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Klipsch Heresy I Upgrade Recommendations?

I have a pair of 1975 Heresies that I'm rebuilding for a friend. The original woofers were missing, so I replaced them with the Eminence Delta 12lfa drivers. Very pleased with those. (The cabinets on these are simply trashed, so they will be restored with new veneer some time this winter.)

These speakers are the most placement-critical loudspeakers I've ever used. Right now, they are in the center of my room, on the floor, next to a large enclosed work desk. In this placement, the bass is very nice, and the off-axis horns sound nicely balanced. If I move them to corners on stands at ear height, however, the bass response drops dramatically and the horns are rabid enough to part your hair. Very unbalanced and listener unfriendly.

During the rebuild process, I plan to mock up some temporary rear panels and try porting them as referenced above in the "Heretical Heresy" thread. I'll also be installing L-pads on the horns, as my experience so far has shown them to be the critical elements in establishing driver-to-driver balance according to speaker placement. The added benefit here, of course, is that as the horn levels are brought down to pleasing levels, the bass response increases.

The last experiment I've tried with the Heresies so far is driving them with my just-restored Dynaco Mk.IV tube monoblock amplifiers. I'm not a raving-mad tube devotee, but on some speakers tubes make for remarkable improvements, and that was certainly the case with the Heresies. Bass response improved, and the horns sounded tremendously smoother - much less grain at higher volumes, especially. This was one of those few experiments that delivered unmistakable improvements.

Looking forward to further experimentation on these very historical and interesting speakers.

GeeDeeEmm
 
kryten79 said:
However, I remain convinced the "problem" with the brash sound is the K-77M tweeter which has a sharp roll-off at 12K. Perhaps because of age, my tweets sound sizzly, tired, a lot of sibilance maybe the diaphragm or something is worn out.
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Been down this road brother. I was a novice at the time - I know better now. It's not going to get much better. Stuffing the boxes did help to make the bass less boomy and hollow. The crites tweeter is a minor improvement. Very minor. Not worth what you will be spending.
Best bang for the buck ... recap the existing crossovers (no need for for any "kit") and add some stuffing to the boxes.
The wood is very nice on these. Furniture grade - a good cleaning and re-oiling goes a long way.
No matter what I did I could not like them. Got my money back in the end so I take it as a learning experience.
OH YEAH! ... and add some weather stripping to seal the back panel to the cabinet. This simple mod made quite an audible improvement.
Oh yeah # 2 ... I upsized the terminals to take fatter wire.
I have pics - don't know how to add them here anymore.
 
gdmoore28 said:
These speakers are the most placement-critical loudspeakers I've ever used.
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I should not have assumed the OP knew that. The Heresy speakers are truly placement sensitive to the nth degree. I have rearranged the furniture to accomodate them. Experiment with height, tilt, placement relative to walls and corners, move your listening spot around. I rolled around in a desk chair and them rearranged furniture. Add some extra wall hangings and rugs to cut down reflections, etc... If you get them right, they are not as bad as 4ever says. They are not my cup of tea either.

IMHO, there are better for less. I truly cannot wait to swap them out, one at a time, for a pair of revivatilized KG4s (if I ever get around to doing them) to test the difference. I like a different kind of sound coming from speakers so I am biased and freely admit it. The Baby Klipsch speakers suit my wife just fine. I'll keep the big speakers I like downstairs!
 
I had them for years and the best thing I did was to sell them. The woofers don' go low enoug. The midrange is honky sounding. The tweeters have a couple of peaks that will drive nails in your ears.
 
kryten79 said:
bumping an old thread. I considered the referenced thread regarding the crossover mod but kept the original E-2 crossover design when I recapped using Bob Crites "kit" which included Sonicaps. After listening to them for 18 months,this was a huge improvement, really woke up the tired sounding speakers. However, I remain convinced the "problem" with the brash sound is the K-77M tweeter which has a sharp roll-off at 12K. Perhaps because of age, my tweets sound sizzly, tired, a lot of sibilance maybe the diaphragm or something is worn out.
There is a huge hump of sound between approx 5K and 7K then it just annoys me.
The good news, Crites has options for tweeter replacement or rebuild, a magnet and diaphragm and CT120 and CT125 tweeter assemblies. Cost now is $160 or $225 per pair plus shipping. I have to get these right to give to my wife's son when he comes out of the Army as they carry a lot of sentimental value. I have a pair of KG4s I'm planning to rework at some point which are similar so I'll learn what works as I go. I will experiment with a bit of polyfill and Blackhole 5
HERE is the link to the CT120 tweeters
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Did you replace yours with the new Crites replacement tweeters? I thought about getting them, but ordered some new tweeter diaphragms for my K-77s from Simply Speakers to see how they'd sound. Installed the first one - pretty sure I did it right - but when I disconnect the woofer and mid, I can barely hear anything through the tweeter alone. I've read of similar experiences from other K-77 tweeter owners. I recently purchased and installed Bob Crites' replacement woofers - they look and sound great!
 
A pair of 12" subs as stands, and passive biamping, truly amazing sound can be had.

That said, my bedroom pair had to be lifted with risers, too much bass with the table/cart combination that I was using at the time, not so much with the CD player. These speakers are very revealing of upstream equipment's failings, if not to your taste it "could" be your system.

There's a reason these speakers have been in production longer than many forum members have been alive.
 
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I use heresey I's in my bedroom and drive them with an el84 pp Scott 299b. I think they sound great in that setup where I do a lot of low level listening to vinyl. They are really sensitive to placement as has been stated, and they sound best to me on the floor on factory riser on either side of a large solid wood dresser. I felt they were lacking in bass out in the open in my large living room. I'm not particularly attached to them, but they do a lot of things really well for the money if you can find a good deal. And they are fairly easy to sell if you want to move on.
 
If the Heresy's crossovers are anything like the Cornwall's crossovers, then that "shrill", "splitting hairs", "nails in your ears" effect from the Heresy's is NOT from the tweeter but from the midrange horn. See, in the Cornwall's, the midrange (or squawker) as some call it, plays from 600 Hz out to it's natural roll-off up past 8 kHz. Lots of break-up and distortion up there on that K-55 driver. This also means that the midrange and tweeter are playing the same frequencies as the tweeter crosses over at 6 kHz I believe.

To solve that issue, there's a well known mod to be made to the stock crossovers to make the midrange crossover into a true band-pass instead of it's stock high-pass design. It's as simple as inserting an inductor (which Bob Crites sells I believe still) to roll the K-55 off at 6 kHz. I did this originally to my Cornwall II's years ago. They were all stock, all original from 1979. I replaced all of the motor-run caps with new exact replacement motor-run caps and installed that inductor. Made all the difference in the world. Shortly after, I replaced those new motor-run caps with decent film caps for even better results, then upgraded to the original Crites tweeter.

The Crites tweeter sounded just about the same as the stock tweeter, but had more extension and air on the top end. IIRC, the stock tweeter rolled off around 17 kHz, the Crites tweeter up around 22 - 25 kHz. Can't remember for sure.

I also found that from about 200 Hz on up, the Heresy II's actually sounded better than the Cornwall II's. Better balanced and more natural sounding with a better sound stage and imaging.
 
I tend to like the gradual roll off of highs in the later model 1 with the EV t_35 tweeter. I'm not fond of the later tweeters with the titanium diaphragms. Personally I would throw away the enclosure and build a tower with a minimum of 6 cu ft. Then if you wanted to port them you might get some go bass to just below 40 hz, which is adequate for most folks. I use to build 4 cu ft boxes with Altec 414 or 617 coax and ported were flat to 40 hz when suspended from the ceiling against the wall used as fill speakers. You should easily get the same performance from the 12" woofer Klipsch was using at the time.
 
My thoughtful girlfriend snagged a pair of 1975 Klipsch Heresy Is at a garage sale this past week for me
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Need to put a ring on that one! That's wifey right there.

Never done it but the Crites XO mods are a safe choice. Funny, I just looked at the Crites website and ol' Bob looks like he's using some Klipsch RF something towers as his rear surrounds. I doubt they're unmodified :)
 
Some say too boomy bass, some say they are lacking and need a sub. Some say they are too high, others say to replace the tweeter.

We need to send our ears to the calibration department.

Oh yeah, bump and happy New Year.
 
Upgrade, they are what they are! You can possibly get a bit of improvement....
Heresey's have unique characteristics just as all speakers do. I like them personally, but that's just me. I can say this though, if you have a pair, then play with positioning and room treatments possibly if within your budget. If not just move them along, everyone likes different sound!
 
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