Malcolm

Don't know about the new Heresy. Older Heritage models were not shielded. However, the design of the magnet circuits in some of the Heresys with all alnico magnets results in a lot less stray magnetic field. I have a 27" TV sitting right on top of one on its side and have no problem.

No experience with HK refurbs. But I have bought other refurbed equipment in the past. I will pay up to about 2/3 the price of a new unit for a good refurb. Just be aware that refurbs typically have a shorter warranty than new units. But it should not be a big deal. Modern electronics typically have a bathtub shaped failure curve, relatively high rates of infant mortality, very low failure rates for most of the rest of their useful life, and then increasing failure rates toward the end. Note that refurb does not mean there was every anything wrong with the unit. Could be perfectly functional returns that could no longer be sold as new or even new, unopened stock returned by the retailer. Whatever they are, manufacturers' refurbs typically go through a more rigorous test than new units.

Wow, Ted has put on some weight lately!

There is nothing special about the capacitors used in the Type E crossover network. They were motor capacitors. Klipsch used whatever brand was available. So if you just want to restore your crossovers with vintage parts, any 2 uF motor cap of the same vintage will do. If you want the same look with a more modern capacitor, you might try a polypropylene in oil cap. And of course, there are "audiophile", paper in oil capacitors. The whole capacitor subject has been covered in detail in the past. An aftermarket autotransformer is also available. Check the archives.

Well, traditional paper speaker cones were ultimately made from some kind of wood pulp, if you want to look at it this way. But these JVC cones are different. They are pressed from a slice of wood. And they use sake in the process.

Wood speaker cones Made with sake...

Best to buy a Heresy with the original Klipsch labelled (K-22, K-22-E, etc.) woofer or plan on replacing the woofer with an appropriate one. Otherwise you are playing speaker engineer. EV built many different woofers for different applications. A replacement would need to match, at the very least in sensitivity and nominal impedance, and have similar or better power handling capability. AFAIK the only EV woofers used in Heresys were the SP12Bs (K-22) used in the 60s. They are 16 ohm units and require a Type C crossover network. I would not be put off by an EV branded SP12B as a replacement for one of these. But that is the only replacement that would get an automatic OK for me. Just remember that not all woofers that look like SP12Bs are SP12Bs. Thiele/Small paramenters are a nice starting point for speaker design. But that is all. It is all theory based on measuring certain electrical and physical parameters and extrapolating performance. Performance does not always track the model as well as one would like. Some parameters aren't nearly as important as one would think at first grlance. And there are important factors that Thiele/Small parameters do not address at all. Speaker design still requires building prototypes, measuring actual performance, and tweaking. The sealed design of the Heresy is amazingly forgiving. The Thiele/Small parameters of the various woofers used over the years in the Heresy are all over the place. Yet, they all sound remarkably alike. The main difference is that the later woofers can play louder at low frequencies before reaching their thermal and mechanical limits. This is a function of power handling capability and maximum cone excursion (Xmax). The Heresy was designed well before Thiele and Small published their work. Don't know whether their work influenced later Heresy woofers or not.

Electro-Voice (EV) is one of many manufacturers that supplied Klipsch with components for the Heriatage series. There were many other, including: Stephens, CTS, Eminence, Atlas, University, Heppner, Rola, etc. EV built woofers (12WK and 15WK, where K is for Klipsch) to Klipsch specs in the 1950s. They were available to the public. The 15WK was used in the Klipschorn along with woofers from other manufacturers. IIRC the 12WK was available in the 12" Shorthorn. 1960s Heresys had an EV SP12B woofer or variant in them. The K-77 and K-77-M tweeter used in the Heritage line from the 60s on was an EV T35A, the former having an alnico magnet and later a ferrite magnet. After EV ceased production, to make a long story short, Klipsch picked up the rights and continued manufacturing them. EV built a squawker driver for Klipsch, the K-55-M, with an EV part number of 1831-xxxx that AFAIK was never available to the public. It had a ceramic magnet and replaced the K-55-V from Atlas that had an alnico magnet. One could say that all the woofers, tweeters, and squawker drivers used in the Heritage line were of similar quality because PWK chose to use them in his products. Klipsch used components from most of the decent American speaker manufacturers over the years. There is nothing inherently special about alnico magnets in speakers except their cost. Alnico was the material that made permanent magnet speakers viable. By the early 1970s, the cost of alnico had soared to a point where its use was uneconomical because of several factors. Ferrite magnets pretty much replaced alnico. Now we have even better magnetic materials, but ferrite still pretty much is the standard. A good engineer can make a speaker with a ferrite magnet sound just like one with an alnico magnet.

I don't listen to FM much anymore, so all I currently have is an old BIC Beam Box which is essentially an indoor electronically directable dipole with passive circuits to tune the antenna to the frequency of the desired station and to reject other stations. When I was listening to FM a lot, I had an antenna about 6' long with a decent front to back ratio and about twice the gain of what you suggest, mounted on a mast on the roof. I was more concerned about multipath than gain, though. If I had an outdoor antenna now, it would probably be on a rotor. What you need depends on a lot of things including how far you are from the transmitters, the direction the transmitters are from you, and what sources of multipath you have.

Well, antenna gain is usually expressed as so many dB above a dipole, so you are looking at 4 dB better gain. That assumes your current dipole is not amplified. Better to place the antenna outdoors instead of in. You will generally get a stronger signal with less multipath.

The 67-xxxxxxxx on the label looks like an EIA date code with 4 additional digits. If so, 67 is Eminence.

1957 Klipsch literature says that Shorthorn comes with K-Ortho drive system and that the K-Orthos drive system has a Stephens or Electro-Voice woofer and a University 4401 tweeter, which doesn't match what is in these pictures. But things frequently changed at Klipsch. And the Shorthorn cabinet was available without drivers. Ofcourse, the signature next to "Tested" on the label probably rules that out in this case. Anybody know when Klipsch change from the University tweeter to the Electro-Voice tweeter?

May I, too, suggest that in the future you back up cricitcal files? You can back up to tape, removable disk, another fixed disk drive on the same machine, a server, etc. There is software that can automate the process if you wish. But any approach will take some human attention from time to time.

And the best of that never made it on the air, not even in a bloopers program. You should see some of the sponsors reels.

Sounds good to me.

There are other measurable differences between capacitors than those mentioned. For one thing, some types have a more nearly linear capacitive reactance curve than others. Don't know whether the differences between the types commonly used in crossovers are enough to hear, though. Also, the tin paste claim about metallized polypropylene caps doesn't seem to apply to all of them. The ends of Solen Fast Caps (which I have in my crossovers) are thermal arc metal sprayed with zinc, and then the leads are welded to them.

The squawker horn has a higher cutoff frequency. So more of the midrange is reproduced by the woofer in the Heresy. There are crossover differences. For one thing, the Heresy crossover network has to significantly attenuate the signal to the squawker and tweeter because they are much more sensitive than the woofer. There are other differences that the Klipschorn experts can tell you about. But the net effect IMHO is that the Heresy sounds very much like a Klipschorn except for the missing octave or so at the bottom. And a good subwoofer will make up for that. That is the route I have taken.

Just be aware that the last few years of Heresy production used a plastic squawker horn that is indistinguishable from that of the Heresy II if you are going to used squawker horns as an indication. IMHO the simplest thing is just to look at the back, assuming you know they are Heresys or Heresy IIs to start with.

Seeing that you have done the research to find out what aspect ratios are, I am surprised you don't know why they exist. This whole subject was discussed not long ago. Search the archives if you want the full discussion. But, basically, the boom in aspect ratios started in the 50s when the studios were facing competition from TV. They were looking for a way to draw customers back to the theaters. Most movies released today are 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. Movies may be released in multiple aspect ratios to meet the needs of theaters with different equipment and screens. The 16:9 ratio didn't come out of the motion picture community. It was a compromise arrived at by ATSC for HDTV. Things produced primarily for widescreen HDTV are actually 16:9.

I am not aware of any performance difference between the two. You will need a calibration chart with either one. You can find them on the internet. I find the analog version a lot easier to use for home audio work. You can see the swing in level when running a sweep. With the digital one, you just get samples every so often. You are never quite sure what it correlates to or what was in between. Its kind of like the difference between a car with an analog speedometer and a digital one.

Rubberized undercoating would probably work great, but you'll have to leave the horns outside for about a year for all the volatile components to gas off so they won't stink up your house. I know. I used some of the stuff to seal the woofer box of a subwoofer I built. I wasn't in a hurry and planned for some delay waiting for the volatiles to evaporate. Took a lot longer than expected even with the box stored outside in 100 plus degree weather. You cannot smell any of it now that the box is in the house. But even now, if I pull the woofer, I can still smell the undercoating without getting close to the box.

Well, that difference in temperature would certainly make it difficult to store unpressurized...

You can also cut a piece of the same species veneer with similar grain to fit, glue, fill any small gaps, sand and refinish. Might be a better approach than just using some kind of filler. The filler won't have a matching grain unless you paint it on. There are also lacquer sticks in various shades, that can be blended if necessary. They will match the color, but still no grain. Should be available at your local hardware or home improvement store. If you want to replace the whole strip, just get the same species with similar grain. Remove the old one (heat should help). Glue down the new one. Trim. Stain to match and finish. All of the approaches mention in this thread are fairly simple, but do take some practice to get right. How about just taking it to a local cabinet shop and having them do it?

No, no, no! A belt sander is not a good idea unless you are exceptionally good with it. It is the easiest way to ruin the cabinets. At the very least you are likely to wind up with a wavy finish and rounded corners. The veneer job is only as good as the substrate. There is no need to remove all the veneer. Just remove loose veneer. Fill cracks, splits, etc. with wood putty, bondo, glue and sawdust or whatever your favorite filler is. Sand gently and carefully with a finish sander or by hand so you don't get waves or rounded corners. Then veneer. And I would recommend practicing that before you do it if you haven't done it before. FWIW IMHO it is easier and faster to build new cabinets for Heresys than to prep the old ones and reveneer.

A 70 V line used to be used frequently for PA and commercial applications. Amp put out 70 V. You attached a bunch of speakers via transformers with different taps so you could set the level. Looking at the pictures in the listing, I don't see anything special about them. The crossover network looks normal, although I cannot see a lot of detail. My guess is that either these came out of some place with a 70V system and the transformers didn't come along, or the seller thinks it is wired for a 70 V system because of the autotransformer on the crossover network. My guess is that these will be plug and play. In any case, when you get them and get us some better pictures, someone here will be able to help you get the wiring straightened out if necessary. Looks like you got yourself a nice pair of 1976 vintage Heresys.