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I'm Fixing a Hole/Heil...

I run my Heils from 7khz and up. I also have corner bass traps behind the Heils. When I installed the traps the dynamics the Heils provide died.

I’m going to put pegboard over the lower bass trap to give the Heils some reflection as well as being a bass trap. If it is still too much reflection I’ll bend the pegboard.

I’ll do a before and after measurement.

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After an initial bout with new Heils that didn't work out so well I realized I'd done something stupid with the crossover and now I have it worked out and they sound very good working with the mighty 406-8C woofers of my Altec Boleros. The Bolero horns are not connected and the Heils come in at 2000 cycles. Clarity and tone are excellent and imaging is rock solid even if far over to one side. Depth and soundstage are OK but I suspect my room has difficulties and the stereo is in the only suitable place. I'm using my SS Marantz streaming integrated now but will soon put my Rogue Audio integrated back in.

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The main issue some have had crossing over low is they hear some sort of honk/buzzing etc.
Myself have never heard this.
I have experimented with higher crossover points on some mocked up speakers.
I simply didn't like it.
To me it seemed less natural sounding.
The easy peasy sound I mentioned earlier.
Maybe because it was closer to a "one source", so to speak-taking on more of the lion's share in the upper mids on up.
ESS with all it's issues-IMHO seemed to have this part right.

I think if you want to use large amounts of power to your speakers at length, higher crossover point would probably be beneficial to diaphragm health.
And/or fusing.
With the ESS speakers, they play so clean, and with low distortion-you don't realize you might be riving your amp close to clipping.
Very similar to Magnepans in this respect.
Eventually it takes it's toll on the diaphragms.
I replaced a few with my PS1220's.
Lot's of different users with those.
Never took one out with the Great Heils, but inherited some wavy diaphragms
The Great Heils take more power, but are still susceptible, depending on your taste, and equipment.
Agreed with the imaging.
You can still get the stereo effect being a good distance from the center.
Especially if the isn't anything like
furniture/equipment between the speakers.
 
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toddalin said:
And..., I am wondering if a crossover is even necessary. Some people have reported running their Heils FULL RANGE without failure! I've heard the plates "rattle" when accidently fed bass (luckily(?) did no damage), and am wondering if back loading the driver creates a pressure that could even prevent this. If no crossover is necessary, aren't we better off running without one and it's deleterious effects?
Click to expand...

I had not heard that people were running Heils as full range speakers. Personally, that would scare me. I know that Ricky was trying to work on a full range Heil, but I don't know how far he got with it.
If I was younger, had enough spare cash, some woodworking skills and tools, some more room in the sound room and the motivation, I might attempt to do what the Klipsch Community guys did a couple of years ago. Double stacked Great Heils mounted in a wooden wave guide, crossed over at 500-600 hz into an open baffle with double 12 inch woofers. I would be curious to hear it.
 
jcidave said:
I had not heard that people were running Heils as full range speakers. Personally, that would scare me. I know that Ricky was trying to work on a full range Heil, but I don't know how far he got with it.
If I was younger, had enough spare cash, some woodworking skills and tools, some more room in the sound room and the motivation, I might attempt to do what the Klipsch Community guys did a couple of years ago. Double stacked Great Heils mounted in a wooden wave guide, crossed over at 500-600 hz into an open baffle with double 12 inch woofers. I would be curious to hear it.
Click to expand...
I can't recall the name-there is a OB speaker company that has a Great Heil as a option.
 
jcidave said:
I had not heard that people were running Heils as full range speakers. Personally, that would scare me. I know that Ricky was trying to work on a full range Heil, but I don't know how far he got with it.
If I was younger, had enough spare cash, some woodworking skills and tools, some more room in the sound room and the motivation, I might attempt to do what the Klipsch Community guys did a couple of years ago. Double stacked Great Heils mounted in a wooden wave guide, crossed over at 500-600 hz into an open baffle with double 12 inch woofers. I would be curious to hear it.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I spent some time their 10+ years ago, extolling the virtues of the Heil driver versus a horn driver.
That it was at least worth some investigation.
Klipsch speakers are a legacy, and the loyalty runs deep.
I also saw a need to rapidly find the "ultimate" Klipsch speaker.
Quick trades swaps etc.
IMHO that speaks volumes.
Myself-I have always look at audio as a hobby-and don't have a issue changing things, or modifying to make components sound better.
Obviously not in a random way-but with research and thoughtful care.
It's blasphemy for some-whatever.
Every one has a opinion........
Unless it's a one off-or very rare-which is not the norm in consumer based audio-I simply don't see a problem.
Good sound as well as knowledge are all part of this cool hobby.....
The 'gate keepers' will always foist their opinions no matter what.
Can't expect any less!! ;)
 
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This is quite a thread.
I have the Great Heils crossed over with 13.2 MFD and the dome tweeters as well as the horn mids unhooked on my CS99A.
 
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So the math tells me that the Heils are crossed over at 3,000 Hz and the printed literature tells me that the disconnected cellular mids were factory set-up for 5,000Hz to 10,000 Hz.
This means an overlap but as our ears are not perfect, this is fine. Tuning with test equipment and a sack of capacitors and coils might or might not yield better results.
Purchasing that $30,000 pair of speakers I heard at the Tampa show also might.
 
Thanks but I have never liked the 2-way ESS models.
The woofs in my Pioneers are factory-set with a 700Hz cut-off, oddly enough.
 
I do have a Carver 125 WPC integrated in my workshop as a turntable test system, but never thought of it as in the same league as my Margules KT-88 or Fisher 7591 amp, neither of which is more than 40WPC.
Wonder what kind of damping factor the Margules has.
Wonderful amp.
 
I run my ESS AMT 1B with solid state Soundcraftsmen amplification. I briefly tried a Fisher 800b and it didn't have the synergy.
 
If the Fisher 800B is anything like my X202B, the sound is dark and dull.
Needs better coupling capacitors to liven it up.
This is why I am using the Margules until I replace those original German caps in the Fisher.
 
I prefer the sound of the Heils through my Yamaha RX-Z9 in Pure Direct rather than my Melton P/P KT-88 80 WPC tube integrated. I've done YouTube videos and the differences are obvious. These were done before the latest Heil mods that really make a difference. I haven't played them with the Melton since the latest mods.

Volumes were matched to within a couple tenths of a dB.




 
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