heresy with Heresys?

[Stainz]

Nov 2015 found me getting a pair of RB81ii's to use in my office stereo, comprised of a 50 Wpc Onkyo TX-8020/C-7030 combo. I soon moved the Onkyo's to my upstairs bonus/hobby room, replacing them with another C-7030 CDP and a 50 Wpc Emotiva a-100 mini-X amp in my office. Fantastic sound - and I was 'happy' - even when upstairs, as the repurposed Onkyo's now drive R-15M's. Then, as I was perusing CL earlier this fall, I found a pair of affordable '77 vintage Heresy's.   Oops. I hooked them up...

 

That just wouldn't do... do they really sound that much better? I couldn't A-B the speakers with the Emo amp... so I retrieved the TX-8020 and compared the pairs of Klipsch speakers. The RB81ii's are just at seated ear height in corner bookcases on a 12ft wall with the Heresys on their level risers at the bookcases' foot. Both fed with 10ft of #14 pure Cu stranded zipcord. The Heresys are a bit less sensitive, don't seem to go as low (But... I love their refined bass!), and, obviously, have a real midrange. Sadly - I wanted to more easily A-B the speakers, so I bought the Heresys their own amp!

 

Spending the kilobuck plus tor a SET hollow-state was out. But... the new version of my Emotiva was freshly 'out' and with a 15% Seasonal discount, it was an affordable $195... it was here in two days. New is the 110dB SNR... and the headphone jack, with an internal jumper to put full power available, if wanted. With it's volume control, it's quite a decent headphone amp. I had returned the Onkyo upstairs and made-up the speaker cable necessary to connect the new amp to the terminal strips on the Heresys by the time the amp arrived. I run the CDP's line out into the new amp and it's line out, a pass-thru, to the older amp, which drives the RB81ii's. I can now turn one up and the other down - rewind (go back!), reverse the pots, and compare. Thus far, I am not in a hurry to remove anything.

 

My question is this: Is it heresy, when you have the opportunity, if not the means, to not buy your Heresys a proper boutique amp? Perhaps more info would help. I am 68, have a roll-off over 10 kHz, a dip from 3-4 kHz (I really don't hear my wife...), and I almost always have something to listen to - I have tinnitus. Could I really tell the difference? Besides - I really like the little Emo amp! Of course, first reading about the K-horns and Heresy's over a half century ago helped place them on my bucket list.

 

[jjptkd]

Congrats on the new speakers! I'm a little confused by your post, are you saying the Heresy's sound significantly better than the 81 II's? If so that's not really a surprise or unexpected, the 81's are ok for what they are but nothing to really write home about.

[willland]

1 hour ago, Stainz said:

My question is this: Is it heresy, when you have the opportunity, if not the means, to not buy your Heresys a proper boutique amp?

 IMO, the HI's and the HII's do not need a boutique amp at all to sound fantastic.  I have used many a preamp/amp, integrated amp, and receiver to drive mine and all sounded very good.  They are very forgiving and not amp picky speakers.  

 

Take a look at my gear profiles and you will see what I "settled" on to drive my HI's and HII's.

 

Bill

[mustang guy]

I will be the Devil's Advocate here. 

 

RB-81's are new stuff and Heresy's are old stuff. RB-81s are from the days of AVR's and Heresy's are from the days of receivers and amps.

 

You get a different feel from old stuff in many ways. 

 

Hook those Heresy's up to a big old solid state stereo receiver and play and enjoy them more.  

[Stainz]

My vinyl collection was a victim of a 'domestic conversion' decades ago... but I still have my '68 vintage AR turntable.. a bit of a hoarder, I suppose. I did start acquiring my CD collection of my 'old music' three decades ago - and that is my music source today. My Philips CD-960 CDP taught me a valuable lesson re parts availability vs longevity (Scrapped due to unavailable drive belts!), as well as how one can easily spend too much money for perceived 'quality' (A 24# CDP! A $30 Apex DVD layer from a grocery store read CDs more  reliably!). My appreciation for music returned several years ago when I discovered the Onkyo C-7030 CDP. First connected to my older HT AVR's: Yamaha RX-V480 - replaced by a HTR-5640 and it by an Onkyo TX-SR505 (Current HT AVR.), it finally got it's own stereo receiver, a 50Wpc Onkyo TX-8020. My recycled HT speakers - Polk Large Monitors - were soon superseded by Infinity P163's (More HT hand-me-downs!) - and they by my first audio speaker for music listening only purchase in three decades - a pair of NHT SuperOne 2.1's.

 

The NHT's are acoustic suspension with a 6.5" LF/1" dome HF and an optimistic SPL of 85dB. But... they sounded like my Advent Large from four decades ago - great - an improvement over recycled HT speakers. Parallel to this, I had tried a pair of Klipsch KB-15's as external speakers for my short wave table top receivers and was seriously impressed with the loudness a Watt of audio could produce, not to mention the clarity afforded by the horn mid/hi frequency driver. I had to try them on the Onkyo pair and was seriously impressed. Now that CDP & stereo 50 WPC receiver are my upstairs bonus/hobby room stereo with the NHT's and a year old R-15M pair to select from. They were replaced in my 11' x 12' x 9' office by another C-7030 CDP and an Emotiva a-100 mini-X 50Wpc @ 8 Ohms power amplifier with volume control to drive my new RB-81ii's over a year ago. I enjoyed great music listening, whether in my office or the hobby room - I thought I was content... silly me!

 

I always wanted the Heresys... especially since hearing one over four decades ago as a cc for a pair of K-horns... WOW! I grabbed a pair from a CL vendor in October - great condition for '77 vintage. They needed their own amp, thus the 'boutique' amp question. The replacement for my earlier Emotiva amp, the A-100 BAS-X, had just been released at a Seasonal price of $195 - a pittance in boutique power amplifier terms, yet with great spec's. In use, I feed the CDP through the new amp, which drives the Heresys, and then the older amp, which drives the RB-81ii's. Thus, I can pot up either amp/speaker pair as I wish. It should have made deciding which speakers I preferred easier. It didn't! Instead, it gave me a reason to keep both systems and reinforced my indecision. My attempt at 'simplification' was thwarted. Okay, no loudness contour or scratch filters - not even tone controls (... to bypass!) - just a volume control   (... or two.). I am happy... actually elated - I finally have my Heresys - and didn't have to say goodbye to my RB-81ii's, either. Yeah, they deserved their own amp! Sorry for my ramblings.

 

 

[jjptkd]

Glad you have found sonic bliss, congrats! I recently picked up the industrial version of the Heresy and man do they sound good.

[HDBRbuilder]

I use a "boutique" H/K 430 twin-powered receiver with my Heresys...paid something like 30 bucks plus 15 bucks shipping for it in 1996...it was made in in early 1970's...just cleaned it up as soon as it arrived (pots, etc.), cleaned all the fuse contacts and replaced all the fuses (there are quite a few of them!) in the unit, and no problem since with it at all.

[moray james]

a 40 year old stock amp is an expensive  problem just waiting to happen (any day) and it does not sound anywhere near like what it did new. They caps in those things are getting old at fifteen yeas sounding less than great at twenty and now you risk your speakers when the supply fails. The parts in amps like this are not like the top quality oil filled caps found in old tube units these are cheap nasty old electrolytic caps. If you have recapped the unit please disregard this. I post mainly so others will be aware of the dangers of running good sounding 40 year old amps. moray james.

[jjptkd]

Yes, a friend of mine was running an HK solid state amp from the early '80's? One day he powered it up and boom! there goes both forte woofers in a puff of smoke.

[JohnA]

http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=yamaha+CA&isNewKw=1&mfs=GOCLK&acimp=0&_trksid=p2053742.m2428.l1313.TR12.TRC2.Xyamaha+ca&sqp=yamaha+ca

Especially a CA-800

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/SANSUI-AU-719-INTEGRATED-STEREO-AMPLIFIER-AMP-SERVICED-DUAL-MONO-BLOCK-MINTY-/311756482459?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150519202348%26meid%3Dade9e9c21a0441ca92a9346864724ea9%26pid%3D100408%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D25%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D122267644939&_trksid=p2056116.c100408.m2460

 

http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=kenwood+integrated+amplifier&isNewKw=1&mfs=KWCLK&acimp=0&_trksid=p2053742.m2428.l1311.R1.TR6.TRC2.Xkenwood+integrated&sqp=kenwood+integrated 

Esp. KA-7100

[HDBRbuilder]

On Thursday, December 15, 2016 at 3:39 PM, jjptkd said:

Yes, a friend of mine was running an HK solid state amp from the early '80's? One day he powered it up and boom! there goes both forte woofers in a puff of smoke.

My old HK 430 worked just fine at the Klipsch gathering the past two years (I also always bring a back-up).  Of course, I never power up ANYTHING without having the speaker switches in "off" setting AND the volume control all the way down...I also never power anything DOWN until I have eased the volume all the way down and waited a few seconds and hit the speaker "off" switches, and wait a few more seconds prior to cutting the power off.  I am "old school" on this technique for powering up and down....it is also much easier on the equipment, itself!  I have around a dozen+ old H/K units...430's, 630's, 730's, a 930, 50+. 75+, 100+, 150+,  2 each 800+, and my trusty old 900+ which was the heart of my system from 1975 until the early 1990's...not to mention some other amps, tuners, and pre-amps.

 

If they start to get dirty under "the hood", I just take them to the local carwash to clean them out...let them dry overnight and rock out with them the next morning!....GOTCHA!  LOL!