The larger mid-range horn, which makes 85% of the music, is the big news with the IV. In particular, the compound curves of the horn disperse sound waves more evenly than simple ones.
Gr research isn’t helping anybody except himself and the people that are enlightened enough to realize his kits are fixing the speaker but simply changing the voicing of the speaker all together. His work is misleading.
@@daveycrockett5738 Have you compared the 'voicing' of the stock components vs. what GR Research suggests? My understanding is that there is a long lineage of aftermarket crossover improvements for Klipsch products i.e. Crites' (RIP) that listeners typically prefer.
@@calebkeen8967 his whole thing is about making a speaker flat, the frequency response flatter. People don’t usually buy klipsch because it’s the most linear or flat speaker out there. If you want something like that buy something else you know what I mean. I would personally love to upgrade the crossover I’m my speakers but not have it change the sound towards a more flat direction simply to have higher grade materials in it to make it smoother or whatever that’s does not to change the voicing of the speaker or the vcurve just to have higher quality materials in the crossover. Does he do that cause I thought it was all about making eh frequency response “better” or flatter.
@@daveycrockett5738 I know what you mean - I have Cornwall IV's and enjoy the speaker quite a bit and would enjoy the "peace of mind" of knowing they have good crossover materials but wouldn't want to significantly change the voicing of the speaker. It would be great if manufacturers made this kind of information more readily available to their buyers, gave us more insight into the design decisions etc. I admit it's too much to hope for from a big brand like Klipsch.
although ive been into stereo since 1973 and built my own computers since 1993, Ive never look inside a speaker until your videos. your efforts are very much appreciated. 8 years ago, an undiscovered mouse, now long gone, chewed thru subwoofer wires in 1 of my 1990ish klipsch p7 floorstanders( which has a 12 inch subwoofer with a 150 sub amp built in with a 1 inch and an 8 nch). I was shocked how cheaply, bare minimum the crossover seems. I repaired the 2 wires damaged, but surprising to see the cheap crossover from 1990ish. yes, speakers have improved, $880 was 50 percent off in 1990ish, but now I understand what building a speaker to a price point with tradeoffs means. thank you so much.
Honestly I'm surprised. I would have expected a little better for $6K a pair. The cross over components are not cheap but they are not particularly high end either. I have plenty of Klipsch speakers including the Heresey II and the new 600M and some surround speakers. I took apart the Klipsch KG 1.5's I have and updated the caps - found one of the tweeter coils rotted out. Overall good but the KG 1.5 were $800 pair new. The build quality did not blow me away by any means. So humm... value for money? Great video by the way - thanks for the insight into the cornwall IV.
Nice review, these breakdowns are common in europe. Surprised for this kind of cash it's stamped steel and lack of sound damping and bracing in the cabinet. The plastic zips also snap over time. Tweeter magnet could have been bigger.
For 6$k..... should be better quality built..and certainly needs to sound decent... I have a pair of Cornwall 3...I like the sound but built quality embarrassing for an American made product at the price point. In have 6 pairs range from 200 to 10000$.used price...I'm my room currently... My Cornwall has the poorest built quality. Montana speakers made in California... amazingly built... material and sound quality...top notch for the money... True American built standard in my my opinion.
When designing a driver the magnet strength and voice coil interaction determine the motor strength and there will be an optimum value determined by the dome, compression, throat area and horn cut off. In other words, putting a bigger magnet on could hurt the tweeter performance, and if it made it more sensitive they would have had to pad the tweeter down even more. When applied to woofers both AR and Klipsch had to lower the magnet strength in some applications.
It's not the parts, it's the labor and whatever R&D and running cost of operation that pushes the price up. If they were made as copies in China, they would probably cost less than 10% of their current price. I'm not convinced the quality of the drivers would be the same. But I'm pretty sure the Chinese manufacturer would be able to ship these things for next to nothing. China really likes to undercut competition by making sure their manufacturers don't get burdened with "too much postage".
@@TaswcmT Most of the Klipsch Heritage line was made decades ago and very little has been redesigned. How many decades do people need to continue paying for this R&D? Besides different cabinet finishes and slightly different drivers and crossover mods not that much has changed in many years!
@@dontcare563 The Klipsch Heresy IV is much different than my original Hersey's that I bought in 1980. And there is also inflation and wage increases. I paid $800 for my Hersey's in 1980 that equates to $2500 in 2020. The Heresy IV's sell for $3000. The price for the IV's seems a bit high to me, as do the current prices of all of the Heritage line, but it seems to be a fair price.
Look at all those cheap Iron Core Inductors, Sand Cast Resistors and cheap capacitors. The Cabinets are Resonance magnifiers. Very cheaply made at a premium price. Thanks for the excellent video. For those that know what they are looking at, they will know how cheap these are made and built at a premium price. Thank you. I checked these out at a local A/V store and was surprised at how hollow the cabinets sounded when knocking on the cabinets
I saw that right away. There are many people modifying these types of speakers. Would be great to hear a modded pair vs a factory pair. Their price is of course a selling point, relatively of course. Volti Audio makes these types of speakers with all more expensive and higher quality parts. And the price is nearly double. So there we have four choices, the less expensive speaker; the modified less expensive speaker; the more expensive speaker; and the modified more expensive speaker. We can be grateful to have so many choices.
Despite what some seem to think about the crossover, it is made of high quality components and the construction is very good. It will last a life time. I have Klipschorns that I bought new in 1996 for exactly $3600 - no tax or shipping from Albuquerque. I thought that was not a bad price even then. I think they sound awesome and are used daily with our home theater driven by a McIntosh 2100 and C20 preamp. Thanks for showing us inside. Someday I think I should open up mine just to make sure all the screws are still tight. Stay safe.
Thanks, there is so much nonsense about how “cheap” these components are - from people who have never priced out compression drivers. The woofers are made by Eminence in the US, btw.
Into stereo since 1968, never saw the inside of a speaker. So much thanks. Bought klipsch floorstanders in 1986 after hearing my klipsch sytem built for computers. They were the best sounding audiophile grade system tied to a creative sound card. 600 watts rms, but most burnt up with garbage electronic internals. Still have klipsch floorstanders along with thiel floorstanders. Quality here seems terrible. 2 floorstanders with 2 horns. 10 inch mid, 12 bass subs built in with amplifyers cost $750 in 1986 a set, 2 floorstanders and a huge seperate center 4 way. Still going strong
@@mgtow-balance3409 crazy, i know. If a had a do over, would have either been a diy speaker guy or certainly better realized what made a better speaker.
@@rb89509 "...couldn't care less..." I have a theory about how the phrase "could care less", which grammatically means the opposite of "I couldn't care less", came about. Back in the 60s and 70s there was a trend of making sarcastic comments like "Ask me if I care" and "I could care less?", the latter being a question. Over time, "I could care less?" dropped the question inflection on less, so it became a statement, but since that question context is lost, it actually means the opposite of what is meant, which is "I couldn't care less".
Thank you so much for this outstanding video. I am very appreciative of the time you must of spent for this. This video is very helpful in helping me try to decide on a speaker choice to replace my Vandersteen 2CE which I purchased in 1992. Thanks again.
You’re very welcome. Another option might be the Forte 4’s. I’ve heard good things about them but I haven’t heard them myself. Regardless, I suggest that you try to audition any speaker before buying it. Good luck 👍
Great video. Thanks for sharing the information. Please let us know about any upgrades you are planning to make to these wonderful speakers. The Cornwall 4’s are on my short list for near future purchase.
A lot of references to bottoms! Anyway, it's not such a cheap crossover unit. You should check out most speaker crossovers as even in the high-end a lot use Bi-polar electrolytics. At least the Cornwall didn't have any of those. Yes, the inductors are iron core, but so are most speaker inductors, even in very expensive designs. It's rare you find air-core inductors in commercial products as they are expensive and take up a lot of space.
@@grahamtricker4103 nothing wrong with using electrolytics in a circuit feeding the bass woofer, you'd never hear a benefit using film type caps in a low pass filter.
@@Carrera6rennsport I agree, there is nothing wrong with using electrolytic capacitors in a speaker crossover, but this speaker and ones like it are aimed at the High-end HiFi market which demands a high level of performance. Klipsch has recognised this and made a good job of the crossover. If you have a good system, a good listening room and good ears, you will be able to hear the benefit of using film caps in all parts of the crossover filter.
Great Video. I know this is a couple of years old now and not sure if this will get an answer. Did you ever publish the value of the inductors ? A complete schematic would be fantastic. Thank you
I have the Cornwall III's and absolutely love the midrange on them. I would be curious how much different these sound compared to the III's. I think these are a few grand overpriced but I do have to admit the veneer work and finishing are second to none. I do realize there are better speakers for a lot cheaper price. For me these are nostalgic and American made so its a win.
@@econautx - two really different speakers. I’ve heard them both at different times in different rooms. The RF73’s have essentially RP600M drivers which, for the price are fine - but the parts in the CWIV are on another level
But NONE envelope you IN the music like Klipsch. The breath and air which it throws around the room are second to none. I've listened to speakers many times the price of a car and while accurate to the tiniest detail they left me wanting. Go off axis and you loose that sound. Not so with the Klipsch.
I'll take this crossover any day compared with many "audiophile grade" speakers. SOME with only two capacitors. Lol. B&W, Mission, etc... Comparatively this thing is a beast.
I read where Mills resistors are slightly better in sound quality than sand cast resistors, especially the MRA-5 variety. I know you'll find the right discrete analog components in the crossover redo. Nice review and thanks for sharing.
What other speakers in the 5-7k range do you recommend checking out? I am in the market for new speakers and had my eyes set on these, but after seeing the build quality, it makes me want to see what else is out there.
Great info.I was thinking of upgrading the caps on my new Cornwall IVs.Not now,Thanks for your video.I may do some sound deadener after I have em for awhile like you did.
Impressed with you confidence to be tinkering with this 6000 dollar speaker set. I am contemplating buying some... very interesting your Cornwall journey.
That's a good point you made about the midrange horn. I bet it would sound better if you sprayed something like rhino liner on the back to deaden any resonance from the plastic horn. When you tapped on the plastic it seemed like it wouldn't take much energy to excite it to make sound. Probably bad sound compared to the mid range driver.
Are you familiar with the upgraded crossover that can be found online for the CW4's? What's your thoughts on the improvement of those crossovers to achieve better performance/sound from the already redesigned x'over for the cw4.
The tweeter foam is to absorbs the sound from the back of the horn. Because the back soundwaves can hit the tweeter and cause issues. KEF has a new meta that absorbs the sound 99.9% for the LS50 Meta. A++ sound quality
I’m not surprised that they don’t use super high end parts. Klipsch is not going for the typical hifi sound with these speakers. More expensive parts doesn’t allways mean better sound. What is more important is using good quality parts that will last a long time.
Thanks for this video. I have been working on upgrading an old Chorus crossover. So it is interesting to see how much better the Cornwall iv crossover is built compared to my Chorus II. Also, for the inductors, you should be able to get their inductance from Klipsch without having to measure them if you want to get new ones. Of course measuring them will tell you how accurate the parts are and whether they need improvements.
Klipsch needs to borrow a concept from the firearms industry, The "Custom Shop". For extra cost, custom shop firearms receive extra attention resulting in smoother triggers, extra features, etc.. You could specify what kind of parts for your crossover, ask them to solder the connecting clips to the drivers (instead of push-on connectors) whatever you desire (for a price). I think the Heritage Series speakers are all hand assembled so the extra steps should be doable. BTW, you could spray some Flex Seal rubber onto your midrange driver for more dampening (if you think it would improve the sound). Good luck!
I don't normally comment on videos because of the endless debate they sometimes cause but, this is very good and interesting. I've modified a set of Polk Audio speakers with Clarity Cap capacitors, Mox resistors and Titanium tweeters (cheap from PE). I didn't change the values of any of the components. I did a simple swap. I did however, have to put those caps and resistors on a thin sheet of wood because of their large size. I was very impressed with the sound. Sound is pretty subjective IMO but it was a little more detailed and warm to me. I particularly liked the vocals and mid range I got. The hi's were pretty sharp too. I'm thinking about doing another pair with different x-over components, ring radiator tweeters and different sound deadening material. Anyway, thanks for the video. I enjoyed it. And, did I say, I am not an engineer, sound expert fancy speaker builder or "Audiophile"? I'm just a regular guy who likes to tinker.
Yep, those crossovers are exactly what I would expect in a factory crossover.. I notice that some of those inductors are perpendicular to each other, which was most likely not arbitrary. Also, decent metallized polyester film caps aren’t really much behind their much larger size polypropylene cousins in the same value; both of them are miles ahead of electrolytics that need to be replaced way too often and don’t perform as well either. The polyprope’s will have much larger voltage rating (ac and dc), so will naturally be larger due to charge Q equating to the multiplicative factor of the capacitance C and voltage V. Expressed alternatively, Q=C*V. As you pointed out, the voltage rating of the caps that are already in there are well overrated as compared to the manufacturer’s rating for the speakers. One last point, I have never had an issue with those resistors in terms of longevity, value or function. I have a pair of floorstanding speakers that I’ve personally upgraded the crossovers after 25 years that use those resistors, and I did not even bother changing them. They looked new, and their resistive values were dead on. Not knowing if the lead inductance for that type of resistor would make a difference in the end result for better or worse, I opted to avoid that particular modification, although my gut tells me I wouldn’t have noticed a damn bit of difference, and that any perceived difference could very well be psychological. The tweeters sounded excellent to me after the mods and still do two years later, so I am glad I didn’t bother. 👨🏻✌️
Speakers are awesome, very good sounding. Re crossowers, i do not think that cw4 need some upgrade at this stage, but i have done some isolation of the mid and tweeter plastic body as shown.As well as woofer frame. Also some cintiphone was put see pics.
The reviewers all really liked the sound of these. This video shows that with ordinary materials, you can get great sound. I agree that the price is way too high however.
Yes, they have some really good sonic qualities. I'm thoroughly enjoying my Cornwalls. One thing to consider is that because the Cornwalls are so efficient, the voltage and current levels in the crossover are lower than most. I have no doubt that better parts would sound better but Klipsch has to decide where to spend the most money.
Exactly what I thought.! Big woofer magnet..? The enclosure.? The crossover.? And for the price, it's a total rip off. What a shame. In this pric range, this is the worst I've seen today.!
@@Carrera6rennsport a $6k cornwall versus a diy speaker like the open baffle x-optica kit $2400 per pair from danny, award winning designer, at gr research.? kit includes the wood, pre cut. yes, one must solder, glue and stain, but its open baffle, 4 woofers, 2 mids, and a neo planar tweeter, 8 ohm, 93 db. Im new to the DIY, but seems like a worthy challenge
@@file1man apples to oranges. DIY attracts a completely different audience not interested in or more importunately, has the time and inclination to paint by numbers as it were.
file1man - Danny Ritchie doesn’t make anything close to a horn loaded anything. He routes a radius in his baffles for his cheap Chinese ribbon tweeters.
I actually thought about buying one and reverse engineer it. I have build my kitchen cabinets from scratch and Home Depot would charge you $20k for what i have but it cost me $2800 in materials plus my time. Right now I'm playing with some small vintage speakers I picked up for $40 but have to replace the tweeters and woofers due to Nicotine Tar build up and to much disco music abuse. I can see big things in my future.
It is interesting to see that many people think $6000 for a pair of speakers with what looks to be about $100 or $200 of cheaply made components, a good deal. To me this is worth about $500 not $6K.
I think you should just put them back together and enjoy them. If you found a 10 year old or more old pair, got them at a good price and did the upgrades your are thinking about that might be more worth your while? I have been down this rabbit hole a few times.
Thanks for your suggestion. I’m weighing all my options. I’m enjoying them quite a bit as is and there’s much to be said for keeping the speakers stock and accepting that they aren’t perfect and that they never will be perfect. No speaker is perfect. No speaker is even close to perfect imo.
Klipsch has definitely stepped up their game in the crossover components. I’m one of those that tries to improve everything I own but after rebuilding dozens of Klipsch heritage speakers and crossovers I highly doubt you will see much if any audible improvement in replacing any components in this crossover. The sandcast resistors seem to be on the woofer circuit thus changing to a Mils or even replacing the capacitors with Sonicaps would make any audible improvement even to us ultra critical ears. Can’t believe I said all this. I’m sure one day I will rebuild this one with the top tier parts and see but likely be a waste of money.
Great video, very insightful, however for this kind of money, that woofer should've been a cast frame aluminum basket instead... it should also have under spider venting for better cooling under around the spider and the out side of the voice coil "which is hopefully copper. as well as a better vented pole piece to cool the inside of the voice coil former "which i hope is aluminum at least" the top part of the former near the dust cap and even slightly below it beneath the windings of the voice coil, perhaps near the tripple joint should have little air holes in it for even more extended cooling capacity, around the under side of the cone where the dust cap is covering it, you see these types of things in higher powerd subwoofers or higher power capacity woofers, all of these things would increase cooling capacity and also reduce power compression making the woofers more responsive, there should also be a copper shortning ring around the lip of the pole piece and the other part of the voice coil gap in the magent around the out side parameter of the magnetic gap to reduce parasitic inductance to only further increase responsiveness, perhaps they have that at the very least, but you would need to completely disassemble the woofer to see this, they should've also stuck with the old school square alnico magnets and just charged them higher with a far higher voltage and current for a better a bl product to keep with the original design and further increase efficiency and cone control, the horns are by inlarge 5 to 8 db more efficient then the woofers are, if not that, they should've went all out for neodymium magnets, a neo magnet that is equal in size to what is there sure would increase the cost, but the increase in motor force would be simply off the charts, but i bet the efficiency would be that much greater, going back to the woofers frame, i think the originals frame was also a stamped steel design much like this current gen, but a cast design as i first said is just overall better and more solid, less resonant characteristics as well.... still a nice speaker over all, the woofers are ok, but not in a 5000+ dollar set of speakers ok... there are a few other things I'd want to point out, but these are still something I'd buy being a horn guy anyway, as really lets be honet, thats what you buy these babies for, their beautiful horns, even dispite its slight short comings overall, from what im seeing, everything else is designed fairly well, especially the cabnet. If i could find these babies cabinets with the woofers either missing, or blown out, I'd certainly be putting better drivers inside as well as a higher wattage set of inductors for the woofers as I'd be pushing more then 100 watts and if not that, id get rid of the crossovers entirely and then cross everything over electrically before the drivers which would just make them sound far better then any passive crossover using perhaps a dbx 3 way active crossover and a few decent power amps, such as 2 bryston 3b cubed amplifiers one for the woofers, a 2b for the midranges and a lp2 for the tweeters, still im sure they sound wonderful either way. Id also find the continuous power rating of both the mid drivers and the tweeter drivers and put properly selected self resetting poly switches on them to pretect them from to much current, perhaps even a current limiting lightbulb as well, as both of them protect things differently, the lightbulb is a gradual compression type deal as the poly switch is an immediant type of thing. Get them in decent enough quality, you wont damage the quality of the signal at all. Partsexpress has top quality speaker protection devices. Getting rid of the crossovers and going down the electrically crossed over rout will not only increase sound quality but also reduce power losses and increase efficiency not having to drive other passive components and also reduce distortion Those bryston amplifiers have a 0.005 percent thd rating at rated power, those dbx crossovers are failrly similar as well and don't cost all that much. As i said, wonderful video, it was very enjoyable to see inside. You earned a sub from me indeed!
It is incredible how much klipsch speakers perform in relation to the drivers cost and the materials used. When you make a good project,you can sell it at 10 times the production cost,like in this case and still being competitive on the market.
Overall not too bad of quality. I think that your efforts to improve the sound of these while noble will likely be inaudible as I think any distortions or resonances are already so far down below the music level that they are inaudible. A suggestion, just do the mods to one speaker at a time then set them side by side to remove any influence of the room and position from making an influence. Then use a mono signal to both speakers and level match the channels closely with pink or white noise. Then listen for differences in sound as you go between the left and right channels with different music and different playback levels. That’s the best way to determine if there is any differences as our acoustic memories are very short on the order of less than a second. Most interested in the results.
Thanks for your suggestions. As an engineer it’s my nature to make careful A/B comparisons under controlled conditions. I appreciate your skepticism but in my experience, many types of modifications are very obviously audible and repeatable. I do my best to remain open minded and let my ears be the final judge. I suggest others try this approach too and let the chips fall as they may rather than to allow ourselves to be swayed by logic as to what “should” and “shouldn’t” be audible. Thanks for watching and commenting!
The Boston Audiophile As an engineer myself I also am a BIG believer of A-B testing under controlled conditions. Also having studied in the field of psychoacoustics and applied that knowledge when I setup and administered double blind tests in my days at CBS, one thing I learned is that the duration of human auditory memory is very short, in the range of less than one second. Listening for a period for awhile (something that is debated about by non-engineers/scientists/psychoacoustic professionals) then changing to a different device and repeating the listening isn’t a valid test, mostly because we just don’t have the acoustic memories needed. Another variable is that our focus on certain instruments or sounds can change from listening session to session making critical comparisons difficult. To really get good comparisons, they need to be done quickly and repeatedly. No offense, but I don’t believe that qualitative subjective judgements can be made if preconceived notions and/or biases are not excluded in the testing. I do believe that valid judgements can be made when the differences are obvious as in comparing a boom box say with a real hi-fi system, but comparing crossover components or speaker cabinet resonances are rarely obvious. Lastly, what do you have to lose if you are going to alter both speakers anyway, doing one at a time to do valid comparisons of before and after is not much of a sacrifice for the potential benefit to real scientific analysis.
Hi! I liked your video. I have a sick Cornwall Iv with a blown tweeter. I am so glad to see that the screws are metal threaded. You wouldn’t happen to have the torque specs for the bolts , would you? Have not yet received an answer from Klipsch.
Many violin makers, looking at a Sradivari, wonder why their products, made of seemingly identical materials, could sound so weak. Well, Paul Klipsch massaged these Cornwalls, with methodology and intuition from 1959 until his 80s, as they were one of the Heritage, hand-built class that made him famous. A chef will tell you, "It's good ingredients AND how you stir the sauce." I'd guess 90% of all Klipsch Heritage products made since the late 1940s are still singing beautiful melodies, so the materials couldn't have been too shabby! In fairness, the other American-made speakers of note, Altec and JBL, were made of industrial-grade components, because these makers' customers were largely theater chains, auditoria operators, sound studios, professional musicians and the like, who expected to pay a premium and wanted 100% reliability. I admire Henry Ford for making a car the average person could afford. For the same reason, I respect Klipsch for making great sound for the broader markets' pocketbook.
Great video. I'm considering the Cornwall IV or the Forte IV now. Would be very interested to see the "after" of your network change to the Klipsch Cornwall IV networks. I was thinking along the same lines when you were showing the inside of the speaker, had you taken the fill material out, or if they didn't have it to begin with, I wondered if a few sheets of nores would help the speaker out. Thanks again.
Would love to see the upgrade. Would you design a new crossover or „just“ upgrade the parts quality? It would also be very interesting to see how you go from a given crossover to the schematic. Thats where I am stuck with my upgrade project.
I just posted a new video describing the effect of damping the Cornwall's horns. I'm giving the crossover some more thought but I'm enjoying the speakers as they are for the time being.
Thanks for the post unfortunately Klipsch uses retail stores to sell there speakers like many audio companies if they sold direct that would really lower the price and improve engineering and up the budget for higher end components and capasitors and give the consumer a better price thanks for all the work you put in to this review have a merry Christmas and you have a new scriber
😂 Mundorf, Claritycaps, even Dayton Audio Inductors - Capacitors would be a better choice for $5,000 speakers!! Stamped steel woofer & plastic horns, not cast aluminum?? The horns, woofer, mid & tweeter are worth about $300 - maybe $400 per speaker!! Paying for American man-hours not Chinese!! 🙄
I'm a n00b to "hi fi" ...I'm more of a producer, bedroom dj vinyl collector and synth/keyboard player and been using studio monitors for decades... but also use my studio monitors for listening to my nice records (jazz, rare soul groove and disco, reggae, brazil, african, psych rock, house, etc.). I use HS8... happy and content with them. But, considering Cornwall or Forte + a cheapy (but good) Leak ss or Willsenton tube amp. How do my current HS8 compare to a Cornwall or Forte? In terms of sound presence or overall sound quality... you can state anything (including points I can't think of atm) - size & quality of sound, build quality/reliability, dispersion, freq range and bass, etc., etc. I'm sure my HS8 would be super clear, crisp, flat and neutral vs. a colorful old Cornwall/Forte + tube amp (or even ss amp)... just wondering if it would be a considerable upgrade and/or change for the better overall... or, just keep the HS8, as they're probably good enough. Space = half of a 2-car garage (with cars usually inside [less air volume] and flanked w/ shelves & storage boxes/junk/tools for diffusion).... sufficient acoustic panels (3 ceiling clouds, 3 corner/bass traps and front/side walls.
I think it would be interesting to engineer potentiometers for each of the crossover points, so one could vary the turnover frequencies to suit individual tastes. But I guess that would put the mid and tweeter drivers at peril of being over-driven.
If would like to listen to a speaker that has a really stiff cabinet I would suggest checking out Magico. I think that Goodwin's is a dealer in the Mass area. The A1 which is their entry speaker is really impressive. Also maybe look at replacing parts in the crossover with parts from mundorf. Replace the sand cast resistors and the iron core inductors with air core or foil inductors.
I appreciate the video. This is the reason I collect vintage speakers. These speakers components are very cheaply made, Stamp thin steel basket? amongst other things. how can Klipsch justify 3000-6000 for the pair? Imagine the components you can obtain for that amount of money.
With the exception of the industrial line, Klipsch has used stamped steel woofers from the 60's forward, I can't comment on the older Stevens and EV15WK
@@cjhodgson3000 Lucky for me Klipsch Vintage speakers are not the only speakers I collect But it seems to me although I am a fan, Klipsch is living off its past reputation and diminishing the quality of its product in order capitalize on the returns. This video just proves the point....
Shared this to the Klipsch group I'm in. Great video man. Just subbed! Also, the compartment behind the tweeter is used to absorb some of the high frequencies to prevent shrillness. I think it's a vented tweeter 😁
@@thebostonaudiophile you're welcome! And agreed! I think they use that vented tweeter in a more simplified way on their new reference premiere line. It's a subtle different but definitely noticeable at louder volumes ☺️
What a fantastically done video. I hope to own these speakers soon. Did you end up building new boards with your larger capacitors, etc? Would love to know also if you added dampening material and bracing for improved rigidity? Overall, the speakers seems to be worth the cost! Thanks again hope to hear back.
G&R would recommend air core inductors and better capacitors; perhaps more anti-resonant liners inside. You didn’t mention the tractrix geometry of the horns that prevents internal reflections of the sound before emerging from the horns (makes them sound less like horns).
Here is a quote from Wikipedia: "In 1927, P. G. A. H. Voigt patented a horn loudspeaker design based on the assumption that a wave front traveling through the horn is spherical of a constant radius. The idea is to minimize distortion caused by internal reflection of sound within the horn. The resulting shape is the surface of revolution of a tractrix." Ironic that a nearly century-old concept is used to improve modern speaker design!
Those are crossover components bought by the accounting department. You can buy a complete pair of Crites Type B speakers with far better crossover components and bass drivers for half the price. I've built kits from CSS that have more money in one capacitor than these entire boards. Yes, "price no object" shouldn't apply to a $6500 pair of speakers but I was watching a teardown of the new JBL bookshelf speakers that cost $399 at Best Buy and it looks like they sourced the crossovers from the same factory.
I have Klipsch Cornwall mk3s,driven by Plinius SA 102 pure class A solid state, or a Dared VP 845 single ended triode class A 20 watt tube integrated, I'm also currently using a Innuos Zenith mk3 server into a Lampizator SET dac, with revelation audio labs prophecy cryogenic silver Ethernet cable rj45 version 8 and wireworlds silver starlight USB cable and Transparent XL reference rca, Vpi prime Super Scout turntable in white along with a kiseki purple heart cartridge and a Herron mk2 phono with transparent reference phono cables. Is the mk 4 Cornwall a significant upgrade over the mk 3 Cornwall, and do you think a Cary CAD 300sei with 8 watts would be sufficient power. System synopsis jfyi. And thanks for your review and time.
I heard the Cornwall 3, but not in a way that I can make a conclusive comparison. If those amps are enough power for the C3, they should be fine with the C4.
You should never have opened them. Knowing that the woofer baskets are stamped steel degrades the sound quality significantly from what it was before you knew that. You'll now have to undergo hypnosis to forget, so that the sound quality can be restored to new. ;->
@@thebostonaudiophile I thought as much. I'm an ME too. I was humorously "having on" some of the "low information" commenters who seemed to take personal offense from the stamped baskets. Reading reams of audio mythology is amusing and maddening by turns. Good on you for confusing them with facts! Interesting observations on core saturation, BTW. I'm avoiding it by DSP multiamping, something you should try if you haven't already. It rocks!
Following up... could the core saturation you suspect actually be thermal compression? That could potentially bring stamped baskets back into the picture as an element of mediocre thermal management that is typically a characteristic of sub-professional drivers.
The Boston Audiophile Super interested in how you’re going to try improving already good speaker. If you can’t make 2 sets of crossovers 🤞 please include detailed how to for those of us who are technicality challenged. 👍🤣 Again, great work and pleasure to watch your ventures.
Look how thin the baffle is that’s holding that big 15 inch woofer. Why everybody else is making their baffles 2 inches to 6 inches thick, that one looks like it’s about a half inch or less.
Thank you for this. Now that you have discovered what the inside looks like, would you say that these Klipsch Cornwall IV are still a good buy or way too expensive for what you get? Thanks.
@@thebostonaudiophile Thanks for reaching out. How would you compare these Cornwalls to B&W 803 or 802 D3 speakers and or ATC SCM 50 or 100 ASLT active speakers?
Thank you, a carefully made video about a carefully built speaker. But please, what do so many people expect from modifying the crossover other than that you have "changed" something yourself. Two ways to completely destroy a well-calculated xover are "better" coils and caps. Expensive polypropylene caps have lower ESR and expensive air core coils have higher ESR than the iron core coils used. In the end, the impedance of the xover is completely skewed and people wonder why the 500€ capacitor sounds so "thin" and tinny. There is no linear improvement in electrical components at a higher price if you don't know what you are doing.
I would have liked to see more bracing and a cast woofer basket (like JBL L100 uses), rather than stamped. I think resonance has ALWAYS been a problem with the entire Klipsch heritage line from day one up to today.
Thanks for watching and commenting. I agree, but I still really like the speakers and I can fiddle around with them if I want to get even more out of them.
Thank you for the detailed video. What values are the inductors? What did you replace them with? I’m assuming you dumped the iron core for air core. Did you create a schematic?
@@rickshaw5595 Hi Rick. I'm sorry, but for a number of reasons, I'm not comfortable sharing the schematics and measurements that I've derived from measuring my Klipsch crossovers. I'd suggest buying an inexpensive LCR meter on Amazon, I see one on Amazon for $36, that should do. Remember to "lift" one inductor lead before measuring each inductor. Alternatively, perhaps you could ship your crossover to a parts supplier that's willing to measure it and sell you what you need? Sorry, I can't be of more help and Good luck!
@@thebostonaudiophile Wow, ok. Now I have to desolder one leg on each of them before ordering my inductors. So much for being a helpful community member. Now I guess I’ll unsubscribe from your channel since “I’m not comfortable”.
I'm not sure it's fair to Klipsch. You should not push me to do something that I don't want to, that I don't feel right about. I spend a lot of time on this channel. I never ask for "likes" or "subscribes" and I don't even monetize my videos so my viewers won't have to watch ads. Bye bye.
Think I would definitely loose the sandcast resistors for some Earsey. And re cap with Sonicaps all of same values of course. The purist will say “Klipsch wanted that way” but we know they had to hit a price point . People don’t get that and are becoming more and more aware of what high quality crossovers can do. (First thing I do with all my Heritage collection). Never fails to improve every sonic aspect of them. Thanks for great video
Thanks for dropping a comment! I've made many crossover component comparisons over the years and there's no doubt that better parts sound better. You're absolutely right IMO, Klipsch can't use top-shelf parts because the retail prices would become prohibitive.
@@thebostonaudiophile Why would it be prohibitive to use top shelf parts, or parts a step or two up? If they have a distinctive sought after sound, why can't they raise their price 50%, comparable to other speakers in the class?
You're absolutely correct. The quality is garbage for the retail price. I've been calling out Klipsch on this but the fanboys get bent out of shape. I understand that they're made in the states but still no excuse for the shortcomings.
Droidz Hunterz have listen to them? Sound reproduction without modifying is really bad. For me the best speakers are horn loaded with 8” voxativ full range in tandem with single end tube amp period everything else is compromise.
Agreed , looking at the construction cost vs price point , hmmmm regardless of sound. Compare them Tekton Lore for example , 1200$ a pair with real wood cover cabinets . 200$ in tweeters , woofers are higher quality with very heavy cast frames . The Klipsch sound good though not my taste , Tektons sound better to me much more bang for the buck . I used to have a pair of Klipsch KLF's , they were a good value though not on par with Tekton or Zu .
carlos oliveira I have a horn design mentor who knows the engineers at klipsch. The quality of the drivers are crap, however the engineers have implemented the design of all the drivers so we’ll that they sound excellent. I’ve heard them. They’re amazing. I’d love to see what klipsch could do if they used high quality drivers in their systems.
@The Boston Audiophile Since you have it apart, could you tell me the measurements for the base as it's a bit thinner than actual length and width of the speaker. TIA
my 1970's B-I-C Venturi Formula 4 speakers have the same Texas instrument Capacitors then these. i just bought some Dayton Audio Capacitors to refresh my crossovers but only because they are over 40 years old and the tweeters are not making any sound.
They may sound good but cheaply made would be an understatement!🤪🤯🤯 Even a SVS ultra tower at $1,000 looks much, much better built.🤔🤔🙄🙄 1/3rd the price. Great overview either way!
@@thebostonaudiophile Their Tower Ultra speaker is pretty good for the price and they have a 60-day no-questions-asked return policy both ways so you can't really lose I myself am a JBL man but there's many videos of them being taken apart being the SVS Ultras and they're much much better built than these cornwall's I'll tell you that!🤗😇 I recently saw the innards on a video of the Klipsch K horns for 16 Grand and they're horribly Built For The Money horribly🤯 they're built the same way as these cornwall's put it that way and they're much more expensive they may be bigger but they're not put together so hot. Even a B/W at that price is built like a tank!🤔😬
Those midrange compression drivers alone (not the horn lens) are $300 each. The woofer is the same spec that has been used for 50 years, and it’s made by Eminence in the US. The midrange and tweeter horns are proprietary Klipsch designs by Roy Delgado and you won’t find anything off-the-shelf that will give you those kinds of polar response and would fit in a cabinet that small.
Thank you so much for your complete review of the cornwall IV speakers. I have been very intersted in hearing them but more imprtantly looking at the guts. What are your thoughts of the IV's compared to the Altec Lansing Valencia 846B speakers?
You’re very welcome. I haven’t heard the AL’s so I don’t know how they compare. Maybe you could visit a Klipsch dealer so you can hear the Cornwall’s firsthand?
Great Video - I have the same speakers and they can be a bit shouty with some material and wondered about the crossover replacement but can get a schematic...could you draw something out and include thoughts for upgrades? I am in the UK and maybe HumbeHomemadeHifi in Holland and make me a new xo...Miflex KPCU-01 caps seem to have good reviews and wont break the bank
I know this is audio but these are the cheapest materials I have ever seen in a $6k speaker, plastic horns, paper cones steel stamped woofer, probably 300 bucks worth of parts! It's unbelievable. The most genuine high-end parts in these speakers are those 2x4 braces. I am glad you made this video I was considering these but no fucking way!
Those midrange compression drivers alone (not the horn lens) are $300 each. The woofer is the same spec that has been used for 50 years, and it’s made by Eminence in the US. The midrange and tweeter horns are proprietary Klipsch designs by Roy Delgado and you won’t find anything off-the-shelf that will give you those kinds of polar response and would fit in a cabinet that small.
@@petersouthernboy6327 Sorry bud, I watched this video again just to make sure I didn't fly off the handle too quickly but I stand by my original assessment! BTW 50 years ago woofer and the horn would have been cast the magnets would have been alnico. The particle board would have been birch ply. This is total CRAP.
Thank you much for the look inside. Thank you for the detailed explanation of the crossover. Well done video sir!
The larger mid-range horn, which makes 85% of the music, is the big news with the IV. In particular, the compound curves of the horn disperse sound waves more evenly than simple ones.
I wish every speaker review included this level of detail re. the crossover. GR Research is helping the cause.
Gr research isn’t helping anybody except himself and the people that are enlightened enough to realize his kits are fixing the speaker but simply changing the voicing of the speaker all together. His work is misleading.
@@daveycrockett5738 Have you compared the 'voicing' of the stock components vs. what GR Research suggests? My understanding is that there is a long lineage of aftermarket crossover improvements for Klipsch products i.e. Crites' (RIP) that listeners typically prefer.
@@calebkeen8967 his whole thing is about making a speaker flat, the frequency response flatter. People don’t usually buy klipsch because it’s the most linear or flat speaker out there. If you want something like that buy something else you know what I mean. I would personally love to upgrade the crossover I’m my speakers but not have it change the sound towards a more flat direction simply to have higher grade materials in it to make it smoother or whatever that’s does not to change the voicing of the speaker or the vcurve just to have higher quality materials in the crossover. Does he do that cause I thought it was all about making eh frequency response “better” or flatter.
@@daveycrockett5738 I know what you mean - I have Cornwall IV's and enjoy the speaker quite a bit and would enjoy the "peace of mind" of knowing they have good crossover materials but wouldn't want to significantly change the voicing of the speaker. It would be great if manufacturers made this kind of information more readily available to their buyers, gave us more insight into the design decisions etc. I admit it's too much to hope for from a big brand like Klipsch.
@@calebkeen8967 right exactly. I don’t think the crossovers have bad materials I’d just like if they were better of course
although ive been into stereo since 1973 and built my own computers since 1993, Ive never look inside a speaker until your videos. your efforts are very much appreciated. 8 years ago, an undiscovered mouse, now long gone, chewed thru subwoofer wires in 1 of my 1990ish klipsch p7 floorstanders( which has a 12 inch subwoofer with a 150 sub amp built in with a 1 inch and an 8 nch). I was shocked how cheaply, bare minimum the crossover seems. I repaired the 2 wires damaged, but surprising to see the cheap crossover from 1990ish. yes, speakers have improved, $880 was 50 percent off in 1990ish, but now I understand what building a speaker to a price point with tradeoffs means. thank you so much.
Glad you got something from the video. Thanks for letting me know!
Honestly I'm surprised. I would have expected a little better for $6K a pair. The cross over components are not cheap but they are not particularly high end either. I have plenty of Klipsch speakers including the Heresey II and the new 600M and some surround speakers. I took apart the Klipsch KG 1.5's I have and updated the caps - found one of the tweeter coils rotted out. Overall good but the KG 1.5 were $800 pair new. The build quality did not blow me away by any means. So humm... value for money? Great video by the way - thanks for the insight into the cornwall IV.
Nice review, these breakdowns are common in europe. Surprised for this kind of cash it's stamped steel and lack of sound damping and bracing in the cabinet. The plastic zips also snap over time. Tweeter magnet could have been bigger.
And with all the Flaws that you see , They somehow sound amazing
For 6$k..... should be better quality built..and certainly needs to sound decent...
I have a pair of Cornwall 3...I like the sound but built quality embarrassing for an American made product at the price point.
In have 6 pairs range from 200 to 10000$.used price...I'm my room currently...
My Cornwall has the poorest built quality.
Montana speakers made in California... amazingly built... material and sound quality...top notch for the money... True American built standard in my my opinion.
When designing a driver the magnet strength and voice coil interaction determine the motor strength and there will be an optimum value determined by the dome, compression, throat area and horn cut off. In other words, putting a bigger magnet on could hurt the tweeter performance, and if it made it more sensitive they would have had to pad the tweeter down even more. When applied to woofers both AR and Klipsch had to lower the magnet strength in some applications.
Tweeters don’t require big magnets. At most they see 15-20 Watts.
its not the size of the tweeter mag but the material used in the mag. alnico, strontium and neodynium are smaller, lighter and more powerful.
Thanks for the inside view of the Cornwall IV speaker. Great video !!!
You’re very welcome. Appreciate your kind words.
Good video, its surprising how cheaply these appear to be made considering the high costs of these speakers.
It's not the parts, it's the labor and whatever R&D and running cost of operation that pushes the price up. If they were made as copies in China, they would probably cost less than 10% of their current price. I'm not convinced the quality of the drivers would be the same. But I'm pretty sure the Chinese manufacturer would be able to ship these things for next to nothing. China really likes to undercut competition by making sure their manufacturers don't get burdened with "too much postage".
@@TaswcmT Most of the Klipsch Heritage line was made decades ago and very little has been redesigned. How many decades do people need to continue paying for this R&D? Besides different cabinet finishes and slightly different drivers and crossover mods not that much has changed in many years!
@@dontcare563 The Klipsch Heresy IV is much different than my original Hersey's that I bought in 1980. And there is also inflation and wage increases. I paid $800 for my Hersey's in 1980 that equates to $2500 in 2020. The Heresy IV's sell for $3000. The price for the IV's seems a bit high to me, as do the current prices of all of the Heritage line, but it seems to be a fair price.
@@dontcare563 even as a hobbyist, i can build speakers that will sound as good or better for WAYYYYY less money
I think the price is fair. That said, if I owned the company, I'd change a few things ... but they aren't asking me. lol! Thanks for watching!
Would love to see the second half of this on the listening impressions and what you did to the cabinet and the crossover
Coming soon ... I'm working on it.
Look at all those cheap Iron Core Inductors, Sand Cast Resistors and cheap capacitors. The Cabinets are Resonance magnifiers. Very cheaply made at a premium price. Thanks for the excellent video. For those that know what they are looking at, they will know how cheap these are made and built at a premium price. Thank you. I checked these out at a local A/V store and was surprised at how hollow the cabinets sounded when knocking on the cabinets
I saw that right away. There are many people modifying these types of speakers. Would be great to hear a modded pair vs a factory pair.
Their price is of course a selling point, relatively of course.
Volti Audio makes these types of speakers with all more expensive and higher quality parts. And the price is nearly double.
So there we have four choices, the less expensive speaker; the modified less expensive speaker; the more expensive speaker; and the modified more expensive speaker.
We can be grateful to have so many choices.
Is that you Danny?
Despite what some seem to think about the crossover, it is made of high quality components and the construction is very good. It will last a life time. I have Klipschorns that I bought new in 1996 for exactly $3600 - no tax or shipping from Albuquerque. I thought that was not a bad price even then. I think they sound awesome and are used daily with our home theater driven by a McIntosh 2100 and C20 preamp. Thanks for showing us inside. Someday I think I should open up mine just to make sure all the screws are still tight. Stay safe.
Thanks for commenting. I'd love to hear a Klipschorn properly set up. It's been way to long. Keep enjoying yours!
Thanks, there is so much nonsense about how “cheap” these components are - from people who have never priced out compression drivers. The woofers are made by Eminence in the US, btw.
Into stereo since 1968, never saw the inside of a speaker. So much thanks. Bought klipsch floorstanders in 1986 after hearing my klipsch sytem built for computers. They were the best sounding audiophile grade system tied to a creative sound card. 600 watts rms, but most burnt up with garbage electronic internals. Still have klipsch floorstanders along with thiel floorstanders. Quality here seems terrible. 2 floorstanders with 2 horns. 10 inch mid, 12 bass subs built in with amplifyers cost $750 in 1986 a set, 2 floorstanders and a huge seperate center 4 way. Still going strong
You’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching.
wow i just can't believe that after all this time you never saw the inside of a speaker
@@mgtow-balance3409 crazy, i know. If a had a do over, would have either been a diy speaker guy or certainly better realized what made a better speaker.
I just went to school today. Learning something new. Thank you.
Those are $6600 the pair. We can and do expect better crossover components than sand cast resistors or iron core inductors.
Agreed, I guess Audiovox's shareholders could care less about sound quality.
@@rb89509 "...couldn't care less..."
I have a theory about how the phrase "could care less", which grammatically means the opposite of "I couldn't care less", came about. Back in the 60s and 70s there was a trend of making sarcastic comments like "Ask me if I care" and "I could care less?", the latter being a question. Over time, "I could care less?" dropped the question inflection on less, so it became a statement, but since that question context is lost, it actually means the opposite of what is meant, which is "I couldn't care less".
Thanks! Very interesting. Looking forward to follow-ups.
More to come!
I think the reason sand cast resistors are considered inferior in crossovers is because they have a coiled wire inside, which can add some inductance.
Thank you so much for this outstanding video. I am very appreciative of the time you must of spent for this. This video is very helpful in helping me try to decide on a speaker choice to replace my Vandersteen 2CE which I purchased in 1992. Thanks again.
You’re very welcome. Another option might be the Forte 4’s. I’ve heard good things about them but I haven’t heard them myself. Regardless, I suggest that you try to audition any speaker before buying it. Good luck 👍
Just ordered thenForte IVs. Thanks. Looking forward!
Great video. Thanks for sharing the information. Please let us know about any upgrades you are planning to make to these wonderful speakers. The Cornwall 4’s are on my short list for near future purchase.
It's good to see that no electrolytic capacitors are used in the crossover. Thanks for sharing...
A lot of references to bottoms! Anyway, it's not such a cheap crossover unit. You should check out most speaker crossovers as even in the high-end a lot use Bi-polar electrolytics. At least the Cornwall didn't have any of those. Yes, the inductors are iron core, but so are most speaker inductors, even in very expensive designs. It's rare you find air-core inductors in commercial products as they are expensive and take up a lot of space.
@Mark Godfrey They use electrolytic capacitors because they are small and cheap, not because they are good.
@Mark Godfrey air cores claim to fame is power handling, it'd be overkill with CWIVs that only need 4 watts to blow you outta the room.
@@grahamtricker4103 nothing wrong with using electrolytics in a circuit feeding the bass woofer, you'd never hear a benefit using film type caps in a low pass filter.
@@Carrera6rennsport I agree, there is nothing wrong with using electrolytic capacitors in a speaker crossover, but this speaker and ones like it are aimed at the High-end HiFi market which demands a high level of performance. Klipsch has recognised this and made a good job of the crossover. If you have a good system, a good listening room and good ears, you will be able to hear the benefit of using film caps in all parts of the crossover filter.
Great Video. I know this is a couple of years old now and not sure if this will get an answer. Did you ever publish the value of the inductors ? A complete schematic would be fantastic. Thank you
Excellent informative video. Thank you sir.
I have the Cornwall III's and absolutely love the midrange on them. I would be curious how much different these sound compared to the III's. I think these are a few grand overpriced but I do have to admit the veneer work and finishing are second to none. I do realize there are better speakers for a lot cheaper price. For me these are nostalgic and American made so its a win.
Midrange is a huge improvement in the CW-IV. Very noticeable. The highs are smoother and more refined to me in the CW-IV.
@@petersouthernboy6327 Have you compared the IVs to the RF7 IIIs as well?
@@econautx - two really different speakers. I’ve heard them both at different times in different rooms. The RF73’s have essentially RP600M drivers which, for the price are fine - but the parts in the CWIV are on another level
But NONE envelope you IN the music like Klipsch. The breath and air which it throws around the room are second to none. I've listened to speakers many times the price of a car and while accurate to the tiniest detail they left me wanting. Go off axis and you loose that sound. Not so with the Klipsch.
Iron core inductors in a speaker with that price tag? 😕
Also pressed tin bass chassis. That’s an expensive joke.
My Radio Shack Realistic Optimus 5's (that I still have) have a cast woofer basket frame.
Also limited bracing and no damping whatsoever
They’re all that way.
@@Booneville2024 Yes they do. And the reason is price inductance ratio.
I'll take this crossover any day compared with many "audiophile grade" speakers. SOME with only two capacitors. Lol. B&W, Mission, etc... Comparatively this thing is a beast.
I read where Mills resistors are slightly better in sound quality than sand cast resistors, especially the MRA-5 variety. I know you'll find the right discrete analog components in the crossover redo. Nice review and thanks for sharing.
What other speakers in the 5-7k range do you recommend checking out? I am in the market for new speakers and had my eyes set on these, but after seeing the build quality, it makes me want to see what else is out there.
Great info.I was thinking of upgrading the caps on my new Cornwall IVs.Not now,Thanks for your video.I may do some sound deadener after I have em for awhile like you did.
Impressed with you confidence to be tinkering with this 6000 dollar speaker set. I am contemplating buying some... very interesting your Cornwall journey.
That's a good point you made about the midrange horn. I bet it would sound better if you sprayed something like rhino liner on the back to deaden any resonance from the plastic horn. When you tapped on the plastic it seemed like it wouldn't take much energy to excite it to make sound. Probably bad sound compared to the mid range driver.
Are you familiar with the upgraded crossover that can be found online for the CW4's? What's your thoughts on the improvement of those crossovers to achieve better performance/sound from the already redesigned x'over for the cw4.
The tweeter foam is to absorbs the sound from the back of the horn. Because the back soundwaves can hit the tweeter and cause issues.
KEF has a new meta that absorbs the sound 99.9% for the LS50 Meta. A++ sound quality
I’m not surprised that they don’t use super high end parts. Klipsch is not going for the typical hifi sound with these speakers. More expensive parts doesn’t allways mean better sound. What is more important is using good quality parts that will last a long time.
Thanks for this video. I have been working on upgrading an old Chorus crossover. So it is interesting to see how much better the Cornwall iv crossover is built compared to my Chorus II. Also, for the inductors, you should be able to get their inductance from Klipsch without having to measure them if you want to get new ones. Of course measuring them will tell you how accurate the parts are and whether they need improvements.
Glad it was helpful. Thanks for your suggestion.
Needs more foam in the box in my opinion especially on the back wall of the enclosure. I put foam in all my speakers and it has always helped.
Great suggestion. I’m looking into that. Already have purchased some material.
Klipsch needs to borrow a concept from the firearms industry, The "Custom Shop". For extra cost, custom shop firearms receive extra attention resulting in smoother triggers, extra features, etc.. You could specify what kind of parts for your crossover, ask them to solder the connecting clips to the drivers (instead of push-on connectors) whatever you desire (for a price).
I think the Heritage Series speakers are all hand assembled so the extra steps should be doable. BTW, you could spray some Flex Seal rubber onto your midrange driver for more dampening (if you think it would improve the sound). Good luck!
I don't normally comment on videos because of the endless debate they sometimes cause but, this is very good and interesting. I've modified a set of Polk Audio speakers with Clarity Cap capacitors, Mox resistors and Titanium tweeters (cheap from PE). I didn't change the values of any of the components. I did a simple swap. I did however, have to put those caps and resistors on a thin sheet of wood because of their large size. I was very impressed with the sound. Sound is pretty subjective IMO but it was a little more detailed and warm to me. I particularly liked the vocals and mid range I got. The hi's were pretty sharp too. I'm thinking about doing another pair with different x-over components, ring radiator tweeters and different sound deadening material. Anyway, thanks for the video. I enjoyed it. And, did I say, I am not an engineer, sound expert fancy speaker builder or "Audiophile"? I'm just a regular guy who likes to tinker.
Congrats on your mods! LCR quality can certainly effect sound quality. Thanks for watching!
Yep, those crossovers are exactly what I would expect in a factory crossover..
I notice that some of those inductors are perpendicular to each other, which was most likely not arbitrary. Also, decent metallized polyester film caps aren’t really much behind their much larger size polypropylene cousins in the same value; both of them are miles ahead of electrolytics that need to be replaced way too often and don’t perform as well either. The polyprope’s will have much larger voltage rating (ac and dc), so will naturally be larger due to charge Q equating to the multiplicative factor of the capacitance C and voltage V. Expressed alternatively, Q=C*V. As you pointed out, the voltage rating of the caps that are already in there are well overrated
as compared to the manufacturer’s rating for the speakers. One last point, I have never had an issue with those resistors in terms of longevity, value or function. I have a pair of floorstanding speakers that I’ve personally upgraded the crossovers after 25 years that use those resistors, and I did not even bother changing them. They looked new, and their resistive values were dead on.
Not knowing if the lead inductance for that type of resistor would make a difference in the end result
for better or worse, I opted to avoid that particular modification, although my gut tells me I wouldn’t have noticed a damn bit of difference, and that any perceived difference could very well be psychological. The tweeters sounded excellent to me after the mods and still do two years later, so I am glad I didn’t bother. 👨🏻✌️
Thanks for your insights.
@@thebostonaudiophile 👍No problem, your are very welcome.. Thank you and 👏 for your video channel efforts..🥳✌️👨🏻
@@shipsahoy1793 You are very welcome. Thanks for watching and sharing.
Speakers are awesome, very good sounding. Re crossowers, i do not think that cw4 need some upgrade at this stage, but i have done some isolation of the mid and tweeter plastic body as shown.As well as woofer frame. Also some cintiphone was put see pics.
Hi David, the link to the pictures didn't link up. Can I ask what you did to the woofer frame, what and how is the cintiphone used, and how it worked?
The reviewers all really liked the sound of these. This video shows that with ordinary materials, you can get great sound. I agree that the price is way too high however.
Yes, they have some really good sonic qualities. I'm thoroughly enjoying my Cornwalls. One thing to consider is that because the Cornwalls are so efficient, the voltage and current levels in the crossover are lower than most. I have no doubt that better parts would sound better but Klipsch has to decide where to spend the most money.
@@thebostonaudiophile At $3000 a pop, there should be no compromises, IMHO.
Exactly what I thought.! Big woofer magnet..? The enclosure.? The crossover.? And for the price, it's a total rip off. What a shame. In this pric range, this is the worst I've seen today.!
Its a rip off compared to what speaker for $6K retail?
@@Carrera6rennsport a $6k cornwall versus a diy speaker like the open baffle x-optica kit $2400 per pair from danny, award winning designer, at gr research.? kit includes the wood, pre cut. yes, one must solder, glue and stain, but its open baffle, 4 woofers, 2 mids, and a neo planar tweeter, 8 ohm, 93 db. Im new to the DIY, but seems like a worthy challenge
@@file1man apples to oranges. DIY attracts a completely different audience not interested in or more importunately, has the time and inclination to paint by numbers as it were.
file1man - Danny Ritchie doesn’t make anything close to a horn loaded anything. He routes a radius in his baffles for his cheap Chinese ribbon tweeters.
I actually thought about buying one and reverse engineer it. I have build my kitchen cabinets from scratch and Home Depot would charge you $20k for what i have but it cost me $2800 in materials plus my time. Right now I'm playing with some small vintage speakers I picked up for $40 but have to replace the tweeters and woofers due to Nicotine Tar build up and to much disco music abuse. I can see big things in my future.
Another great video. Thanks.
If I had the money, I'd buy them because they sound great.
It is interesting to see that many people think $6000 for a pair of speakers with what looks to be about $100 or $200 of cheaply made components, a good deal. To me this is worth about $500 not $6K.
Okay.
Maybe in 1950 when salaries were $1.25 an hour. If you want extremely high end components there are plenty of $30k and above speakers for you to buy
I think you should just put them back together and enjoy them. If you found a 10 year old or more old pair, got them at a good price and did the upgrades your are thinking about that might be more worth your while? I have been down this rabbit hole a few times.
Thanks for your suggestion. I’m weighing all my options. I’m enjoying them quite a bit as is and there’s much to be said for keeping the speakers stock and accepting that they aren’t perfect and that they never will be perfect. No speaker is perfect. No speaker is even close to perfect imo.
@@thebostonaudiophile 👍
Modern stamped steel with reinforcing dimples or old school cast aluminium? Which sounds better?
Probably depends on the specific driver and basket design.
Klipsch has definitely stepped up their game in the crossover components. I’m one of those that tries to improve everything I own but after rebuilding dozens of Klipsch heritage speakers and crossovers I highly doubt you will see much if any audible improvement in replacing any components in this crossover. The sandcast resistors seem to be on the woofer circuit thus changing to a Mils or even replacing the capacitors with Sonicaps would make any audible improvement even to us ultra critical ears. Can’t believe I said all this. I’m sure one day I will rebuild this one with the top tier parts and see but likely be a waste of money.
Decades ago, I did a lot of crossover parts experiments with various "box" speakers. It was easy for my friends and me to hear the differences.
I think you meant to say "...replacing the capacitors with sonic *wouldn't* make any audible improvement..."
Thank-you! Montpellier, France
Great video, very insightful, however for this kind of money, that woofer should've been a cast frame aluminum basket instead... it should also have under spider venting for better cooling under around the spider and the out side of the voice coil "which is hopefully copper. as well as a better vented pole piece to cool the inside of the voice coil former "which i hope is aluminum at least" the top part of the former near the dust cap and even slightly below it beneath the windings of the voice coil, perhaps near the tripple joint should have little air holes in it for even more extended cooling capacity, around the under side of the cone where the dust cap is covering it, you see these types of things in higher powerd subwoofers or higher power capacity woofers, all of these things would increase cooling capacity and also reduce power compression making the woofers more responsive, there should also be a copper shortning ring around the lip of the pole piece and the other part of the voice coil gap in the magent around the out side parameter of the magnetic gap to reduce parasitic inductance to only further increase responsiveness, perhaps they have that at the very least, but you would need to completely disassemble the woofer to see this, they should've also stuck with the old school square alnico magnets and just charged them higher with a far higher voltage and current for a better a bl product to keep with the original design and further increase efficiency and cone control, the horns are by inlarge 5 to 8 db more efficient then the woofers are, if not that, they should've went all out for neodymium magnets, a neo magnet that is equal in size to what is there sure would increase the cost, but the increase in motor force would be simply off the charts, but i bet the efficiency would be that much greater, going back to the woofers frame, i think the originals frame was also a stamped steel design much like this current gen, but a cast design as i first said is just overall better and more solid, less resonant characteristics as well.... still a nice speaker over all, the woofers are ok, but not in a 5000+ dollar set of speakers ok... there are a few other things I'd want to point out, but these are still something I'd buy being a horn guy anyway, as really lets be honet, thats what you buy these babies for, their beautiful horns, even dispite its slight short comings overall, from what im seeing, everything else is designed fairly well, especially the cabnet. If i could find these babies cabinets with the woofers either missing, or blown out, I'd certainly be putting better drivers inside as well as a higher wattage set of inductors for the woofers as I'd be pushing more then 100 watts and if not that, id get rid of the crossovers entirely and then cross everything over electrically before the drivers which would just make them sound far better then any passive crossover using perhaps a dbx 3 way active crossover and a few decent power amps, such as 2 bryston 3b cubed amplifiers one for the woofers, a 2b for the midranges and a lp2 for the tweeters, still im sure they sound wonderful either way. Id also find the continuous power rating of both the mid drivers and the tweeter drivers and put properly selected self resetting poly switches on them to pretect them from to much current, perhaps even a current limiting lightbulb as well, as both of them protect things differently, the lightbulb is a gradual compression type deal as the poly switch is an immediant type of thing. Get them in decent enough quality, you wont damage the quality of the signal at all. Partsexpress has top quality speaker protection devices. Getting rid of the crossovers and going down the electrically crossed over rout will not only increase sound quality but also reduce power losses and increase efficiency not having to drive other passive components and also reduce distortion Those bryston amplifiers have a 0.005 percent thd rating at rated power, those dbx crossovers are failrly similar as well and don't cost all that much. As i said, wonderful video, it was very enjoyable to see inside. You earned a sub from me indeed!
It is incredible how much klipsch speakers perform in relation to the drivers cost and the materials used. When you make a good project,you can sell it at 10 times the production cost,like in this case and still being competitive on the market.
So basically a Faital Pro 15PR400 :D
Overall not too bad of quality. I think that your efforts to improve the sound of these while noble will likely be inaudible as I think any distortions or resonances are already so far down below the music level that they are inaudible. A suggestion, just do the mods to one speaker at a time then set them side by side to remove any influence of the room and position from making an influence. Then use a mono signal to both speakers and level match the channels closely with pink or white noise. Then listen for differences in sound as you go between the left and right channels with different music and different playback levels. That’s the best way to determine if there is any differences as our acoustic memories are very short on the order of less than a second. Most interested in the results.
Totally agree!😬
@@bigjay1970 I love your tag line, The King of Common Sense!
@@StewartMarkley
Thanks!😬🤗😇
Thanks for your suggestions. As an engineer it’s my nature to make careful A/B comparisons under controlled conditions. I appreciate your skepticism but in my experience, many types of modifications are very obviously audible and repeatable. I do my best to remain open minded and let my ears be the final judge. I suggest others try this approach too and let the chips fall as they may rather than to allow ourselves to be swayed by logic as to what “should” and “shouldn’t” be audible. Thanks for watching and commenting!
The Boston Audiophile As an engineer myself I also am a BIG believer of A-B testing under controlled conditions. Also having studied in the field of psychoacoustics and applied that knowledge when I setup and administered double blind tests in my days at CBS, one thing I learned is that the duration of human auditory memory is very short, in the range of less than one second. Listening for a period for awhile (something that is debated about by non-engineers/scientists/psychoacoustic professionals) then changing to a different device and repeating the listening isn’t a valid test, mostly because we just don’t have the acoustic memories needed. Another variable is that our focus on certain instruments or sounds can change from listening session to session making critical comparisons difficult. To really get good comparisons, they need to be done quickly and repeatedly.
No offense, but I don’t believe that qualitative subjective judgements can be made if preconceived notions and/or biases are not excluded in the testing. I do believe that valid judgements can be made when the differences are obvious as in comparing a boom box say with a real hi-fi system, but comparing crossover components or speaker cabinet resonances are rarely obvious. Lastly, what do you have to lose if you are going to alter both speakers anyway, doing one at a time to do valid comparisons of before and after is not much of a sacrifice for the potential benefit to real scientific analysis.
You are mentioned in Joey G's audio channel.
I wonder if a thin layer of spray foam on the horns (inside the speaker) would dampen the sound better.
The number crunchers have done Klipsch in.
Hi! I liked your video. I have a sick Cornwall Iv with a blown tweeter. I am so glad to see that the screws are metal threaded. You wouldn’t happen to have the torque specs for the bolts , would you? Have not yet received an answer from Klipsch.
Many violin makers, looking at a Sradivari, wonder why their products, made of seemingly identical materials, could sound so weak. Well, Paul Klipsch massaged these Cornwalls, with methodology and intuition from 1959 until his 80s, as they were one of the Heritage, hand-built class that made him famous. A chef will tell you, "It's good ingredients AND how you stir the sauce." I'd guess 90% of all Klipsch Heritage products made since the late 1940s are still singing beautiful melodies, so the materials couldn't have been too shabby! In fairness, the other American-made speakers of note, Altec and JBL, were made of industrial-grade components, because these makers' customers were largely theater chains, auditoria operators, sound studios, professional musicians and the like,
who expected to pay a premium and wanted 100% reliability. I admire Henry Ford for making a car the average person could afford. For the same reason, I respect Klipsch for making great sound for the broader markets' pocketbook.
excellent analogy with the violins. So true!
Great video. I'm considering the Cornwall IV or the Forte IV now. Would be very interested to see the "after" of your network change to the Klipsch Cornwall IV networks. I was thinking along the same lines when you were showing the inside of the speaker, had you taken the fill material out, or if they didn't have it to begin with, I wondered if a few sheets of nores would help the speaker out. Thanks again.
Go with the Cornwall if u can afford it. You'll be happier.
The crossover look like they were builded by Eminence !
I have had really good luck with Danny Ritchie’s NoRez inside the cabinets . Almost like doubling the thickness of cabinets which I have done as well.
Thanks for your suggestion. I've got 4 sheets of no-rez here, but I haven't tried it yet. If I do. I'll be sure to report.
Hay L.B: did adding NoRez take away any of the open sound or the live-like sound of being on the stage with some recordings.
Would love to see the upgrade. Would you design a new crossover or „just“ upgrade the parts quality?
It would also be very interesting to see how you go from a given crossover to the schematic. Thats where I am stuck with my upgrade project.
I just posted a new video describing the effect of damping the Cornwall's horns. I'm giving the crossover some more thought but I'm enjoying the speakers as they are for the time being.
Thanks for the post unfortunately Klipsch uses retail stores to sell there speakers like many audio companies if they sold direct that would really lower the price and improve engineering and up the budget for higher end components and capasitors and give the consumer a better price thanks for all the work you put in to this review have a merry Christmas and you have a new scriber
Sand cast resisters..Iron core inductors..the accounting department are the engineers..😆
id expect more from 5,000 dollar speakers....
😂 Mundorf, Claritycaps, even Dayton Audio Inductors - Capacitors would be a better choice for $5,000 speakers!! Stamped steel woofer & plastic horns, not cast aluminum?? The horns, woofer, mid & tweeter are worth about $300 - maybe $400 per speaker!! Paying for American man-hours not Chinese!! 🙄
I'm a n00b to "hi fi" ...I'm more of a producer, bedroom dj vinyl collector and synth/keyboard player and been using studio monitors for decades... but also use my studio monitors for listening to my nice records (jazz, rare soul groove and disco, reggae, brazil, african, psych rock, house, etc.).
I use HS8... happy and content with them. But, considering Cornwall or Forte + a cheapy (but good) Leak ss or Willsenton tube amp.
How do my current HS8 compare to a Cornwall or Forte? In terms of sound presence or overall sound quality... you can state anything (including points I can't think of atm) - size & quality of sound, build quality/reliability, dispersion, freq range and bass, etc., etc.
I'm sure my HS8 would be super clear, crisp, flat and neutral vs. a colorful old Cornwall/Forte + tube amp (or even ss amp)... just wondering if it would be a considerable upgrade and/or change for the better overall... or, just keep the HS8, as they're probably good enough.
Space = half of a 2-car garage (with cars usually inside [less air volume] and flanked w/ shelves & storage boxes/junk/tools for diffusion).... sufficient acoustic panels (3 ceiling clouds, 3 corner/bass traps and front/side walls.
Using cheaper parts on a speaker of this price is not acceptable. At least on the midrange circuit there should be top-quality parts.
The whole screw issue is massively important. I don’t want to take my Forte 1’s apart because I’m petrified of it.
Understood. Yes, just do what you're comfortable with. They're good speakers stock as well. Happy listening!
Thank you so much for doing this !
You’re welcome. Thanks for your kind comment.
for a very expensive speaker they could at least use a cast frame driver and some premium caps on the xover
I think it would be interesting to engineer potentiometers for each of the crossover points, so one could vary the turnover frequencies to suit individual tastes. But I guess that would put the mid and tweeter drivers at peril of being over-driven.
Interesting idea. Thanks for watching!
Perhaps try some NoRez from GR-acoustics?
If would like to listen to a speaker that has a really stiff cabinet I would suggest checking out Magico. I think that Goodwin's is a dealer in the Mass area. The A1 which is their entry speaker is really impressive.
Also maybe look at replacing parts in the crossover with parts from mundorf. Replace the sand cast resistors and the iron core inductors with air core or foil inductors.
Thanks for your kind suggestions and for watching.
@@thebostonaudiophile Enjoyed the reviews of the Cornwallis. Just watched them today. Have you upgraded the crossover or dampened the cabinet yet?
I appreciate the video. This is the reason I collect vintage speakers. These speakers components are very cheaply made, Stamp thin steel basket? amongst other things. how can Klipsch justify 3000-6000 for the pair? Imagine the components you can obtain for that amount of money.
With the exception of the industrial line, Klipsch has used stamped steel woofers from the 60's forward, I can't comment on the older Stevens and EV15WK
@@cjhodgson3000 Lucky for me Klipsch Vintage speakers are not the only speakers I collect But it seems to me although I am a fan, Klipsch is living off its past reputation and diminishing the quality of its product in order capitalize on the returns. This video just proves the point....
Shared this to the Klipsch group I'm in. Great video man. Just subbed! Also, the compartment behind the tweeter is used to absorb some of the high frequencies to prevent shrillness. I think it's a vented tweeter 😁
Thanks for watching and sharing. Makes sense regarding the tweeter damper.
@@thebostonaudiophile you're welcome! And agreed! I think they use that vented tweeter in a more simplified way on their new reference premiere line. It's a subtle different but definitely noticeable at louder volumes ☺️
What a fantastically done video. I hope to own these speakers soon. Did you end up building new boards with your larger capacitors, etc? Would love to know also if you added dampening material and bracing for improved rigidity? Overall, the speakers seems to be worth the cost! Thanks again hope to hear back.
Nice video, thanks for sharing! Does it say what gauge the speaker wires are?
The internal hookup wire is about 20 gauge. There are two solid, 20 gauge twisted wires for each conductor.
It should be noted that all the inductor are orthogonal to one-another, thereby minimizing magnetic coupling between them.
Good observation, it would be interesting if we could confirm that that was deliberate, though it most likely was.
G&R would recommend air core inductors and better capacitors; perhaps more anti-resonant liners inside. You didn’t mention the tractrix geometry of the horns that prevents internal reflections of the sound before emerging from the horns (makes them sound less like horns).
Yes, that’s probably what GR would suggest. I don’t know too much about the special horn shape, but it is unusual and it seems to work!
Here is a quote from Wikipedia: "In 1927, P. G. A. H. Voigt patented a horn loudspeaker design based on the assumption that a wave front traveling through the horn is spherical of a constant radius. The idea is to minimize distortion caused by internal reflection of sound within the horn. The resulting shape is the surface of revolution of a tractrix." Ironic that a nearly century-old concept is used to improve modern speaker design!
Brilliant review
Fantastic explanation
Those are crossover components bought by the accounting department. You can buy a complete pair of Crites Type B speakers with far better crossover components and bass drivers for half the price. I've built kits from CSS that have more money in one capacitor than these entire boards. Yes, "price no object" shouldn't apply to a $6500 pair of speakers but I was watching a teardown of the new JBL bookshelf speakers that cost $399 at Best Buy and it looks like they sourced the crossovers from the same factory.
I have Klipsch Cornwall mk3s,driven by Plinius SA 102 pure class A solid state, or a Dared VP 845 single ended triode class A 20 watt tube integrated, I'm also currently using a Innuos Zenith mk3 server into a Lampizator SET dac, with revelation audio labs prophecy cryogenic silver Ethernet cable rj45 version 8 and wireworlds silver starlight USB cable and Transparent XL reference rca, Vpi prime Super Scout turntable in white along with a kiseki purple heart cartridge and a Herron mk2 phono with transparent reference phono cables.
Is the mk 4 Cornwall a significant upgrade over the mk 3 Cornwall, and do you think a Cary CAD 300sei with 8 watts would be sufficient power.
System synopsis jfyi.
And thanks for your review and time.
I heard the Cornwall 3, but not in a way that I can make a conclusive comparison. If those amps are enough power for the C3, they should be fine with the C4.
You should never have opened them. Knowing that the woofer baskets are stamped steel degrades the sound quality significantly from what it was before you knew that. You'll now have to undergo hypnosis to forget, so that the sound quality can be restored to new. ;->
😂 Doesn’t bother me at all. The speaker was pretty much exactly what I expected. As a mechanic engineer, it’s fascinating! Thanks for watching.
@@thebostonaudiophile I thought as much. I'm an ME too. I was humorously "having on" some of the "low information" commenters who seemed to take personal offense from the stamped baskets. Reading reams of audio mythology is amusing and maddening by turns. Good on you for confusing them with facts! Interesting observations on core saturation, BTW. I'm avoiding it by DSP multiamping, something you should try if you haven't already. It rocks!
Following up... could the core saturation you suspect actually be thermal compression? That could potentially bring stamped baskets back into the picture as an element of mediocre thermal management that is typically a characteristic of sub-professional drivers.
How do you think Dynamat Extreme would work inside the cabinet walls to dampen them compared to Norez, and have you lined yours yet.
Very interested in your future mods. If you make two sets of crossovers it will lower your cost....... I would love to try them. ;)
Ha ha😂. Thanks for watching!
The Boston Audiophile Super interested in how you’re going to try improving already good speaker. If you can’t make 2 sets of crossovers 🤞 please include detailed how to for those of us who are technicality challenged. 👍🤣
Again, great work and pleasure to watch your ventures.
Look how thin the baffle is that’s holding that big 15 inch woofer. Why everybody else is making their baffles 2 inches to 6 inches thick, that one looks like it’s about a half inch or less.
Thank you for this. Now that you have discovered what the inside looks like, would you say that these Klipsch Cornwall IV are still a good buy or way too expensive for what you get? Thanks.
Not cheap, but fairly priced IMO.
@@thebostonaudiophile Thanks for reaching out. How would you compare these Cornwalls to B&W 803 or 802 D3 speakers and or ATC SCM 50 or 100 ASLT active speakers?
Great video 👍
Thanks.
Thank you, a carefully made video about a carefully built speaker. But please, what do so many people expect from modifying the crossover other than that you have "changed" something yourself. Two ways to completely destroy a well-calculated xover are "better" coils and caps. Expensive polypropylene caps have lower ESR and expensive air core coils have higher ESR than the iron core coils used. In the end, the impedance of the xover is completely skewed and people wonder why the 500€ capacitor sounds so "thin" and tinny.
There is no linear improvement in electrical components at a higher price if you don't know what you are doing.
It appears you have the same affliction as me... taking speakers 🔊 apart 😕
I would have liked to see more bracing and a cast woofer basket (like JBL L100 uses), rather than stamped. I think resonance has ALWAYS been a problem with the entire Klipsch heritage line from day one up to today.
Thanks for watching and commenting. I agree, but I still really like the speakers and I can fiddle around with them if I want to get even more out of them.
Thank you for the detailed video. What values are the inductors? What did you replace them with? I’m assuming you dumped the iron core for air core. Did you create a schematic?
You’re very welcome. To date, I haven’t made any crossover changes.
@@thebostonaudiophile Do you have the measurements of the inductors? I’m about to tackle an upgrade as well.
@@rickshaw5595 Hi Rick. I'm sorry, but for a number of reasons, I'm not comfortable sharing the schematics and measurements that I've derived from measuring my Klipsch crossovers.
I'd suggest buying an inexpensive LCR meter on Amazon, I see one on Amazon for $36, that should do. Remember to "lift" one inductor lead before measuring each inductor. Alternatively, perhaps you could ship your crossover to a parts supplier that's willing to measure it and sell you what you need?
Sorry, I can't be of more help and Good luck!
@@thebostonaudiophile Wow, ok. Now I have to desolder one leg on each of them before ordering my inductors. So much for being a helpful community member. Now I guess I’ll unsubscribe from your channel since “I’m not comfortable”.
I'm not sure it's fair to Klipsch. You should not push me to do something that I don't want to, that I don't feel right about. I spend a lot of time on this channel. I never ask for "likes" or "subscribes" and I don't even monetize my videos so my viewers won't have to watch ads. Bye bye.
Think I would definitely loose the sandcast resistors for some Earsey. And re cap with Sonicaps all of same values of course. The purist will say “Klipsch wanted that way” but we know they had to hit a price point . People don’t get that and are becoming more and more aware of what high quality crossovers can do. (First thing I do with all my Heritage collection). Never fails to improve every sonic aspect of them. Thanks for great video
Thanks for dropping a comment! I've made many crossover component comparisons over the years and there's no doubt that better parts sound better. You're absolutely right IMO, Klipsch can't use top-shelf parts because the retail prices would become prohibitive.
@@thebostonaudiophile Why would it be prohibitive to use top shelf parts, or parts a step or two up? If they have a distinctive sought after sound, why can't they raise their price 50%, comparable to other speakers in the class?
Did you ever determine the values of all the inductors?
Disappointed the quality of the cabinets and specially the drivers.
Thanks for sharing.
You're absolutely correct. The quality is garbage for the retail price. I've been calling out Klipsch on this but the fanboys get bent out of shape. I understand that they're made in the states but still no excuse for the shortcomings.
If the sound quality is great then why is this even relevant?
Droidz Hunterz have listen to them?
Sound reproduction without modifying is really bad.
For me the best speakers are horn loaded with 8” voxativ full range in tandem with single end tube amp period everything else is compromise.
Agreed , looking at the construction cost vs price point , hmmmm regardless of sound. Compare them Tekton Lore for example , 1200$ a pair with real wood cover cabinets . 200$ in tweeters , woofers are higher quality with very heavy cast frames . The Klipsch sound good though not my taste , Tektons sound better to me much more bang for the buck . I used to have a pair of Klipsch KLF's , they were a good value though not on par with Tekton or Zu .
carlos oliveira I have a horn design mentor who knows the engineers at klipsch.
The quality of the drivers are crap, however the engineers have implemented the design of all the drivers so we’ll that they sound excellent. I’ve heard them. They’re amazing. I’d love to see what klipsch could do if they used high quality drivers in their systems.
@The Boston Audiophile Since you have it apart, could you tell me the measurements for the base as it's a bit thinner than actual length and width of the speaker. TIA
my 1970's B-I-C Venturi Formula 4 speakers have the same Texas instrument Capacitors then these. i just bought some Dayton Audio Capacitors to refresh my crossovers but only because they are over 40 years old and the tweeters are not making any sound.
Wonderful! Thank you.
I'd be putting bitumen lining on those horns especially the mid horn to dampen ringing !
Spray them with plastidip.
Thanks for the video. Convinced me further never to buy Klipsch!
You’re welcome. Glad you found it informative.
They may sound good but cheaply made would be an understatement!🤪🤯🤯 Even a SVS ultra tower at $1,000 looks much, much better built.🤔🤔🙄🙄 1/3rd the price. Great overview either way!
I’ve never heard SVS speakers, so I can’t comment on their sound.
@@thebostonaudiophile
Their Tower Ultra speaker is pretty good for the price and they have a 60-day no-questions-asked return policy both ways so you can't really lose I myself am a JBL man but there's many videos of them being taken apart being the SVS Ultras and they're much much better built than these cornwall's I'll tell you that!🤗😇 I recently saw the innards on a video of the Klipsch K horns for 16 Grand and they're horribly Built For The Money horribly🤯 they're built the same way as these cornwall's put it that way and they're much more expensive they may be bigger but they're not put together so hot. Even a B/W at that price is built like a tank!🤔😬
Those midrange compression drivers alone (not the horn lens) are $300 each. The woofer is the same spec that has been used for 50 years, and it’s made by Eminence in the US. The midrange and tweeter horns are proprietary Klipsch designs by Roy Delgado and you won’t find anything off-the-shelf that will give you those kinds of polar response and would fit in a cabinet that small.
Thank you so much for your complete review of the cornwall IV speakers. I have been very intersted in hearing them but more imprtantly looking at the guts. What are your thoughts of the IV's compared to the Altec Lansing Valencia 846B speakers?
You’re very welcome. I haven’t heard the AL’s so I don’t know how they compare. Maybe you could visit a Klipsch dealer so you can hear the Cornwall’s firsthand?
Interesting. Thank you for sharing.
You are very welcome.
Great Video - I have the same speakers and they can be a bit shouty with some material and wondered about the crossover replacement but can get a schematic...could you draw something out and include thoughts for upgrades? I am in the UK and maybe HumbeHomemadeHifi in Holland and make me a new xo...Miflex KPCU-01 caps seem to have good reviews and wont break the bank
Thank you. Damping the horns, see my other video, helps “shoutiness” some what. I may do some crossover mods in the future, but no guarantees.
Hi David, would it be possible to order already upgraded crossovers, with the premium parts? Caps,resistors act...
I know this is audio but these are the cheapest materials I have ever seen in a $6k speaker, plastic horns, paper cones steel stamped woofer, probably 300 bucks worth of parts! It's unbelievable. The most genuine high-end parts in these speakers are those 2x4 braces. I am glad you made this video I was considering these but no fucking way!
Those midrange compression drivers alone (not the horn lens) are $300 each. The woofer is the same spec that has been used for 50 years, and it’s made by Eminence in the US. The midrange and tweeter horns are proprietary Klipsch designs by Roy Delgado and you won’t find anything off-the-shelf that will give you those kinds of polar response and would fit in a cabinet that small.
@@petersouthernboy6327 Sorry bud, I watched this video again just to make sure I didn't fly off the handle too quickly but I stand by my original assessment! BTW 50 years ago woofer and the horn would have been cast the magnets would have been alnico. The particle board would have been birch ply. This is total CRAP.
@@interesting7906 High end crap yo....top notch solid #2 :)