hurdy_gurdyman

I have an old Thorens TD-160 and a Denon DP-75. Both can be found used quite reasonably. Both have performed well for many years now and both sound very good. Dave

I've had a real ear opening experience with changing amps/preamps using a pair of Heresys. Switching from a vintage tubed Scott LK-48-b to a harmon-kardon Citation 16 with Marantz ss pre was like getting a completly different system. The sound was like someone turned the bass control way down and the treble control way up. The Heresys and the citation 16 just didn't go together at all. The old Scott and the Heresys were a match made in heaven. It's just hard to visualize the difference without hearing it. I was amazed at the difference! Dave

Heresys are sold. Dave

I've decided to sell my Heresys and am posting it here first. Because of the rough looking cabnets I'm going to charge $150 plus shipping. These are serial numbers 16N128 and 16N224. All drivers are origional AlNiCo and work fine. These Heresies, when running off my Scott LK-48-b amp, are the 2nd best sounding set-up I've ever had in my home. I'm only selling them because I'm trying to make more space in the house (and I could use the money right now.) Buyer pays shipping. I know how to box something like this for shipping. It will be well boxed. Packed boxes should be around 60 pounds each, but haven't had them weighed on official scales yet. I'm going to leave this here for a few days before posting elsewhere, as it only seems right to let the folks on the Klipsch Forum have first chance at Klipsch speakers. Feel free to email me at: the_hurdy_gurdyman@yahoo.com First come, first gets. Here's a couple of pics. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the_hurdy_gurdyman/detail?.dir=/6d5d&.dnm=a421.jpg&.src=ph http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the_hurdy_gurdyman/detail?.dir=/6d5d&.dnm=4991.jpg&.src=ph Dave

What about the Fostex F200A? This is supposed to cover 30-20,000 Hz. Dave

---------------- On 4/1/2005 9:48:24 PM Chris Robinson wrote: HG-Man, very interesting review. A few things might be going on. First, it could be the pre-amp that is coloring the sound. The pre- amplifies the signal much more than the amp does in relative terms. Hence, that might be the first suspect to interview. Secondly, any signal will of course be amplified, beit good, bad or indifferent. The amp might be the culprit afterall. Bottom line with Klipsch, though, is that the efficiency of the speaker is going to limit the amps' performance to the 0-2A range where solid state distortion tends to run rampant. Tubes do a little better in that range, as do digital amps. Borrow one of the Sonic Impact amps @ $20, and give that a spin. It might be eye-opening! _______________________________ Music Hall MMF-7 Turntable w/ Goldring Eroica H MC Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CDP with 24 bit/192 KHz Upsampling Wright Sound WPP-100C Phono Stage JF Lessard Pantheon 6SN7 SRPP Preamp w/ RCA 5R4GY & Sylvania 6SN7 JF Lessard Horus Parafeed Cobalt 2A3 SET Monoblocks w/ Tung Sol 5687 & AVVT 2A3 1976 KCBR Klipschorns with ALK Crossovers Gear Online: Two Channel & Home Theater Systems ---------------- Chris, The EV's are more efficient then the Heresies and sound very good with the HK, so I doubt if the low amp output is the problem. I suspect that it's just a bad match putting the HK with the Heresies (may have something to do with the high impedance horns in the Heresies?) The Marantz pre is sounding great with the EV's, also. The harman-kardon and EV speakers are making some very clean and musical sounds right now. I think I'm going to leave this set-up for a while and see how it wears with time. Dave

I had an eye opening experience over the last couple of days. Ive been using a 1964 H.H.Scott integrated tube amp driving a pair of Klipsch Heresies for some time now (with separate subwoofer.) I decided to dig out my old harman-kardon citation 16 ss amp and see what it would do with the Herseys. I used an old Marantz ss receiver for a preamp. I was shocked at the difference. The Heresys with the old Scott amp sounded very well balanced, especially after lowering the mid-horns output by about 3 dB. With the citation 16 driving them they became unlistenable! The bass was much leaner and the highs and upper mids more pronounced. The sound became vary grating and sibilant. I tried lowering the tweeter output and played around with the crossover and got it better, but not good enough. Next I decided to dig out my PA monitors, a pair of EV sx100s. These have a12 Electro-Voice EVG-12 woofer with a horn tweeter crossed at 1800 Hz (I think.) The sound was superb! Id tried the EVs with the Scott a year or so back and thought they sounded a bit muddy in the mids. Not with the harman-kardon! This sounds really great (and this coming from a tubaholic!) Ive always known that some speakers like tubes better and some like ss better, but I never dreamed that it could make such a difference in how the frequency balance sounded. Now I have some serious thinking on which one to keep listening to. It is kinda nice to have 200 watts a channel driving 99.5 dB sensitivity speakers, even if they do only go down to 80 Hz (thats what subs are for.) wonder if this type of experience might be the reason so many people that have heard Klipsch Referance speakers have complained of the horns being harsh. I suspect they really do sound much better with a classic tube amp (at least as far as Heresies are concerned.) It's also interesting to note that the Scott (LK-48- has a great reputation with some and is hated by a few others. The HK citation 16 also has a great reputation with some and is hated by others. Hmmm... Dave

---------------- On 3/30/2005 9:33:21 PM flegz wrote: right after I won the auction I surfed for hours looking for any info I could find....I found this on another site, any of this make any sense????? "picked up a used pair of Klipsch Heresy's, older model 1's with birch ply boxes. At first these sounded to bright and thin. I went and applied plummers putty to the woofer basket legs and around the squawker horn. Then, I added a brace to the box. I changed the wiring on the autoformer in the crossover to drop the squawkers output a couple of decibles and changed the tweeter cap from a 2 uF to a 1.5 uF. I also have some felt around the mid-horn mouth (after routing the wood to the same taper). Then I lightly stuffed the box with polyfill. These tweeks transformed these speakers. They now have dynamics and frequency balance that is superb! These speakers bring me closer to the live music experiance then I have yet come. That compression midrange speaker is really amazing! I wouldn't give these up for any fullrange driver, even if the fullrange driver does have a better coherency. The Klipsch dynamics and detail are just so much better, and have a more neutral, realistic balance. Unless I can find something that has greater dynamics, frequency balance, detail and instrument tonality, I plan on staying in the Klipsch line. With my OB subwoofers, I get a very flat response down to around 25 Hz with a very life-like sound. From what I've read, the Heresy plus decent subwoofer, is in the same league as the Forte's, Cornwalls and Chorus. I don't think I'll be changing anytime soon, as I haven't been impressed quite enough by any single driver system. Coherency and imaging isn't quite enough for me. Wink I need that instrument detail and tonallity! Cool" Thanks Flegz ---------------- Hey, I wrote that! I've played with the Heresy's a lot since then and would change the "lightly stuffed" part to just linning the inside with a layer of sound absorbing material. Also, you need to add a 16 ohm resistor in parrallel to the squawker when you change the autoformer taps. Also, try taking the driver off the midhorn (if it is the metal rear mounted one) and move the horn to front mounting. Plastic horns are already front mounted. The older metal horned squawkers can sometims benefit from having a P-trap added. Do a forum search for details. It helped mine. Good advise to leave things alone until you get used to the origional sound. You'll be able to judge the effects of any tweeks better that way. BTW, I've found the speakers to sound good sitting on the floor, tilted back with a riser under the front about a couple inches high, and pulled out from the corners a couple of feet. In the factory crossover setting, they balance pretty good right in the corner, but may have a bass bump in the 60-100 Hz range. Have fun with these. They are great speakers. Dave

My 1975 Heresy's have origional woofers that have red surrounds and AlNiCo magnets. Dave

---------------- On 3/26/2005 3:33:58 AM djk wrote: The Industrial Heresy has no bass. The vented heresy was an idea I had with a riser base similar in concept to the vented LaScala. The added box needs to be around 1 cu ft (net) and the port(s) tuned to Fs (about 32hz). This is an SBB4 (best transient response of all vented alignments) and I used a Q=2 filter at 32hz making the whole system a C6 with an F3=32hz. I also added an 800hz all pass filter to the woofer for time alignment, it sounds quite a bit better that way. ---------------- Do you have a link to this? I'd like to see drawings and/or pics. It might be interesting to build a new box altogether and try this. That way, my origional Heresy boxes won't have extra holes put in them. Dave

It could also be a case of acoustic feedback, where the tonearm is picking up the airborne sound vibrations the speakers are producing and then amplifying them through the cartridge and back into the speakers. This process can build up quickly and cause uncontrolled feedback. Have you tried locating the turntable somewhere else to see if the problem persists? Dave

The problem may not even show up on another speaker. Speakers with lots of bass capability that are ported are most susceptable to showing up turntable/cartridge mis-matches. Klipsch speakers tend to have good, deep bass while most PA type speakers don't, so this problem would be more likely to show up with the Klipsch. Dave

Sounds to me like a compatibility problem with cartridge and tonearm. Preamps with infrasonic filters will prevent the woofer from flunctuating like mad, but the best fix is to be sure the cartridge is right for the tonearm. This problem is quite often caused by using a very compliant cartridge in a rather massive tonearm. It can also be caused by inproper adjustment of the turntable's suspension, or a bouncy platform under the turntable. Of course, it could be something else altogether. Dave

---------------- On 3/6/2005 5:17:50 PM NOSValves wrote: ---------------- On 3/6/2005 4:18:30 PM hurdy_gurdyman wrote: Why didn't I think of changing the rectifier? I even looked at it a couple of times. I know old selenium can fail unexpectedly at any time. I did bypass the electrolytic can that has the four 100 uF caps in it. I used small separate caps and siliconed them inside to the chassis. There was barely room for them. Hum all gone! Someday I'll replace the other cans, but they are working fine at the moment. Dave http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif"> ---------------- Its not just that they fail at anytime without notice they have usually become resistive and are robbing the 12AX7's heaters of there proper warm up temp which lowers there life. The 12AX7's also sound better when properly heated. I bet unless you changed some resistor values when you replaced the multi section can the voltage to the first 12AX7 is about 10 lower then required. Also your 7591 output tubes could be running over there designed current since the bias for these tubes is derived from this same circuit. You should have about -19 to the grids of the output tubes. Its hard to be exact there are no less then 7 versions of the 299C. Some have DC balance controls , Some also have DC Bias voltage controls and then some have no bias controls at all. Craig ---------------- My LK-48-B has both bias and balance controls. It also has 7189 output tubes (have been using JJ EL-84's for several months now.) I used the same 100 uF values with the replacement electrolytic caps, but I'll check the voltages tomorrow. Dave

---------------- On 3/6/2005 10:07:38 AM NOSValves wrote: Good job ! While you were at it did you replace the selenium rectifier for the output bias and 12AX7 heater supply ? Some LK48B still used the old selenium type if so replace it with a bridge rectifier from radio shack they cost $2.89 they usually stock a 8A 400Piv. After replacement check the negative voltage entering pin 4 or 5 (which ever is higher) of the nearest 12AX7 it shouldn't exceed -50 VDC if it does you will need to adjust the first dropping resistor off the rectifier. Craig ---------------- Why didn't I think of changing the rectifier? I even looked at it a couple of times. I know old selenium can fail unexpectedly at any time. I did bypass the electrolytic can that has the four 100 uF caps in it. I used small separate caps and siliconed them inside to the chassis. There was barely room for them. Hum all gone! Someday I'll replace the other cans, but they are working fine at the moment. Dave

---------------- On 3/6/2005 4:09:21 PM Coytee wrote: I prefer cherry drops, to orange drops... (I just had a Fini moment...) ---------------- Personally, I'd rather have anything with chocolate in it. Dave

---------------- On 3/6/2005 9:16:41 AM fini wrote: Dave, Got any before and after photos to serve as inspiration for us "tech wannabes"? Close-ups are fine... ---------------- Sorry, didn't take photos. If you look at at a pic of the factory Scott innards, just mentally replace all those white capacitors with orange ones and that's what it looks like. Dave

I just changed capacitors in my vintage H.H.Scott LK-48-B integrated amp. I replaced the old Ceracap coupling caps with just plain ole Orange Drops. Total cost for parts was about $20. The difference was almost shocking. I've complained about a "hashy" sound and had blamed the horns in my Klipsch Heresys for some time now. However, after changing the caps in the amp, I no longer hear any of the hashy sound. I'd have never suspected that changing out the old ceramic caps to an inexpensive cap like Orange Drops would make such a difference. Dave

---------------- On 2/11/2005 4:29:11 AM crazycat wrote: Dave, I have a HK 16 lying aroung and want to hook it up to drive sub. I have a MC225 driving a set of Forte I's. How do you have your's hooked up ? What type of Xover do you use? Thanks Robert ---------------- Robert, I built a passive crossover using a couple resistors and a capacitor and placed it between my main amp's speaker output and the HK's input. I couldn't get quite enough volume out of the HK, so I incerted an old graphic equalizer I had between the crossover and HK. The eq has level controls to boost the signal up where it was usable. As long as it was an eq, I boosted everything from 50 Hz down and cut everything above that. This helped give me a steeper crossover slope. It works well. Here's a good place to start on passive crossovers. http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tech/filters/passiveHLxo.html You will probably have to experiment with resistors between the crossover and the amp to get the level in the right range. Dave

---------------- On 2/4/2005 7:16:04 PM DeanG wrote: Well, I would try it, but I don't have good corners for my Heresy's! ---------------- Well, you could give me your K-horns and use the Heresys where they were sittin'. Dave

---------------- On 2/3/2005 10:44:32 PM hurdy_gurdyman wrote: ---------------- On 2/3/2005 11:51:07 AM pauln wrote: I think PKW deliberately voiced the high end of the Heresy 3db higher than the rest of the heritage because the tweeter is designed to be much lower to the floor - he recommended that Heresy speakers be on the floor in the corners. Now days, many listeners put them on stands to get the tweets up to ear level like the other Heritage. This makes the Heresy relatively hot because maybe they were really voiced for the floor? This might explain why so many find the best sound after mods, and may vindicate acusations that PWK was hard of hearing (a real heresy!). ---------------- I suspect Paul Klipsch did, indeed, design the Heresy to sit in the corners (with thin blocks under the front to tilt them back a bit.) That's where I ended up using mine. I even went so far as to lower the mids and highs on the autoformer (with resistors across the two horns). At louder listening levels it sounds just right. Best sound I've had in my house yet. They still seem to image just fine here, which really surprised me. May be because the horns are so directional as to not make much difference between out in the room and in the corner. Anyway, they are one impressive little speaker. Dave ---------------- After listening to my Heresy's on the floor in the corner for several days now, I've concluded that the balance is better with the autoformer settings back in the factory position. They just sound "right" there sittin' in the corners. Dave

---------------- On 2/3/2005 11:51:07 AM pauln wrote: I think PKW deliberately voiced the high end of the Heresy 3db higher than the rest of the heritage because the tweeter is designed to be much lower to the floor - he recommended that Heresy speakers be on the floor in the corners. Now days, many listeners put them on stands to get the tweets up to ear level like the other Heritage. This makes the Heresy relatively hot because maybe they were really voiced for the floor? This might explain why so many find the best sound after mods, and may vindicate acusations that PWK was hard of hearing (a real heresy!). ---------------- I suspect Paul Klipsch did, indeed, design the Heresy to sit in the corners (with thin blocks under the front to tilt them back a bit.) That's where I ended up using mine. I even went so far as to lower the mids and highs on the autoformer (with resistors across the two horns). At louder listening levels it sounds just right. Best sound I've had in my house yet. They still seem to image just fine here, which really surprised me. May be because the horns are so directional as to not make much difference between out in the room and in the corner. Anyway, they are one impressive little speaker. Dave

I bought my 1964 Scott LK-48-B integrated off epay for $160 plus shipping. It needed the controls cleaned and new power tubes, but otherwise worked great. May be the best sounding amp I've ever owned (and I've owned a bunch). A new set of four JJ Tesla EL84 output tubes was around $40 and sound wonderful. Dave

I've been experimenting a lot with my old Heresy's the last few days. I've found that moving both the squawker and tweeter down a notch on the autoformer sounds better. I added 16 ohm resistors to each horn to correct the mismatch in impedance this caused. Next, I put the box in the corner on the floor. This brought the lower part of it's bass range up. Really rocks now! Balance is good, detail is still there but my ears don't burn with upper mids and highs anymore. First time I've ever heard a box speaker that sounds good in the corner. Didn't seem to affect the tone or imaging of the horns at all. I'm cranking out all my 20 watt Scott tube integrated can put out and the sound is clean, detailed and BASS PUNCHY! Cool! Dave

---------------- On 1/31/2005 11:41:50 AM 3dzapper wrote: Dave, How about cutting out a piece of 1/2" MDF or plywood for the back, making cutouts for the K-700 and K-77 facing rearwards. Or conversely mount the woofer facing rearwards. Of course you'd need another piece to seal off the holes in the front but that's easy. Hmmm..... Rick ---------------- Rick, Have you been reading my mind? I was thinking just that very thing. It has to wait for a weather warm up, though, as my Michigan shop is frozen right now. I may even build a new baltic birch box and make the whole thing look nice and professional. The Heresy boxes I have are the plywood ones and have veener peeling off. They look like they were official frat room speakers for the last 20 years or so. Dave