 35 Hz it kicked out bass, and was getting better as the suspension wore in. Smooth and really balanced sound. The boogied with 2A3 SET amp, and didn't sound thin or boomy with a older Mitsubishi SS Pre/power amp.

I know if I had 500 bucks to pony up for speakers, the B&C's are 250 each.
But that's me.....
Build some sort of towers with the drivers ear level.....poor man's Tannoys.
I may have to save up for a pair......

I like what Tom Brennan mentioned once about the Cornwall. Good and balanced sound, but a little rough.

 

[cabinover]

On the shrillness of Cornwall midhorn...

For evidence, listen to (parts of) Alison Krauss's vocal on the lovely song "Ghost in this House" on AK & Union Station "Live".

I don't remember the mid on my Cornwalls but I can tell you that with the 511B/807 combo for the mids and the CW bottom and tweeter it's breathtaking Mark.

 

[mhardy6647]

Sounds pretty good on Quad ESL's too
(also on Edgarhorn Titans with TAD and JBL drivers, but that's another story...)

 

[barrynsue]

I keep hearing how nice the Quad ESL's sound! I have a papir of beautiful 57's that have been sitting for nearly 2 years and I have never even attemted to hook them up. Not sure why but I think it may be time after I charge them up.

I still need to hook up my Altec 19's in my main system and have a new pair of ZU Druids that I may just need to sell as they may NEVER get listened to

 

[mhardy6647]

If the (tweeter, especially) panels haven't been arced, they're probably OK -- depending upon age. They'll play after a few minutes' charging, and, IME, they'll play properly after a few hours (overnight is good). The trickiest thing is their extremely limited vertical dispersion (15 degrees) -- I am still struggling with placement of mine.

You probably already know the on-line Quad resources -- if not, let me know and I can post or PM them.

Here's a bad photo of one of my ESL-57's (and, no, I don't listen to them in the corner -- at least, not when I can help it!)