It sounds fantastic! Stick with a class A, 550 or 590, both will have more power than you’ll ever need
I owned the 590AXII and really loved the sound. However, in my opinion, you're better off pairing your Cornwalls with a nice tube amp. The Luxman is more on the neutral side with just a hint of sweetness/warmth. Plus you don't really need that much power with these speakers. There are many excellent class A tube amps -- I owned the Audio Hungary Qualiton a50i and considered it to be better (for my tastes, of course) than Luxman 590AXII. |
I've owned the CW IV, for solid state the Naim Uniti Nova was an excellent match. The Uniti Nova provides a ton of value as an integrated amp, DAC, and streamer.If budget is an issue you'll save on components and cabling. For tubes, I really liked the Audio Note Cobra and Triode Lab 2A3. The AN Cobra also had a capable built in DAC. Solid state had the advantage for tight bass, tubes win in the midrange. Voices with the 2A3 were scary real.
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you’re using 275’s in mono? talk about way over kill. you don’t need the power of one 275 let alone two in mono. I ran LaScalas, similar enough efficiency to the Cornwall, with 2.5 wpc with out issues. In my experience the new Cornwall’s sound fabulous on a 300b SET amp. But I have also heard them on a Class A SS amp 25wpc and they also sounded great. the SS amp gave them better bass control and top end extension but wasn’t quite as nice in the midrange but that’s what 300b’s do best. I wound imagine the Luxman Class A amps would sound very good indeed. but stick to the lower powered class A amps you do not need the power and really lower watt amps sound better on hi efficiency speakers mostly due to lower amount of devices in the circuit. Hi powered amps just don’t’ seem to sound as good as lower powered amps with hi efficient speakers, I second the 2A3 suggestion i also ran triode Labs 2A3's with mine. fantastic combo. |
I know this post is old but for posterities sake I’ll leave a comment: I have the Luxman 505uxii (class A/B) on my Forte IV’s. Sounds amazing. Super clean and controlled. The sound is large and lifelike. I’ve tried low power tube amps from Decware as well as higher powered tube amps from AR (vintage) and the 505 blows them all away. In my experience the Fortes perform much, much better with higher powered amps. Especially with amps that can control the bass. The 505 has tone controls that work very well, as well. |
I'm a little late to the party but I did try at length the 550 AXii with the Cornwall. I found it to be very dull and boring compared to the Decware tube amp and some others too. Just kind of grainy and uninvolved I would call it. Overall I was never a fan of the Luxman. It ran really hot to make it worse. In the summer I couldn't hardly stand to use it in my small office. In the winter I didn't need to turn on the heater. I love the looks and idea of the Luxman but overall I'm not a fan. I sold it after about a year or so. |
@superelmar I've had a Leben CS300XS with Forte IVs for about a year. I enjoyed the combination enough to want MORE, so I ordered a Leben CS600X and am currently looking for speakers that can build on the immediacy and scale of the Fortes. @bjesien Happy New Year, dude! Did you find the difference between the Fortes and Cornwalls to be diminishing returns subtle or fairly significant? |
@oceanandmountains Same to you! So when the rubber meets the road the Cornwall IMO was the speaker to be made. Kind of the same way the O/96 was meant to be made. As the product fills the market, lower cost items are introduced out of necessity to keep the business going (fill that next market) . Although good in themselves they don't quite meet the original in scale, ease, breathing room- dynamics, etc. Forte great, CW better, but much bigger and not for everyone. |
@bjesien That’s a really useful comparison...thanks! @superelmar Or Tonapparate Model 50? |