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Found 1 result

  1. I have a set of Heresy 2"s that I picked up with some bad cabinets, typical abuse, never oiled, water damaged, used as plant stands their entire life then out to the garage for more moisture to end up deforming them further. Although the Veneer was still 100% attached (very unusual since most with minimal abuse seem to have it peeling off in sheets} and it wasn't even that dinged up, it really needed to be redone or refinished in some manner. I originally checked out doing some quick black vinyl covering after a bit of leveling to the surfaces and thought it looked too much like a piece of band equipment, so I promptly removed it from the test speaker and rethought the entire thing over. Not wanting to make new cabinets and chance possibly changing the sound or making them undesirable to anyone who might eventually be interested in owning them in the future. I decided that there was no other option than to refinish them. After looking at veneers and getting a better idea of whats available and whats desirable, I realized that no matter what wood I choose they will never be universally acceptable to every environment or decor. So I was left with the one option of what I believe to be the only real universal finish that holds any amount of class and at the same time will fit any decor wether its classical, modern, contemporary etc.. I guess its not going to look right in a country rustic decor setting but then most with that type of decor are not as likely to be into fine audio gear (from my own experience). With my mind made up I ventured forward, this was not my first go round with the black lacquer paint finish. I had started some series 1's years ago and didn't have the time to execute the task properly and just needed to get my car back in my garage. I cut it short and ended up with what 90% of others have after they tried. So with left over supplies I did some smaller sized cabinets and they turned out quite nice with just about a weekends work on each project. Years later and no longer working 50-60 hours per week at a very hot physically and mentally demanding job, I found I finally had time to spend on a project, I ran across the previously mentioned pair of Heresy series 2's and cleared out a spot to get started. I immediately noticed the sides were not as flat as I thought they were from my vinyl covering. I took the time to get each side as flat as possible then then I encased one speaker entirely with an old box of tile grout I had left over from another project. this really worked out great, everything was looking extremely nice and nearly mirror smooth I have pictures of the grout surface shining and flat as a mirror. Then the second speaker was prepped and i had only enough grout to cover 1 side, I went to get more and found that grout 10 years ago is not the same grout made today! New grout is simply what used to be called spackel, spackel now is what used to be called chalk dust! So my plans changed and its a good thing they did, I needed to address some possible problems that might come about from corners, edges and most of all seams that could easily be chipped if not reinforced with something that is much stronger than wood or even grout plus be able to bond directly into the fibers of the wood making a complete sealed and strengthened edge. I tried a few bad ideas that others were doing including bondo and found it could be broken right off the corners with 2 fingers and minimal force. It just didn't stick to the wood and was impossible to work with. I saw molds others were using and felt that without some nails driven into the wood and having the heads sticking out there was no way it could ever work but still offered no real edge protection and absolutely no chance of a 100% seal across the 4 seams. I then came up with layering Crazy glue across the seams then adding baking soda to freeze the glue in place. This worked but I figured out after a while that I needed to have a better base that offered a harder surface for the glue to penetrate and grab onto. So I reluctantly ground away all my previous work and removed about 3/8" material across each seam (3/8" deep). I made sure to leave a v shaped groove so there was an area for the glue to settle into and build upon its self with each layer adding on about 1/16" more until it was built up and over the edges of the wood so I had something to grind away and end up level with the wood. This process was tedious, time consuming, costly (figure about 80 tubes of glue) but absolutely necessary to make this project look like I wanted it be. I ended up doing this to the rear side edges and back bottom edges as well after I noticed issues with water getting under the paint and swelling on the edges while I was wet sanding. Of course this meant stripping the entire speaker for the 3rd time to rebuild the edges and get things back in shape. Leveling, checking for dips and high spots along the edges and middle. After 250+ hours I had 1 speaker done! The next speaker was the one that was in better shape so I figured I had less to be concerned about and thought I could skip some of the more time consuming steps and found out that there was no other way to do this and after the 3rd stripping and starting over I knew that I was going to end up with something very different and much more than just a speaker, they have a look and feel of pieces of functional art, a smooth feeling when your hand slides across the surface and onto the edge and then down the side, as if its one solid piece of glass, no seams, nothing that resembles wood or the cabinet it was once. The sublime beauty is so simplistic, so timeless, so elegant, that viewing them you would never think of the difficulties and long hours of work that went into their creation. Seeing and feeling them is the only way to truly understand what I'm saying, even with all the luster, depth and shine, it's not until your hand feels the surface and glides across the finish, you will then fully appreciate them and understand that there are nice speakers and there are others that transcend what we know as speakers and have become works of art in their own right. It's truly amazing what can be accomplished when you have a dream and combine a pile of money and add a huge amount of time and effort towards that dream. I was tempted to stop and just make my own cabinets each and every day I was working on them, 2 months of 10 hour days, but I know that if it was easy everyone would have a set like this, that's what sets this pair apart from all others. All caps were tested using my fluke 85 and not 1 deviated from the marked value even .001uF! All horns were disassembled and washed, the diaphragms were inspected under a ten power magnifying lens to ensure no defects to the surface or wires, screws were tightened properly and the inside of the cabinets were given a coat of silicone sealant along all seams. the woofers were freshened up with a very light coat of water based flat black paint to give the appearance of new looking cones. Feet of different heights were added to the bottoms and can be interchanged with your own set if you dont care for the incline I have provided. I was going to use adjustable levelers but the insert piece needed would have required a hole about 3/8" to 1/2" to fit the threaded part required for those type of legs. I felt that was far too intrusive and opted for a 1/8" (basically invisible) screw hole with screws about 2.5" long to ensure they would never have a chance of coming loose and tearing up the wood. I have to say that at $1,000 for the pair I'm going to be ending up losing money on this set and my time will be basically free, I have kept all receipts as I went along and the grand total is shocking, but that's my own fault for working with this speaker, I feel that they could be worth much more but I need to sell them so I can get on to the next project, I think that anyone who is looking for a rare and unique speaker that has potential to be the center of attention and the talking point of every gathering even when their are much more costly better sounding pieces in the same area should definitely be interested in this set. Just last week I went ahead and shot 10 more layers of clear on them and polished them both when I thought I had a local buyer, he wanted to prepay using pay pal but I am not accepting any pay pal payments, he wanted me to deliver last weekend and was ready to pay cash, when I tried to set a time for delivery, he never replied back!
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