Klipsch Heresy and Cornwall Enclosures

[heeman]

This question is asking the ones here that are familiar with speaker cabinet/enclosure design.

I have mentioned in the past that during my college years and early career years the Heresy was one of our (my friends and mine) favorite speaker. Many of my friends purchased them and were very happy with their performance.

Recently, while planning our dedicated room, I have been thinking about buying a pair to use in our Den for 2 channel listening.

After doing some research, I have found out that the Heresy lack good low end response due to it's small enclosure. After looking at the enclosure, and the Cornwall, they are merely (I say that tongue and cheek) a box, made primarily out of plywood. There are no baffles??? So to me they look like a BOX. That being said, could I purchase a pair of Heresy's and build a larger box, with ports at the bottom, similar to the Cornwall's and get significant lower end??

All in All, the enclosure is just a box, Right, or I'm I totally wrong about this?

 

[Zing]

All in All, the enclosure is just a box, Right, or I'm I totally wrong about this?

I'm going to cast a vote for "totally wrong".

The drivers, crossover and "box" volume all work (and were designed and engineered) in tandem. Change just one thing and you will alter its performance in a negative fashion. If you were to put Heresey drivers in a larger, ported box - and use the originally crossover - you are asking those drivers to behave in a way they were not intended.

Imagine trying to put a Chevy 350 in a Yugo. The car was simply not designed to accommodate such an engine.

I understand where you're coming from and what you're trying to do but the best advice I can offer is to accept the performance of the Heresey's or budget for Cornwalls. Frankly, the Heresey's are not slouches. You'll want to cross them to your sub anywhere from 80-100Hz whereas the Cornwalls could be crossed at 50-60Hz. So if you have no valid reason for such a low crossover point (or total output) I see no reason to discount the Heresey's.

 

[Flint]

The La Scala has less bass than, say, the Klipschorn because it is smaller with a shorter, smaller bass horn.

These are Horn speakers, not traditional bass reflex or acoustic suspension enclosures we are most familiar with.

The driver is a compression driver, even though it uses what looks like a standard woofer. The load on the front of the woofer at the throat of the horn needs to be similar to the acoustic load on the read of the woofer, and thus the rear chamber needs to be small.

Horn.

 

[Dennie]

A lot of people experiment with "corner placement" to get better bass from their Heresy's.

You can always give the bass a little "boost" if that is your preference or add an EQ.



Dennie

 

[Flint]

Wings work, too. But if you want modern HT bass levels, LA Scalas need a good subwoofer.

 

[Dennie]

Wings work, too. But if you want modern HT bass levels, LA Scalas need a good subwoofer.

Why are you talking about "La Scalas and HT"? :confusion-scratchheadyellow:



Dennie

 

[Yesfan70]

If I did anything, I would just build a duplicate cabinet that retained the same dimensions as the original, but maybe go with a denser material like MDF. If you're buying older Heresies, there's also the crossover mods that a lot of owners do to their speakers.

I haven't heard the LaScalas or K-horns (something I'm dying to hear), but I wouldn't worry too much about low extension. I would just add a sub and use the crossover frequencies Zing posted (80Hz). The details and dynamics are a good trade off imo.

 

[Flint]

What the he'll am I talking about?

No... you cannot just build bigger enclosures and get more bass. It doesn't work that way. A bigger enclosure will get you less bass in the main operating range , above 60hz, while slightly extending the low end cutoff, below 45hz, while increasing the distortion and decreasing the max output SPL.

 

[Dennie]

What the he'll am I talking about?

No... you cannot just build bigger enclosures and get more bass. It doesn't work that way. A bigger enclosure will get you less bass in the main operating range , above 60hz, while slightly extending the low end cutoff, below 45hz, while increasing the distortion and decreasing the max output SPL.

Dennie :happy-smileygiantred:

 

[TitaniumTroy]

Dennie, Flint is talking about the LaScalla's because he loves their horn loaded bass.

I on the other hand heard a new pair of Hersey's and Cornwalls in the same room at guy house who was selling both. To me it was no contest, Cornwalls all the way. Cornwall 3's like I heard will go down to 34hz, if your doing just two channel listening who needs a subwoofer? While the Heresy 3's get down to only 58hz, plus the Cornwall's also being of greater height don't have to be tilted back.

For the most bang for your buck I would go with some Cornwall's, same tweeter and midrange in the older series as the Hersey.

Heman, I too wondered about the enclosure of the Cornwalls, as in how do they get such clean and deep bass. In a cabinet
that does not have all the fancy bracing most other bass reflex designs. Also in my listening session I used a track from a Telarc SACD of the Empire Strikes Back. It had some really deep bass and the Cornwalls reproduced it very cleanly and with a lot of impact, that same track really impressed Huey when I played it on his system.

Sorry for thread hijack back to talk about Heresy's.

 

[Flint]

Ha!

I was talking about the horns because of the other thread about the Craigslist ad for LA Scallas. Klipsch comes up early enough I didn't realize there were two different threads.

 

[Deleted member 133]

Dennie, Flint is talking about the LaScalla's because he loves their horn loaded bass.

I on the other hand heard a new pair of Hersey's and Cornwalls in the same room at guy house who was selling both. To me it was no contest, Cornwalls all the way. Cornwall 3's like I heard will go down to 34hz, if your doing just two channel listening who needs a subwoofer? While the Heresy 3's get down to only 58hz, plus the Cornwall's also being of greater height don't have to be tilted back.

For the most bang for your buck I would go with some Cornwall's, same tweeter and midrange in the older series as the Hersey.

Heman, I too wondered about the enclosure of the Cornwalls, as in how do they get such clean and deep bass. In a cabinet
that does not have all the fancy bracing most other bass reflex designs. Also in my listening session I used a track from a Telarc SACD of the Empire Strikes Back. It had some really deep bass and the Cornwalls reproduced it very cleanly and with a lot of impact, that same track really impressed Huey when I played it on his system.

Sorry for thread hijack back to talk about Heresy's.

It's been quite a while since I've heard Cornwalls or Heresys, but from what I recall, I agree completely with Troy. The Cornwall was a very impressive speaker. I would not attempt to mod either. I'd add a sub to the Heresys.

By the by, I did get to listen to a friend's pair of Khorns last year, in a large living room that was not what you would consider an optimum layout. Even then they impressed the heck out of me. If I had the (very big) room I'd own a pair.

And way way way...back I bought a pair of "industrial" La Scalas for my high school gym / auditorium. Set them up (suspended high on each side of the stage) and drove them with a 110 W/ch Sansui integrated amp (shows how long ago it was!). Only had vinyl and cassette back then, but man did they fill that huge space with sound!

The Klipsch Heritage Series remains one of my favourites of all time.

Jeff

ps. I know they spec out close to each other in bass response, and I know I never compared the both of them side-by-side, but my recollection is that the Khorn's bass is very different sounding than the Cornwall's. With the K you could FEEL the bass. The Cornwall merely played loud and sounded like "boxed" bass. (Yeah I know - not all that scientific! But it's what comes to mind.) Again, the Cornwall sounded very good. The K just sounds great.

 

[malsackj]

From my observations on My EV speakers. My S15-3A is a 15 inch 3 way 100 watt to 400 watt peak. This is good from 50 hz to 15 khz. Size is 28 high 13 deep 24 wide.

I added the TL15-1 sub 400 watt 800 watt peak. Size is 22 high 24 deep 20 wide.
This larger box has two ports with a tuned output that can be equalized down to 26 hz.
With out the Eq running and pushing these, people hear the difference inside or out.

When you add the EQ and bring in the bottom 40 to 26 hz you start to have the pipe organ rattle the house. This limits how much power I can push them to about 60 percent only.

The Little EV on my signature is used as the center channel for the whole system.

If you have the room the Klipsch would be a great system to listen to if you planned to use them with a good IB setup again. Flint would most likely agree to that.