I upgraded the Cornholes to Crite's B-2 crossover and yeah, that did make a difference. They're both warmer and sweeter. Shame he died though, that's gotta be recent, wonder how..
Have you ever listened to a Forte or Forte II? A Forte I is essentially what I like to call a Heresy with bass. If you look at a frequency response of a Heresy, they start to roll off before 50hz, closer to 100 from what I've come across. Just has what they like to call "usable down to.." not to mention the "+/- 5dB" response from 50 to 17khz isn't great.. But aside from the woofer & throat for the mid horn, they've got the same components as a Cornhole; K77 Tweeter and K55V mid. My impression of the Forte series is that I thought the I sounded good until I heard the II. The II really revealed how "tin can" like the sound was from the mid on a I, also much narrower sound from the I whereas the bigger throat on the II helped open the sound up quite a bit. The other thing I liked was that the Forte series already comes with risers and they sit approx at ear height. I'm a floor stander guy, feel if you've got the footprint you might as well. Forte II > Cornwall in my book as tweeter and mid are much more refined. But the tweeter doesn't give you the articulation or detail in the music like you'll hear with a set of JBL L150A's. If you want even more, step to a XPL200/A. Both can be had for fairly reasonable amounts of scratch compared to what they were new and other vintage speakers.
I tried integrating a few subs into my listening system and was just underwhelmed. They each had a slightly different signature than the main speakers, so no matter what I did I could always tell when they were firing. Plus, they responded too low. I pretty much only need extension down to 35hz. Anything lower (IMO) is for movies and the boom boom crowd, not so much musical as it is for effect. The JBL L150A's give me that extension. So both M&K 350THX subs went downstairs for home theater duty. They sound pretty good down there- the JBL Northridge stuff I've got is rather muddy and flabby in the lower bass region. Soon to be departing..
The Adcom is a bruiser of an amp. The original 555 is a Nelson Pass design, yet I'd recommend going with the 555-II which boasts some internal improvements like thermal protection, a better power switch and main board. What people rag on them for is their lack of a speaker output relay- so you'll get a thump (mine don't, but the woofers do move a little when switched on) and most likely static sounding pops when you shut it off, as the capacitors bleed down. Hasn't hurt any of my gear and I'm not worried about it. You can't beat the sound per dollar factor of them. Much better than many amps two or three times their price. Another amp to try would be a Carver TFM 35x or 55x. I've got a 55x and it sounds better than the Adcom in every category, although it's not landslide difference. Slightly cleaner, more detail and tighter bass. Although it's not a high current amplifier and has dinky caps compared to the Adcom. Also doesn't have clip lights and that's a bummer- meters just don't respond fast enough. But when driving something efficient like a Klipsch, that'll probably never be an issue.
As for the GFP 555, you'll want to have it completely recapped if you go with one. My initial impression of the one I bought left me wanting more when compared to the incumbent Marantz 3600- so I'm having it's caps replaced to see if that makes a difference with it. Out of the box, the bass was tighter and more present with the Adcom, so I'm hoping the mids & treble will relax and open up. The mainboard and layout of all components within look serious..
... I can shake my walls with their 15" actives, and the two tweeter horns will give you a headache, but I think they're rated for maybe 25 watts? Lol
