PrestonTom

re: Cryogentic-treatment I visited the web site for one of the more popular cryogentic treatment services (speaker wire, interconnects, tubes etc). I tried to keep an open mind while I read their "explanations" and "results" It was difficult to keep an open mind... This is the biggest load of nonsense that I have ever heard. Once again I will proclaim: If you are using Klipsch speakers do not worry about fancy amps (the cabinets are efficient and present an easy load for an amp; however do worry about any hum or hiss); do not worry about speaker wire or interconnects (more nonsense); do not worry about the current flavor of capacitor or line conditioner.... Rather, spend your time on on speaker placement and room treatment. These have noticebale effects (and, of course, use well-recorded material). The other stuff only makes greedy people/vendors/manufacturers (or fuzzy-thinking people) rich. A cynical and grumpy, -Tom

Wait, slow down! I think it far too premature to start concluding that the crossovers are bad or the amp is incorrect. Take some time and listen to the speakers. The Heresys should sound good, they are not a bad speaker cabinet. It is doubtful that the amp (if it is working) is the problem since the K-Horns are quite efficient and do not present a low impeadnce to the amp (it is a very easy load for for an amp to drive). Why not try spending some time in placing/locating the speaker and your listening chair. Unless there is soemthing terribly wrong with your crossover or amp (as was suggested above), placement and set up will have a far more dramatic effects on the sound. When folks use terms like "crisp" and "detailed" it sometimes indicates that the highs are lacking (this is why stero salesmen turn up the treble knob - an old trick). Have a listen - are all the drivers working. A loose cable or blown tweeter is much more likely (probablistically) than crossover or inadequate amplifier. Troubleshoot the obvious things first, Good luck, -Tom

Pardon my ignorance.... Why in the heck would a K-Horn need to be supplemented by a sub woofer. Is this some home theater effects-thing? -Tom

Welcome aboard

Doug, The way you phrased some your comments about your hearing loss makes it sound like you have not had a professional diagnosis. I would strongly urge you to do so. PLease make an appointment with a doctor (ENT -ear nose and throat specialist). They will work with an audiologist to get you taken care of. Hearing loss is sometimes treatable and further hearing loss is frequently preventable. Please take the time to do this. Good luck, -Tom

I think Gil hit on the head. Although the room size may not be best, it is still not bad. Corners are important, and you seem to have that. K-Horns really do sound incredible (words spoken by a proud owner). In time, you may have a larger space, who knows. Good luck, -Tom

Dr Who is correct (as he frequently is). Certainly anything below 100Hz will be not be effected by a drape or curtain. When the wavelegths are that large (over 10 ft), the wave will travel right through it. For a curtain to be effective it would have to be at least 1/2 wavelength and that trick only works for higher freqs (smaller wavelengths). Room geometry (in conjucnction with the geometry of the speaker placement) will dictate the frequnecy response at these low frequencies. Good luck, -Tom

Congratualtions Joe, They are huge, aren't they. Enjoy, -Tom

I am curious on what is actually going on here. Transmitting sound through a tube has big consequences. If it is flared, then you get the benefit of a loaded design (horn). On the other hand even if it non-expanding, a tube will introduce resonances (nodes & anti-nodes). This is not acoustically neutral. Additionally when the wavefront leaves the mouth of the tube, all sorts of things can happen. I can not beleive that even a "simple tube" will not impact the sound -Tom

TommyC, Keep up the good work! As you have just discovered, speaker placement has a big effect. You are definitely on the right path. It can be frustrating because it requires a great deal of experimentation and it will be further confounded by changes in room treatment (as simple as drapes being open or closed, area rugs, re-arranging furniture, wall hangings etc). However, this is exactly where real, audible differences are to be gained (put away the fancy speaker wire ....) My suggestion is to get a small number of well-recorded CDs and listen to them on your system and other systems and get a very good ear for the sound of the different instruments. After this try re-arranging the speaker location and listening chair. There are many things that will change the sound, the trick is to how to best decide if the change is actually an improvement. Good luck, these manipulations will make real differences and cost a lot less than esoteric things likes expensive cables, line conditioners, etc. -Tom

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! Heresys are fun speakers to listen to. Re: question about risers. I have tried it both ways. Without the risers, the bass may a bit stronger. I think the difference is subtle; however, others make a bigger deal out of the difference. With the risers and aimed at the listener, I believe the upper mids and highs were better (I assume the drivers are a bit directional). It is worth some time to experiment by putting the speakers in different locations (esp relative to the back and side walls), bringing your chair to a different spot, etc. These are fun experiments. The problem is that changing speaker location and treating the room (drapes, carpets in or out, etc) definitely change the sound (these are clearly audible differences) but it is difficult to always judge whether the differences are actually better, or simply "different". Good Luck, Tom

I will phrase it more simply than D-Man: The output transformers on a tube amp serve as a low pass filter. This explains why the sibilance (probably from a poor recording) is attentuated with a tube amp. This is not menat to argumentative. Some people prefer this sort of sound and will use lots of words like "warmth" and "smoohtness" to describe it. Good luck, -Tom

A false corner would be a good idea. But there is no magic, this is simply physics. Remember, at 50 Hz the wavelength is about 20 ft long, also at this low frequency there is very little break up of the wavefront via carpeting, drapes, etc. My guess is that you had some real dead zones before hand (or vice versa). Standing waves and the resultant constructive and destructive interference can be quite strong (and possibly exagerate what would otherwise be fairly little energy at the low frequencies) good luck -Tom

Wiring them in parallel is quite acceptible. For instance, a 13uF can be achieved by two that are approx half the value (i.e., 6 + 7). Such a combination may even provide minimal resistance in the circuit. Alternatively, some will use one that is about 10% of the first (i.e., 12 + 1.2 hypothetically). This is sometimes termed a "bypass" configuration. This second approach may not provide minimal resistance, however. Bypassing is sometimes favored by certain folks, but the jury is out on whether it acually provides some of the supposed advantages. Good luck, -Tom

Congratulations on the getting the Heresys. These are nice, efficient speakers that have a beautifully detailed sound. They area great value. They are however a bit weak in the low bass, although the bass they do provide is clean and even, nothing boomy. These are my opinions: 1) Rejoice, the speakers are efficient and they do not need a lot of power (wattage). You probably do not need to go above 50-75 watts 2) The impedance, combined with the efficiency, make them an easy load for an amplifier, so you do not need an expensive high current amp. 3) No amplifier is going to make the low bass come alive. Speaker cabinet design is a seies of compromises, the Heresy's bass are simply shy on the very low end. Although, proper placement and set up will help some. An amplifier will not make up for physical acoustics however, 4) Because they are efficient, any noise, hiss, or hum will be quite audible. Please get a quiet and clean amp. 5) The weak link in a system (the most prone to noise, coloration, distortion) is the speaker. You are doing well with the Heresy. So please do not apologize about using an inexpensive CD player. You are headed in the right direction and have a very good start on things. Having said this, there are a number of used, reasonably priced, and available power amps or intetgrated amps out there. Consider the following, and audition them if possible: NAD, Rotel, Onkyo, Harman Kardon, Luxman, Adcom, or Hafler. There are others also. What I have listed are ones that are readily available and certainly priced for your budget. Good Luck and please rememeber that a clean and quiet, modest size amp will be fine. After this, the bigger impact come from speaker placement and room treatment Enjoy, -Tom

---------------- On 8/16/2005 12:08:19 PM jpm wrote: QUESTION: Regarding fuses in the speaker wires, after all the care given to getting this and that JUST PERFECT, and using $10,000 speaker wires, doesn't a 50 cent fuse blow the whole theory of state of the art stuff? Talk about Rat Shack weak links. "Dude, I spent $75,000 on my system Dude, and it Rocks! I protect it all with a cheap fuse that's so thin I can barely make out the wire." ---------------- An interesting question, let me pose the rhetorical question: A blown speaker will have a degradation that is quite audible. Is the "degradation" produced by a very short & thin lead in the fuse also audible? -Tom

Congratulations!! Those cabinets look fantastic. It is interesting to speculate on why the sound was so different in the two different locales. I have seen this occur in other setups also. Folks typically assume it is the electronics and source. It could very well be true. But I believe the speaker setup and room treatment plays a tremendous role also. The speaker set up isues are probably fairly straight forward; however, the room issues can be quite tricky. Rooms are seldom just an empty rectangle (with predicatable modes) with uniform & easily understood absorption coefficients. It's tricky business and requires a bit of experimentation. I am glad it worked out for you. Enjoy & good luck, -Tom

Re: Fuse on the speaker It really is simple. Radio shack has in-line fuses. Get the 20mm kind and solder it on to one side of your speaker cable. The fuse need not be large, for the impedance and efficiency of a klipsch heritage model, the size would be between about 1 to 2 amp. Be sure to use fast acting fuses (not SLO-BLO). It is good protection. Good Luck, -Tom

I was one of the folks that built a "half false corner" (there are links showing the construction details). First, it worked out pretty well, even without a triangualr bottom/base. Second, you will discover that the half false corner will weigh close to 100 lbs. So do not worry about vibration. Gravity will hold it down and I showed a trick with a toggle bolt to keep it snug to the cabinet. Don't worry it will work out fine, Good Luck, -Tom

Please do not interpret the Fletcher Munson curves as indicating that you need to play your music at 100 dB so that it will sound flat accross the bandwidth. -Tom

With a 2 year old in the house, you should consider putting a fuse on the speaker line. No, won't degrade the sound, but it will save your speaker. Good luck, -Tom

Cool Project!!! I am not familiar with that veneer, but it is certainly good looking. The K-33s are about $125 each from Klipsch, which really is not a bad price. Regarding the pocket screws, don't worry about it. The major strength of the joint comes from the glue. The screws/nails hold it place & tight while the glue dries. Good luck on your project. You should be braging - it looks fantastic! -Tom

Gee, I am just looking at my Heresy right now. The bug may have just bitten me too (as soon as I finish installing my kitchen cabinets etc). It sounds like you are going to veneer the front face. My question is how are you going to cut the material since the front is slightly recessed? Are you going to let the grill cloth hide any gaps or is it possible to get the material in tight and then slice it with a blade? I am curious about the technique. Anyway it looks they are coming along nicely. With some finish on them they will be fantastic! Good Luck, -Tom

Why change the cable? It seems adequate. If you are intersted in experimenting, then I would spend the time and effort on tweaking 1) speaker placement and 2) room treatment. These will produce actual changes in the sound. The trick is to determine if the changes are improvements. Good Luck, -Tom

Those graphs from stereophile are very suspect! They mention that one of the recordings was from analog tape and the other from DAT. Neither of those will have information at 30kHz (it was difficult to read the graph). The Nyquist rate from the DAT is lower than 30KHz and the analog tape (?) would insufficient bandwidth. I will not even bring up the issue of whether the microphones would have sufficient bandwidth. There might be energy at 30kHz indicated on the graph (how many dB down?) but I suspect this is from noise somewhere in the chain. The bandwidth of the DAT, micrpohones, & analog tpae will simply not support that sort of bandwidth. But this is all a red herring, since we do not have much, if any, hearing at those high frequencies. Unfortunately, we live live in an industrialized society with lots of noise sources. I suspect we have all suffered some (or considerable) high frequency loss. -Tom