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Help-Identifying my speakers


tnlawyerguy

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You now what they are.  Here's is a bit more background. 

 

Hersey I's were made in the late 1970's to the mid 1980's.  There is also Heresy II (late 1980's to mid 1990's, and Hersey III (mid 1990's to the present).  

The differences between models is primarily the quality of the components, including the crossovers.  As many folks have already stated, you should consider upgrading the crossovers and the tweeter diaphragms.  I'm in the process of upgrading my Heresy II's with both components.  The improved performance of the speakers is startling.  You will be impressed.

 

For more information on crossover replacement for a Heresy II, check out the technical/modification forum on this BB, specifically this thread (shameless):

 

Good luck! 

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15 hours ago, IbizaFlame said:

I'd say the rug should cover at least a foot or two in front of the speakers - as you have hard wood floors.  You're doing this to reduce the amount of reflective spaces for higher frequencies.  As for the stand - yes.  You want to get the tweeters as close to ear level as possible.  You might need to tow them in a bit too.  I have most of my setups towed to have the horns just graze the outside from where my ears would be.

What is your major? Grammar? Towed in or toed in? :D:D:D

 

Mark

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5 hours ago, ricktate said:

You could get HDBR with grills.....the lack of edge trim is what designates it HDBR. From the pic it looks like no edge banding so HDBR. Need better picture to confirm.

 You could also get pre 80s LaScala with top grill or full grill.

i just want to say that this pair is H-BR and not HD-BR       Decorators have flush fronts. you can get decorators with grill cloth stapled to the front and then a molding added.

X = 1982

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On 11/7/2016 at 10:13 PM, tnlawyerguy said:

Any help is appreciated on this, a friend gave me these speakers.  I do not see a serial number or model number on them.  I'm not an audiophile either and I don't understand the speaker wire hook-ups--it looks like you can either wrap the wire around the screw or around a threaded rod then screw down a wingnut on it?  Is there some sort of special terminal or way to hook these up?

 

You have Heresy Is, my favorites.  The X means 1982.  The studs are for the connections inside the cabinet.  Use the screws for speaker wire.  If you want, you can use crimp-on spade lugs from Home Depot (or elsewhere) to make the connections easier, but a bare wire is fine. 

 

53244-2_sml.jpg

Your Fischer receiver is fine.  Use it until you are ready to upgrade. 

 

What city do you live in? 

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On 11/10/2016 at 4:06 PM, John Albright said:

 

You have Heresy Is, my favorites.  The X means 1982.  The studs are for the connections inside the cabinet.  Use the screws for speaker wire.  If you want, you can use crimp-on spade lugs from Home Depot (or elsewhere) to make the connections easier, but a bare wire is fine. 

 

53244-2_sml.jpg

Your Fischer receiver is fine.  Use it until you are ready to upgrade. 

 

What city do you live in? 

Knoxville

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Those are HBR Heresys.  Klipsch dropped the "D" for decorator very soon after we changed the build on them.  They have the drop-in motorboards which are painted black, and they came with grilles attached using Velcro.  The old Decorator Heresy cabinets actually had a better survival rate using the corner drop test...due to the overlapping butt-joint construction which included the motorboard.

 

As for the connections on the rear of them, they are DESIGNED to use bare wire.  You can attach connecters such as the spade type to the ends of your speaker wire, but keep in mind that each additional connection or splice in any electrical circuit (to include speaker wires) creates additional electrical resistance...which is compounded slightly by changes in the medium carrying the load.    Your current speaker connectors were made for 8-guage lamp-cord-type wire, but if you use larger wire, there is MORE possibility of "stray" wire strands reaching the adjacent connection, so keep that in mind when you are attaching the speaker wires to them.

 

My personal favorite Heresys are HDBL, made a few years prior to yours.  Yes, I still use 8-guage copper speaker wire...and the wire is a bare connection to the terminals on my Heresys.  I also have a pair of Heresy II HWL, but I like the sound of my HDBLs better.

 

Looking at the rear of your speakers, follow the rear side edge on YOUR left up to near the top left corner.  You should see some stamped-in letters. there.  They may be hard to see.  If you see the letter "A" by itself or BESIDE another letter, then I built them.  If you see another letter above or below that, then that letter is who sanded your speakers.  THe letters were used as a quality control measure, so that when the speakers were inspected, if there were any flaws due to build or sanding, they could take them back to the builder or sander and have them corrected.  I never had any speaker I built returned to ME in my 7 years there.

 

Enjoy them, they are great speakers!

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6 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said:

Those are HBR Heresys.  Klipsch dropped the "D" for decorator very soon after we changed the build on them.  They have the drop-in motorboards which are painted black, and they came with grilles attached using Velcro.  The old Decorator Heresy cabinets actually had a better survival rate using the corner drop test...due to the overlapping butt-joint construction which included the motorboard.

 

As for the connections on the rear of them, they are DESIGNED to use bare wire.  You can attach connecters such as the spade type to the ends of your speaker wire, but keep in mind that each additional connection or splice in any electrical circuit (to include speaker wires) creates additional electrical resistance...which is compounded slightly by changes in the medium carrying the load.    Your current speaker connectors were made for 8-guage lamp-cord-type wire, but if you use larger wire, there is MORE possibility of "stray" wire strands reaching the adjacent connection, so keep that in mind when you are attaching the speaker wires to them.

 

My personal favorite Heresys are HDBL, made a few years prior to yours.  Yes, I still use 8-guage copper speaker wire...and the wire is a bare connection to the terminals on my Heresys.  I also have a pair of Heresy II HWL, but I like the sound of my HDBLs better.

 

Looking at the rear of your speakers, follow the rear side edge on YOUR left up to near the top left corner.  You should see some stamped-in letters. there.  They may be hard to see.  If you see the letter "A" by itself or BESIDE another letter, then I built them.  If you see another letter above or below that, then that letter is who sanded your speakers.  THe letters were used as a quality control measure, so that when the speakers were inspected, if there were any flaws due to build or sanding, they could take them back to the builder or sander and have them corrected.  I never had any speaker I built returned to ME in my 7 years there.

 

Enjoy them, they are great speakers!

The letters are JO

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5 hours ago, tnlawyerguy said:

The letters are JO

The "O" is Ola Mae Davis...she sanded them.  The "J" may have been Jay Barrentine, who sometimes came over from the LaScala builder section to build Heresys...normally when I was not there.  Gotta take a day off every now and then, right?

 

Ola Mae Davis was a true character...she was in her late 60's when your speakers were built...thin, wiry, chain smoker...and she was hilarious...but one of the two best in the sanding department...BUT, if you asked HER,  she was THE best in that department!  She did the sanding on my HDBL Heresys.  She was one of the employees I missed the most when I left Klipsch in 1983!  She gave everybody a hard time...in a way that kept them all laughing!  Loved that lady!

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22 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said:

Your current speaker connectors were made for 8-gauge lamp-cord-type wire...

 

I believe you mean 18 gauge, especially when speaking of lamp cord. That was, and still is, a common size for hooking up speakers.

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Just an aside here on how we squared-up the box when building HBR cabinets.  The motorboards were drop-in from the front.  it was pretty easy to ensure the motorboard panels were cut squared since they would have problems fitting into the pin router form if they weren't...and the openings were routed prior to going to the paint room to be shot with black paint.

 

So, once everything on the box was completed EXCEPT the installation of the motorboard, the box was laid on its back, the glue bead was run around the glue blocks for the motorboard, the motorboard was dropped in.  THEN, with non-staple gun hand thumb over top front edge of box, and remaining fingers of same hand stuck through tweeter hole, the motorboard was pulled to the top of the opening and the gaps between each side panel and the side edges of motorboard each side were eye-balled to get them equal.  Then the top edge of the motorboard was stapled to the glue blocks underneath...then cabinet slid around on its back and same procedure for the bottom edge of motorboard.  THen just run staple gun down each side of motorboard and done!

 

PWK was concerned over production quality control when it first began and wanted to ensure that the interior volume remained correct and that the boxes were squared, with motorboard centered left to right.  So a week or so after production changeover began, my foreman told me to grab a heresy cabinet from one of the previous day's production pallets and take it to "Mr. Paul" at the lab...so I did.

 

PWK was there when I got to the lab and told me to hang around for a few minutes...I had my camera with me.  Then he started measuring interior dimensions, cross measuring the box to ensure everything was squared.  And while he was doing this I got a pic of him.

 

He then asked me who built it...I told him "Me, Sir!"  He said "Good job,  I'll send the cabinet back over later on"...and back to the workbench I went.

 

In the pic, you can also see the LaScala cabinet in the left background with the Reinforcing wings added to the bass bin...which had previously been tested.

PWK at work.jpg

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