Malcolm

K-23 was used in the Forte.

I bet you can find the answers to all your questions about electronics from India here...

It is gonna take a while. There are a billion or so folks in Indian willing to work cheap. When their standard of living rises, these is all of Africa if the population doesn't disappear because of AIDS. And there are plenty of other places in Latin America and the ex-USSR.

Just give it some time. Chinese manufacturers are beginning to move off shore to places like India because Chinese labor is becoming too expensive relative to less developed countries. Go figure!

Hey, that's $6 more in my pocket to blow on something else... ...like the real silver solder that melts at over 1000 degress F that I am using for non-electronic projects...

Audio is AC. There is no positive or negative wire. Just be consistent. If you connect the the right terminal on one speaker to the red jack on the amp, do the same thing with the other one so the two speakers are in phase.

Don't count on it. The closest Cat equivalent to HDMI cable is Cat 7, with shielded Cat 6 the runner-up. The pairs are shielded. This is necessary to reduce cross talk between the pairs, which is an important aspect affecting the performance of the cables for HDMI.

FWIW there is nothing wrong with having a litle silver in your solder other than its effect on your wallet considering it is going for over $18 an ounce currently. The manufacturer puts it there to modify one or more metallurgical properties of the solder. One reason Kester cites is to prevent migration of silver from silver or silver plated leads into the solder resulting in weak or brittle connections. Silver is also used where the joint has to withstand higher operating temperatures and where a stronger joint is required.

Pretty! Looks like Santos Rosewood. Are you going to stain them before finishing? Properly stained, they will look much like Brazilian Rosewood if you decide to go that way.

Old fashioned 60/40 tin/lead solder works just fine if you know how to solder. 63/37 is even easier to get good results with because it is eutectic. The lead free solder should be fine, too, although equipment manufacturers have had problems during the switch over. The silver or copper added in some electronic solder won't make a difference in what you hear. If you hear a difference in a well made joint it is in your head. FWIW it is a misnomer to refer to any of the solders we use in electronics as silver solder. Some have a small percentage of silver. But true silver solder is not practical for most electronic work. It melts at much higher temperatures than we need for electronics.

Veneer is best cut with a veneer saw and a straightedge. Pieces that are to butt together need to be jointed. You can do that by clamping them between two straight pieces of wood and using a plane on the edge. You have to be careful about the direction of the grain to avoid rip out. The same thing can be accomplished on a router table. Once the pieces are jointed, they should taped together and the edges glued so you have a single sheet. Then you can apply it to the cabinet.

The 16 ohm value is a nominal value. It just gives an idea of what the typical impedance is. The impedance actually varies by frequency. The woofer, squawker and tweeter each have their own nominal impedance and impedance curve.

There is a K-22-R manufactured by Rola, which is different than a K-22 with the big red R indicating replacement.

Well, at least you started with the bottom. That was smart. Probably would have been better to try a piece of scrap plywood though if you have not done this before. Iron-on method and unbacked veneer can sometimes be problematic. Sounds like the veneer had way too much moisture in it. The moisture made it swell. And the heat from the iron made it shrink and crack, after the glue had set up. The veneer will take much longer to loose the moisture than the glue will take to set up. And the glue probably wasn't thoroughly dry after an hour either. You can size the veneer with shellac to seal it before applying the glue. Other than that I think about all you can do is to make sure you use only a thin coat of glue on the veneer, give the veneer plenty of time to dry out in a low humidity environment before applying it, and use the absolute minimum heat necessary.

Just so you understand, there are lead free solders for electronics that contain 3-4% silver. These are not silver solder. There are other silver containing solders meant for other purposes that contain larger percentages of silver and melt at higher temperatures. The kind of silver solder used by jewelers is really used for brazing with temperatures well over 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Be sure you use a flux-core solder, not an acid-core solder. The latter is for plumbing and will damage electronic components.

Best solder would be 63/37 tin/lead because it goes from liquid to solid with little to no mushiness in between. It will make life easier for you if you don't have much experience soldering. It melts and solidifies at the same temperature, 361 degrees Fahrenheit. If that is not available, just use 60/40. True silver solder has a much higher melting point.

Picky, picky...True of all caps. Some fail, some don't. But then nothing is truly permanent. Because "audiophiles" wanted them? Are the expensive cutom made oil caps used in any line except the Heritage line? I'll stand by my statement about the paper and oil caps used in the Heresys. PWK does not seem to have been concerned about anything except a rough approximation of the required capacitance (20% tolerance) from what I have seen in the Heresys I have owned and seen. He used whatever was available. I have several pairs of Heresys, and have owned others, and every pair has is different (different manufacturers, different working voltages, etc.) When he did make a change, it was to the film caps like in the OPs Heresys. So, they must have been considered an improvement, no? Now, could the custom oil caps used in the Heritage line today be an improvement over the the old paper in oil caps that were used in the Heresys, possibly. BTW are the expensive custom made oil caps paper in oil or film in oil? I was wondering about that. And why do folks like ALK and BEC not use oil caps?

Not sure if the 2 mFs are mylar, but they are metallized film of some sort. They aren't likely to go bad. And IMHO they are likely better than the paper in oil caps that were used in earlier Heresys. You can replace them with you favorite "audiophile" caps if you want, or just a decent metalized polypropylene. The other is an electrolytic capacitor, which is guaranteed to go bad sooner or later. It was used because an electrolytic is cheap, gives relatively large capacitcance in a given space compare to other types of capacitors, and the technical requirements for what it is doing aren't very demanding. You can wait until it starts to go bad and replace it with another very cheaply, or you can replace it now or later with a better quality part like a metallized polpropylene capacitor which will be much larger and more expensive. Technically it will be much better, but I doubt the difference will be audible unless the electrolytic is going bad.

You don't need anything special. Doesn't even have to be a coaxial cable. The most important thing is going to be the shield. 95% copper braid would be good.

I believe HMEL means Heresy, Macassar Ebony, Lacquer. Picture looks like it. That is a very rare veneer, probably rarer than Brazilian Rosewood. I believe HFBL means Heresy , Fir Black, Lacquer. CDL means "California Driver's License". What follows is a previous owner's driver's license number. Serial numbers indicate they are all from 1984. You have a nice timbre matched set of Heresys. If you add another for a HT system, make sure it is from the same time frame. Yours have the K-53-K squawker in common with the Heresy II that followed. Most of the earlier Heresys had the K-55-V. They sound a little different. If you are going to refinish the Macassar Ebony ones, unless you know how to do it right yourself, take them to a good cabinet shop. A 2' x 8' sheet of Macassar Ebony veneer goes for around $500 at McBeath's in Berkeley.

The K22Rs I have seen were Rolas, confirmed by an EIA code starting with 285 stamped on basket and dating from late seventies IIRC. I don't think they were replacements. I have, however, seen replacement woofers stamped with a big red R.

I think it is an OEM version of the SP8B, which was one of the best 8" speakers ever made IMHO.

M8 nuts and bolts typically are typically 13mm across the flats. The 8 is the body diameter of the bolt, not the distance across the flats. M10 are typically 16mm or 17mm across the flats. FWIW the easiest way to find out what you have is take it to a hardware store and see what fits. There are different thread pitches (distance between threads).

Don't use steel wool on wood that will be finished. You will embed tiny particles of steel in the wood, which will rust over time. Use bronze wool.

I put grills on Decorator Heresys, no more than a frame with grill cloth on it, secured with brads. You could use velcro. Looked just fine. FWIW Decorator Heresys were intended to be customized.