Greetings and presentation (stone heavy post)

[Marcelo_R]

Hi to everyone here at this Community, 👋

Not sure if this is the right place to start this, forgive my mistake if it isn't... (newby here).

 

I've just added a pair of ex-dem Heresy III (Cherry) to my system.

 

I was longing for having a horn based system but never decided to get one until I came across this pair that was available at a short drive from my place.

 

Being a long time "audiophile" (one of the skeptics type of), I've had a load of different (more than what I can remember without looking thru the pics taken along the road) amps, players, tt's, preamps, RTR's, speakers... yet never tried on my home a pair of horn loaded boxes.

I thought the Heresy III would be a great choice mainly because of what sometimes is (or so I've read) a point of (light) criticism: the bass not reaching below 60Hz.

What? Yes. Allow me to elaborate:

With a 12" woofer, closed box, HE speaker, I imagined it was the right ticket for my system: I run independently a pair of DIY 15" dual-coil Bass Reflex woofers (I don't call it subs because they reach up to 120Hz at the top, going down to barely 25Hz @ -3dB) so bass extension on the Klipsch wasn't a concern.

But I also had some pretty clear ideas that, once tried, proved me right: out of the box, placed where most of my speakers are usually placed in my room (attic of ~34sqm / ~360sqf), on its peculiar angled feet, they sounded "great" already on its own, but the bass sounded a bit muddy/colored for my taste and also on the lean side. Naturally.

 

Next step: Here's where my initial thoughts took over:

I removed the feet, placed the HIII's on top of a stand (raised 40cm/16") barely angled toward the listening point (perhaps less than 10º), and powed both woofers (placed at the very corners to enhance the bass, more about it later), and so they came alive: whatever colored bass coming from the floor reflection was gone, and crisp, clear, powerful notes crossed the room and brought a big smile on my almost 60yo face.

Now, back to the woofers: anyone would think "this guy must be hearing only bass notes coming from those woofers" (btw, the woofers are powered each by a stereo Sharp SX8800h, both channels driven (130w/ch) and connected directly to each coil of each woofer)... not.

I'm using an active DCX Ultradrive Pro 2496 (Crossover) to cut the Heresy and the woofers using active filters, so the Heresy were cut at 71Hz and so are the woofers at the same time with a -24dB BW filter.

Once that's done, using an RTA program (SmaartLive), I compensate the basic levels and then use a combination of PEQ and a bit of GEQ (using an Ultracurve DEQ2496) to fine tune the in-room response to get a as flat as possible graph.

So I basically have a system running from 28---18Khz at abt. +/-3dB overall at my listening/sitting point (some peaks and valleys are still there, need to fine tune it).

Bottom line: I'm enjoying a clean, powerful, wide open scene with all the detail my ears can retrieve and some (My last self-made test reached 12Khz, cannot hear 16Khz anymore... )

Bottom line II: if you reached here and didn't fell asleep or ran away in awe, I feel I made an more than excellent choice with the Heresy III, all the good I've read is not only true, but can be bettered playing with placement and adding some reasonably adjusted bass down the road! Thanks to the Klipsch guys for having such a "round" product at such an affordable price tag!

Kind regards from sunny Spain, Marcelo
 

 

[MEH Synergy]

Welcome to the forum.   Glad you are happy with your heresy IIIs. Wonderful speakers IMO, especially for the price.   Always nice to have powple from around the world as members.   I'll be doing something very similar to you, but likely not elevating the speakers.   Have fun and enjoy. 

[Marcelo_R]

Thanks for the welcoming reply!

As for raising the H3's, I found after playing with different heights that at least in my room (roof being an inverted "V") the 16" was the sweet spot (the mid at around ear level), yet, that's only valid for my room and furniture placement, impossible to apply (without using RTA) to any other listening room. Good luck with your project!
KR, Marcelo

[Peter P.]

While I'm not experimenting with stands and such, I just added a powered subwoofer to my Heresy II's.

 

Yeah; the Heresy's are beasts when cranked and can tickle the floor joists, but when I discovered there was a missing octave, I sought out a solution.

 

Adding subwoofer is it. It's a lot of fun experimenting with crossover frequencies and level matching, but in the end I've got a full range system with that Klipsch signature sound in a smaller package that fits my living space.