muel

Your horns are on the way!

That makes it a little harder. When you call Klipsch ask to talk to Steve Phillips. He is very helpful and knowledgeble about Heritage. Klipsch Tech Support 1-800-554-7724 I had the round cups to deal with as well. Here is a link to my HII to HIII project. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/148682.aspx

PM Sent. Is your terminal cup round like the hole on the right or rectangular like the HIII crossover and terminal cup on the left?

Hey, I should add that if you are going to be calling Klipsch you should ask them the current price on "H III Upgrade Kit (1006972)." 2 of these and you will have Heresy IIIs! If you have the rectangular crossover cup in your HIIs this is not a hard swap. ...just something to think about.

No, sure don't. I did verify that the pair of horns I have are K-701s and I found the new gaskets (horn to motorboard) as well.

I have 2 never used midrange horns for the II to III upgrade (Klipsch part #130005). These bolt onto the K-52-TI midrange driver of the Heresy III. I might have the gaskets as well. IF these will work with your drivers you are welcome to them both for $20 plus shipping. Just shoot me a PM.

Sure they are collectible! You will find many of us here (albeit some collections are smaller than others). Valuable? They are to me. As far as my time and money... 20 bucks of plywood and a couple cuts on the table saw isn't a big deal. A stiffer back might help as well. As far as cutting into a 40 year old speaker cabinet I am not going to go into that lightly. If it is a beater in tough shape that is one thing but most of my equipment is in very nice condition and I consider myself to be a caretaker of speakers that I hope out live me. I will be receiving my Fastracs from Gothover soon and they will reside on top of the Corns for now. Later, I might rebuild some some cornwall wreck or build from scratch. The 67's will go back to their original configuration. Funny thing about restoring or building this kind of stuff... my labor is just for fun because I never see a dime for it.

Whatever you decide to try there is no substitute for experimenting A LOT on pieces of scrap until you see what you like. My last project started and ended with Watco Danish oil. I tried a few different tints and started mixing and tried coat after coat until I had exactly what I wanted. The oil is forgiving too! Cost me over $30 in the different tints of Watco and stains. As far as final finish, I spent so much time with urethane on my floors and countless coats of varnish on a cedar strip canoe that I just can't be interested in going that route. Groomlake has some nice stain suggestions for Walnut in his Cornwall Saga rebuild post. I tried this but came out a little too dark on my walnut veneer. I settled on somewhere around a 2:1 to a 1.5:1 mix of Cherry and Natural Watco Danish oil for the first coat. I followed this with multiple coats of Natural along with some wet sanding and I was very happy with the result. It is not a shiny finish but looks quite nice. Good luck! Looks good so far. [Y] EDIT: Oh yeah... the Danish oil brought the grain out a little more and was a little less uniform than stain. It has a certain irridiscent quality as well.

Thanks for the input! I think I'll go ahead and make new backs and try to protect the original ones. Now, for the backs I can go with some 3/4" but in a couple of weeks I will have access to a vacuum veneer press. A fellow has offered to help me make some 1 inch panels out of 2 layers of 1/2" birch plywood. I'm thinking this would be really strong and rigid... especially if we used epoxy between those sheets. I don't know how much time his press would be available but it has me thinking about getting a cut sheet ready for any other project (Cornscala) I might be thinking about! The current backs appear to be lumber core plywood. I kind of doubt if today's lumber core is as good as in 1967. I know Baltic Birch is highly thought of but looking for other good options. Free access to the vacuum press makes the 2 layers of 1/2' interesting! Your opinions are welcome... wha da ya think?

Sorry... little late but I wanted to throw in the idea of Audio Tools by Studio Six for anyone who has an iPhone or iPad. For 20 bucks it turns your iphone into a SPL meter that seems to work at least as well as the Radio Shack model. It has a lot more features with the basic version and lots of add ons. I just got this not long ago so I haven't used it much and I have barely begun to learn HOW to use all that it can do.

Thanks... those binding posts look good! Do you think those would adversely affect the value installed in the original backs? Worst case I could remove them and use wood filler in the holes. Am I worrying a little too much about this?

I've got some upgrade plans for my old Cornwalls (beautiful dark oiled walnut) but I don't want to do anything to degrade or devalue them. I've been wanting to try new mid horns but I'm NOT cutting into these cabinets! I'll be setting the mid horn and tweeter on top (I'm building a motor board or box for them) and will need connections through the back to the ALK crossovers installed inside. I'm thinking I will eventually build some Cornscalas and return these to the original drivers and horns. Any ideas for a tasteful terminal strip, barrier block, or other connector that I could use that I could remove (or not) and it wouldn't screw up the original look of these speakers? I thought about building new backs but I'm concerned that the original backs could get lost or damaged over time. I know in the update and modification area there might not be as much concern for originality but my main concern is to be able to return to that point.

nope! But I'll give them some time to recognize the error of their ways. I'd be upset if I had anything for sale right now.

Oh man! My sides hurt! There are quite few... I'm gonna have to stop for a while!

+1 [Y] It's funny how good you think they sound but then you replace the caps and hear how much better they CAN sound.

Are you kidding?! You are lucky to be that far away from one.

+1 Whatever you call it... that's where I'll be.

Lots of possibilities for sure. Don't forget some of the simple things to try or check. When you mentioned the word "Hollow" it made me think of a recent experience where I had moved some equipment around and that is the word I would have used to describe what I was hearing (or not hearing). Since it was on both channels I didn't suspect a bad tube but found replacing the 2 meter Monster RCA cable with a 3 footer from Blue Jeans cables took care of it. I was running from a passive preamp so I suspect the cable was a bit too long and the signal was affected. The room has an incredible influence on the sound! I have a square room in the house where I can barely listen to anything... it just sounds horrible no matter what I put in there. I was not even going to ask the wife about putting acoustic panels in there but I read somewhere about some paintable foam panels that might blend in nicely. good luck!

The HRT is really amazing! I kept the Streamer II+ and sold the V-dac and Dacmagic (both arguably good!) My favorite DACs are still tube DACs, however. The Grant Fidelity and Havana were good enough that I stopped looking. For me, it seemed I found the best synergy with the HRT Streamer II+ and the Yamaha CR2020 and CA2010. DACs don't help us if we have any SACD. Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I don't think HDCD will either. I can't create FLAC files from the SACD and am limited to the standard version from my hybrid SACDs. I was never able to use any DAC as an external DAC for my CD player when listening to SACDs. Can't quite get rid of the CD player but it is close.

Excellent idea! Is the plywood attached to the cabinet or is it held in place by the cables? I'm wondering how hard it is to move or get to the cables. (Great job on the speakers by the way!)

Thank you for sharing the pics! A lot of nice looking Klipsch for sure! I want to save a link to this thread to show my wife if she ever says I have too much stuff. So far, she just asks, "Now, what is that for?"

I'm hoping someone more technical than me will chime in but I can share my experience. I have tried all configurations at one time or other. It came down to experimentation with what sounded the best. This is really tough moving these around on top of 8 foot cabinets! They sound much better down on the floor! SInce I was limited by the room layout I found that I would put the tweeter/squawker on the outside if I was forced to have the speakers close together (4 feet apart in my case right now) and on the tweeters on the inside when I had the speakers further apart. I never got to try them in corners toed in as described by PWK's "Dope from hope." Experimenting with toe in and distance from the wall seemed to have more effect. At this point, I have not been able to get to a point where I am completely satisfied with the soundstage. Hopefully, someone will give some advice that will give you a head start on any experimentation.

I have the Oppo DV980 and the Grant Fidelity DAC-09. This DAC is a big value for the money IMHO and I prefer it to the DAC in the Oppo. The tube that came with the DAC was not bad but I replaced it with a JW Western Electric 396a and I am quite happy. I think a tube DAC will help with the MP3 files but it might only be barely tolerable. I used to think my lower bitrate MP3 files were fine until I got heritage Klipsch and finally heard the music. Good luck!

Even Cornwalls can use the help of a sub sometimes []

...anybody else hungry? [pi]