Looking for advice with Cornwalls

[Christian B]

Probably easier to refer to the early Cornwalls as vertical or horizontal and leave CW II for the ones where front mounted drivers started, circa 1986.

You are absolutely correct. That's the usual description, and probably how I should have described them.
I didn't notice that the op had CWIIs, which are obviously very different from my earlier ones. I was trying to show the original workmanship of the crossovers and wiring and the type and placement of the padding, since his crossovers and wiring did not look original to me. As a friend of mine likes to say, too much hustle.

@Damien A will have a nice pair of speakers when he's done.

 

[whoaru99]

Inside view of my late model Cornwall I.

Bear in mind they have the Crites tweeter assyz, mid drivers, and Crites "Gold" crossovers in them.

Padding and woofer is original though, afaik.




Far as a "vertical" or "horizontal" CW, not sure what the right moniker is but to me it would refer to the intended orientation of the whole speaker. Vertical Cornwall would have horizontal horn, horizontal Cornwall would have vertical horn.

 

[Christian B]

Nice Cornwalls @whoaru99 but actually vertical refers to the orientation of the motorboard. It's somewhat counterintuitive, but the narrow dimension of the horn is the dimension with the widest dispersion, so an up and down orientation will give more dispersion horizontally. This is based on basic physics (Huygen's principle). Depending on whether you want more horizontal or more vertical dispersion you mount the horns accordingly.

The original Cornwalls had the port in the back - a narrow slot like the Shorthorn's. The horns were mounted vertically so that if the owner decided to place the speaker on its side, the tweeter would still be as close to ear level as possible. When the ports were moved to front, the speaker became the "Cornwall II," with existing labels "updated" with a rubber stamp. Eventually the labels ran out. PWK or someone got bored with the designation "Cornwall II" and the name reverted to plain old "Cornwall." Sometime in late 1974 the horns were switched to horizontal - since, according to PWK, hardly anyone was putting the speakers on their sides anyway and this would minimize the shipping problems of keeping matched pairs together from assembly line to dealer to purchaser, remember that these Verticals are mirror imaged, and the ports increased from two to three - I would guess for structural reasons. Later, in the eighties, the design was revised again, with new drivers mounted on the fronts of the cabinets and the backs sealed, and the Cornwall II designation was revived for these.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Inside view of my late model Cornwall I.

Bear in mind they have the Crites tweeter assyz, mid drivers, and Crites "Gold" crossovers in them.

Padding and woofer is original though, afaik.

View attachment 3819890


Far as a "vertical" or "horizontal" CW, not sure what the right moniker is but to me it would refer to the intended orientation of the whole speaker. Vertical Cornwall would have horizontal horn, horizontal Cornwall would have vertical horn.

Sometimes I wonder if the best mod to a Cornwall would be to leave everything but the woofer alone and replace that with an Altec 416 and get that magic Technicolor midrange going. There's a pair of CWs for sale cheap locally and I'm tempted to buy them so I could tri-amp them with my AC-650 and put in some 416s I recently got.

 

[whoaru99]

@Tom Brennan

Don't know how that would go, but certainly those 416 are well regarded. Aside from maybe in an old movie theater for screen speakers I don't believe I've ever heard any of the big/bigger Altecs playing music. The closest in that regard, and it's distant, would be the Boleros I bought from JohnVF at his place many years ago.

The Cornwalls came to me with all the mods I mentioned so I've ever only heard them that way.