gut shaking bass, sweet sounding mids and highs. very impressive to look at inside and out.

none

I actually paid 625.00 for my cornwalls, but packing and shipping was expensive. I had never heard of cornwalls before I visited this site. All the great reviews got me interested in them. These are definitely the best sounding speakers I have ever heard. I have a sansui G-9000 and a pioneer SX-1010. I love the quality of sound the pioneer produces with these. It seems warmer and richer than the sansui. But when they are hooked up to the sansui the volume is incredible. Dont get me wrong, the pioneer cranks out some major volume too. But those extra 50 watts per channel make a big difference. These speakers Almost force me to listen to music I wouldnt normally listen to. Like big band music. Man does that sound sweet through these speakers. They are wonderful for all types of music. I love them so much Ive decided to get another pair for my livingroom. That way there wont be a stereo system in there never being used. Id like to see how they sound in a bigger room with hardwood floors, as they are now in a small den with carpet. As stated in other reviews, if you can get a pair for under a thousand including shipping you will not be dissapointed. run a decent amount of juice to them and they wont be dissapointed!!!!!

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kenwood,pioneer,KLH 9154s,cerwin vega dx5s,cerwin vega HP-215s

Everything!!

The extreme highs are a little weak...

About a year ago I baught a pair of Cornwalls IIs in good condition for $500 and a pair of Heresy IIs in perfect condition for $250. The sound these speakers make together is amazing!!! I'm only 19 so I don't have that much experience with high end audio equipment, but I do not see how anything could possibly sound better. I have the Cornwalls in front and the Heresys in the rear and I power them with a Yamaha RX-777. The Cornwalls are amazing speakers but do lack crisp highs, but the midrange and bass is amazing. The Heresys have great, very crisp clean highs and a pretty good mid range. The Heresys and the Cornwalls are a perfect match for each other, they compensate for each other's weaknesses perfectly. Some people say that the bass from the Cornwalls is poor. I don't listen to the usual jazz, classical and early rock that most audio enthusiast seem to listen to, I listen to hardhouse techno, trance, and metal, all which are centered around and require lots of bass. I can make my Cornwalls pump out so much completly distortion free bass that it can make your insides hurt. Nothing I have ever heard has even come close to createing the levels of near perfect bass that the Cornwalls can produce. I love my Cornwalls, my Heresys, and my Yamaha receiver. I don't think that it would be possible to make better sound for as little money as I spent.

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Klipsch Heresy II Klipsch Promedia 5.1

Tank like construction, dynamic range, efficieny,band-like realism

Cabinet size for some

I bought my Cornwalls in 1979 and have been cranking them ever since. They are truely an amazing speaker and a true classic. I have had a variety of amps driving them throughout the years and currently use a Parasound HCA-1000. Cornwalls make me smile. Whenever the wife leaves the house I get to blow the dust off the grille clothes. The realism and fullness these speakers deliver is so impressive. I''m a true believer in bigger is better because it is what I like. People will try to argue that there satellites and sub- woofer will create the same type of sound as the Cornwalls. Unless there subwoofer is the size of a washingmachine, they''re nuts. You cannot change the laws of physics and you cannot get "incredible" bass from an 8 inch driver. Bigger is better! If you don''t like bandlike realism, them perhaps you should look elsewhere than Cornwalls.I love it, hence I love my Cornwalls. I recently built and installed a pair of ALK crossovers in my Cornwalls and rewired the internal cabinets with stranded silver wire.They were a great investment! The ALK crossover sounds terrific and I feels brings the Cornwall to a new level. I will never sell my Cornwalls. For those of you that criticize horn speakers I depart with these thoughts. When is the last time you saw a live band use a ribbon tweeter? The last time I checked the end of all brass instuments look like a horn. I believe your ear is the same design in reverse. Coincidence? I don''t think so. Paul Kilpsch had the right idea.Happy listening.

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none

Powerfull, great for large rooms,needs very little power.. no more than 100 per side,, any more believe me you don,t need[smile]

Tendency for being bright with some recordings,Low Bass rolls off early

I have owned my Cornwalls since 1989 and I have really enjoyed that robust sound that comes out of them. With some recordings of Female voices they have a tendency to sound bright, but thats because I am using a solid state amp that is sort of on the bright side, an Onkyo 508, but most of the time that is not much of a problem.The Bass is solid, the highs are good, the midrange is crying for a tube amp through.If anyone out there is planning on buying the Cornwalls make sure that you get a tube amp to compliment them, you will not be sorry,and make sure that your electronics are not overly bright.Taking all that under consideration and you will not be disapointed

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Acousti-Phase

Dynamics second only to K-Horn, Realistic soundstage, Conveys the Emotion thing (dynamics, again), Smooth response, Value... can be had for under 100 bucks

I will admit it has that slight megaphone affect (but very minor) on female vocals, needs high current solid state to do everything it was made to do... probably why Klipsch-McIntosh is such a popular combo

I bought my 1980 Cornwalls about two years ago when I saw them advertised on the internet and noticed they were only 25 miles from my door... I had owned a pair of LaScalas from 1997-''99, but wasn''t really happy with them... they seemed a little tipped up in the mid-treble; and the bass, even with corner placement, was lacking, there just wasn''t enough foundation to the music, I liked ''em for the obvious reasons (I could walk to my friend''s house down the block and still hear my music), but eventually sold them to a friend who enjoyed the jump-factor they have in spades. The Cornwall is a different breed, and in my humble opinion, the next best loudspeaker in the Klipsch line after the mighty K-Horn... they do bass, and the overall balance is wonderfull. They''re 101dB efficiency is all anyone would ever need, even with flea-watt SETs most people would never push the gain past 10:00... I personally prefer quality solid state amplification with these speakers as I think it controls the 15-inch woofer much better... I''ve been living with the Jolida JD502B for three years now and it''s a great amp (headaches aside), but having ''borrowed'' my old Harmon Kardon for a month from my brother-in-law, "WOW"... these speakers can really shake your guts with some current... I recently lived with the Creek 4330 mkII for two weeks, and went through all my CDs like crazy, I''m pretty sure I''ll be purchasing the 5350se, (by the way, please visit my friend''s website at cadizcustomsound.com, he deals in some very esoteric stuff and is a committed single-driver theory guy... but also is a horn guy too... and if you live anywhere near Woodland Park, CO, haul some CDs over his place, and have fun. I had a chance to listen extensively to the Rhethm loudspeakers with Lowther DX4s, and also the Edgarhorn Titans- and while I''ll admit the Rhethms were perhaps the best loudspeakers I have heard, my Cornwalls ran musical circles around the 10,000.00 per pair Edgars- sorry Bruce). Anyway, the Klipsch Cornwalls are a speaker that can do rock (I''m pretty sure no one will argue that fact), but also can reproduce brass to the point you think you can hear the saliva dripping from the end of the trombone; a quick enough attack, that a guitar string sounds as if it''s been plucked, as it should; and drum beats sound tangible and realistic, organic is a good word.

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only the LaScala, though like most young people, I''ve owned some true ''junk'' in my day... Definitive tops the list

Amazing bass, effiency, dynamic

revealing to the point of making you dislike poorly recorded material

I first heard a pair of Cornwalls while audio shopping with an audio enthusiast friend of mine back in approx. 1983. He is a huge Klipsch fan(owns a beautiful pair of black LaScala's). We listened to a variety of Klipsch speakers, but as soon as I heard the Cornwalls I was in love. The bass, the amazing clarity of the mids and highs. They were the most amazing speakers my young ears had ever heard. I had to have a pair.
It wasn't until about 1995 that I could really afford to start building a serious system. I lucked out and found someone through the internet, within driving distance, selling a pair of walnut finished Cornwalls for $500. I went and picked them up 2 days later.
At first I was driving them with a Yamaha RX-V590. I thought it was the most beautiful sounding system I had ever heard.
After reading the rec.audio.tubes newsgroup religiously for about 6 months, I knew my babies needed some nice warm tubes to really sing. I purchased a Fisher 500C off of Ebay, and man were they right about the tubes. These speakers are a pure joy with the tubes warming the highs and mids up.
These speakers continue to blow me away. Just put on some solo piano, or Miles Davis "Milestones", walk into another room, and you would think the performers are playing in the next room. These speakers reproduce so well, and are so revealing, that they can make you dislike poorly recorded music.
If you really want to hear music the way it should sound,IMHO, get a pair of Klipsch speakers and a tube front end. You'll fall in love.

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Klipsch Heresy's, Klipsch KG4's, Klipsch LaScala's, various JBL's, Klipsch KLF20's

Efficiency, effortlessness, dynamics, mid-bass performance, accurate horn instrument reproduction, very revealing.

Size, occasional midrange harshness, lack of upper treble, sometimes too revealing.

I've had a pair for over eight years; great shape in walnut. A friend had a pair driven by a 20 w/ch. ancient H/K reciever and I was always blown away by the sheer volume that setup could produce as well as the bass in his particular listening room. Mine don't seem to have quite the same bass performance but might be a tad more musical.

I've driven them at various times with everything from inexpensive Sony receivers, to decent separates (Threshold); they definitely show the subtle differences between electronics even though I'm not a golden ear. Sometimes I think I should try something without as much mid-range harshness or with a little more sizzle at the top end, but there's something about the in-your-face sound of these.

I'm using them in a mix and match home theater setup and am very impressed with them. Despite their ample bass perfomance (at least mid bass), I do recommend a decent sub to accent them. I'm currently using a borrowed Velodyne ULD-15 sub. Although I'm not entirely satisfied with the 2 channel stereo performance with that setup, I'm thrilled with the Dolby Digital performance.

I can't really blame people for "hating" Cornwalls (or other Klipsch speakers), it's just that this speaker is a great value. I also like the horn sound in general. I was raised on my father's JBL Paragon; if that's not a midrange happy, in-your-face speaker, then I don't know what is.

If I ever find a speaker I could give an overall rating of 5 stars to, I'll have found heaven on earth. These will do just fine until I find such a pair.

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JBL horn speakers

I have owned a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls for 11 years. Although my other system components are less than Hi-End (Magnavox Cd Player, Onkyo Integrated Amp, Thorens TD 320 turntable), I never grow tired of my speakers. There is an openness with these speakers, a quiet background, a precise placement of instruments on many better recordings, and they are superb with brass or woodwind instruments. They are revealing of poorly recorded or mastered CD's. The Jazziz monthly samplers are my favorites on my system. I love'em. Plus there is a historical, antique feel to these beauties.

accuracy, sensitivity, revealing flaws, low cost, solid, well built, horns, dynamic

big, wide, heavy, brassy, loud, harsh, unforgiving, requires quality front end components

I bought mine 15 years ago for $500. I have never heard anything in that price range, or even several times more that is clearly better.

My current amp is a 60 pound monster, Class A Pioneer M-22, 30 watts per side, dual mono amp with dual transistor differential, plentiful negative feedback in the 1st stage

THD is .01% at 30 watts, .005% at 1 watt into 8 ohms. I bought it cheap, new and in the box. I figure I might be using 1/4 watt most of the time.

The Cornwalls are so efficient that you hear everyting - both good and bad - so I can't give them five stars. Sometimes they sound awfully hard and harsh. They often sound loud, and they over whelm every room they have ever been in.

But horns, drums and pianos will never sound better on any other speaker. I take my discs to the local dealers and yes, for $10,000 there are systems that sound better - but not twice as good on some CDs. Tony Braxton sounds harsh on my set-up but warm on the dealer's Krell powered B&Ws.

Now I plan to switch to an old Dynaco ST 70 tubed amp in my 17 by 25 living room with a Klipsch sub.

Bottom line is that they are an amazingly cheap anchor to a very expensive sound system.

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never used anything in the same league

see previous post below

Have noticed that "AKS from planet earth" has several posts here in AudioReview about several Klipsch models. All the "Reviews" read the same. Think he/she is just here to Trash all Klipsch products for whatever reason. I appreciate any critical review--good and bad--but this individual obviously has a bone to pick and nothing valuable to offer. No speaker is perfect--and we all have likes and dislikes. Klipsch has been around longer than most any manufacturer---and the Heritage models are very hard to find for sale--people that buy them, keep them---that should tell you something. I have lived with and/or heard speakers costing up to and over $50,000.00, and the Cornwall and Klipschorn sound as good or better than most of them--many others agree. Just read all the reviews here at AUDIOREVIEW for the Klipschorn and the Cornwall to see what I am saying.