Really impressed with the Heresy III

[willland]

1 hour ago, Westcoastdrums said:

That microwave is my computer flipped on its side that all of my files are ripped in FLAC or WAV and running through a DAC.   That is my primary source of listening.  

Actually I thought it was a big fat 100lbs amp.

 

Bill

[MEH Synergy]

In the past it would have been. Efficiency is a beautiful thing.  The choice of amps becomes endless and quality is easily placed before quantity at much better prices.   Long live Klipsch.  For a pro system I had prior that was biamped, I had FOUR Crown Macro Reference amplifiers.  That system was something to hear and feel, quality and quantity wise.  

[Kevin S]

5 hours ago, rjp said:

Then I get the impression he liked to hear as much of his horns as physically possible  

I think Westcoast's suggestion was for those of us who may want a little less.

 

45 deg corners does sound nice though. 

Actually, he showed the 45 degree toe in crossing the speakers well in front of the listener, so the listener was well off axis. He believed in using the precedent effect to stabilize the stereo image over a large area. 

[rjp]

Oh, they cross over in front of the listener, so it would off axis indeed. To achieve this geometry I would have to move my couch back or move the speakers closer together.  So if I put them only 6 feet apart and toe at 45 degrees they would cross over at 5.2 feet in front. So in order to have then cross over "well in front of the listener" I guess that means I should sit about 8-10 feet away. Does that sound right? 

[Kevin S]

1 hour ago, rjp said:

Oh, they cross over in front of the listener, so it would off axis indeed. To achieve this geometry I would have to move my couch back or move the speakers closer together.  So if I put them only 6 feet apart and toe at 45 degrees they would cross over at 5.2 feet in front. So in order to have then cross over "well in front of the listener" I guess that means I should sit about 8-10 feet away. Does that sound right? 

If possible, try to keep the speakers as wide as possible, as close to the wall as possible, toed in 45 degrees and move your listening position to fine tune to your liking. This might help explain the thinking: http://assets.klipsch.com/files/Dope_750801_v15n2.pdf

[moray james]

On 7/6/2018 at 1:59 PM, Emile said:

Haha ... Cornwall's could have been 6 inches taller from a single sheet  

the height was no mistake it was intentional and was set so as to come in just below the standard widow sill height  in house builds of the day same for the Belle height since it was also sold in singles as a stereo centre fill for wide spread Khorns.

[Emile]

14 minutes ago, moray james said:

the height was no mistake it was intentional

Sure it was designed correctly ... was only kidding  

[rjp]

To me the HIII sound better at closer listening distances. Basically, the closer I get the more I like them. Tried the couch about 15 feet away from 8' separated speakers and the sound is not as good unless I crank it up to really get some air moving.  As I move closer it gets better. For low/moderate volume I seem to like them best at approximately equilateral triangle positioning. Is that considered near field? Say 8x8x8? It may be that at greater distance I am getting reflections from the far wall. Room is about 16 feet wide and  28 feet long, speakers about 18" out along short wall. 

[rjp]

Also, I did some experimenting this weekend, and the objectionable sound component I am hearing appears to be produced by the mid horn, not the tweeter. I determined this using both tissue paper method and EQ controls (I am using a 4-band Schiit Loki). Given my concerns of excessive brightness I was  a bit surprised to find they sound even better with the upper treble boosted a bit, so the part of the spectrum that I am overly sensitive to is actually in their upper midrange. A fix could be as simple as reducing the level to this driver. I did not try the bi-amp test yet.

[Shakeydeal]

I must have missed it, but what amp are you driving these with?

 

Shakey

[Kevin S]

4 hours ago, rjp said:

To me the HIII sound better at closer listening distances. Basically, the closer I get the more I like them. Tried the couch about 15 feet away from 8' separated speakers and the sound is not as good unless I crank it up to really get some air moving.  As I move closer it gets better. For low/moderate volume I seem to like them best at approximately equilateral triangle positioning. Is that considered near field? Say 8x8x8? It may be that at greater distance I am getting reflections from the far wall. Room is about 16 feet wide and  28 feet long, speakers about 18" out along short wall. 

A 15 foot listening distance is definitely far field and certainly includes more of the room in the sound. I think 8 feet is fairly normal and not considered near field. Fine tune the 8ft listening distance and adjust the toe in to change the tonal balance and stereo imaging to your liking. A few inches to a foot in the listening position can make a fairly big change. An inch or two in toe can as well. Mine are a 13x12x12 triangle. The speakers are toed in 45 degrees. 

[rjp]

7 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

I must have missed it, but what amp are you driving these with?

 

Shakey

I am using a VTA version of the ST70. It is an EL34 pp tube amp. It is 35 WRMS per channel.  Is that ok for these speakers?

[Shakeydeal]

4 hours ago, rjp said:

I am using a VTA version of the ST70. It is an EL34 pp tube amp. It is 35 WRMS per channel.  Is that ok for these speakers?

 

That should be fine. I was just curious if a cheap receiver was in play.

 

Shakey

[rjp]

The closer I sit the better these sound. I am really enjoying what I am hearing lately. I think that when too far away the room messes up the sound.

Right now the HIIIs are about 6 feet away and 6 feet from each other, on the floor on their original risers and it is very nice.

[Maximus89]

On 7/9/2018 at 10:55 AM, rjp said:

Given my concerns of excessive brightness I was  a bit surprised to find they sound even better with the upper treble boosted a bit, so the part of the spectrum that I am overly sensitive to is actually in their upper midrange.

I too found this to be my solution as i added Titanium diaphragms for the mids(from the Heresy III and Cornwall III) in my Chorus II's and a slight cut at the upper mid frequencies as well as a bigger cut at 7k(necessary for me since i dont have the bandpass yet to roll off the Ti mid that keeps playing at full volume when the tweeter is supposed to come in at 7k where the original phenolic dropped off). 
Burn in(have had them playing non stop since last Thursday night) and that slight eq from 2.5khz to 7khz has really helped and i'm actually on board now with the Ti mids and i've yet to even refresh my caps either.  Haven't tried a boost to the upper treble/tweeter, but i'm definitely going to give it a shot tomorrow night.

[Guest wdecho]

L-pads can solve a lot of problems such as this. Easy, quick, inexpensive way to tailor the sound to ones room and personal taste. 

[rjp]

Agreed. If I built speakers I'd put an L-pad on each tweeter and mid just because it's easy and cheap (and I like tuning stuff).

 

Will the mid horn in the HIII respond well to an 8 Ohm L-pad without it messing up the crossover frequencies? There seems to be a lot of debate about such things.

[Guest wdecho]

6 minutes ago, rjp said:

Agreed. If I built speakers I'd put an L-pad on each tweeter and mid just because it's easy and cheap (and I like tuning stuff).

 

Will the mid horn in the HIII respond well to an 8 Ohm L-pad without it messing up the crossover frequencies? There seems to be a lot of debate about such things.

You can install some on the mids of your speakers. Just take the back off and install on mids. Measure between center pin and one outside pin for roughly 2.4 ohms, which will be 3db, which is considered what is needed to hear a difference, and reinstall back and see how you like the sound. You can then adjust one way or the other if you deem necessary. It will involve removing the back each time but with cordless drill and screwdriver bit it is not that big a deal. With one of the outside pins you will have much more resistance than the other outside pin. Which one depends on if you connected the L-pad correctly. Just remember the center pin is the one that goes to the speaker. The hookup of L-pad is included with all L-pads I have bought from Parts express. I usually just buy 15 watt ones for horns for around $6 apiece. Horn speakers at home will never see a continuous 15 watts. Probably more like 2 or 3 watts on peaks. 

[pzannucci]

20 minutes ago, rjp said:

Agreed. If I built speakers I'd put an L-pad on each tweeter and mid just because it's easy and cheap (and I like tuning stuff).

 

Will the mid horn in the HIII respond well to an 8 Ohm L-pad without it messing up the crossover frequencies? There seems to be a lot of debate about such things.

If the crossover can handle the resultant impedance of the L-pad, within the confines of lowering of raising a driver's output, yes.  But be careful, that doesn't totally take into account all things that are happening and the actual impedance / inductance with the L-pad won't be perfect.  I've owned a number of high quality L-pads and they aren't as close as I'd hoped to actual resistor values required).  Additionally if you draw a picture of two slopes that cross each other (opposite directions), as you raise or lower one of the hills, you change the intersection point (crossover point).  If you take all things into consideration going into using an L-pad and don't look for perfection, you probably can be happy because the flexibility of having adjustments will outweigh the down side.

[rjp]

8 hours ago, wdecho said:

 I have bought from Parts express. I usually just buy 15 watt ones for horns for around $6 apiece. Horn speakers at home will never see a continuous 15 watts. Probably more like 2 or 3 watts on peaks. 

I have two of those same L-pads from Parts Express at home. I didn't realize the speaker backs were screwed on. I didn't notice screws.