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How to finish rough 1978 Heresy cabs


Pats3of4

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I have a pair of Heresy speakers from 1978.  Bought Solen caps for the crossover.  Took drivers and crossover out.  The cabs are beat up but solid.  Thought of sanding, priming, and painting black.  Possibly semi gloss-textured.  

 

Scratches are deep enough to go through in veneer in spots.  Any "easy" ideas to refinish these?

 

Also, is it worth lining the cabs with foam or acoustic stuffing?

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Before you go to nuts, just listen to them. A+b them against each other (turn balance to the right, turn to the left). They are on the older side, if there is issues, I would start at recapping the crossovers. Open the backs and check out the drivers. On mine, the tweeters had some oxidation on the outside (didn't affect sound, just looks ugly), so I cleaned them. After you get some time on them, then determine what you want to do. Upgrading the tweets and mids will probably cost you the same price as the speakers, if not more. 

 

Start slow, get the refinish going and just listen to them with a good stereo receiver (not a home theater receiver, I learned this the hard way), or a preamp/amp combo.

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There was a definite difference in sound somewhere in the mids/highs between the two.  I bought replacement caps to hopefully rectify that issue.  The face of the mid and tweet horn could use a respray but everything looks great inside the cabinet.  I played them for a couple months on a vintage stereo receiver.  They actually sounded great.  Took awhile before i realized the difference in sound

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1 hour ago, Pats3of4 said:

The face of the mid and tweet horn could use a respray but everything looks great inside the cabinet.

I'd caution against respraying the horns.

 

I don't know if this a popular thing to do but the most I would do is clean the horns with soap and water, then dry off to remove any potential water spots.


I had a friend who painted a cowbell and noticed it changed the sound of the bell. I'd be afraid the same would happen to speakers.

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For a black finish I like Satin instead of semi-gloss.  That is a personal preference because I don't like shiny or semi-shiny speakers. 

+++

 

Here is my Post #1 on this forum.  My newly acquired CF-4's had a deep scratch deep into the veneer, just as you described.  I was able to restore the cabs but no easy fix.

 

It took a LOT LOT LOT of hand sanding over weeks, then a complete Medium Oak re-stain with and multiple coat polyurethane application, in satin.  I imagine if you use black it will completely cover the scratch, hide it at the very least.

 

 

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Its amazing such a simple design can sound so good.  Two caps, two coils, a few drivers in a plywood box and you have an iconic speaker.  

 

Ive built speakers using cloned plans where the crossover parts were super complex (compared to these) and the parts $600 for the pair (Merlin monitors).  Not even close.  Heresy is one of my favorite speakers.  

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On 1/9/2017 at 6:59 PM, Pats3of4 said:

I have a pair of Heresy speakers from 1978.  Bought Solen caps for the crossover.  Took drivers and crossover out.  The cabs are beat up but solid.  Thought of sanding, priming, and painting black.  Possibly semi gloss-textured.  

 

Scratches are deep enough to go through in veneer in spots.  Any "easy" ideas to refinish these?

 

Also, is it worth lining the cabs with foam or acoustic stuffing?

 

Yep.  Putty and sand smooth.  Have cabinet maker veneer and finish with satin polyurethane.  :D

20170111_191945e.jpg

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