heresy2guy

I agree about keeping it clean, but you're gonna get on somebody for replacing certain letters with asterisks, number signs, and various punctuation marks too? I think that's a little excessive. Actually, I think it su@!$. Am I going to get a slap on the wrists for that one now? What will be next then - don't even "THINK" it? Uh-oh - beware the Klipsch Thought Police! Even 60 years ago, when most everything in the media was heavily censored, some words were implied by using symbols like "#%$!" and it managed to get either an "okay" or a free "pass" by even the most bible-thumping people out there (no offense meant here to those who might be heavily religious). Think about it - today you can flip to numerous channels on BASIC CABLE and witness people displaying the motions of lovemaking while exposing breasts and buttocks and yet here on a basically adult visited website you have a Klipsch moderator saying you can't use words like "sh##t" on a forum. I don't by any means support the filth you see so openly on TV now a days, and I think they've gone too far, personally speaking. But that post by the moderator is taking such a far leap backwards that it's hard for me to swallow. There might be some jerks who act immature on this board, but most everybody here has one thing in common and that's a passion for Klipsch speakers. And sometimes that passion can get pretty heated. To tell an adult not to insert a word that has had various letters replaced by abstract symbols is ludicrous. Maybe the moderator spends too much time dealing with 5 year old children or something.

I keep the bass and treble at various settings (all positive though), depending upon the volume, on my HK430. Lower volume means more bass and treble for me, higher volume less. This also depends on the CDs I'm playing. Some are good recordings, other are poor. Some are bass/treble heavy/shy. Generally speaking though, I keep bass at roughly the 3pm position on the pot and treble at about the 4pm or 5pm position. Sounds best to me at those positions.

I had this problem with an old JVC receiver from the late 70s - I had one or two blown fuses. They didn't really look blown, if I recall correctly, but I replaced them anyhow and the unit powered up with all the lights at full brightness (as opposed to being dimly lit) and had full volume too. I happen to own an HK430, and I replaced all the fuses in it when I bought it, just to be safe, and as recommended by Andy. Andy got the whole HK430 thing going here on this forum by the way. I'd say off the top of my head that it sounds like a fuse issue. Try replacing all of them and see what happens. Won't cost you much of anything and it;s a good place to start. Go to HK's webpage and search for the HK430 and look up the manual for it so you'll know what ratings to get for the fuses. People might have put different ones in there for some reason, like a lack of properly rated fuses for example. You can try spraying some contact cleaner into the pots and working them back and forth rapidly too, especially the volume pot. Make sure unit's off and unplugged for this and then given time to dry before turning back on. If the combined efforts above fail, then I'd say take it to a tech. Try doing it yoruself first, because it's not unheard of for a dishonest tech to tell you such-and-such was wrong and charge you $100 when all he did was to replace three .25 cent fuses. If money's no object, or if you happen to know an honest tech, then by all means bring it on in to him immediately.

I've made this statement before and I continue to stand by it: An HK430/730 and a pair of Heresys is the best bang-for-your-buck combination you can get.

The Heresy will sound like garbage if the right receiver/amp isn't used. I learned this the hard way. Best bet, economically speaking, will be an HK 430 or 730 receiver from the mid to late 1970s. They really make the Heresy sing, provide as much bottom-end as you can basically get out of the Heresy, and just cannot be beat for the price. An old-school receiver for an old-school speaker. A win-win combination!

Love reading posts and replys from you Andy. They're always extremely informative. Thanks. Heresy2guy.

Thanks 'Tops...I posted some stuff from the 80s a few week's back...I love to read the old Klipsch literature!!

Mike, I want you to know that I really appreciate the time you took to go and post those Klipsch brochures. I absolutely love to read and browse everything I can get my hands on with respect to the heritage line and those brochures really hit the spot. I saved each of them to my hard drive and I'm going to bring them into work and print them out there so I can put them in a binder and save them. To me, they're historically significant. And hey - If you've got anything else, don't be afraid to post it - I eat this stuff up! Thanks again!

Wow, first off I'd like to thank Mike for contributing his additional spec sheet postings - Thanks Mike!! That's one of the features I truly love of this website - the ability to share information. Jack, the website I found the psec sheets on has the following address: http://www.hnet.net/~annas/klipsch/klipsch.html I hope this helps. From what I've seen of Mike's new spec sheets, I was REALLY surprised at the owner's brochure illustrating the differences in frequency response between the La Scala nad the Belle Klipsch. Cleve pointed this one out too. For speakers that have been touted by Klipsch as sounding identical, they sure don't seem that way on paper. Anybody ever directly compared a LS to a Belle with the same amp? Could make for an interesting addendum to this post.

Glad it worked out for you and that you're happy with your purchase! My hat's still off to Andy for letting everybody in on the little HK 430/730 series - great sounding equipment at a great price. They take to Klipsch heritage like a duck does to water!

Hmmm...does that mean someone should have flashed PWK a "bullsh_t!" pin when he was handing out those La Scala spec sheets???

I'm not sorry at all - input's a good thing, and I welcome it since it enables me to compare and contrast ideas. It allows me to either walk away with a new position on a topic or to solidify a position I already hold. Like somebody else said, you learn a bit each day and the only way this happens to erect your antennas and take in as much info as you can. I'm afraid I don't know much about the EV system you spoke of. I did some quick searches but came up with nothing so I guess I really can't comment on your equipment because I can't compare a LS or KH to something I know nothing about. What I can say is that I like my bass to be tight and firm and accurate when I'm listening to music. I think Klipsch excels at this kind of bass, especially in their sealed or their horn-loaded designs, and I personally find it to be the best type of bass for my 2 channel listening. For home theater useage or for listening to today's techno-rap music, boomy, over-pronounced, bass tends to be the thing people want. I can't say I really blame them because a T-Rex's bellow or, as you said, a freight train's roar, SHOULD shake the house and that's best accomplished I guess with high-efficiency ported enclosures and big woofers. It leads to a kind of sloppy, boomy bass you can certainly feel and it does make sense for those applications. I just don't like that kind of bass in my music. Maybe I would if I was jamming to some techno stuff, which is intentionally made with that kind of sloppy, boomy, bass sound in mind, but since I don't care for it, I'm not missing it. I listen to almost everything from classical music to soft rock to hard rock to metal to 70s-80s-90s top 40 to oldies from the 50s and 60s. Personally speaking, I don't feel any of that requires boomy, exaggerated bass but rather tight, strong, lightening-fast bass. Boomy, exaggerated bass would totally ruin my listening experience. That's just my opinion of course. Would I feel cheated out of bass if I had La Scalas being driven by my HK430 (which has a very strong bottom-end by the way) considering the music I listen to and my personal tastes? No. Could I find out that I'd rather have a pair of Khorns with my HK430 due to their lower bass response? Yeah, sure. That's almost a certainty. Would I ever feel the need for a sub with 18" woofers and ports big enough to swallow a soccer ball? No. Not for my two channel setup. But I would take it for my home theater!

The graph for the La Scala indicates the data was gathered at a range of one meter; the graph for the Cornwall II says it was gathered at a range of three meters. This might skew a direct graph-to-graph comparison between the La Scala and the Cornwall II. But they are all official Klipsch figures, nonetheless.

I agree. It's a real shame Klipsch doesn't give out the frequency response graphs any more. I think they're an important method of comparing speakers, second only to your own ear. In fact, those graphs are very important to those people today wanting to purchase heritage Klipsch that are no longer in production. Since it can be extremely hard to do an A vs. B in-person comparison (say, a Forte vs. a Cornwall II), resorting to those graphs can help a prospective buyer understand the exact acoustical differences between the speakers. I think they're very informative and make a valuable aid to those wishing to buy older Klipsch heritage speakers that simply can't be auditioned and compared. I know Klipsch had these spec sheets for the Forte II, Chorus, Chorus II, and Quartet models too. Unfortunately, I don't have acess to them nor can I find them online. Perhaps somebody at Klipsch could dig them up and make them available to us here on the forum? It could help a lot of people out who are looking to buy older Klipsch speakers. Many people ask questions like "What's the difference between the Chorus II and the Cornwall II?" What they get generally is a subjective opinion which will vary greatly from person to person, amp to amp, and ear to ear. I think the question could be answered better by comparing the original Klipsch spec sheets and their accompanying frequency response graphs. They literally illustrate the acoustical differences between the speakers. Trey Cannon, if you're reading this, do you think you could help us out with those spec sheets for those models? Thanks - Heresy2guy.

What I got a kick out of was the frequency response charts. Heresy II - not much bass, very pronounced midrange and highs. Forte - awesome low end! man does that speaker go LOW. Cornwall II - very flat frequency response, perhaps best of this group. La Scala - really good mid-bass. strong midrange. Klipschorn - wow - check out the bottom end! I couldn't imagine anyone having the need for a subwoofer with Khorns. Check out the mids and highs too - great performance across the board. Totally trumps all the other speakers. La Scalas are similiar in mids and highs, but can't touch Khorns for deep, low bass. I was most surprised at the La Scala bass response, especially around 40hz. And from 70hz up it clearly blows the Cornwall II out of the water. I can't understand why people trash it's low end. Is this a surprise to anybody, because it sure is to me.

I spent hours upon hours browsing and studying these spech sheets back in the late 80s. They were lost a long time ago, but I found a copy of these on the internet and thought I'd share them with you since they make for a good read.

Congatulations on your purchase! Just make sure you clean the pots well with contact cleaner. Andy (HDBRbuilder) has posted a few threads on properly using this stuff to clean out the pots. Do a search for Harman Kardon 430 or HK 430; you'll find his procedure in one or more of those posts.

Keep your eyes open for a 730 (clone of 430 but with 40 or 45 watts instead of the the 430's 25). My own HK 430 drives me out of my 25X15 room when I have the volume at high noon...just too loud for my ears to take. I love high volume, but there's a point when it gets so loud it ceases to be enjoyable. Twelve noon on my volume pot does it for me. Don't know how many watts the HK 430 is putting out at that indicated level, but it's too many for me to withstand given the dimensions of my den. Then again, I've got Heresy IIs which are 97db at 1 watt versus your KG4s at 94 db at 1 watt so there is an audible difference there, but even so, you should technically have 104 continuous decibles with only 10 watts, with much higher decibles during musical peaks. Unless you're in a really big room, 104 continuous decibles is pretty darn loud in anybody's book, and that is easily attainable with your HK430/KG4 combination.

It was Andy who recommended this unit to me, as he did to several other forum members, so he gets the credit with finding this inexpensive little gem, which puts out only 25wpc by the way, and was made in Japan. Do a search on two-channel forum for Harman Kardon 430 or h/k 430 or hk 430 and see what you come up with. Most people who bought one really liked it and considered it a steal given its price. Again, good luck.

A Harman Kardon 430 or 730 receiver from the mid/late 70s will make your Cornwalls sing their hearts out, and it'll do it for around 100 bucks or so. They make my Heresy IIs sound spectacular. I've had my Heresy IIs hooked up to a Proton receiver and an NAD integrated amp before and liked the sound very much. Proton and NAD were very close in their parts and their sound and both gave insane dynamic headroom (like 6-7dBs) which meant they put out 4 times their rated power during musical peaks. My Proton sounded a bit better then the NAD to me...a bit more bass and crisper highs. I think the HK 430 takes the cake though. Better then the late 80s Proton and late 80s NAD and much much much much better then a cheap y2k Technics receiver I bought. The Technics made my Heresys sound like garbage. So bad in fact, that if I was somehow forced into having to keep and having to use the Technics, I'd get rid of my Heresys in a heartbeat and look for something else. That's how bad that particular combo sounded to me. There was no bass at all, the highs were practically non existant, and the midrange seemed really muddy. When I got my HK 430, it not only brought my Heresys back to life, it took them to another level, sonically speaking. I think it can do similar things for your Cornwalls. If you buy one, just clean the pots really good with some contact cleaner from rat shack and let them dry. That'll gid rid of any potential static issues. You can literally hear the difference when you do this. Good luck.

I didn't give you any "crap." If you smell any, I suggest an immediate inspection of your sneakers. Or your skivvies...

"The LS may have originally been designed for a P.A., but P.A. systems of 40 years ago are a far cry from what is demanded today." This is a weak argument in my opinion and I've heard the rational behind it used many times before by people knocking the entire Heritage line, most notably the Khorn. They usually say something like this: "The khorn is over 50 years old. So many things have changed since then. The Khorn is an anachronism." I'm not placing you in that category mind you, but your agument is based on the same flawed (in my view) idea. Are you saying that an insanely dynamic speaker that puts out 104db with 1 watt and has a super-tight and lightening-fast bass response is not needed in today's PA sytems??? Outside of the somebody not liking the La Scala's overall sound (which is subjective I'll grant), the only other stone you can throw at it would be that it rolls off at 53hz.

I second that notion. For around 100 bucks, you can secure an HK430 and a bottle of contact cleaner and even a few fuses if need be. Spray the pots and ensure all the fuses are okay and that they're of the proper rating and you'll find yourself in possession of an awesome sounding power source for those Heresys. Or any other heritage speaker for that matter. The HK430 brings a lot of bass to the bottom end shy Heresys, which is just what the doctor ordered for that particular model. Some other members on this forum have hooked La Scalas and Khorns to the HK430 and have been pleasantly surprised at the sound considering its super-low price. Do a search for HK430 and take a look for yourself.

I've heard a lot of things about Klipsch speakers before (good and bad) but I can't seem to recall anybody suggesting a lack of bass with the Forte/Forte II models. Interesting posts here over the past few days: a set of Heresys that don't sound loud enough with a 110wpc amp and now a pair of Forte IIs that seem to lack bass. It sounds to me like the speakers in both cases are probably fine but that the problems lie within the amp or the preamp. Klipsch Heritage are very, very finicky about the power/signal fed to them. I know this to be true from reading many, many posts here on this forum as well as my own little personal example. My Heresy IIs sounded like garbage when connected to a Technics 100wpc receiver but literally seemed to transform themselves when connected to an HK430. It was truly like night to day. Klipsch heritage absolutely need good input, or should I say the right input, or they sound pretty aweful. But that shouldn't account for Heresys not being "loud" with 110 watts or a Forte or Forte II being bass-shy.

There must be a problem somewhere in your system. I've got my Heresy IIs mated to an HK 430 in a 25 x 15 room and at an indicated 12 noon on the volume pot, I can't stay in the room it's so LOUD. And that's with only 25 watts, mind you.