Here is my offering, I made this center channel beauty base this on a well known fact that Klipsch Heritage series speakers have a timber that is not easily matched by a center channel that can be positioned correctly.
Of course we all know that the Heresy started as a center channel way before the purpose of a center channel became defined as a dialogue predominant speakers. In the world of Surround sound it's a fact that position is a huge factor for making the system work properly. This sets limitations on what can be used in each spot. No spot is more sensitive than the center, it can make things very difficult to create that illusion the surround brings if the center is not in the correct spot or it fails to timber match the front speakers.
Now I've been through the entire surround fad from the start, right up to when they decided 7 speakers was simply not enough to do the job properly. I've always felt that 5 was perfect and 7 seemed like a gimmick to get you to buy more speakers. I bought a Mirage M series 5.1 set up that cost too much for what I got, then added another set of bookshelves to the rear.
The thing I noticed was the center (even with exact matching drivers as the fronts) never sounded the same as the fronts? I figured it was because they made the cabinets different and for some reason added an extra woofer to the mix even though the cabinet was smaller with less volume. Was I the only one who thought this was defeating the purpose?
I never could get it to sound like it should have for the money I spent, after trying 10 different receivers which all but a few seemed to die an early death (thank you for charging me for protection circuitry, that seemed to be what was causing me from using it) I still couldn't match the sound.
Now back to this, I had 3 series 1 Hersey's laying around all needed attention to the cabinets, peeling veneer, cupping from water, etc..
I did this to the matched pair.
I also made a center channel that I matched the horns to these but had a buyer who wanted them to be black. I made changes but the cabinets had a few bad spots on them from hanging around in the way for a few years. I decided to fix them hoping I'd be done in a week or so.
That's always just a dream with black lacquer. After a month and a half I finished it but made some changes along the way that added quite a bit of difficulty to the task. I cut the rounded edge off and made it a flat facet like edge. That proved to be very difficult to keep those parallel lines straight after 50 coats of black. Keeping the paint thin was the best approach but lead to sanding through very easily on those high edges. I was done at one point and had it still on the rotisserie for a few days. I rested my hands and went out to find the entire clear coat had cracked right down to the color layer! It was my mistake for using a can of MinWax clear lacquer I had laying around after I went to buy more WATCO and couldn't find any locally. I never tried minwax and I didn't feel I should have used it so at that time I waited till I got WATCO and kept going. But with all the sanding through I found myself at a point where I could be done after a few thick coats of clear. I have a perfect finish going and it was late at night and I went for it.
I found out that minwax is not made to cover anything but bare wood! Now why isn't that on the can? Minwax told me after I emailed them asking for a reason my project had become a wreck.
I made the mistake and I'm letting you all know not to do the same. What got me was how perfect it looked when I shot it, it was the most perfect smooth finish I ever saw while it was wet and the next day it was so easy to sand and polish I was so happy. My polishing time was cut to about 10% of what I normally do.
Then it sat for 3 days without looking at it or thinking about it. When I went to remove it from the rotisserie it was cracked from front to back even around the front lip. The cracks went around down the sides and bottom. Needless to say I had to start over.
After much work I ended up with this.
I used some Atlantic Technologies woofers, I have a number of 6" drivers that would fit the bill but the others (PSB, KEF, DMC, BIC and a few unmarked that I can't remember where they came from) either had strange mounting that kept them from fitting properly or they didn't sound right. I was limited to drivers that had a 4 ohm cv or dual 8s like the DMC.
The Atlantic read 5 ohms but I'm sure they drop down once power is applied. I made no changes to the E2 crossover, I have recently tested 5 Heresy crossovers and found not 1 component has changed in value more than 1%. Only 1 cap read close to 1% the rest were nearly dead on spec! This is why I keep saying "test everything before you start screwing around with the crossovers" the meter is $20 and it wi save you more money and time than ever. I have 3 meters that I use to check each of the other meters results so it's not just 1 meter telling me this. Of course 2 of my fluke meters decided to quit working on me last year, I vowed to never buy them again. That has left me searching for a decent meter that can read resistance down to 0.00 but have found there's not many that can go to the second 0. I have a few that are very cool and have a rechargable battery in it and does everything but what I don't like is it's automatic. You find yourself trying to figure out what exactly the results are when it shows 0.135 meg ohms? Now why not just ohms? I see this constantly and I'm tired of these mystery numbers. The next test will show another reading that's using a different scale. I've ordered a few with turn dails that have scales I select.
I made another test cabinet that I can fit larger drivers in but the size is a big wider and the drivers are tight against each other. I tested them all and found the ATs to be the best over all. I can get to 68Hz at reference levels and have a fairly flat response up to the crossover point. There's a bump (could be my test set up i used) at 2000 to 6000. I just got a new mic and had to get a phantom powered interface for it.
I haven't tested this again but I simply don't care for the REW program at all. I feel like it's not working correctly and gives a way to blurry plot compared to anything I've ever seen when testing my main speakers. Basically shows a flat (once smoothing is applied) line with a dip at 54Hz. But without smoothing it's showing a hair comb looking plot with exaggerated peaks and valleys every other Hz. I don't like using a computer to run sweeps. Mine is noisy and adds tiny noises into the power lines. Fans are loud too. Without a definite noise floor removal (which it says it's doing) that I can see for sure I'm not sure it's correct. I report back.
I also have a saw tune up that I want to share for Ryobis precision 10" table saw conversion from their sliding crosscut to a Rockwell sled.
