HDBRbuilder

JM, Look in the upper left-hand corner on the rear edge and below the joint of your heresy cabinets. If you find an "A" or "AB" stamped in there it was me who built them. The stamp may be fairly faint, or have been overstamped by the sanding ladies with one of their codes, but either way there should be a stamp there.

HornEd, I am willing to provide whatever information I can recollect about construction techniques and ways to make minor to major repairs. I am also happy that most of my comments thus far have been so well-received. There are alot of anecdotes involving PWK that I personally was NOT involved in, but obviously occurred because everyone who had been witness told the same basic story. Few, if any of these are what should be posted in a public forum...especially by an individual who was not witness to the events. Let's just say that he was a complex individual who enjoyed a good time and had a few eccentricities. His humor was sharp-witted but often a bit dry at times...he liked to make others use their brains to find the humor in some of the things he said or did. He also had a rebellious streak in him...finding ways to do things he was told couldn't be done. There were several times when I would arrive at work to see a number of employees in a group laughing about something PWK had recently "pulled" on some person or entity. He is about as far from ordinary as anyone I have ever met. From what I understand, PWK may be the only surviving individual who recieved his pilot's license from the Societie de Aeronautique (sic)at the time he got his or earlier. In those days that French-based organization was just about the only recognized issuer of pilot's licenses. To liken PWK to Edison, Bell, and others of that ilk, is only fair, because like them, he has spent a lifetime in "inventive, educated, thoughtful, tinkering," not only in order to transform an idea into a creation, but to never accept that creation as a final perfection...always striving to improve upon it. Let's just face facts here...although PWK has patents in all types of things, to say HE is "a legend in sound" could not be more accurate. I dont care who makes it or claims to have invented it, there is a bit of PWK in every loudspeaker made today...in every radar unit...in every sonar unit...in every fish-finder used in recreation...etc...etc...etc...WHO ELSE can lay claim to that legacy? As for PWK's book and those written about him, I have never had the opportunity to read any of these, but would love to have copies of them to see other aspects of PWK's life experiences and accomplishments. Maybe somebody out there has an idea where these may be purchased.

Andy, Thanks for the compliment...I just write it like I would tell it, tho. "BB" was for Ronnie Barhams and me...Cornwalls were normally built by a 2-man team...especially the non-decorator ones. After they initiated "forcing" us to stamp our code into the back of the speakers, they said our individual code couldn't exceed 2 letters....so we came up with codes to designate both members of the team....well...that became a hassle, because they tended to pair up whoever wasnt busy at the time into the teams and we ended up with a huge list of codes...finally, the powers that be decided that only the code of the "lead-man" of the team would be used, since the lead man was responsible for his helper to do a good job building and the ultimate decision was that of the lead-man whether the cabinet was ready to go to sanding room yet. Yours were built in that window period when we used special codes for both the members of the team.

Shockoman, Thanks for the compliments. As for repair of the damage, it would be hard to give you any information without my being able to see at least a few good close-up pics of the damage...both from the outside AND the inside of the cabinets as far as a corner separation goes. As for their vintage...that would be determined by the serial numbers on them. I don't have that data, sorry.

Allan, Comments noted, and as for prices, that would have to be determined based on present material cost and labor involved, with a bit of profit, of course. It would seem logical that if replacement cabinets were offered, that the cost would be the same as complete unit cost LESS driver/horn/midrange/crossover cost, since all the labor and materials in the manufacture would be identical except for that component cost. DJK, Yes, I met John Fricks, but never really had much chance to talk to him while I was there. As for the reverse dimension Cornwall version you speak of...I don't think it would be logical to change from what went before and offer it up as a return of the Cornwall...besides, with a front dimension that tight, the woofer would be too large at flange diameter to fit between the front glue blocks (3/4" won't fit in a 1/2" space)... and the front itself would have a week point at each side of the woofer. This would likely lead to separation of the glue there or at the least a weakening of the front, structurally, leading to a structural weakening of the cabinet itself...the fronts are what strengthens the cabinet and keeps it square. Another point would be the resizing or redesign of the front port opening/baffle size/baffle placement in that configuration....basically resulting in a new speaker cabinet design using the same components. The object here is NOT to redesign the cornwall cabinet, but to reintroduce it into the line as it existed before. Nevertheless, your comments and suggestions are duly noted and appreciated. This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-20-2002 at 10:37 AM

Hey Folks. By this time most of you know that I worked as a speaker builder at Klipsch for a bit over seven years, from 1976-1983. Some have said they have enjoyed reading some of my posts that give a bit of Klipsch history as seen by a common employee in those days, so...I have picked this part of the forum to offer up this anecdotal tribute to PWK, the man, the human being...since it is primarily the speaker designs of PWK himself that dominate this section of the forum, and there are many here who have great admiration for his many lifetime accomplishments. Many of us have heroes or idols whom we look up to...some are parents or sports stars or very unique individuals in their fields. Many of us have more than one person who falls into this very personal category. Except for those of our "heroes" who have been family members, few of us get the opportunity to really learn about them first hand, and even then it may only be a handshake and a "I am so very pleased to finally have met you" that we have had the opportunity to have experienced. Well, to be honest, when I first began working at Klipsch, I had absolutely no knowledge about Paul W. Klipsch except that my father had told me that he had designed the best speaker in the world. Over the first year or so I was there, I began to read about him and to listen to the stories of other employees who had worked closely with him or who had been with the company when it was a very small operation. There was a sort of reverence for the man among the employees, but also a sort of aloofness by many to approach him because they were so in awe of the man and his accomplishments. I began to fall into this latter category.....idolizing him for his accomplishments, without really ever getting to know him...until...one day...I got the opportunity to see the "REAL PWK." It was in either 1977 or 1978, I cant remember for sure...in late August or early September that this event occurred. My father was approaching his 65th birthday in mid-October of that year, and I had wanted to give him something special. He loved to hunt deer, but never killed any...actually I think he enjoyed getting out of the house for a few hours more than the act of hunting...anyway...I bought a muzzle-loading rifle in kit form to build and present to him for his birthday. It was a nice kit and the gunstock was of European walnut and "95% pre-inletted" which meant I would have to do some "wood-to-metal" fitting prior to putting the final finish on the rifle. Upon Initial fitting I saw that the wood to metal fit was outstanding in the inletting at the factory, but the wood was "proud" and would have to be sanded quite a bit to get to the level of the metal "furniture" parts, so that the quality of the finished rifle would look more professional. I had no power tools...just sandpaper and hands, so I decided to take the parts and the stock out to the plant to use the pneumatic disc sanders there to work the wood down quicker. In those days alot of the employees in the plant would ask permission to work on a small woodworking project in their spare time on breaks or at lunch...sometimes even after clocking out for the day. Generally these projects were approved by the foreman. I asked and the foreman said "ok." The next day I took the parts to work with me and during morning break I began sanding and fitting them. During lunch break, I had just run to get a soft drink and returned to continue my personal project, when PWK came wandering through the plant heading toward the other side. Almost nobody was out in the plant at the time, and he saw me sanding on the gunstock, but kept on walking. A few minutes later, he returned and headed straight over to my work table where I was still sanding on the gunstock. This was out of his normal route when he walked thru the plant. He came right up to me and said "What have you got there?" I told him I was assembling a black powder rifle from a kit for my father's birthday and was sanding on the stock of it. He said "Can I see it for a minute?" I offered it up to him and he put it to his shoulder and said "Good cast-off in the stock...it should be easy to shoot accurately once it is finished." Then, as he handed back the stock to me,he offered his hand and said "I am Paul and you are?" I shook his hand and introduced myself. His response was "I have heard good things about you, nice to finally meet you. When you finish the rifle I would like very much to see it. Just drop by the office after work and show it to me some day" I said I would be sure to do that. Then he went on his way, saying "I will be looking forward to it." Well, I finished the rifle a few weeks later, but I never brought it to work to show to him, assuming he was just being polite when we talked and was far too busy for me to take up any of his time. One day I returned from the restroom and the foreman told me that PWK had asked where I was, and the foreman was wanting to know what was going on. I told him I had no idea....and he said not to worry, it probably wasn't anything important. Later that day, I was building cabinets and PWK came back thru the plant...purposely going off his regular route towards me. As he approached, he called me by my first name, said hello, asked how I was doing, and then asked if I had ever finished the rifle. I told him that I had indeed finished it and had already test-fired it and roughed the sight adjustment in while testing different loads for accuracy. He told me again that he would really like to see it before I gave it to my father, and that I could drop by anytime after work. I told him that I would bring it by the next day, and he said that would be fine. Of course, the foreman wandered over to see what was going on, and overheard it...and this actually seemed to annoy PWK. The next afternoon after work (3:30 PM), I went to my truck, got out the rifle, and went to the front desk in the office building. I told the receptionist who I was and that PWK had said he wanted to see me. She said PWK was in his office with the door closed. Everybody at the company knew that if PWK's door was closed, he was NOT to be bothered!!!!! Well, just as I was about to leave, his door opened and out he came with some of the "honchos" of the time. He beckoned to me to "wait-up" and talked to them for a minute or two and then came up to me and said "I am sorry, the meeting ran overtime...Sometimes they forget that I am an engineer, not a businessman...Come on down to the office." I followed him into his office, and he asked me to sit in front of his desk as he closed the door behind him. Then he asked to see the rifle. I handed it over to him and he put it to his shoulder, feeling how it fit and how it balanced in his hands. He made complimentary comments about it and the fit and finish. Then he sat down and asked if I had any of the bullets for it with me. I just happened to have a swagged commercially made lead ball for it in my pocket and handed it to him. He began to discuss in great detail how accurate blackpowder rifles can be as he rolled the lead ball between his fingers and then he asked me what load I had decided to use in the rifle. I told him 70 grains of FFg behind a pillow-ticking-patched ball had yielded the best results so far. He asked about the diameter of the ball and I told him .490", then he pulled out his dial calipers and measured across the lands of the rifling at the muzzle and then the grooves, and then he took the ball and begain to check it for diameter. He said "That should be about right, what is the rifling rate of twist in the barrel?" I told him it was a compromise twist of 1-12". He recommended I increase my load to about 75 grains of FFg bblack powder, and use Buffalo bullets..."Give that a try and see how you like it." We talked about rifles and shooting for over an hour, with him often taking his "infamous" notebook out of his shirt pocket and quickly jotting down a note in it, then sliding it back into his pocket....NEVER ONCE missing a word he said or one I said while doing so!! Occassionally, somebody would lightly knock on his closed door. He would get up and walk to the door, not missing a word, open it and ask what the person wanted...then I would hear him say "Can we discuss that tomorrow? I am busy right now." Whenever this happened, I would start to get up to leave and he would say "Please stay if you have the time, don't worry about them, they can talk to me anytime." After awhile, he looked at me and said "I am thirsty, aren't you? I am sorry that I haven't already offered you some refreshment. Not much of a host am I? What do you prefer? Water?...Soft drink? I'm buying!! Sorry I don't have anything stronger to offer you!" I told him and he went out to the machine behind his office and brought me a canned soda. Then he said "Now where were we?" And we continued to chat for another hour or so. While on the subject of modern firearms, he even told me to bring by some expended brass and some bullets and he would work-up some custom re-loads for me to try out. Somewhere in the conversation he asked me if I had ever fired any foreign weapons of World War II vintage. I listed off what I had had the opportunity to shoot, and he generally had some questions and comments about each of them... and then I said something about the British Bren machine gun. He had been listening intently, but his ears perked up when I said that and he asked me where I got a chance to shoot that at? I told him Scotland, with the 16th Scot para. He asked me more about what I thought of that particular weapon and casually mentioned that he was a Scottish rite Mason and that he and Miss Valerie were planning to leave for Scotland in a week or so. He said he had never been there and was looking forward to seeing it and where his Masonic order began. We talked for a bit about Scotland, and somehow the subject got on Scotch whiskey. He admitted he liked to "have an occassional sip on special occassions," and I asked him what his favorite brand was. He said he liked Chevas Regal or a good single malt best. I told him that the Scot paratroopers I worked with considered Chevas "an English abomination of a Scotch whiskey, and that no true Scotsman would ever drink it." He laughed and asked what they liked best. I told him that when they coulld afford it they tended to like Glenfiddich best, but when they couldn't afford it, alot of them drank Teacher's blend instead. While we were talking he had his notebook out again and asked me "Glenfiddich...I have never tried that one..how do you spell that?" I told him and he wrote it down in his notebook. Well we talked more about things and I saw it had gotten dark outside and I looked at my watch. It was approaching 7:30 PM, the only people left in the office building or the plant were he and I and the night watchman, and my girlfriend would be getting mad if I wasn't home soon. We had been shooting the bull like a couple of old friends for almost 4 hours!!!! I apologized that I had taken up so much of his time and told him I had to leave. He said he had really enjoyed our chat and would be looking forward for another opportunity to talk with me. He said Miss Valerie was somewhere shopping that evening, so he didnt have to be in a hurrry to get home, but he understood my predicament...then he laughed. We shook hands and I grabbed up the rifle and headed home. Well...that wasn't the end of the story.... A few days before the plant shut down for Christmas, my foreman came up to me and told me PWK had asked where I was at morning break. The foreman said he told PWK I was on break and PWK told him "Oh, don't bother going to get him, he deserves his breaks uninterrupted." Later that afternoon, I was at my bench building and up walked PWK with a box in his hands. In the cardboard box, identical cylindrical shapes, neatly wrapped in newspaper, were standing upright. Each one had a little label torn out of notebook paper with a name on it. He looked down at the tops of them and pulled one out and said, "Here, put this somewhere over there where nobody sees it, I will be back in a few minutes." And he walked off towards the other side of the plant with the box under his arm. Needless to say, everybody in the cabinet shop was watching this. And the foreman came over and asked what was going on. I told him I had no idea. He looked at me for a minute and started to walk away as PWK returned. PWK said hello to him as they passed, and came over to my workbench. Then he said "I hope I didn't get you into trouble. Is everything OK?" I assured him it was. Then he asked me to get out that newspaper-wrapped cylinder he had handed to me earlier. I did. He said "I am sorry we haven't gotten another chance to chat lately, but it has been pretty busy around here since we got back from Scotland. Bye the way, you were right about Glenfiddich, it is some damned good Scotch!! As a matter of fact I bought over a case while I was there and brought it back to give for Christmas presents. This one is for you. It was funny, but I found out after we got back from Scotland that Glenfiddich is actually cheaper here than it is over there because the Scottish government subsidizes the whisky exports. I have to run now, have a Merry Christmas...and thanks again for introducing me to this brand...Feel free to come by the office anytime after work if I am there." I thanked him and he left. Although PWK got to where he was making his walks through the plant more and more less frequently over the next few years I was there, he never failed to give a little wave to me, often saying "hello" or stopping for a minute or so to ask how I was doing while he watched me build. My biggest regret is that we never got a chance to sit down and shoot the bull again. My evenings began more and more to be rushed after work due to my commuting to Texarkana for evening college courses. I did learn this about PWK, though. He was a gentleman. He was courteous. He was an excellent conversationalist, especially if the subject was one of his passions, such as firearms or model electric trains. He was amenable. He took great interest in what others had to say and in their experiences which they spoke of. He had his opinions, but was open to the opinions voiced by others. He cared about people and he believed that a percieved small kindness was worth repayment in spades. How does someone who you look up to for their many accomplishments increase how much he is looked up to by you? I think I just answered that.

My heritage are laquered, and should never be oiled, but most of the employees there used to swear by old english red oil in a very light application every couple of months or so on their oil finished walnut-veneered speakers...it is relatively inexpensive and a regular-sized bottle will just about last forever if just used on the speakers....BUT if the veneer is oak it will tend to darken it a bit, although it WILL bring out the grain more. If the wood is unlaquered teak(very rare), then i would recommend them be oiled very INFREQUENTLY. Also, rosewood and ebony (also relatively rare) dont need oiling very often....ebony, rosewood, and especially teak all have alot of natural oil in the wood, so oiling them too often may cause the oil to permeate thru the thin veneer and begin to loosen it from the glue underneath, lifting the veneer over time. Basically, when the veneer begins to feel a bit dry to the touch after dusting, or it starts to lose its luster, it is time for a bit of oil....but JUST a bit.

OK, Folks, I have noticed what seems to be alot of interest in Cornwalls in this BB. Therefore I would like to take a little poll. Please assume that these questions are based upon construction materials and techniques used in the models produced previously. Here goes: 1. Should the Cornwall be made available again? Why or why not? 2. If it is made available again should it be available in its early configuration with vertical horns, or its later configuration with horizontal horns, or both? Why? 3. If it is made available again, should the decorater style be made available, or just the fine veneered style, or both? Why? 4. If the decorator style was made available, should it be offered in the early flush front model, or the later drop-in front model, or both? Why? 5. Should special options in the cabinet be available at, of course, extra cost to the customer? If so, what would you like to see as special options? (ie., industrial finish, handles, front finished the same as the other panels and no grill cloth, metal grating installed between woofer and front in lieu of grill cloth, etc... put on your thinking cap here) 6. What would you consider a reasonable MSRP for the Cornwall relative to the current MSRP for other Heritage models in a "stock" configuration? 7. Should current owners who want a cabinet upgrade or replacement be given the option of having a new cabinet built using the original serial numbers with a special serial number designator attached to denote the upgrade and the original driver/horn/crossover? Why or Why Not? Thanks folks...I appreciate any comments on this.

Shockoman, FYI....If they are mitered, they arent birch...just the fronts are. If they are "COL" then they are "cornwall, oak, laquered" While I was there I built maybe two pairs of birch MITERED cabinet cornwalls in 6 years...and those were made at an employee's request...generally to match up with a pair of previously purchased birch K-horns....other than the very slim possibility that your cabinets are from a former employee...AND, considering the "COL" you found on the labels, they would have to be oak laquered ones....either way, we never made that many in oak back then, so the rarity is alot more than those made in walnut, even though the veneer isn't as costly in today's market. This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-19-2002 at 05:33 PM

Ed, Yep ya got me....but Captn Bob needs to remember that the riser for the top section (which you call the collar) is delicate once removed, and must be carefully packed...be best to build a separate box that tightly fits it and insert it inside the box where the uppersection is. Remember to cover everything with thin visqueen to protect the painted/oiled surfaces from rubbing on this kinda shipping!!!! If I remember correctly, I believe the BKs were shipped whole unlike the K-horns...but I could be wrong. Either way I am sure a call to Klipsch would get ya a pair of shipping boxes and stuff for em if ya asked nicely and pulled out a credit card...LOL!

Capt'BOB, re: What's involved in separating the sections of a Belle? answer: a screwdriver LOL!

Allan, I can't go into details now about this, but the Klipsch end is being looked into by another party...What I am trying to do is use this forum to see what a fair asking price for a new pair would be in relation to the prices Klipsch is currently asking for the other Heritage models... and whether there is consensus over whether the demand would be high enough to justify building new complete Cornwalls as opposed to just offering new cabinets to those who either have components already OR want new cabinets built for ones they already own. From my insider, I am hearing that there has been alot of talk about the Cornwall at the company. Who knows?? Klipsch itself may decide to offer up the Cornwall again themselves sometime in the future!!!

Wes, Again...thanks. I will try to answer any questions any of the folks have...but I am in no way an authority on loudspeaker design or construction. I do know that I can build the old heritage models though...from raw wood to finished product. But I am hampered by not having any of the dimensions to them other than those of the decorator heresy. With a good set of plans/dimensions I can still build the cabinets of any of em. I have been watching this forum for awhile now and kinda wonder if there is a need for a comeback of the cornwall...in either a completed state, OR in the form of new cabinets to replace older beaten up ones...or for upgrade in cabinet from decorators to fine veneers...maybe even a few of the "custom" touches done on some of the cabinets while I was there...who knows? C'mon, folks...give me some input here...I may just set up a shop for this if there seems to be enough demand.

Wes, Thanks...I spent alot of time deciding on what I wanted before I bought my equipment. First I narrowed it down by specifications...then I further narrowed it down based on manufacturers' reputations for quality control, etc. and reviews...then I watched all the others folks around me who had high-end stuff at the time. Some of em really babied their stuff, but still had to take it back for repairs. Others abused their equipment so much it was pitiful, but some of their components withstood that abuse. I intended for my investment to be a very long term one, so I went for the items from my narrowed-down list that withstood the abuse the best. Airborne infantry guys tend to party pretty hard when they aren't on duty..some of em really abused their equipment while under the influence of whatever. Then I waited patiently for them to come up on sale at the Audio Club or the PX. I can't complain, tho...since I have put a minimal investment into these items since purchase, but have been able to enjoy them for over a quarter of a century so far. I originally had two JBL 4311 studio monitors up front with a pair of JBL L-36's in the rear...and I had another pair of L-36's drop-shipped to my house before I got home from europe. I sold the 4311's before I left europe. After I got back home, i went to work at Klipsch within a month of returning. Needless to say...I sold the JBL's and bought heresys as soon as I could. I have been pondering over what I would consider an ideal home theater system for awhile now. As for the audio portion, I am trying to gather up some stuff here and there...alot of it is vintage. I am looking at K-horns up front on sides, with inverted heresys up high in the corners and angled downward...center front channel a belle...right and left rear either cornwalls or heresys with a heresy as a rear center channel...a pair of subs on either side of the couch(havent decided on these yet)...front mains powered by a dynaco stereo 400 m/a, rear sides powered by another, with a third for the front center and rear center, and a fourth for the subs....an as yet undetermined preamp to feed all of this to the power amps and speakers. Of course, I intend to use this set up for both home theater and listening room, with a switch box to adjust the two for best usage. I already have the FM tuner...it is a dynaco tube model. It is amazing what one can find on the hidden dusty shelves in the out of the way corners in some of the pawn shops that have been in business for a long time. They almost give away some of the stuff that has been sitting for a long time too. Whenever I travel, I check out these pawn shops for stuff and ship it home....thank God for all of these "we can pack it and ship it" places that have sprung up everywhere over the last decade or so!!! The old HK 900+ will still have a prominent place for playing my old cd-4 stuff when i get the urge. I still consider it superior in many ways to what is currently available in receivers. It is a very warm piece...and goes well with heritage speakers.

Dan, Yes, for the panels that had the fine veneers (ie., anything other than birch), the panels were veneered prior to arrival at Klipsch...INCLUDING the veneer on the edges. And these panels are not standard plywood but poplar lumber core panels....which means the core of the plywood is solid poplar, with two veneers of birch on one side and then one side gets another veneer of birch and the fine veneer laid onto it. Klipsch is a loudspeaker manufacturer, not a lumber manufacturer....BUT these veneered panels were made specifically for Klipsch to dimensions and quality standards dictated by Klipsch. These were the same quality of panels that were found in the finest of furniture for most of the last century. Even the dimensions for the panels were specified by Klipsch...example: 1. For the Klipschorn, the panels for the woofer front arrived at proper dimentions with edge veneers already installed AND paired together, but with one edge slightly over dimension, but the trapezoid shaped upper pieces where not already cut to trapezoid shape, but instead, were rectangular...with the rear corners sawn off at Klipsch and used to produce the sides of the tweeter/squawker housing. Even the kickplate boards at the bottom of the Klipschorn arrived already veneered. 2. For the heresy and cornwall, the panels arrived in the form two matched panels for sides and top/bottom of one speaker to be sawn from each panel. They were already veneered on one flat surface and two long edges. The veneers on them were laid down in such a manner that the centerline of the panel was a veneer seam. The panels were ripped with the veneered edges against the saw fence, producing two boards, each of which were re-sawn in a crosscut to produce one side and one top/bottom for the cabinet, then these were mitered and assembled up into a cabinet. These miter cuts had to be EXACT and great care was taken to ensure that no chipping of the veneers occurred during the process so that a nice sharp edge on the veneers at the miters was retained for assembly. 3. For the Belles, the panels arrived pre-veneered in a similar fashion to those of the Klipschorn. 4. We had lots of veneers around for repairs and such...and when a MINOR repair was needed, it was made. 5. As you can imagine, these panels had to be very carefully handled throughout the process...especially the mitered edges. Also the saws used for ripping and mitering had to retain very sharp blades to eliminate any chipping of the veneers. As for the oil finishes, the oil was mixed at Klipsch and applied by hand....ie., "hand-rubbed oil finish" Yes, the miters were "45 degrees"....which is actually closer to 45-1/2 degrees when sawn with the veneered side up on a tablesaw. This guarantees a good tight "toe-fit" (where the miters meet at the outside edge) for the assembly process. IMPORTANT: The glue used for the mitered corners was NOT standard cabinet "white" glue, but was in a finely-powdered form and was hand-mixed with water...it was a dark brown glue that was similar to hide glue...it set up fairly rapidly, and new batches of it had to be mixed up by the builder a few times a day because it would harden up fairly rapidly....for all other parts of the cabinet, standard high-grade cabinet white glue was used. I hope this covered your questions. You can imagine the close contact that Klipsch had to retain with the manufacturer/vendor of these veneered panels to retain high quality....you can also imagine how closely Klipsch had to monitor its own quality control in the production of these speakers. The same close quality control and attention to detail was paid to ALL aspects of production of ALL of the speakers...from the tiniest pieces used in the folded horns on up to the visiblepanels the customer saw...it was ALL done right or it didnt get used in the assembly. Any newly hired employee who showed he or she wasn't quality-minded was not around for very long. Hell, even the allowed tolerances for parts was 1/64" or less!!!!! Remember this, at a time when other speaker manufacturers were using veneered particle board in their top of the line cabinets (ie., JBL, etc...), Klipsch was still using the same tried and true materials and techniques of the finest furniture manufacturers....with the "hand-made" quality that just wasn't found elsewhere. This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-19-2002 at 04:39 AM

Audioholic, I never got your e-mail....my email address is Jahren60@aol.com.....the 60 part is a six and a zero...like i said, i will look thru my stuff sometime and see if i have a pair of those pie slice logos...if not maybe a buddy of mine who works there can scrounge up a pair for me to send to you.

when I first bought my heresys, I decided to make up some speaker stands...I worked at Klipsch then and we had lots of scrap laying around in big boxes to be thrown out each day. Here is how I made em: I took two of the cutouts from the woofer holes for the cornwalls...these had bee routed out so they were nice and round but a bit rough, so i sanded the edges on the stationary belt sander back in the sanding room and also slightly beveled the edges on each side...then hand sanded them smooth and rounded. These were the tops and bottoms for ONE stand...i guess they were just about the same diameter as the narrow sides of the heresy cabinet bottom. Next I took 6 of the cutouts for the cornwall midrange horn, sanded the long edge on one side of each one on the belt sander, and ripped them to about 1-1/2" wide and cut each end off square so the length was about 12"...these were to be the horizontal pieces next i took some solid knot-free yellow pine and ripped out 3/4" x 3/4" strips and cut four lengths at 4-1/2" long...these were the vertical posts. then i laid down a pair of the horizonatal pieces on their flat sides, 1-1/2" apart and parallel to each other along their lengths...glued and stapled an upright to them both on each end...making a sort of rectangular framework kind of thing...and checking it to make sure it was "square"....repeat this for the other pair of uprights and 2 more of the horizontal pieces. then i set each rectangular frame thing up on its end with one of the uprights horizontal on top and glued and stapled ONE horizontal piece across them, with the ends of the horizontal piece CENTERED so that it matched up with the INSIDE edges of the two horizontal pieces on each rectangular framework thing...I then flipped this over and did the same for the other end of the rectangular frame things...this made up the framework to separate the top from the bottom if you are having trouble picturing this...here is how it looked.... you have 4 vertical corner posts...on two opposing sides of this you have a horizontal piece at the top and one at the bottom...on the other two opposing sides, you have just one horizontal piece in the middle. then you just sit one circle down on top of this framework and nail thru the circle into the TWO horizontal pieces that touch the circle on the other side...flip the whole asseembly over and nail the other circle to the two horizontal pieces that touch it. Simple but very strong and effective speaker stands...feel free to build some if ya want with any mods you want to add...the bonus of having the speakers on stands that allow air flow under them is beneficial to the performance too.

Fini, Yep...i get kinda on these tangents every now and then...LOL! And, yes I actually DO have some pictures that relate to the company...or at least to the employees of the time...I will look thru em and maybe scan some of em in so you can see what a fine mixture of "redneck" and "hippie-types" of that era built up these high quality speakers we so much admire...LOL! There actually ARE a few of the folks in these pics who still work there, so I will have to be careful not to post any "incriminating" pics of em from back then...LOL!

Wes, Yer welcome...Glad ya liked it....somehow, I kinda figured ya would...LOL! I don't know exactly why, in acoustical terms...but what you said about the top end sections being closer together is part of it I am sure...but I also believe that having some bass driving OVER the top end sections adds to the overall effect...maybe by reflection or whatever...who knows?...I sure don't, but I always liked em set up that way...if you have drop in grill cloth on your heresys, check to see if you can get another pair of em without logos mounted and put the logos on the bottom (which is now the top)of em...so they look like they came that way...just a thought...know what i mean, Vern?...LOL! Another thing...you might wanna consider just storing the risers, and think about this for them holes in the "bottom" of the cabinets...instead of using screws if ya ever put the risers back on em, you can kill two birds with one stone by taking some of those "drive-in" or "screw-in" threaded inserts and puttin them into the screw holes on the cabinets so you could use machine bolts instead of screws to mount/remount/remount/remount...etc...those risers...that way you wont strip out the wood where the screw holes are...you may have to either drill out those holes a bit to a larger diameter to put in inserts that take a machine bolt with the same Outer Diameter as the screws originally have...OR... use smaller diameter bolts with washers so that the bolt heads dont slide through the holes in the risers when/if you ever remount em... and you can get some of those nifty dark brown vinyl button lookin plugs (like the ones you see used to cover the screw holes on alot of these slap together discount house woodgrained vinyl over particle board bookshelves you have to assemble)to put into the holes when you have em upside down so the holes dont so readily show...just make sure that if you do any drilling for those inserts, you dont drill THROUGH the heresy cabinet...it is supposed to be airtight...ok?...just a suggestion!!!! P.S....You can find these inserts and vinyl buttons at Lowe's or Home Depot. This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 04-18-2002 at 10:40 AM

Edster, Well, like i said earlier, the initial of the builder MAY have gotten sanded off...I was tryin to remember exactly which year, but anyway....they called all of us builders together one morning and told us to start stamping our code deeper into the cabinet edge so that it wouldnt disappear when the sandin gals got thru with em....before that we didnt sink the die that deep into the back edge, but after that we did...well, i guess "them's the breaks"...LOL! Fini, Like I said earlier, I can't remember the codes for everybody who built speakers there...I wasnt the only one who built cornwalls or decorator heresys while I was there....if i was busy building HD's, and they needed some cornwalls, then somebody else would come over and knock em out for a day or so...and vice versa...but generally speaking, from about mid-1977 on I built probably at least 90% of all the HD's and cornwalls of both types. Normally I would have plenty of pallets(20 to a pallet) of HD boxes sittin waitin to get sanded whenever I went over to the table behind me to build cornwalls, but not always...when i first started building heresys my foreman told me that a good builder outta be able to build 150 or so boxes a day on average if all he did was HD's...but after a month or so doin it I was regularly exceeding that number...it got to a point where I never even counted em for a year or so, cause I was knockin out so many in a day...LOL!...then along came the number crunchers and daily quotas were initiated for builders...the foreman would wander around and ask about how many a person was building each day to figure out what the quota should be...they asked me about the HD's and I said 175...so he wrote down 200(as i knew he would...LOL!)...we already knew this was coming, so we had all started counting up what we built in a day a few weeks BEFORE they came around asking...I varied between 240 and 400 depending on how much culling i had to do, how good i felt on a particular day, etc....but after the quotas were initiated i always told the foreman "200" each day he came around at quitting time and asked me...it drove him nuts because there were always a helluva lot more than that built and he couldnt make the numbers jive!!!! He would tell the sanding room foreman that the sanders obviously weren't sanding as many cabinets as the sanding room foreman said they were because the pallets of em werent disappearing fast enough...LOL! It was easy to track the numbers for K-horns...it took a builder about 1-1/2 to 2 days to build one....about 4-5 lascalas a day were possible...i cant remember how many cornwalls a day, tho...that depended on alot of factors...and whether they were the CD models or the veneered ones...and a day and a half to two days for a Belle...so the only builders who had the opportunity to play with the foreman's head were the heresy and cornwall builders...LOL!...and NO WAY was THIS CHILD gonna let an opportunity like that escape!!!!LOL!

Audioholic, Yeah, I remember that Sony SQR-8750 real well...I had even narrowed down my choice to it and the HarmonKardon 900+ because both of em had similar specs...but the HK won out....by a very narrow margin...mostly because it had the CD4 demodulator built into it instead of it needing an outboard unit...but even moreso because I was able to get a demo model under full warranty for under half list price...the sony had 30 w rms into 4 channels, hk had 32w....both could be strapped with the sony puttin out 80 w into 2 channels and the Hk puttin out 90 w into 2 channels...both had same THD specs...both had SQ matrix built in...the HK had QS too, not sure about the Sony....both had same number of speaker outputs...both had same fm sensitivity...sony had loudness control, but HK had contour instead (different kinda thing)...and the HK had "enhanced stereo", which was some kinda early format dolby developed for makin surround outta regular stereo(works real good with dolby surround material of today...cant even tell the difference!!!!)...BUT I gotta admit the sony looked really mean with those 4 VU meters!!!!!...I almost went for it until they put that HK on sale!!!!...LOL! My HK is still my primary daily sound machine...had to get a bad pot replaced about ten years ago...had all four replaced while they were in it and one pigtail bulb replaced...other than that it tested out to original specs...cant complain about that!!!! The reason most of my stuff is 1975 vintage is because I saved up my bucks for over two years while in Army in europe...learning about all the high end stuff...watching the guys around me who bought their stuff...seeing how well the high end stuff held up to abuse and such...and then i made my choices...went down and bought it all within a few months in 75 at the audio clubs where we got bigtime discounts over the MSRP's...almost everything was at or below 50% MSRP when i made my purchases....the only way to do it!!!!! As to your question about the cornwalls...you see how your heresys are made with overlapping butt joints all around?..( i assume you have the NON drop-in front models since they are 1975 vintage)...well, the decorator cornwalls were built the same way...wheras the NON-decorator types had mitered edges and drop-in fronts...for all intents and purposes they were identical to each other....same interior volume and interior dimensions...same relation of driver component mounting to interior dimensions...just a different cabinet construction method...out of butt-jointed birch plywood instead of miter-cornered lumber-core veneers....that give you the answer you were needing? Actually the old-style total overlapping jointed decorator boxes are alot stronger in construction than either the later decorator drop-in front ones or the mitered ones...but dont try to tell the engineers that!!!!...LOL!...how do i know?...well...i got to see fist hand when a cabinet would topple off a stack of 20 on a pallet and smash a front corner on a concrete slab...the mitered ones normally came unglued at the corner...same with the the later style drop-in front decorator models but not quite as bad...but the earlier style decorators normally just had a smashed corner with no break in the joint....that was enough to convince me!!!! As for your need for a couple of the old pie slice plastic black and gold logos...holler at me in an email and give me an address and i will "see if I can help ya out" in the next couple of months, ok? I got some around here somewhere...findin em will be a ***** tho!!!!...since alot of my crap is in storage or sittin around this apartment in boxes!!!!...LOL!

JCTurbo, I cant remember very many of the heresys or cornwalls in cherry, but i did build a few cherry cornwalls and i remember some cherry Belles being built and a few K-horns...they werent very commonly made tho in those days....probably alot fewer cherry ones than the rosewood ones. I never can understand the reasoning behind making cherry furniture...people always want cherry, but want it dark....well...cherry isnt dark until it has been sittin around aging for quite some time...cherry, like sugar maple(hard maple) is naturally a very light wood, but it has a very high iron content in it and as it ages it takes on a darker color as the iron in it oxidizes...kinda like a rust red...with the cherry taking on more of the red in the color and the maple leaning more toward a dark orange-brown to dark red color....but the customer always wants it dark, dark red....may as well take birch and just stain it dark red because most customers could never tell the difference anyway...LOL! I say, if ya want cherry Klipsch speakers, get em and oil em, but dont stain em dark...and watch em gain their dark patina over the years while listening to the fine sound coming from inside em!!!!...LOL!

I wouldn't exactly call my system 2-channel, but it consists of: 1975 Harmon Kardon 900+ receiver 1975 Technics SL1300 turntable, with JVC 4MD-20X cartridge and JVC 4DT-20X Shibata nude diamond stylus 1975 Technics RS 676 AUS Cassete deck 1975 Teac A2340R Simultrac 4 channel Reel-to-Reel 1975 DBX II model 124 noise reduction for the reel 2 ea. 1975 Soundcraftsman 20-12A Equalizers Teac single play CD player 1978 Klipsch Heresy HDBL's couple hundred record albums over 400 CD's So, am I in the right place or what?...I dont see any vintage 4-channel message board here. I am the kinda guy who has a few other currently unused items sittin around waiting their turn...such as a dynaco tube fm tuner and a dynaco stereo 400 M/A amp...etc...

Edster, those are the codes for the gals who sanded and prepared your heresys for the paint/oil department...OD=Ola Mae Davis, and I think JC was Jessie Cummings...Ola Mae sanded my heresys...she was the best one there at the time...if you look real close you may see some fainter marks stamped into the edges in those areas...or maybe the marks were filled with putty...some times the back edges were sanded down some at the corners because they were "proud"...the cabinet panels were flush at the front, but like i said, sometimes they were a bit proud at the back at the miter and the gals took a belt sander to em to even em up...so you might still be able to see the initials for the builder that were stamped in prior to sanding...the sander initials were stamped in AFTER sanding...so they will show up better to your eyes.

Bob, here is another option that requires some phone time....you can call the dealers in that area and ask if they have any BK shipping stuff laying around and then have the shipper go to get it...you never know til ya ask...or...maybe just have the seller take em to the dealer to pack and/or ship to you...they outta know how to pack em if they ever unpacked any of em