Klipsch cornwall speakers


I have always had a fascination with klipsch speakers from the beginning of my interest in listening to music, starting in the late 60’s. I’m in my 60’s now and am considering adding the cornwall to my system, the khorns & lascala are to big for my room. My desire for horn speakers has driven me to this and this why I’m asking for some critical constructive feedback. Please those who have them or have heard them, your experience would be a great help. I also need to find a place to hear them for myself.

Thanks
Mike


128x128zardozz
There have been many versions over the years.

Not being a typical Horn Speaker listener, I was frankly quite shocked at how much the Cornwall II took my breath away in 1987 when I hooked up a demo pair to a Kyocera system in the Audio Store where I was working. These were the later “II” versions with the round plastic rear plate containing 5-way binding posts for spkr wire connections. They were sweet. The next (last?) “II” version had a larger rectangular plastic plate w/5-way binding posts which I understand actually internally  hold the networks as a single assembly using similar components. Finally fading out of production . . .

When the Heritage line was reintroduced (at the strong request of Cornwall lovers everywhere) Roy Delgado was not in the game as the new designs were done by Mark Kaufman in the mid 2000’s. The Cornwall III was what Mark was able to come up using the Heresy midrange/squawker instead of the original larger Cornwall arrangement - seems the original tooling was gone and . . .

Cornwall IV is all Roy including use of the new Tractrix® midrange 👍
With the right amplifier pairing, the IV can be embarrassingly good. While efficient, they still appreciate power & control. I’ve heard from two separate first-hand accounts that the Jadis DA88S is a magical pairing.
@zardozz,  I have the Cornwall IVs now and previously owned (as recently as last year) the Forte IIIs.  If size is a consideration, the Forte III or, better still, the Forte IV might be worth looking at.  They are fantastic loudspeakers.  

What amplification and source(s) do you plan on using with them?  The Forte and Cornwall are pretty revealing of your amp/source.  So much so that I kept monkeying around with trying all sorts of gear because it was so interesting to hear the differences highlighted and underscored so well.  That means, at least in my opinion, that pairing these Klipsch products requires care.   While I was able to get both speakers (C-wall and Forte) to sound great with SS amplification, they always sounded better to my ears with tubes.  Tubes opened up the bloom and soundstage, holographically to big proportions.  SS could sound clean, clear and decisive, but the charm and romanticism of tubes with the two Heritage products I tried was the ticket--for me personally.  

The efficiency of the Cornwall, in particular, gives me so much headroom with my choice of tube amp.  I have an all tube system (tube pre, power, phono pre, and DAC).  If I can just stop trying gear for the heck of it, I could stay in this land with this gear for the rest of my days on this planet.  My soundstage is huge.  Timbre of instruments sounds so realistic.  The holographic feature of the system is intoxicating.  And, what's really cool is that as I increase volume things don't just get louder;  they get proportionally bigger.  I'm really "seeing" the music more than ever before and I'm super happy about it. 
I'll be using a pair of Quicksilver Silver 88 mono amps and PrimaLuna EVO 100 Tube Preamplifier, both loaded with tubes. 
Cornwall IV's here.. Had them for almost two years now and still love them. The only flaw they have is they are brutally revealing with subpar recordings. They should sing beautifully with your equipment. If you can demo them, please do!
With respect to being unforgiving....  I can live with that . Crap in Crap out....I listened to Neil Young. Cowgirl in the Sand the other night and it was pretty bad through my Forte IV but it is what it is....  fortunately that a lot of great material that makes these speaker shine.  Then I played Pink Floyd  Hi Rez on Quboz and it was awesome....  you cant polish a turd, some recordings are just plain bad