HDBRbuilder

NEW BALANCE...PERIOD! If hunting, or in the boonies, Matterhorns...PERIOD! Ever since the late 1980's! When weather is HOT and I'm on my motorcycle, I wear panama-soled jungle boots, otherwise, Matterhorns! Once my ride for the day is finished, either Matterhorns OR New Balance...depending on where I end up at on the ride.

The problem is a combination of all the extra cross-grain cuts involved with so many plys involved in Baltic birch PLUS the extra layers of hardened glue for all of those plys...generates extreme heat And dulls the edges at the same time...it is one thing to be a hobbyist builder, quite another to have to do production runs of parts....production runs is the key to the issue which is seldom noticed much by the hobbyist builders who don't NEED to make runs of many pallets of parts for what few they build. Remember: Klipsch doesn't lay their own veneers, the MDF is veneered at its source. So, if they used veneered Baltic Birch, then it would ALSO have to be veneered at its source....and shjpped to Klipsch in pre-veneered and edge-banded matching pairs panels, and THAT would be EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE...plus addressing the quality controls at the source would be almost impossible! I mean that would be GENUINE "global out-sourcing" for those panels! Look at it this way...how many times have you ACTUALLY gotten baltic birch sheets that were even square at the corners, yourself? Think about that for quality control of pre-veneered Baltic birch panels at the source....make sense? Thern add in the issue which Baltic birch has ALWAYS HAD, thickness of the sheets being spot-on...good luck with that! Even within the same bundle the thickness can vary quite a bit, which will be evident to the eye when building mitered joint boxes!

For myself, I have always wanted an SL 110 or SL 1100 Technics Direct drive turntable, and highly recommend them provided they have been tested and maintained properly...they were the top of the line in their day from Technics and can often be picked up for around a grand today...which is MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE than the current top of the line Direct drive from Technics, which IMHO doesn't really justify its price considering it doesn't have any really appreciable significance in performance over the old 1100 model! The new top of the line is now the SL-1000R, at an MSRP of 18 grand!! GEEZ!! And you still have to buy MORE stuff before using it!

I still have and use the Technics SL-1300 I bought new in 1975. One of the best 250 buck purchases of new audio equipment I ever made! ACTUALLY everything I bought in 1975 is still used except for one of the two SoundCraftsman 2012-A equalizers which I sold decades ago (at a profit!), and the speakers, also sold decades ago for exactly what I paid for them all! TEAC A-2340-R reel deck DBX II model 124 Noise reduction unit (for the reel deck) SoundCraftsman 2012-A equalizer Technics RS-676-AUS cassette deck H/K 900+ quad receiver

SIMPLE ANSWER IS production costs would be higher due to the wood costs AND the cutting tool costs. Density and glues used in Baltic birch wear out cutting tool edges rapidly, and require replacing them much more often! More labor cost is required (for replacing saw blades and router bits), in addition to the costs of quickly worn out cutting edges on cutting tools. BUT I STILL PREFER BALTIC BIRCH OVER MDF!

Klipsch went to MDF box panels DURING the production of the Heresy II, not at the BEGINNING of production. The term "box panels" refers to the finely-veneered panels which are the panels used for the box top and bottom and both sides. I left Klipsch prior to the introduction of the Heresy II, so I cannot give an exact time frame when this occurred. But we already knew what was in the eventual plans for the Heresy II speaker's construction. I own a pair of Heresy II's made in 1998, and their "box panels" are MDF. The two pics above show that the move to MDF had not yet occurred when this particular box was built because it is obvious to me that its box panels were finely-veneered poplar lumber-core plywood. Klipsch eventually also went to MDF panels for the motor-boards. The easiest way to tell with a glance if the motor-boards are MDF or not is to just note whether wood screws are used to attach the drivers and horns or whether they are attached with machine screws. Wood screws just don't do well in MDF panels, so machine screws into some kind of threaded metal receptical, such as T-nuts, inserts, or edge-clips are required to secure the drivers and horn lenses to the motor-board. Make sense? The reason wood screws DO NOT work well with MDF is due to what happens when the wood screws are installed...as the wood screws go into the pre-drilled pilot holes, the MDF swells outwards towards the screws as they are installed, which makes a good tight seal of the horn flanges and/or the woofer frame nearly impossible...add to that the fact that MDF has piss-poor wood screw holding ability! Finding out that all of the drivers have come loose during shipping to dealers is not a good thing!

Putting that statement into context, requires realizing that it has already spread into the nursing homes in the Seattle area, where the most-likely deaths will occur! And those deaths are CURRENTLY what drives the average age numbers for the US!

Well...let's just say that this is the first time in MY MEMORY where the U.S. military has locked-down travel of personnel and family members both to and from the bases in Italy and South Korea due to an overwhelmingly rapid spread of an illness! This includes personnel and families scheduled for re-assignment who have already shipped their belongings, along with mandatory-attendance career-progression-schools that require a return the USA to attend! In Italy, both Aviano AFB is locked down and so is Caserme Ederle in Vicenza, which is home station for the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, our Quick Reaction Force for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East! It's gotta be REALLY BAD there for THAT to happen! Trust me, I know! I served in Vicenza 1973-1976 when the QRF for that entire region was JUST an Airborne Battalion Combat Team, and we trained whether we were sick or not!

You can buy some of it in most Kosher stores, too!

OMG! CORONA HAS VANISHED??? Time to get rid of my lime futures shares, I guess!😔

Have you ever heard vintage Klipsch Heritage speakers on any of the old early-to-mid-1970's H/K 430, 630, 730, or 930 twin-powered stereo receivers? If not, give them a try sometime...you might be pleasantly surprised!

Home remedy that most-always works for insomnia: Small juice glass of elderberry wine about half-hour before bedtime...elderberry wine is also an analgesic and works like aspirin for headaches and such.

There were two versions of the rectangular badges which has both the PWK logo AND the "Klipsch" script on them. These are the first version, but only one batch was ordered, and before we even ran out of the first batch, the so-called "laser badges" WITHOUT the PWK logo on them came in, and we were directed to use those...which lasted for maybe two years or so...then back to the badges that were almost identical to first badges with the PWK logo AND the Klipsch script...which continued until after I left in October 1983. I won't go into details as to the underlying reason this occurred, just suffice to say that it was management decisions which drove the changes as the management hierarchy went through a couple of significant changes over a period of 2-3 years.

Those are actually SUPPOSED TO READ "CDBB" on the labels. The stamped-in initials "OD" stand for the person who sanded those speakers, Ola Mae Davis. She worked at Klipsch in the sanding room for many years! The metal woofer grille was not a factory item. The Klipsch logo badge is correct for the final quarter of the year 1976. We still had lots of the pie-slice logos when these were built, but had been directed to use ONLY the rectangular logo beginning at the very end of the third quarter of 1976.

Those CDBR speakers left the plant without grilles added, but somebody most likely ordered a kit to install the grilles after they were shipped. The ones which left the factory in 1977 DID NOTt get quarter-round moulding for the trim covering where the staples would have attached the grille cloth DIRECTLY to the speaker motor-boards. Instead, that flat screen door moulding .was used. Besides, those grilles are not directly stapled to the front of the motor-board, but are instead the standard grille panels used on the inset motor-board version of the Cornwall. So they had to have been added after they were shipped by SOMEBODY....might have been the dealer or the original purchaser, but they didn't leave the factory with those grilles. Also, I probably built those two speakers. Early 1977 was the end of the era for the butt-jointed CDBR speakers...which were followed by the CBR version with the dropped-in motor-boards, painted black.

Good call, Jim!

Those Heresy II speakers were packed up within a few hours or so after those labels were attached...and they were from the 51st week of 1987, so that means that they were made right before the employees were off for Christmas, most likely...probably got shipped in January of 1988...and if the sale was made a year or more after they were shipped, then I would bet that they were a special order that was used at the dealership for awhile before they replaced them, boxed them up, and sold them....dealer special orders for display weren't that uncommon of a thing! I can't think of any other reason that a special-order would actually be sold over a year after it arrived at a dealer....unless the dealer intended to use them for display, then later sold them....unless the original customer backed out of the deal to come get his special order and they were stored as stock awhile waiting for another customer who wanted Teak-oiled finish Heresys. Stranger things have happened, though! Come to think of it...since the pic you posted of the label is not the ENTIRE label, by chance, was there a red-over-stamp on the edge of that label that reads "not for re-sale" or "not for retail purchase""???...or something like that? Just wondering if these were made for an employee, who had to keep them for a year before being able to sell them!

If the Heresy II speakers were made prior to the sale by PWK of the company to Fred and Judy Klipsch, then teak may likely have still been an option for a special order. After Fred and Judy got the company the options got very small in number due to their "save the rainforests" support (IOW, caving in to tree-hugging consumer demand to forego using rainforest tree lumbers or any thing like that!). My attitude is that if somebody is planning to cut down trees to make farmland, anyway, then why not make the BEST USE of the trees they will cut down, since it beats the heck outta BURNING all of that fine wood which could be better used to produce fine veneers and furniture!

KBMR...the MR stands for Mahoghany "raw", meaning no finish applied.

Those were built a couple of months before I left in 1983, So it is HIGHLY LIKELY that I built them..

These were from an auction?? Which auction??

I trained Terry Willis how to build Heresy and Cornwall speakers MANY YEARS AGO!

"OD" is Ola Mae Davis....she sanded your speaker cabs. I actually had Ola Mae sand one of my "flame twins" HDBL's when I built them....the other one was sanded by Frances...they were best friends and the best sanders in the sanding room...so each one of them got to sand one of my pair. Builder initials and sander initials were stamped into the rear edge of the side panel within an inch or so of the top of that panel. The panel this was done on was, as you face the rear of the speaker, the side panel to your left. Because the sanders, especially on the birch plywood versions of the speakers, had to ensure that the rear edges of those panels were smooth without any tiny voids showing...they slathered the rear edges all around with a thinned down woof filler...using a putty knife. Once that dried and set up, the sanded the rear edges of the cabinets. So, in doing this, the stamped-in builder initial(s) often got filled with that putty, and were sometimes even sanded off, especially if they had not been stamped-in deep enough! So, it is sometimes difficulty to find the builder initials because they tend to be filled with putty and/or not very prominent....as compared to the sander initials. Everything else that was stamped into the speaker rear edges, was done in final assembly: "USA" the serial number, and such. When the move to MDF panels came along, the stamping of the rear edges ended, due to the stamping causing swelling of the MDF substrate on the rear edges.

This particular label says: LSBR, SN 17S468. Those shipped raw (meaning no finish on the birch plywood)...but somebody obviously filled-in with wood putty where the serial numbers were originally stamped, then painted over the sanded rear edge. All you need to do is take some acetone on a rag and gently wipe that plywood edge until the stamped-in serial numbers show up....they will be filled with wood putty, but should be easy to make out. You probably don't even need to buy the acetone, because that is what finger-nail polish remover actually is....so if you have a significant other, then borrow a bit of hers. This speaker was built in 1978.

You can get plasti-dip in gallon-sized or smaller cans, too...which is what I would recommend, and just take a paint brush and apply it....that way you get a thicker coating for the outside of the horn lens...with the added advantage that yu can ALSO apply a thin even coat to the face of the mounting flange of the horn lense in order to achieve a better seal to the motor-board when re-attaching it. As for the thickness of the coating, it doesn't NEED to be very thick, just enough to cover the surface completely in a relatively even coating. After all, you are JUST needing to damp any "ringing" possibilities in the metal of the horn to begin with, and it really doesn't require much to do that to begin with....you can actually take a coupe of latex rubber gloves and wrap them around the horn and achieve the same thing! People tend to over-do everything on this forum, which is totally ridiculous, IMHO!