henry4841

The K-55-M is the giveaway for year. Lovely looking pair . Not sure if he as seen some sell for $5K. More than likely seen offered at that price rather than sold. The best looking Heritage speaker made in my opinion. Best looking speaker made against any is debatable as well.

I did not realize the Heresy is now a ported speaker. I generally think bigger horn, bigger, better sound but Flevoman sure likes his Cornwalls. Most do not have the luxury of having both Cornwall and Lascala to compare with each other. Sealing the back of K-horns and porting the Heresy, wonder if PWK is turning in is grave?

I started not to post but for safeties sake. There is a possibility that there will be high voltage on that thing days if not weeks later. Stay out of those old TV's unless you are sure of what you are doing. Capacitors can hold a charge for a long time if not safely discharged. High voltage DC is much safer than AC but still capable of doing damage.

I have only read of good sayings on that amp. Let's not turn our nose up at some of the reasonably priced Chinese offerings on Aliexpress or Amazon with their good reviews either. The cheaper ones will probably not last as long as the ones in the 1K to 2K range but you cannot beat the price. There was one SET that was only around $300 a year two ago that got really stellar reviews from most everyone for it's sound. Then there is the Decware Zen, quality built from all accounts that is all the rage now for $1200 but with too long a waiting list for many. There is a thread active right now on this forum on the Mac clone coming from China. A little more money than 2K but not much. I bet it sounds fantastic with our speakers.

I am an electronic geek and have built my own, dozen or more working in house now with many more built. I see others have already made suggestions which all are very good.

I never give much thought for the insides of a transformer. All you will find is wire wrapped around a metal core. Some may say a lot depends on who winds them though. Not rocket science by any means. Lot's of diy'ers wind their own. That said Mac transformers are more complicated to wind but I understand others are doing it the same way now. Found that out on this forum from our great members.

Correct. Tube circuits are old and even the new ones are derivatives of old ones. It would be almost impossible to get a patent on any new tube amplifier circuit would be my guess. I know Nelson Pass received some patents on a few of his designs years ago, which have since expired, but he admits he does not apply for a patent on anything he designs now even in SS. Not saying impossible but impracticable. Sure one could try.

Wish I had bought Mc when I bought Crown IC150 and Crown DC300A for my LaScala's way back when.

Exponential vs Tractrix horn?

Another plus for tubes. You get high end sound much cheaper with tubes than SS amplifiers. In other words a 1K to 2K tube amp is going to sound better than 5K to whatever SS amplifiers.

Very interesting observation guys. We are hearing first hand a comparison from someone who owns and is comparing the sound of two of Klipsch's high end Heritage offerings and he is preferring the lesser priced mid horn of the Cornwall 1V over the newer LaScala AL5 from what I am understanding of what he is saying. I hope the Klipsch engineers are taking note of this. I have not heard either speakers. My old '86 LaScala's are nothing like the AL5's so I have no idea how the new LaScala sounds but I find no fault with mine. Very interesting guys and something to consider if in the market for a new heritage speaker. Could save you a lot money buying the Cornwall over the LaScala. Fact is you will not go wrong with either but money is money these days. This means nothing, being sound is subjective and your room is not like Flevoman's, without personally owning and listening to both speakers in your setting but is worth taking note of what one person is saying here on this forum.

The thing is if you have a mega watt amplifier you will still be only using a few watts of it's power at most with our speakers. You can prove this with a simple VOM meter and ohms law if you do not believe it. I know many will say otherwise for some reason but the truth is math does not lie. What this means is you can use mega watt amplifiers, absolutely nothing wrong with doing s,o but you must be sure that the first watt of it's power is excellent. And yes some of those mega watt jobs measure distortion # at max and not a .5mw where most of your use will be. As Pass states on his Firstwatt page, who cares how it sounds at 100 watts if the first watt sounds like crap. Or something similar. Another thing is those with amplifier experience, own or in the audio electronic field multiple amplifiers, know tubes still rule when it comes to sound.

I am sure they will work in small rooms but I bet they sound better in large rooms. Most will need a dedicated listening room to truly enjoy those speakers IMHO. Our significant others also want the smallest speakers possible to fit in their decor is a major factor. That and most that can spend that kind of money will have a dedicated room for them anyway. Exceptions to every rule of course. Personally owning what I call large speakers for home use for over 30 years, LaScala's, I could well be happy with Heresy's and a sub now. But then I do not listen to loud music now as when younger. I would not call any Heritage speaker a cull. All are exceptional in their own right. All this being said if young again with funds to blow I would probably buy a pair. Big horns big sound at low volume. Many here understand that statement.

- deleted

Xraytonyb is one of my favorites. He has the credentials, a true electronic engineer, with his own company that maintains and repairs xray machines. He goes through a long detailed process of explaining everything he does. Mr Carlson, it is hard for me to watch his videos but I am sure he is very talented. Never watched the other guy. One I really like, more my kind of technician, is Uncle Doug who is a tube guy at heart. Very entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/@UncleDoug Anyone that is truly interested in exploring the fascinating subject of electrons will love this electronic course that is free online. Only for the dedicated though, many hours of study.

I thought you would have some thoughts from others on this subject. Replacing the caps is not that big a deal actually. I took a look at the schematic and see nothing out of the ordinary. I believe it would make a nice addition to someone's collection and if it were mine I would recap it, give it a good cleaning and enjoy it. I would not buy a kit myself but purchase the caps separately from Mouser. I would be glad to make a list of the capacitors I would purchase if you want me to being there are just not that many of them in this amplifier, 11 is all that I count that need replacing. The list is in the service manual available at Hifiengine along with the schematic. Those and some deoxit is mostly all you will need. https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/fisher/x-101-b.shtml One thing I would like to know if it is point to point build or on a circuit board. I do not like working on circuit boards made in the 60's or before.

Just not familiar with a tube amplifier being pentode operated. Maynard, in a private message stated since the screen grid is attached to the plate it will still be as you said, still triode operated. I should have checked a schematic of a pentode amplifier before posting. Clearly shows 13K resistance between the plate and screen and not attached to the screen as in the Zen schematic. The resistance and inductance of the OPT isolates the screen as well. Example below. I can only remember building one pentode amplifier and it was with a Chinese kit I purchased years ago. Thanks for posting my error in thoughts.

If I am seeing this correctly as the Zen is sold with the 6P15P-EV with the hazen mod cap on the suppressor grid, if one installs an EL84 tube in place of the 6P15P-EV you will have in effect a pentode amplifier where the suppressor is tied to the cathode, being in the EL84 the suppressor grid is tied internally to the cathode, bypassing the hazen mod cap. I do not see how the cap would have much if any effect if one uses an EL84 but rather turn your SE into pentode operation. Not necessary a bad thing but.

John I used used orange drops for years. In fact I still have a bag full of them but on my last build I decided to try a newer designed, I assume, Cornell Dubilier film cap which appear to be the yellow ones above and to me they could possibly sound slightly better. Being sound is so subjective I cannot say for sure but being from the same manufacturer smaller and cheaper why not give them a try in the future. An example below. https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/598-224MPW630K

I second. I like those yellow caps myself. Used them on a number of projects of mine.

I misunderstood the kind of hum you are having. I was under the impression you were talking about mechanical hum coming from the transformer itself but what you are saying is you are hearing hum from your speakers. Sometime it can frustrating finding hum coming from the circuit itself. I like the software program called Arta which will show which you have 60hz or 120hz with ease. Distinguishing 60hz from 120hz by ear is not something I am good at but is easily seen with Arta or any distortion analyzer. If it is noticeable with 84db speakers you definitely do not want to hook it up to Klipsch speakers.

As I am sure you know transformer hum is usually associated with being pushed to hard. Unless they are unreasonbly hot I would probably just turn the music up until you can no longer hear the hum. Being older than the amps I hum a little myself. Excellent looking rebuild.

I do not think it will be a problem being this is a discontinued product they no longer build or sell so I see no conflict.

Not according to Frank's tube specs compared to a JJ EL84. Actually higher, one can run more current through the tube. Personally I am in the camp of Modjeski preferring high voltage and less current on a tube. With a higher voltage you have more voltage to swing the signal in. Running less current also extends the life of the tube. https://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/113/6/6P15P.pdf https://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/163/e/EL84.pdf

But much cheaper than a NOS EL84. I have a PP EL84 amplifier I built and I am using the 6P15P-EV's instead of EL84's mainly because of cost. Hey they sound really good and all you have to do is tie the K to G3 and you essentially make a EL84 or 6P14P which is the Russian answer for the EL84 electronically. Both the 6P15P-EV and 6P14P are NOS tubes from Russia made when tubes ruled in Russia.