Everything

None...maybe size, but if you want good sound, size doesnt matter

I've had these speakers since 1973 and they havent lost a beat. All of the new products comming out cant compare with the sound from this generation of speakers. The 15" woofers still shake the house like the day I got them. Clarity, quality and durabilty are unmatched in todays market.

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Only another Klipsch

Super efficient, clarity of sound, able to bring music beyond normal plane of speakers to fill room

Rolls of quickly above 15Khz and below 40hz, not always consistent sound reproduction through 40hz-15khz range

I love Klipsch speakers. I also love B&W speakers. Unfortunately there is no speaker that combines the good qualities of each brand.

I do not own, nor have I ever owned the Cornwall. Still I recognize that it is an excellent speaker. If I would have had more money when I was young, I would have bought the Cornwall instead of the Heresy if the Belle Klipsch was still out of range. As stated above in the strengths, this along with nearly all Klipsch speakers is Super efficient, has clean, clear sound, and is able to bring music beyond normal plane of the speakers to fill room better than any speaker brand that I have ever heard (Including infinity Betas and ALL B&W SPEAKERS).

The downside of Klipsch speakers has always been that the horn was especially subject emphasizing any deficiency of the Horn, cabinet, driver or room (especially the highly reflective environments). The Livelyness of the Klipsch drivers and horns is both the greatness and the downfall of Klipsch speakers. Klipsch lovers like me are willing to accept the small penalties of these drivers for the incredible room bending dynamics that put the sound of the music right IN your ears, and in your bones. No speaker from any other major speaker brand can do that. Period.

I have noticed that the higher power amplifiers do not always sound good through the older Heritage speakers (like the Cornwall). I believe that the heritage line of speakers is best suited for 30 to 80 watts per channel, any more and the ammount of percieved distortion becomes greater (that is, the driver may not be distorting any more than before, but because there is so much power being forced through, our ears have a hard time keeping it clean because they are trying not to rupture from so much sound). I also believe the Heritage line is best suited for tube amps and not solid state. Although a solid state amp may have clean power, the horns of the Klipsch speakers will reproduce the microscopic detail of these newer amps so well, that the resulting sound may become undesirable (just as when you try too hard at something, you will often fail because you're trying to do everything perfect, instead of getting just the most important things perfect).

No speaker is perfect. The greatest failing of B&W speakers is that the sound exists in a plane that starts at just in front of the speaker, and extends backward behind the speaker (a "flat" sound if you ask me). The great detail of the B&W drivers and their smoothness throughout the audible spectrum is there great assett. It is unfortunate that most of the Heritage speakers don't have these qualities (but do come close to these qualities with a high quality, low wattage tube amp).

Klipsch did the right thing in discontinuing this great speaker, and will most likely end the production of the Heresy, and either the Belle Klipsch or La Scala not long from now. They will most likely always have the Klipschorn and one or the other of the Belle Klipsch/LaScala type.

Sorry, my fellow Klipsch fans, no five stars here. I will however say that these are great classic speakers and will outdo almost any speaker generally available today at reasonable prices.

Long live Klipsch.

(Oh yeah..certainly much better than any plastic-y sounding Martin Logan)

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Klipsch Heresy, Klipsch RP-3, B&W 602s, B&W CDM7NT

clear, accurate, efficient, awesome build quality, great looks

a little on the big side, low wife appreciation factor

These speakers are awesome. Had them hooked up to my HT amp (Marantz SR7000) and they sounded very nice. Bought a very low powered SET amp (Decware Zen) and BINGO, there it was. Now I know what people are talking about when they go on and on regarding horn speakers and SET amps. The salseman at my local "Audio Salon" said and I quote, "You've found the secret. You have $30,000 sound coming from a $3,000 rig.". Next stop, MORE POWER! (Insert growl here.).

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my first horns, never going back...

RELIABILITY, BULLET PROOF, HUGE DYNAMICS

THE RINGING IN MY EARS

I BOUGHT THESE IN THE LATE 70'S AND HAVE USED THEM MERCILESSLY SINCE. INITIALLY MY OLD SANSUI 661 RAN THEM THEN I UPGRADED TO CROWN WHICH I STILL HAVE. IN BETWEEN, I USED THE FIRST CARVER CUBE WHICH WAS RIDICULOUSLY LOUD. FROM THERE I USED ANOTHER CARVER A BIG PHASE LINEAR WHICH BLEW ALL OUT IT OUTPUT DEVICES TRYING TO RUN THE CORNWALLS. AS MOST OF US KNOW THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE POPULACE HAS NO IDEA ABOUT DECENT SOUND AND ITS ALWAYS BEEN FUN PLAYING THESE SPEAKERS REALLY LOUD. WHEN I GOT TELARC'S DIGITAL 1812, I USED TO BLOW OUT MATCHES WITH THE CORNWALLS VENTS. YEA I KNOW BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT PORT NOISE (AS IF YOU COULD HEAR IT ABOVE THE CANNONS). ONE PARTY I TOOK THEM TO HAD PEOPLE FROM BLOCKS AWAY CALLING THE POLICE. I USED BERNIE'S PIONEER INTERGRATED THAT WONDERFUL AUGUST DAY. BUT THE BEST WAS ONE LONG EVENING WHEN THE CORNWALLS, PLAYING THE WORST BAND TO EVER MAKE IT BIG (URIAH HEEP), SEEMED TO STRIKE SOME WEIRD RESONANCE WITH ONE FEMALE PARTY GOER. SHE WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND RENAMING THE CORNWALLS AFTER A CERTAIN THRILL MACHINE IN A WOODY ALLEN MOVIE. FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENCE, WE REPLICATED THE EFFECT SEVERAL TIMES THAT EVENING. SO THEY CAN PARTY, BIG DEAL. THEY CAN SING SWEETLY TOO. MY FAVORITE IS PLAYING A DIRECT DISC OF DAVE BRUEBECK WITH HIS SONS. THE CORNWALLS ALLOW YOU TO EXPERIENCE NOT ONLY THE SOUND BUT EVEN THE SOUL OF A FATHER AND HIS SONS COMMUNICATING THEIR LOVE THROUGH MUSIC, FOR EACH OTHER. YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD DRUMS UNTIL YOU HAVE HEARD THIS RECORD THROUGH THE CORNWALLS. NO MATTER WHAT YOU PLAY..BIG SCIENCE FROM LAURIE ANDERSON OR MY TEENAGERS THUMPO MUSIC, THE CORNWALLS ALWAYS COME THROUGH WITH SOUND AND FEELING. THE ONLY THING CLOSE MIGHT BE THE ADVANTGUARDS FROM GERMANY. I'VE LISTENED TO MAGNEPLANAR TYMP III'S, DUNLAVY AND TANNOY'S CHUCHILLS AND WHEN I FIRE UP THE CORNWALLS WHEN I GET HOME THE OLD SMILE IS BACK.

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THERE' ONLY ONE KING

efficiency

size

I bought a pair of these monsters in 1977, and sold them in 1994 for the same price! Sometimes I wish I still had them for old times sake. They never failed, and took mucho torture for years on end. As my musical tastes matured, and I became more knowledgeable about the high-end, I started wanting a different, more subtle sound. I eventually went with Vandersteen 2ce's, which I know is a completely different animal. I also had to contend with the wife factor, and she was horrified to think that I might try to build a surround system around multiple Cornwalls! I went with the Vandy's because I could get the center from them as well. But this review is about the Corny's; so much for that....I was mindblown by the Klipschhorn corner speakers years ago in the early 70's and swore I would own a pair. As it worked out, I got the Cornwall with a perfectly matched Audire Model One amp that was 105 watts/channel. I used a Soundcraftsman PE-2217 equalizer and preamp. Of course, back then there was no such thing as digital. I did have a Nakamichi three head cassette deck, and a Hitachi direct drive turntable, and a slew of cartridges, from Shure, to Empire, to Audiotechnica,etc. It was a sweet time to listen to my flawless collection of vinyl (over 1000) that are still occasionally listened to. I have to use the Soundcraftsman for a phono stage because all the modern equipment I have lacks phono inputs! Anyway, I sold them to a buddy who fell in love with them. When I moved into my new house, I realized that I probably had for the first time a room large enough to do the Cornwalls justice, but it was too late.

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nothing is similar

big, brassy, super efficeint, very revealing, wonderful for brass and horns, can be driven by cheap boom boxes and still sound very good - almost great!

big, old, very revealing, hard and harsch high end, need to be in the corners

Stereos, as they relate to indoor sport

Last night my daughter went out and bought a boom box from Sony for $179. Despite a living room dominated by two of the largest three way horn speakers ever made, she purchased a silver MHC-RXD2 for its CD player and dual cassette decks, with out any consultation from me. I knew that she would make a quick decision, but I was just beginning to re-read my Stereophile and Stereo Review back issues for boom box reviews!

Nonetheless, the unit said that it put out 30 watts per side of power, from 7 to 20 kHz. And the specs admitted that this was at .9% THD - I was pleased that they had specs at all.

It was time to play, as she ran off for the evening, I hooked her separate speakers up to my front end (including the 200-watt Klipsch sub-woofer) and then hooked her boom box up to my old Klipsch Cornwalls with my Monster cables. I flipped from one to another with random selections from a newly purchased Michael Franks Blue Pacific CD to hear the contrasts and tone. The results were eye opening and revealing.

First the good news: The cheap little silver boom box plugged into my horn speakers sounded wonderful. There was lots of deep bass, even with the unit dialed about 1/4 of the way, to 15 on its digital dial. Distortion at that typical listening level was not as apparent as the fact that the high end was not pushy or strident, as it is on the Cornwalls.

In fact, as I think this over, the impression I was left with was that with the cheap front end, the listener hears the melody and the lyrics as the fore front of the sound. While with my system, the listener hears the individual instruments up front; the melody and the singer become just another titillating part of the overall music.

When compared to my front-end electronics powering the Sony speakers, the pianos appeared on the Klipsch. Horns sang out as if they had just been added to the sound track. The high end tinkled like delicate Christmas crystal. My notes say" you could buy a boom box for your Cornwalls and save thousands of dollars!" Nothing magical, but not fatiguing either. There was no need for a long evaluation as the differences were clearly apparent.

Of course the boom box can not drive the Cornwalls loud or make the bass thump hard, but it was a pleasant sound. And so was the opposite system; plugging the cheap speaks into my $1500 front end.

In fact, the two systems pose the dilemma of our acoustic age: The new style $179 boom box speakers with $1500 of front-end electronics versus the old and efficient $500 used Cornwalls powered by $179 of cheap boom box.

With my Rotel, Dynaco, Pioneer M-22 reference amp and the Klipsch subs, the little speakers sounded remarkable good. The sub helped enormously. Wide placement on top of my 2 1/2' high Cornwalls helped with the sound stage. Vocals were just as nice on the cheap boom box speakers as they were on the Cornwalls.

The silver Sony speakers are very modern looking with a curved black face piece covering 3/4 of the front and two comma shaped ports peeking out from either side like the ram jet intakes of some Ferrari sports car. They look powerful, but they are not. They are two way speakers with a 13cm (5") woofer and a 2cm (3/4") pizzo tweeter. They weigh only 6 pounds, but feel even lighter.

With my front end, the little speaks had no sharp and sweet nuances, but it was almost there. There was no warmth or magic, but it was still very good. My wife, who does not like all the bass that I love, preferred that combination instead of my Cornwalls. Of course, she said she liked the "little system better" so I can not be sure what her motives were.

I did not need much adjustment on the Klipsch sub; almost any setting helped the spiffy little boxes out, but the highest amount of equalization (close to 120 Hz) helped fill out the low end the most. In fact I turned the sub's volume knob 3/4 of the way before the sub intruded on the low end of the boom boxes.

The imaging of the Sonys was a little better when they were placed on thin metal candlestick stands 5 1/2' apart, 32" high in front of the entertainment center, but it was not wonderful or great.

I was able to turn the Dynaco volume up to 9:00 on the dial, (the type B potentiometer more closely approximates the amount of power the amp is using than most other pre-amp volume knobs). This volume level is hard to withstand for long on the super efficient Cornwalls. But even then, I can't say the silver boxes rocked. They did rattle with the bass output from the sub.

When put back together, the boom box and the sleek speakers make barely pleasant, background Muzak together: The sum is far less than the parts. The role the sub played was huge: It added 200 watts of power, deep bass and a fullness to the sound. I could see daughters buying $150 boom boxes and $150 subs to give the system some meat and muscle, texture and tone.

Now the bad news: I will say that both combinations impressed me. They made me seriously consider the amount of spare change I keep adding to my sound system. As it is set-up now, my system reflects the music of diminishing returns: I keep investing more and more, yet get less and less dramatic sound improvements. Big, old horns warmed by tube pre-amp form a plateau of power.

My sound system now costs three times more than the little boom box powering my big horns, but is it three times better? Hard to say - hard to admit, after spending all that money. I was perplexed and began to worry I was wasting money that I don't have to spend.

I put my system back together, cleaned up the living room and sat down to listen to a big, wide dramatic presentation of all the tinkeling highs, bopping lows and smooth mid range on the Michael Franks CD …

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never had horns before

smooth, detailed w/ deep bass--really no sub. necessary

None---AND I WAS SURPRISED!

The last review prompted me to write. For years i had heard that Klipsch speakers were awful--strident, hard to listen to--just P A speakers. So, I ignored them--never listened to them--kind of like radio-shack. Last year I visited a friend I had not seen since college--and guess what speakers he had? You guessed it--Klipsch Cornwall I speakers. Well, I told myself to be polite and say nice things..then I listened to them. I was stunned! The sound was smooth, detailed--huge dynamic range--and powerful bass---was THIS the Klipsch sound I had heard critized all my listening life? I couldn't believe it--I loved these speakers. They did everything I had always looked for in a speaker. To be honest you must have a good amp/pre amp--or a very good receiver. And a decent recording. These speakers reveal EVERYTHING--good and bad. I just can not imagine someone not liking these speakers unless the set-up is flawed in some way, because with good equipment and a good recording these speakers sound like some 20,000--30.000 speakers I have heard. They are very hard to find for sale---that should tell you something--people keep them. For me, after years of listening, my speaker search has ended. I will never replace these speakers.

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A lot---carver, B & W, bozak, maggies, mcintosh--many more

Everything especially with heavier wire inside the box

Yea right

Sorry, on the last review its supposed to be 1,055.00, not1,255.00!!
But yes i own 4 cornwalls now, all the same year!!
Regards Jim Cornell

I have had a pair of Cornwalls for 20 years and they still sound better than 99% of the speakers that I have listened to such overrated companies as KEF, etc. I've listened to Maggies, etc. and still like my Cornwalls better overall. Granted they are not small but you can't have everything.

Overwhelming volume of clean undistorted sound!

HUGE cabinets that really need to be set up in opposing corners of a 300 square foot room (minimum).

I don't actually own a set of these but for about 10 months back in '96 I had to "babysit" a pair while my brother was going through a divorce. I had a modest modern "Good Guys" sound system that I thought was pretty hot until I hooked up these monsters to the McIntosh 275/C-11 combo and a McIntosh 7007 CD player my bother dropped off one day. Needless to say the experience changed my life and I now have a classic old American tube hi-fi of my own--but I don't have Cornwalls---I settled for Klipsh Hersey II speakers that I was able to pick up used on ebay for $400/pair and a Scott 299C amp.

The thing about the Cornwalls is that they absolutely SING!
I listen to alot of big-band and bebop jazz and I've never heard trumpets and saxs sound so real and immediate.
For the only time in my life I could sit in my lounge chair,
close my eyes and really feel as if the instruments were in the room with me. The bass was booming and clean and the highs crystal clear, loud and clean. Maybe the McIntosh amp had something to do with this, but I'm guessing it was mostly the speakers.

Someday I hope to find a pair of these for myself. When I do I will NEVER sell them!

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There's nothing like these.