Malcolm

Oh, God! Don't remind me about grinding mirrors!

Three or four more LaScalas and the sub of your choice would make a killer system if you have room for them. Heresys for the center and rear might be more practical. Any Heritage series speaker with the same tweeter and squawker would will give a good timbre match. Other center choices in order of timbre match would be Academy, KV-4 and KLF-C7. If you want dipoles or bipoles for the rear, there isn't an exact match. But some people have reported success with the ones for other Klisch series. Sub choice is real personal. Check out the subwoofer forum here.

Congratulations t-man! She's cutie! Just remember the "for better" part whenever things seem to be going not so smoothly. It really is for the better!

Hmmm... Piano black means to me at high gloss black lacquer finish. Assuming that your speakers have a real wood veneer and not vinyl or something else, its pretty simple to do with some patience by sanding down the current finish, applying several coats of black lacquer, sanding between coats, and then wet sanding the last coat with very fine paper (600 grit or finer) to get the gloss. Its a labor intensive, but very forgiving process. Screw up, just sand out the mistake. A simpler way may be to just veneer with black plastic laminate like Wilsonart makes. You'll need a router with a trim bit to do this. An alternative might be to use gloss black polyurethane.

I built a WO32. I drive it with a Marantz MA700. Works real well with my Heresys. If you decide to build one, and I can be of any help, let me know.

BigBusa, May you live in interesting times!

Thanks for the explanation, Al. Now I just need to convince myself to part with the money for five of your crossovers...

Sounds like you ought to start going to estate sales...

Heresys are certainly a viable choice for center and rear to go with your Cornwalls. Timber match will be about as good as you can get short of another Cornwall. Alternative centers in order of timbre match are Academy, KV-4 and KLF-C7. They are close, but not perfect. IMHO anything else is not a good match. If you choose Heresys, just about any except the last few years production (around 1984 when they put in the K-53-K squawker) should provide a good timbre match. They all have K-55-V squawker and K-77 or K-77-M tweeter tike Cornwall. You might want to get the exact match on the tweeter. The K-77-M was used in later models and is supposed to have 2 to 3 dB better response above about 12 kHz. But I cannot tell the difference listening to them. Only timbre difference you may hear will probably be due to the difference in crossover to the woofer, 600 Hz for Cornwall, 700 Hz for Heresy. Cornwall is a bit more efficient than Heresy, but that can be dealt with in the HT receiver/amp setup. Cornwall has a bit better low end response, of course. If you use a Heresy for the center, using one with a woofer with an alnico magnet, 1974 or so and earlier, may help you avoid interference with your TV. The magnet circuits used in the woofers with alnico magnets resulted in less stray magnetic field than woofers with ceramic magnets.

Mike, I'd at least replace the electrolytics. They are the things I have had the most problems with in all kinds of electronic gear. They were used because they were cheap and good enough for the purpose as far as the engineer was concerned. But, electrolytics corrode internally and go bad over time. If you replace inductors, watch the DC resistance. Larger wire than used in the orignal inductor will be required to yield the same value. Al, Not to discount film caps... I was wondering if you ever actually tried matching 20% caps? From what I have seen, 20% parts almost always measure a lot closer to the nominal value than plus or minus 20%, and parts from a single manufacturing run don't vary anywhere near that from each other. And, at least some manufacturers are even very consistent from run to run. Its the match between pairs, not the deviation from the nominal value, that is most important to you, isn't it? I would think it wouln't be significantly more difficult to match 20% parts from the same batch than 5% parts.

I think OFC speaker cables are just more marketing hype. The main difference with OFC isn't so much the removal of oxygen as the removal of other impurities like iron. Its 99.5+ % pure copper. Net result is about a 1% reduction in resistance over normal speaker wire of the same gauge, hardly significant.

137 on the woofers is the EIA code for CTS. Time to start thinking about tweaks, after listening for a while. Enjoy!

Rob brings up a good point that you don't hear very often. You don't have to have a center channel for HT. The reason theaters have center channels is because the distance from left to right front is so far they had to do something to fill in the center so that dialog would seem to come from the center of the screen. In a HT, unless it is a big one, you may very well be able to get away without a center by using phantom mode as long as your left and right front channels are matched and you set the balance right.

Nope, what looks like two connections on each side of the barrier strip is just one. The threaded parts sticking up are the ends of the screws that hold the barrier strip to the back and connect to the wires going to the crossover. Not sure, but I think the reason they stick up is so the factory could use them as quick connects when testing the speaker.

George, Glad to hear that you can be pretty sure that at least one of them is original. You've got the right idea, enjoy your Cornwalls! If they sound the same, I wouldn't worry. Anyone, Sounds to me like 1974, or maybe 1973, was the year they switched from alnico to ceramic magnets on the Cornwall woofers. Can anyone verify this? I remember looking at a bud's Cornwalls when he got them, which I am pretty sure was in 1974, and the woofers had alnico magnets. But that was a long time ago. Capt, I think you are seeing the natural life cycle of paper cones. Sunlight can fade and damage paper speaker cones. Moisture, too. Just because your speakers spent their lives inside doesn't mean they are not affected. It just takes longer depending on their environment. I've seen NOS speakers from the fifties that looked brand new. And I've much newer speakers than yours look like what you described. I wouldn't worry about the dust cap as long as it is intact. But its easy to replace if you want to. Of course, the big problem is that the cones can become very brittle. I don't think there is a good fix for that short of reconing. You could coat it with something to extend its life. Some people like to use lacquer. But it can change the sound by changing the mass and stiffness of the cone. And, I doubt it would help resale value. I would suggest that as long as you speakers sound good to you, just go ahead and enjoy. And plan on a recone someday. A good recone isn't all that expensive and will restore you speaker to its original sound.

Center channel timbre match with the left and right fronts is paramount. And, if timbre match is what you are after, you cannot beat another Heresy of the same vintage. If it has a woofer with an alnico magnet, it may affect your TV less than a modern center channel with shielded ceramic magnets. I am using a Decware WO32 subwoofer with 5 Heresys and it blends in pretty seamlessly, at least for me. A lot of folks use other non-Klipsch subs. Klipsch just hasn't been the big name in subs, so far.

Mike, Not to deter you from going the tube route, but if you don't need a phono input and never use the tone controls, why not use a passive preamp? The name is somewhat of an oxymoron. They don't amplify anything. You might want to check out the one offered by Marchand: http://www.marchandelec.com/pr41.htm As far as inexpensive, used tube preamps, you might consider the Eico HF-85 and Dynaco PAS-3 preamps from the 70s. Or maybe even a Mcintosh C26 for a bit more. They aren't state of the art, but might be a reasonable way to get your feet wet without spending a bundle.

Never had to send one out for that, but since you are in the Bay Area, you might try A Brown Soun in San Rafael: www.abrown.com They do speaker repair for some big names. Sounds like your woofers do not have Klipsch labels on the back?

Whoops, hit enter before answering your main question... There are a number of popular tweaks for the Heresys. You can find them in the archives. The biggest bang for the buck seems to be damping the squawker and tweeter horns and replacing the capacitors in the crossover network with your favorite audiophile grade capacitors.

Yep, from the description and serial number, you have 1980 Heresys. The only problem is that Heresys did not have Motorola tweeters. Replacing them with the proper Klipsch K-77 or K-77-M (Electrovice T35A) could cost from about $100 to over $200. I suggest you undo your friends's "tuning." Heresys of this vintage show up on eBay frequently. Depending on condition, finish, and competition, they might go for anywhere from about $300 to over $500. You might be able to find some at a local garage scale for considerably less. Just about any of the Heresys built up through 1980 would be a good sonic match once you replace the tweeters in the ones you have. Heresys make good HT speakers. I use 5 matched Heresys with a powered subwoofer just for that purpose.

They are all plywood. The face veneer is somewhere in the range of .020"-.040" thick. Very easy to sand through. How you can deal with the rings depends on the finish. Heresys were produced with oil, lacquer and painted finishes, as well as raw. A lot of the raw ones were finished by their owners in just about every conceivable finish. So, first thing is to identify the finish. Then, you might want to look at: http://www.stainfree.com/stainfree/base.cfm?Page=furniture%20%28wood%29#rings If you try Chris's suggestion, I suggest you use bronze wool and not steel. Some of the wool will embed in the wood. Bronze is pretty much inert. Steel will rust over time, possibly affecting the finish. Actual refinishing of an oiled finish on veneer is problematic. The finish polymerizes and pretty much becomes one with the veener. You cannot just strip it off like most other finishes. You have to sand down to a sound substrate before applying the new finish. You risk sanding through the veneer. Sometimes its better to let things be. Lacquer and most other finishes can just be stripped off chemically. If you are really industrious, you could always reveneer the speakers. Not too difficult to do on Heresys and could actually increase their resale value. The serial number tells the story about when your speakers were made. Its on the label on the back of the speaker as shipped. If the label is gone, it should be stamped into the back edge of one of the panels on 70s speakers. How to decode the serial number has been posted recently. Just search the archives on "serial number" or "date" or something similar. Heresys benefit from the risers exactly the same as the Heresy IIs. IMHO they don't do much. Better to get them farther off the floor.

I recommend the Telarc recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture CD-80041. This is the one with the warning on the label. Full orchestra, brass band, real bells and real 19th century cannons. Very quiet passages and very loud passages. Initial cannon crack in the 2000-3000 Hz range followed by boom going as low as 6 Hz. A real test of the entire system. Other Tchaikovsky: Night on Bald Mountain, The Firebird Suite. For choral, how about Vivaldi's Glorias, RV 588 and 589? Or Prokofiev's Alexandre Nevski, preferably the one with the Russian Army Men's Chorus. Also, any good recording of the last movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Yep, the TSU6000 with the color screen seems to be going for around $650-$700. I am thinking of something more like the monchrome TSU2000 which goes for less than half of that. Still a lot of money for a remote though. And its amazing what you can do with an X-10 PalmPad and a controller with a little intelligence. Thats why I haven't made the move yet. It doesn't have that sexy glowing screen with all the custom graphics. But so far it does what I need it to.

I use X-10 to control lights inside and outside. As far as controlling them, I just have a CM11A for now. Lights come on or go off at scheduled times, or when a motion detector is triggered. All the lights dim in the HT room with the push of a single button. Etc. I'll be going to a more sophisticated controller as soon as I have time. Pronto is on my list, too. I was thinking of Powermid to transmit signals from listening room to where equipment is housed. But I think I will just install a hardwired IR repeater for that. Getting X-10 to work reliably in my case required eliminating noise sources (mostly 35 year old sockets that needed replacing anyway) and installing a repeater to get the signal reliably from the circuits on one leg of the power to the circuits on the other leg.

Hmmm... Tubes doesn't necessarily mean high end. High end doesn't necessarily mean tubes. In addition to the resources already cited in this thread, you might want to check out: www.audioasylum.com Lots of opinions and sometimes even information...