Finally broke down...and ordered some Heresy IIIs!

[33RPM]

They sent one, it just hasn't worked yet. Boy am I impatient []

[Arky]

Last time I was at the factory I think I saw them working on yours.[]

[33RPM]

The H3's arrived this morning (which required me to take time off from work - but well worth it for these). They were very cold and wanting to condensate when I brought them in the house (the outside temp was around zero (F) when they arrived at 11am), so I wiped away any moisture and allowed them to warm up while I worked the rest of the afternoon. Upon coming home, I hooked them up, threw on some LP's, and tried them out. Grated, I've barely played them and they likely will need some significant break-in time, but WOW! So far, my only regret is that the finish is pretty pale and grey for being "walnut," though I would imagine some tung or walnut oil would bring out the finish better.

Initial impressions:

-Woodworking, and the fit and finish in general, is impeccable. Klipsch has some master craftsman down there in Hope. These speakers will likely outlive me!

-Very neutral sound; good balance of frequencies.

-No "horn sound" or colorations present. Imaging is great, and the sound is so real, when I put my ears near one it was like listening to a live jazz trio in another room through a hole in the club's door. How anybody can claim that Klipsch's speakers don't sound "natural" still baffles me - they are more "real" than anything else I've heard.

-Bass is really surprising, especially considering that the woofers are cold, stiff, and haven't been broken in yet! The bass is tight and "tuneful" (i.e., clearly defined as opposed to being boomy or "one-note"). The sealed enclosure sounds much better to my ears than the reflex enclosures I've been used to. For my musical tastes, a sub will not be required.

-These seem to present a very easy load to my tube amp. There are no holes in the response or weird peaks due to the high output Z of my SET amp.

-1/4-1/2W goes a long way with these. A full 2W output with a strongly pre-amplified input practically sent me out of the room - I will likely never need to turn the volume up more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the way, even on my 2W amp. Thus, I can enjoy the SET sound with worrying about not having enough volume (granted, I listen at low levels anyway).

-Finally, the size of these makes them easy to go anywhere, and they look great with leather furniture and wood floors. It's hard to believe such a big sound comes from such little boxes!

I'll be breaking these in during the next few weeks, as I await some Magnaquest transformers and plate chokes (which are being wound this month). The MQ irons should give much better bass performance, which will make the H3's sound even better. PWK certainly knew what he was doing. I wish I had the sense to try these out years ago - they were exactly what I was looking for!

[russ69]

We'll be needing some pictures...............

Thanx, Russ

[gnatnoop]

Congrats! and yes, we'd love some pics.

[33RPM]

I only have a crappy iPhone camera for the time being (D-SLR is the next thing I'm saving up for) but I'll attach a photo or two anyway.

[33RPM]

Left speaker:

[33RPM]

Right speaker, w/ Bottlehead gear (note that my Quickie pre-amp is not stained to match the other components yet and is awaiting a badge).

[seti]

How are the Heresy III's with the Bottlehead gear?

[33RPM]

A match made in vacuum tube heaven - the H3's and S.E.X. amp seem like they were made for each other. They sound nice and smooth, with a good, even response and plenty of volume to spare. Things should get really interesting once I do my final upgrades to the system, which will include a) magnaquest plate chokes and OPT's, better interstage and parafeed coupling capacitors, the latter of which would have to be changed from 1uF to 2uF anyway, due to the different OPT's and chokes, and c) solid-state constant-current sources on the plates of the 3S4 tubes in my Quickie preamp. I stuck some chokes in there, which greatly improved the bass and overall gain, but they have a tendency to buzz and/or pick up RF. The PJCSS should make the amp dead silent again, since the amp uses DC current from dry cells for both the heater and B+ supplies, but still yield a better sound than the stock plate resistors as loads.

I can't recommend Bottlehead enough if you want a fun and immensely rewarding experience. Their kits are fun to build, and sound better than anything I've heard for the same cost. Both the BH gear and H3's should last the rest of my life if cared for well.

[dtel]

Congratulations on a great setup, I would love to hear some Heresy lll's on that setup, cool little speaker with a big sound, good choice ! []

[dtel's wife]

I really like the HIIIs.....I was amazed at the sound the first time I heard them.

I really just like seeing new "Klipsch speaker boxes"![] Just kidding.

Congratulations.....the more you play your HIIIs the more your gonna love them!

[laager]

I had a friend over last year to listen to my Heritage 5.1. There are CWIIIs for mains and HIIIs for centre and surrounds. He's the audiophile out of the two of us. I'm just a monkey that likes what he hears and he's the guy that analyses the sound with some objectivity. Whilst he was very impressed with the CWIIIs we also swapped the cables and ran the HIIIs as mains to compare. He was more impressed with the HIIIs than the CIIIs (the comparable size v sound). Now, those HIIIs were sitting on light metal stands about 1m off the floor (they were being used as surrounds) and well away from walls or corners. So, you could almost call it 1/2 space. His opinion was that they were fantastic speakers for mains duty with a good level of bass. Not as much as the CIIIs but with the addition of a small sub every bit as good.

Now, place those same HIIIs in a corner and you may find that they are still a fraction less capable than a CIII but more than capable for anything you throw at them. To be honest, I have my CIIIs in brick corners now and I have to trim the bass a bit as the 1/8 space gain is rather significant. In fact, sometimes I have to check that the DD-18 is not running. [H]

HIIIs in the same 1/8 space might be just perfect.

Hence, I find it difficult to comprehend anyone suggesting HIIIs are anything but an outstanding choice for mains. Even better when appropriately and intelligently placed.

[33RPM]

I had a friend over last year to listen to my Heritage 5.1. There are CWIIIs for mains and HIIIs for centre and surrounds. He's the audiophile out of the two of us. I'm just a monkey that likes what he hears and he's the guy that analyses the sound with some objectivity. Whilst he was very impressed with the CWIIIs we also swapped the cables and ran the HIIIs as mains to compare. He was more impressed with the HIIIs than the CIIIs (the comparable size v sound). Now, those HIIIs were sitting on light metal stands about 1m off the floor (they were being used as surrounds) and well away from walls or corners. So, you could almost call it 1/2 space. His opinion was that they were fantastic speakers for mains duty with a good level of bass. Not as much as the CIIIs but with the addition of a small sub every bit as good.

Now, place those same HIIIs in a corner and you may find that they are still a fraction less capable than a CIII but more than capable for anything you throw at them. To be honest, I have my CIIIs in brick corners now and I have to trim the bass a bit as the 1/8 space gain is rather significant. In fact, sometimes I have to check that the DD-18 is not running.

HIIIs in the same 1/8 space might be just perfect.

Hence, I find it difficult to comprehend anyone suggesting HIIIs are anything but an outstanding choice for mains. Even better when appropriately and intelligently placed.

The H3's are definitely voiced to be mains. Mine are sort of in a corner - they are are either side of a corner fireplace, so the bass does get a little help from the walls (though not much). I actually felt bass come from them tonight, on a particular live jazz album (Bill Evans - Waltz for Debby), and that was with the S.E.X. amp volume pot at only 9 o'clock position, with about a 2 or 3V input from the preamp (i.e., total output was about 1/4W). These little suckers get LOUD on very little wattage.The stock irons on the S.E.X. amp (cheap Specos wired as autoformers) have rather wimpy bass, and probably start to roll off below 80Hz. Thus, I can only imagine how much fuller the H3's will sound with the MagnaQuest irons, beefier plate chokes, and better coupling caps!

So far, these are the best speakers I've heard from Klipsch, and hands down, the best speakers I've ever owned. All this and they have months to go before being broken in (esp. at the feeble volumes I listen at). Now I know why people lust after K-Horns! The best $1600 I've ever spent.

[dtel's wife]

Dtel and I had seriously considered HIIIs for our surround system.....but I don't want to get rid of the Forte IIs now doing surround duty. Putting the Forte IIs in our bedroom is really not an option, because we have Cornwall IIIs in our bedroom.

I would love to hear a HIII surround set up. I am so glad that you are happy with your purchase of the HIIIs.....I don't know how anyone could not love them.

[33RPM]

A week later and the speakers continue to "open up." Still not a trace of honkiness or a "horny" sound (sorry, that was cheap!).

The H3's sound even more balanced and rich now that I a) upgraded the inter-stage coupling capacitors with ClarityCaps (which are reasonably priced compared to other "boutique" capacitors, but still sound very good), raised the value of the parafeed caps (i.e., the ones that couple the output triodes to the transformers) to 2.2uF from 1uF, c) tore out the 30H plate chokes that came with the kit and put in two MaganaQuest BH2's (50H), and d) replaced the cheap Speco transformers with two BH1's from Magnaquest. The biggest difference seems to be that the amp is now even smoother, with no glare in the mids, and the bass is much, much tighter and deeper.

The "enhanced S.E.X." (i.e. the S.E.X. amp with the upgrades I described, plus CCS plate loads on the driver anodes) and H3's sound like they were made for each other. I don't "hear" an amp and speakers - just natural, smooth-sounding music!

[seti]

Have you ever tried the S.E.X amp as a 4wpc monoblock?

What do you think of the Quickie Preamp?

[luckyduck]

You have a wonderful system 33RPM![] Thank you for posting pictures!

[33RPM]

Have you ever tried the S.E.X amp as a 4wpc monoblock?

What do you think of the Quickie Preamp?

I haven't tried the monoblock arrangement, since going from 2W to 4W only adds 3dB to what already is plenty loud (H3's are 99dB, so 2W gets you 102dB, though I bet a strongly-preamplified signal through the MQ OPTs wouldn't clip until 3W, or 103.5dB), and I'd be better off building another integrated amp (like the rumored "stereomour" that may be released this year) rather than spending another $1k to build another equivalent enhanced S.E.X. amp for the other channel.The Stereomour will probably be $800, I would guess, and should put out about 3.5W with 2A3 tubes. Plus, it would use DHT's, which supposedly sound a little more "real." There's also the option of using 45 tubes (albeit with less output power, maybe 1.8W total), whose sound I like better than the 2A3.

The Quickie is quite the deal! It has that famed "DHT" sound and puts out an ideal amount of gain for something like the S.E.X. amp, which already has a driver stage. Plus, it's only $99, and there's no buzz or noise since the heater and B+ supplies are batteries. One set of batteries will get about 100-200 hours of play time, and the amp can be adapted for headphone use (which is why I originally built it - until I heard what it could do in my main setup!). It goes together very quickly and can accept two inputs. I can't imagine any reason not to buy at least one!