I went in to one of those old school audio shops today - repairs piled high, loads of junk and some rare jems, thrown into the mix..... tantilising stuff...
In for repair was a pair of Tannoy corner horns with big 15's lurking under perforated steel screens (I wished I could have heard them), and I got to feast my eyes upon a lovely set of matched Quad II monoblocks.
I had been curious to know if the owner had any Altec gear in his collection, but there was nothing I wanted. We got to talking about Altec, Klipsch, JBL, Tannoy etc and he invited me to listen to a pair of new Cornwalls from the Klipsch Heritage series. As a former Khorns owner, it would have been rude not to! (Like I needed an excuse!)
Well, we tried several cds and several amps (valve and ss) on these Cornwalls, and at first I was impressed. Then I noticed that the bass seemed boomy and to lack control, there appeared to be crossover issues in the mids and the was a real 'bloom' to vocals - quite coloured. I started feeling disappointed. I made a few suggestions and we changed out the front end, but the same issues came through irrespective. I would have loved to have had some silver cables to try. Occasionally, on uncomplex, well seperated music, they were quite commanding. But as soon as things got interesting, the Cornwalls fell apart.
I wondered if they hadn't had much playing time in store, but the owner said he had had them for three months or so and the had seen frequent use. If I worked there, I would definitely be running them solidly for a good few days to see if that helped.
Things got really bad for the Cornies though when we switched to a set of Klipsch RF7 II's that had been looming ominously in the background. I can think of no part of their performance on all the same equipment that was not far superior to the Cornwalls - except maybe a more slightly ''hi-fi-ee" upper mid presentation. Anyway the big RF's blew the Cornwalls to bits.
I don't know why I was upset. The price was the same. If I was in the market, i would just buy the RFs. But I wanted they old-world charm of the Cornies to shine through and lay waste to the modern stuff. But they didn't.
It is the first time I have wondered if I am doing the right thing in building my Altec 9 replicas. I know it is not an apples to apples comparison, but maybe the new gear is catching up, even surpassing the old stuff... it never seemed to be the case when I was selling hifi back in the late 90's - most gear was still aspiring to be half as magical as what had gone before - unless you were spending moonbeams.
Right guys, I need you all to remind me how much better 19s are than Cornwalls....... go!
Thanks for listening :-)
Originally Posted by Altec Best
Bookmarks