soulcat

Man, that's some bass. BTW, I just noticed your Jackson Browne quote. Nice!

Ooooh from 2000! OK, that's explains it. Very nice.

Thanks man! That's crazy about your HIIs being from 1984 or so. That feels a bit early, since my H1s or 1.5s are '84 and the woofer doesn't overlap at all with the mid horn. Mine are firmly rooted in the first style, but prob have the updated mid-driver. I've been listening non-stop for the past 4 weeks and my love for their sound grows each day. Seriously. I had a hard time letting the JBL 4411s go (I didn't let me them really "go," but they are not in use at the moment), but the more I listen to the HIs, the more I don't miss the JBLs. My ears are getting used to the fact that there is no boosted bass with the H1, but when bass is needed, they bring it. Acoustic upright bass sounds sooo good and natural on these. I know many suggest running a sub with the Heresys, but for me, a sub with music has never felt or sounded right. For movies, you absolutely need a sub, but for music, I feel your speakers should be able to produce enough bass. Just my opinion and what feels right to me. These H1s are my introduction in Klipsch heritage and now I'd love to compare to Cornwalls, Fortes, La Scalas and Khorns. I want to hear them all! OOOH Choruses too and...and...Quartets! LOL! Bring on the horns as I think my tubes can drive them all with 75 watts of KT88 power.

Those are gorgeous. I love the color combo. Is that cherry wood? The grill looks fabulous. Did they have grill choices back then or do all 2s have that grill color? My Heresy 1s are about 23" high and sound pretty amazing.

wuzzzer...WOW! So I removed the risers and on the shelves, they now produce just a tad more weighty bass, but it goes a long way to the overall balance over the frequency spectrum. I'm actually blown away at how great they sound. I did a shootout with the JBL 4411 pro studio monitors. The JBLs sound really good, but when I A/B them on say, a Sinatra Capitol recording from 1957, Sinatra's voice is much more pronounced, front and center with the Heresy. It's 3-D, rounded and just more "real" and less of a recording. It's hard to turn away from that. I get that the JBLs are very neutral to provide the best audio info for mixing down in the studio. But now I'm a true believer that the Klipsch sound is more of a life-like, live sound. I get it now. I really love those JBLs and I bought them from my old audio professor who bought them new in 1982 or so. They are special, but these 1984 Heresy 1.5s are going to be set up for the foreseeable future. Over the years, I always thought the Heresy in general looked like a good fit for me on paper, but with all the negative reviews floating around out there and the fact that they were meant to be floor speakers and I was going to use them on a shelf, I stayed away. But it turns out that they sound great up on shelves, toe-ed in a bit, the phantom center is crystal clear and very 3-D, the soundstage is wide and the dynamics are fantastic. Heresy IS the speaker for me. Matt

I just took the Heresys down to clean them up now that they are officially mine (paid the guy today). So I checked and the risers are easy to remove. Do you think I'll get slightly more bass by removing them? They're an inch in height.

WOW! Thanks for that info!

Thanks so much, man. You guys on the Klipsch board are so nice. I get my *** fried over on the McIntosh board with all the snobs. I really appreciate the welcome. So the 1.5 version is pretty different than the 1s, except the tweeter is the same, right? People talk about how great the tweeter upgrade is, but I can't imagine it sounding better than it does now. It's doing everything you want a tweeter to do. It's crisp, but not harsh and it's very airy on instruments.

Something I'm really noticing, especially with the jazz I'm listening to, I can hear background conversations on the music that I never heard as clearly or at all before. It's kind of jarring because I think someone's behind me, but it's really the musicians egging each other on in the recording! These really are "revealing" speakers and I'm diggin' 'em more each day.

Thanks AndreG! Yeah, I'm going to set them both up for a shootout. I don't find the horns harsh at all. I imagine the Heresys will win the mids and highs battle, but the JBLs will probably win the battle of the bass, though the JBLs are not bass heavy and are extremely balanced as they are professional mixing speakers (4411). The JBL sensitivity is 90db and I guess the Heresys are 96db and man do I notice the difference. My 75 watt McIntosh amp really drives the Heresys better, not that it struggled with the JBLs, but you can sort of hear the "ease" if that makes sense? Now that I've lived with these Heresy 1s for a week and a half, one thing they are making me ask myself is, "how much bass do you really need?" Because the H1s certainly provide enough, even up on stands. It makes me sort of question how much we may, even unintentionally, boost the bass, unnaturally? It's an interesting audiophile question. I think a few resistors in my McIntosh MA2275 have blown, because my phono stage is picking up some interference. It was low on the JBLs, but since the Heresys reveal more, I'm really hearing it. I should get it looked at, but man, this amp weighs 77lbs and it's up in the attic of my 1846 house. I dread having to carry it down the narrow stairway. The things we do for our hobby! Matt

Oh yeah...if I can't just unscrew them, I'm leaving them. I mean, it's prob a good thing that they are slightly elevated anyway. I mean, you're hearing more of the speaker and less outside resonance, I would think. So these were really well taken care of, all stock and he wants $400! I thought that was a solid deal.

Hey thanks wuzzzer! I appreciate the response. I'm waiting on some spade adapters to crimp onto my speaker cables to provide a better connection to the Heresy terminals. When I install those, I'm going to really clean the terminals, oil up the cabinets and I'll open them up and take some pics and loosen and tighten the screws like you advised. That sounds like a great idea. Thanks. So this riser looks like it's got giant thumb tack feet. Maybe it has screws too as I guess I really didn't look too close. I'll see when I take 'em down for a good cleanin'. Do you think I'd benefit from removing this riser and planting them right on my shelves or am I splitting hairs? When I take the Heresys down for the cleaning, I'm going to set up the JBLs again as I'll need music while I work on them and that'll give me a chance to better compare the sound of the 2 speakers. The guy I'm buying the Heresys from hasn't come by to pick up the money yet, so they still don't feel like mine, which also plants a few seeds of doubt. I really like them, but man do they make so-so recordings sound bad and great sounding recordings sound phenomenal. I also collect 78s, so I'm nervous about running 78s through them, but I should...who knows, maybe they'll sound fantastic? Matt

Hi all, I just joined the Klipsch Community after wanting to try "true" Klipsch speakers for a long time. I bought a McIntosh MA2275 integrated fully tube amp 15 years ago (the only all tube integrated that McIntosh has ever made and well...they discontinued it...) and I knew then that tubes and Klipsch go hand n' hand like beans and cornbread. But finding the right Klipsch? I was able to try a pair of KG2s and returned them to the seller, because they weren't any better than my Paradigms and they didn't have Klipsch horns so I wasn't really getting that Klipsch signature sound. I was using Paradigm Monitor 3s (small, 2 way with 8" woofers and rear ported, so they were boomy) and then in 2021 an old college audio professor of mine sold me his trusty JBL 4411 studio monitors (12" woofers, 3 way and front ported). I LOVE the JBLs and they sound fantastic, but...what about Klipsch? Horns and tubes? I've been intrigued with the Heresy for many years...reading about them and seeing them come up for sale once in a while. I always had a reason not to buy them. I'm happy with my JBLs. I don't have floor space in my record room for Heresys. JBLs are better for near-field listening than the Heresys, etc. Then last week, a guy who lives across the Common from me, lists a pair of Heresy 1s on FB. I try to hold back, but my wife urges me to open a dialog. I do and the guy offers to let me try them before I buy them. Well, I can't say no to THAT offer. His parents were the only owners. By the serials, it looks like they are 1984/5. The cabinets are in really good shape, just need a little oil. I hate the tiny screw speaker terminals, but hey, that's how Klipsch did it at the time, so I'm cool with it. They have all stock parts, so my first thought was that I'd upgrade the caps and crossovers and then I set them up. WOW! The highs and mids don't sound like the caps are bad. They are smooth and 3-D sounding. Since they don't appear to need the caps replaced, maybe I should just leave them stock, the way Klipsch intended them to be? Of course all I've ever read is that the Heresys lack in the bass department. They aren't lacking THAT much compared to the front ported JBLs, but the bass is tighter and a little leaner. My small Paradigm Monitor 3s with the 8" woofer had much deeper bass due to their rear ports, but I'm evaluating now how much bass is really needed. As you can see in the pics, my speakers are not near walls. I know that Heresys are meant to sit on the floor, so I did try that and a whole lot of bass came back, BUT for my room, I just can't place them on the floor. Raising them up isn't the worst thing though. The McIntosh drives them well with 75 watts of KT88 power. I have boosted the bass a bit using the tone controls, which I try to stay away from, but it doesn't seem to hurt the mids and highs at all. I spent a lot of time messing with the toe-in and I've found that a slight toe-in has improved bass reproduction, created a wide soundstage with a fantastic phantom center image. Are they better than my JBL 4411s? I just don't know. They are a bit different. They are livelier and very fun to listen to so that alone justifies my purchase...maybe? I do have a question about the risers. As you can see in the pic, they are raised 1" off the surface. Did they come this way or is this something that was installed either by the dealer or the previous owner? They are not removable, but rather look tacked on. When I look at pics of other Heresy 1s, I don't see a small riser on those. Does having them up 1" impact bass? One final note: looking around the web, man do these speakers get a lot of hate thrown at them. Lots of love too, but man, some people out there absolutely despise Heresys and I just can't understand why? Thanks for reading. Matt Salem, MA