Cornwall's with First Watt amps?

impeculies

impeculies

Member
I have the 81' Cornwalls with Crites tweeters, woofers and networks, I just added a First Watt J2 amplifier with 25 watts - WOW! While the bottom end is a little leaner coming off of my BAT VK-250, the middle and upper end is absolutely the best thing I have heard in my system to date. Just gorgeous, listening to Shelby Lynne is a stupid smile inducing exercise. I am a First Watt fan for life now. Tube sound without tube hassle.

Getting the Crites updates was critical given the age of the networks and as others have said the K77 tweeter was not the best. Any Heritage Klipsch is worth living with for a long time. Amplifier matching certainly matters with these speakers, the best thing about them is your options are endless with the efficiency as your friend. I have had the J2 turned up to near 100 db levels and this combination has me shaking my head, one never knows until you plug in something different. Mr. Nelson Pass is a genius.

Anyone out there with the First Watt SIT amplifiers and Klipsch? I'd love to hear your perspective :scratch2:.

Cheers!
 
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Wvnyc@Ct said:
I have a J2 and love it. I am presently running it on my Zu's but I have Cornwalls and is sounds great on them also.
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Curious with your ZU's, how is the bass compared to your Cornwalls? I am a ZU fan too, never exactly followed through on a purchase, but came darn close to the latest Omen Def MKII. But of course, with the Cornwalls modified, I just cannot see going down that route. Thanks for the post, glad to meet a J2 and Cornwall owner! :thmbsp:
 
impeculies said:
Curious with your ZU's, how is the bass compared to your Cornwalls? I am a ZU fan too, never exactly followed through on a purchase, but came darn close to the latest Omen Def MKII. But of course, with the Cornwalls modified, I just cannot see going down that route. Thanks for the post, glad to meet a J2 and Cornwall owner! :thmbsp:
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Thanks for your reply. I really love my Zu's. It took em a while to break in but now they're really sweet. The bass didn't measure up to the Cornwalls so I ended up getting an Undertone sub which really fills in the sub 50hz range nicely. Two American speaker companies one classic one new with completely different approaches. I love them both. First Watt amp is incredible and in many ways better than my MC275 which I also will keep forever. If more people knew how great the FW amps are, he would sell a million of them... Not sure he cares to though....
 
I have a similar setup. Forte I's with ALK xo's driven by a Pass F5 clone built by marantzfan. I love the combo. Has alot of what I like with a SE tube/Klipsch pairing but with a certain precision/tightness/crispness that I didn't have before. I have been using a Dared SL-2000a tube preamp with the F5 and that sounds very nice. Just picked up a Kenny C2 off BT to see how the F5 sounds with a decent SS pre.

I remember reading through the AK F5 threads and ran into a post where an AKer built an F5 that ended up displacing his MC275.
 
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Wvnyc@Ct said:
Thanks for your reply. I really love my Zu's. It took em a while to break in but now they're really sweet. The bass didn't measure up to the Cornwalls so I ended up getting an Undertone sub which really fills in the sub 50hz range nicely. Two American speaker companies one classic one new with completely different approaches. I love them both. First Watt amp is incredible and in many ways better than my MC275 which I also will keep forever. If more people knew how great the FW amps are, he would sell a million of them... Not sure he cares to though....
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Thank you for sharing, I wondered if the J2 and the revealing ZU's would be too much of a good thing? I do not want to start a heated argument over the validity of McIntosh gear, I've gone through a few with my Cornwalls, for me the Balanced Audio Technologies was the amp to beat. With a few hours of readjusting my ears to the J2, I cannot imagine anything else, save for perhaps trying Nelson's SIT amp.

Your last comment seams very appropriate and true, although it certainly may change the direction of speakers manufacturers in a good way. Thank you.

btol said:
I have a similar setup. Forte I's with ALK xo's driven by a Pass F5 clone built by marantzfan. I love the combo. Has alot of what I like with a SE tube/Klipsch pairing but with a certain precision/tightness/crispness that I didn't have before. I have been using a Dared SL-2000a tube preamp with the F5 and that sounds very nice. Just picked up a Kenny C2 off BT to see how the F5 sounds with a decent SS pre.

I remember reading through the AK F5 threads and ran into a post where an AKer built an F5 that ended up displacing his MC275.
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After reading all the test's Srajan Ebaen (6 Moons) tried with tubed pre's and First Watt's, I admit that this would be something to think about playing with later. I have a SOtM Dac with analogue domain volume control and it has meshed beautifully with the J2. The one thing I would really "like" to have would be tone control for bass. The J2 is a little light in the mid-lows with my Cornwall's. Yet, hard to want to spend some serious $$ on a preamp just for fleshing that out.

I admit I was skeptical with the power rating. Now I'm a true believer, low watt amps and efficient speakers are a beautiful combination. Given the used and demo prices of First Watt gear, I honestly think these the best deal in HiFi today. Thank you for sharing your take with a DIY F5, that is awesome. I wouldn't mind moving up to an ALK extreme slope down the road. I love hearing about tweaked combinations and how they work out for their owners. Cheers.
 
I've got a j2 clone matched with KEF R900.. They're not quite the best speakers to match as the bass dips to 4ohms. But there's plenty of volume and TBH.. They're not in any way bass shy at all. I think you need 90db speakers+ to run these amps. Mine are 90db. I had it paired with KEF R500 before and they weren't enough speaker. Got a primaluna prologue 3 pre-amp which is lovely. On Friday I'm getting a PrimaLuna prologue 5 power amp delivered. Interested in how that will sound compared to this one. Class A Vs class AB tubes. Either way this stuff truly is remarkable, especially in terms of resolution and musicality. Good times for audio lovers.
 
matteos said:
I've got a j2 clone matched with KEF R900.. They're not quite the best speakers to match as the bass dips to 4ohms. But there's plenty of volume and TBH.. They're not in any way bass shy at all. I think you need 90db speakers+ to run these amps. Mine are 90db.
According to John Atkinson's measurements, even more so than efficiency, the J2 needs speakers that don't dip below 8 ohms, in which case the J2 will measure and should soon very good! https://www.stereophile.com/content/first-watt-j2-power-amplifier-measurements
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