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Tube amp Friendly Speaker That Sounds like Klipsch Cornwall

Hi All, 

I am shopping for a tube friendly speaker after a long time with Magnepan 3.6's and then Thiel CS5i's.

I was able to spend a couple of hours with a broken-in pair of Klipsch Cornwall 4's. These were in a dedicated dealer space with corner bass traps and some treble absorption. They were driven by an all McIntosh setup (7200 Receiver and T500 CD player).

The Cornwalls were dynamic, and I loved the palpable sound of the 15 inch woofer. Loud rock in roll was great with them. However, I was less impressed at lower volume levels and finally decided they were not very detailed and a bit too much in my face, at least in that setup.

When I left that room, I wandered over to where some Magnepan 1.7i's were playing in a casually set up open space. I thought the Maggies were much more resolving than the Cornwalls and a lot more laid back.

Any suggestions on a tube friendly speaker with good sized woofers that is dynamic but with good weight and detail to the sound?

Thanks for listening,

Dsper
dsper

Showing 3 responses by mijostyn

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,223 posts
 
dsper, the Fyne F502SP is an excellent speaker for tube amps. It optimizes the British approach to speakers and creates a beautiful if small soundstage. Very detailed. It is not as efficient as the Cornwall and will not go quite as loud but plenty loud enough. It is for certain more detailed than the Cornwall and it's image has better focus. Bass wise they are about the same. The construction quality of the Fyne is a tad better. They are actually a great value.
Their big brother, the F1 is drop dead gorgeous in Walnut Burl Veneer. 
Pi speakers are great if you want to build them. The Fyne's are two steps above. Spatial Audio speakers are not my cup of tea and I am a dipole guy (ESLs).  Then there is the Tannoy Sterling. Very similar to the Fyne  it really needs subwoofers to shine but shine it  does. The JBL 4349 monitor is a great speaker designed as a studio monitor. It is certainly the loudest loudspeaker of the group and if Rock is your thing a real consideration. The JBL is solid state while the others are tube if you get my drift. There must be 100 others. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,223 posts
 
dsper, how powerful is tube amp you are thinking about?
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,223 posts
 
@james633 , The Cornwalls are very nicely put together for a box speaker. The quality of the veneers and cloth are excellent. As for bracing, the front panel is braced by the woofer and horns, the sides, bottom and top are narrow and stiff. If they resonate at all it would be upe where the midrange horn is which is, by virtue of it's construction isolated from the enclosure. The back panel is the only one that might benefit from bracing. Just tap it with a mallet and see if it rings anywhere. If it does see if you can identify the frequency. In the old day the rear panel was screwed on and the speakers were mounted from the rear. Not sure how they are doing it today. But, if you think they need bracing you can always add it. My guess is they do not particularly if you are using subs.
With the active cross over you have Cornwalls with good subs would be absolute killer!
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