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Klipsch Doesn't Suck!

M

Mitch Bird

New Member
I must say a Mea Culpa for my past membership in the "Klipsch Sucks" camp. I recently purchased a tube amp and thought maybe if I found a garage sale price on a pair of Heresys I would see/hear what all the fuss was about -- If I didn't like them I could always sell them.
Well I found a pair of 1980 Heresys in excellent shape electronically (the cabs could use some work).
And...I love them!
I replaced the caps with some polys. I plan to refinish them -- and keep them!
 

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You're forgiven!

I remember picking up my 1st Klipsch speakers from a CL add. Forte 1 - stock and mint. Blew my socks off!!

Happy for you!
 
Mitch Bird said:
I must say a Mea Culpa for my past membership in the "Klipsch Sucks" camp. I recently purchased a tube amp and thought maybe if I found a garage sale price on a pair of Heresys I would see/hear what all the fuss was about -- If I didn't like them I could always sell them.
Well I found a pair of 1980 Heresys in excellent shape electronically (the cabs could use some work).
And...I love them!
I replaced the caps with some polys. I plan to refinish them -- and keep them!
Click to expand...

With the Infinitys I'm there, with the Heresys they're here, so when wanting to invite Mick and the boys over for a jam it's the Heresys. Different presentation, both have their merits.
 
PNLJHXKf)

I think I have the best of both worlds;)
https://i.postimg.cc/QNmTpVT7/20220316-092642.jpg
 
I had a similar experience. I had a vintage sansui tube amp that I had repaired by my tech. I traded for a pair of 1975 cornwalls with every intention of flipping them. I hooked them up pretty much as a test.....oh my. It is STILL my main system after a bunch of years and I have tried a whole bunch of contenders with no changes....I had no idea.
 
Mitch Bird said:
Not nearly as impressive as your set up. But I do have choices in which speakers I prefer for certain musical genres.
Click to expand...
I'm sure your system sounds stellar. It took me a few years to put my speakers together.
Also, my taste in music ranges far more then my friends & family would have expected from me.
Just enjoy the sound my friends. :king:
 
Congratulations! Welcome to the dark side. I don’t know what it is about Klipsch that is so polarizing. I’ve been a fan since I first heard Klipschorns and met PWK, as a teenager in the 1970s. (Wish I knew what happened to the yellow B.S. button he gave me.) But I can certainly see, after living with them now for 16 years, that they aren’t perfect. Still, Klipschorns work for me. They do what they do damn well. And yet I feel that I usually have to defend them around eye-rolling audiophiles. A few years ago, a dealer I knew was regularly bashing Klipschorns to me: (They’re not time-aligned. They’re shouty. They’re outdated technology, etc.) He wanted me to upgrade to Vandersteens. I auditioned them. Told him they sound fine but that I was happy with what I had at home. Eventually, he came over to my house to reinstall a cartridge he hadn’t aligned properly the first time around when he installed it on my TT in his shop. So I put on a Bill Evans record to test it. He sat still in the sweet spot and listened to a whole album side. When it was over he stood up and said: “Klipschorns, tubes, and vinyl. It really doesn’t get any better than that.” He never suggested I needed to upgrade speakers again.
 
As your penance, you can repeatedly listen to 32 minutes of Marie Osmond repeatedly singing Paper Roses. :confused:

Also, you'd best stop here & now.... lock your doors. What you will then find out is you only have the Gateway Key. The Heresy is the Gateway to the larger models and what you will discover unless you are disciplined and stay away from all other Klipsch is, it only gets better as you go bigger.

This discovery, should it bite you in the ankle, will lead you to smuggling things like Khorns into the laundry room.... trying to hide them by draping some old beach towels over them. You will then have dreams. You will be moaning during these dreams. Your wife is going to hear you utter "Oh....Belle....." as you moan in your sleep. Assured that you are having an affair with some blonde haired, blue eyed bunny named Belle, she's going to smack the taste, right out of your mouth.

No..... tis best you stay away. You've not yet been seasoned for the onslaught of what might befall you. Belle Klipsch, LaScalas, Khorns, Jubilee's, GACK, MWM DOUBLE BASS BINS?????

OH, the HUMANITY!!!

Just avoid all this now....go stab your eardrums with an ice pick and get it over with. Better you do it on your terms than your wife doing it to you while you dream about your new Belle......

Women, they never understand, do they? :yikes:
 
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Other than the BIG Klipsch, I was in the same camp as the OP, for years I found Heresies and Fortes squawky, shrill and painful -comparable to Cerwin Vegas and Bose. The current and final wife had a pair of Heresies, ca 1983, that were awful. Even after a recap I still found them fatiguing. Spent hours playing with placement. Finally swapped out the tweeters for Crites with Titanium diaphragms. They are now quite pleasant for music. I think one of the horns had a magnet issue as well as a tired diaphragm. I will pass the speakers along to her son at some point, along with all the original parts.

Oh... and you have been warned, Heresy speakers are a gateway speaker. Even "lowly" KG4s and Fortes are different and better in some ways. A few years ago I was buying a pair of speakers down in Tennessee and the gentleman auditioned K-horns and Jubilees for us. Both were tube driven in acoustically treated rooms. Wifey still asks if we will ever have a pair of those big speakers
 
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Mitch Bird said:
Not nearly as impressive as your set up. But I do have choices in which speakers I prefer for certain musical genres.
Click to expand...

An old setup at the old digs, the Xovers were easily modified for biamping with the Dynacos on top. The Dayton Sub 1200's connected in stereo used as stands elevates them to the correct height for imaging leaving the Heresy sound intact only BIGGER now with 25hz capability.

20161125_093526.jpg


If you have two pair, some spare amps, a new tt arrives for testing, AND the little lady is away for the afternoon lol
20150506_174331.jpg
 
kryten79 said:
A few years ago I was buying a pair of speakers down in Tennessee and the gentleman auditioned K-horns and Jubilees for us.
Click to expand...

Rigma (Marion) in Nashville (Lebanon) perhaps??? Almost has to be. I'm not aware of too many Jubilee's in Tennessee and of those, not sure who ALSO has Khorns but for Nutcase and his Bride!!

(said with respect)
 
Well I have never heard of a pair of Klipsch sounding like they suck, Some might say the spit the highs two much. Especially the series II and the last of the series I with the new drivers and 3rd order crossover networks to protect the tweeters.. We all know some JBL's and All KEFs spit and so can some of the latest B&W's. Some Altec were known for being honky PA sounding. Finding speakers with accurate bass was always my problem. Most of the time it was to fuzzy, or boomy, or sloppy. Very few speaker manufacturers today even get the bass right. Though I like the new Cornwalls very much if I had to pick them based on their bass performance only I wouldn't. I recently heard the JBL 67000 and they don't cut the mustard either. Though that big horn is fantastic and thats hard for me to say. If I were buying just for horn sound and maybe from 120 HZ up those $85,000 JBL's would win the contest. But music is built from the bottom up on a firm foundation, so the JBLs don't make the list either. Magico does real well on low bass but the mid bass where a lot of the fundamentals are located can be a little shy, but proper room placement can fix that. But now we are talking budget breaking prices and the need for serious power. But then most speakers today with only 90 db sensitivity need power. I wonder if the speaker manufacturers and the amps companies get together in dark smoke filled rooms plotting together to extract more money from our pockets.
 
Mitch Bird said:
I must say a Mea Culpa for my past membership in the "Klipsch Sucks" camp. I recently purchased a tube amp and thought maybe if I found a garage sale price on a pair of Heresys I would see/hear what all the fuss was about -- If I didn't like them I could always sell them.
Well I found a pair of 1980 Heresys in excellent shape electronically (the cabs could use some work).
And...I love them!
I replaced the caps with some polys. I plan to refinish them -- and keep them!
Click to expand...

H1's in HBR!! A little light sanding and hit them with some Watco Miracle oil. They'll look (and sound) great!
 
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