M_Klipsches

Thank you for the recommendation. As my collection of vintage Carver stuff seems to be growing, it’s good to know there are options.

Thank you for this as well. It really looks like I’m likely going to have to find other options. Yes they are great amplifiers (insert Caveat here) I’m kicking myself for selling my other Cinema Grand. At least I know I’m not qualified to work on it. Well I did replace the meter bulb in my old one, but that’s about all I’m qualified to do.

Damn it Thank you. I’d not heard this at all. I am on the “wait list” but that doesn’t sound too promising. Well either way I hope he does ok, he sounds like a stand up guy.

It’s a multi-purpose system, mainly music which is 2.1, La Scalas, with a Table Tuba Subwoofer; Movies, TV & Gaming is 5.1.2 with the La Scalas, three Heresys, the TT Sub, and RB-61iis for presence/height speakers. Currently the Yamaha RXA-1070 is running the Heresys and RB61IIs. I honestly had no idea that Carver still existed.

That’s basically what I’m experiencing, it’s just not as full sounding. It reminds me of electrostatic speakers, which I’m told are great, but every pair I’ve ever heard was disappointing, to my ears anyway. They just lack presence, this amp strikes me the same way.I really don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with it. Although, it did take fairly solid hit during shipping, which made me wonder if it could be malfunctioning, but don’t think so. I guess the Sunfire, really has me spoiled. I suppose now I know why there is a wait list to have the damn things repaired.

In order to not reinvent a thread perhaps I’ll resurrect this one. I’ve recently acquired a Carver M-1.0t. It is pinch hitting for a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature, which has malfunctioned and is on Flannery’s repair wait list. Safe to say, that I like Carver stuff, at least most of what I’ve heard Does anyone else have an opinion on this amp powering La Scalas? Given it’s legendary status, I’m just not as impressed with it as I’d expected to be. It doesn’t seem to have the full, rich sound that I’ve had with the Sunfire. It seems a bit “thin”, if that’s a real thing. Don’t get me wrong it will get stupid loud with no effort. I don’t think I’ve seen it hit even 30 Watts, and that’s about when I start to run out of room. Plenty of amp & speaker left, but the room itself can’t handle the volume (13’x20’) I suppose it could be out of spec, but it’s dead quiet with no hums, pops, or clicks. I’ll also say that it may be sounding better after a few days, maybe I’m just getting used to it?

I can so relate to this post. My first pair of Heresys, had two coats of white under a coat of black. Mine were not decorators, but were H-BRs (Heresy-Birch Raw. I used an orbital sander on mine as well. Be very careful, as that veneer is really thin. I went a bit too far on the top of one of mine, it still bugs me. I wish I’d gone slower. Mine still work well and look decent. Yours will too. I’d not worry too much about replacing capacitors just yet, lots of folks will tell you yours are bad, I’ll bet they sound fine. Maybe consider matching up the woofers at some point.

Sorry, I wandered off. My amp is the 19” Signature 400 - Seven. I’ve had it about a year or so. I’m kind of all in with this unit,it wouldn’t make sense to spend nearly what I’ve got in this one for another unit. Might as well get this one refurbed. Obviously when buying vintage electronics, failure is a possibility, so I factored in potential repairs. Figuring on at least being able to have it refurbished if it failed. That being said, repair costs were a bit lower a year or so ago. But c’est La vie. I’m sure it’ll get sorted, if not I guess I’ll try find something new that I like as much, for something approaching a “reasonable” price. Which might not be easy. For now at least I’ve got adequate sound. I’ll update as things progress. I’ve yet to contact the folks at Atlantic, but there’s a chance I might be in the northeast in the not too distant future. That might make a $ difference, to eliminate at least half the shipping costs.

I was hoping for a simple capacitor. No chance? My electrical theory only runs so deep.

Thanks everyone for the good advice & recommendations. Either of those Cinema Grands mentioned earlier in the thread, should make someone a great Amp, I’m just already into this one about as far as is reasonable, buying another seems like adding layers of complication. I’ll just have this one repaired (hopefully it can be fixed). I really should’ve held onto the other one. Hindsight, eh? If anyone is looking for one, they should take a look at those, they really are excellent pieces of gear. Whether two channels to just the La Scalas or full on HT Surround.

It looks a bit closer to $1,000, but everything is pricier now. My concern is, given the changing economy, how much it might cost later this summer. Oh well, so it goes.

That’s a good recommendation, although they don’t list Sunfire as a brand they work on. But I’ll give them a call. Shipping to Massachusetts would be a bit cheaper than Washington, for me. Maybe even a nice drive to pick it up when it’s done.

My Cinema Grand amp is failing. It’s sending a pop/scrape sound, mostly to the Left Surround channel (but audible on all), even in standby mode. I know Flannery’s Vintage Audio is the go to on repairing these amps, but I’m a couple of months into a 4-5 month waiting list to even send it in. Then a few months after that to actually get it repaired. Does anyone have any suggestions for competent repair shops for these amps? I’ll probably wait, but it’s always good to have options. Thanks all.

Nice work. Those were in rough shape.

Those look very nice. I’ll track down the build thread.

I’ve ran a center Heresy on its side for ages, it sounds fine. It does tend to agitate the purists, dispersion & what-not, but to my aging ears it sounds about the same as vertical. That being said I have wondered if it would be possible build a Horizontal Heresy, oriented like the old horizontal Cornwalls.

I’ve seen a few but, it seems the norm was near the top. Maybe there wasn’t a spec location? My ‘80s are near the top, as are most of the others I’ve seen from around that time. Interesting, ya gotta love handmade things.

These are my second pair of H1s. I bought them to put together a 5.1 set up in my “Music Room” for movie & gaming duty. They are HBRs from 1983. One thing that has always struck me as odd about these, and many other ‘83 Heresys (maybe all?) is the location of the connection posts. You’ll notice they are near the bottom, on previous models they are located near the top. I’m sure there have been more than a few H1s who’ve simply had the back panel removed, and re-installed upside down, obviously the label indicates these & other ‘83s came this way. Possibly this was just Klipsch switching to the modern approach of attaching cables near the bottom? When I bought them the cabinets were in decent shape, with only a couple of veneer chips. A little veneer patchwork, a light cleaning with mineral spirits & 000 steel wool; then a few coats of tung oil varnish’s had them looking nice. The grill covers were (are) warped, cracked, & missing the original cloth and badges. I replaced the cloth with the cheap stuff from P. Exp. I still need to locate used. original grills, or make some, and use nicer cloth. From the first time I hooked them up I thought they sounded better than my 1980 H1s. More bass, just an all around smoother, balanced sound. As such, I never bothered opening them up. After a couple of years I finally decided to open them up, to clean and tighten the connections, and install gasket material around the rear panel. That’s when I saw the squawker & woofer were different than my other H1s. the print on the drivers is faint and at first I thought they’d been replaced with aftermarket parts. Then I saw the E2 network and realized these were the H1.5s, and they really are different. I reconfigured things a bit during 2020, and they now serve as 2ch speakers, powered by an Onix SP3 tube amp. Mostly a vinyl system, just to recall the old days. Although my old Kenwood receiver & turntable were not this good.

The Yamaha Aventage Receivers will do exactly what you want. Sure they may have more channels than you want, but just don’t use them if you only want 2.1. I do use an external amp with mine, but probably 85% of listening is 2.1. But if I want to do more, it’s 5.1.2 with a button push on the remote, or my phone.

I wanted to see how they sounded with all three Heresys up front being essentially the same height as each other. Sounds better now as sounds pan across the front stage. Midrange and treble are smoother now. Gotcha. That makes sense.

I’m glad to see they are turning out nicely. Also that glad that you saved them from the elements.

Good thread idea, Wuzzer. I’ll add a couple of my Heresys to the mix. My 1980s were my first pair of Heritage speakers, I got them back around ‘02. After twenty years of lusting for La Scalas, I finally “settled” for a rough pair of HBRs. They’d apparently hung on the wall of a school music room, for most of their existence. They’d been painted white and had been hanging by aluminum French cleats, (they still have half attached to the backs). The guy I got them from intended to strip them, but gave up & painted them black. I decided I couldn’t make them look any worse so I started sanding through three laters of paint, (& a bit of veneer as well). I stained & polyurethaned them, if had had it to do over, I’d do things differently. They turned out ok though. They were built by @HDBRbuilder, my apologies for the refinish, but they look better than they did. I know that. I said, “settled” for Heresys but I realized, after finally getting La Scalas (coincidentally also 1980s), that Heresys are damn fine speakers on their own, just a bit smaller.

I used my H1s as L/R “bookshelf” speakers in a cabinet, they sounded just fine. Maybe a slightly diminished bass response, maybe just enhanced mids & highs from the elevation. They were mounted a bit higher than the ones in your photo. I’d think the rear port on HIVs would cause issues, maybe not?