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Rare Klipsch Model H700 Speakers from 1960's "Pre-Heresy" museum quality


314carpenter

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https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/ele/d/milwaukee-rare-klipsch-model-h700/6842652786.html

 

No photos now, but If someone really wants to buy them I can contact the seller for you and ask for more information. I think the price is sky high, but I know this seller as being a local source for NOS electronics dating back 40+ years. If he says museum quality, covered in a back bedroom, he is telling the truth. He bought everything, stored it, now decades later, it is all getting sold as he peels back the layers of his collection. He usually has very low serial #'s. He also has some very high prices on the hard to find stuff. Low prices on the common stuff. Only true collectors need apply for this one.

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@wvu80

I don't know who posts stuff where, or what other usernames they would have at potential other locations. I doubt that is the case here though. This guy seems like he gets something out from the hoard and usually posts it for sale on CL immediately, then takes pics later. He posted this one 8 days ago.

Maybe someone else can advise.

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17 minutes ago, 314carpenter said:

I don't know who posts stuff where, or what other usernames they would have at potential other locations.

Here is a pair of H-700's that sold for $455 in Feb 2019.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Klipsch-Model-H700-Heresy-Stereo-Speakers-Vintage-Classic/233137986257?hash=item36481b5ad1:g:380AAOSwYyVcavtH

 

I was interested in the topic because I had never even heard of the H-700's, then there were a couple of pair available at the same time.  The Other Guy (I couldn't find the FB thread) said his were more rare than anyone else's and he found one pair which sold for about $3K so he wanted that amount for his.

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1 minute ago, wvu80 said:

Here is a pair of H-700's that sold for $455 in Feb 2019.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Klipsch-Model-H700-Heresy-Stereo-Speakers-Vintage-Classic/233137986257?hash=item36481b5ad1:g:380AAOSwYyVcavtH

 

I was interested in the topic because I had never even heard of the H-700's, then there were a couple of pair available at the same time.  The Other Guy (I couldn't find the FB thread) said his were more rare than anyone else's and he found one pair which sold for about $3K so he wanted that amount for his.

I don't do facebook, so can't comment on that thread. I could see that type of discussion providing motivation for anyone to pull a pair out from the hoard though. Could be the same guy, but I do not know how the one I posted gets his pricing. These are $950, and average pairs would be average looking and average price at like $450 or whatever. The thing is find another museum piece then find it for less money. Like I said before, only true collectors need apply. I am not in that group.

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26 minutes ago, DizRotus said:

Despite the halftime lead, I suspect there was serious Izzo talk in the locker room.

 

OOPs!  Wrong thread.

Got you covered my friend!

 

Check out my comment to your comment, which I moved to the Basketball thread.  B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

@carlthess40

You may send me a PM if you need assistance.

 

Incredible Speaker Collection ALTEC-JBL-ELECTRO VOICE-RCF and MORE

https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/ele/d/milwaukee-incredible-speaker-collection/6842633588.html

Contact info is included in this listing

He says send him a list of wants in an email and he will check if he has it. All is for sale, no holds.

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/23/2019 at 8:03 PM, wvu80 said:

Here is a pair of H-700's that sold for $455 in Feb 2019.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Klipsch-Model-H700-Heresy-Stereo-Speakers-Vintage-Classic/233137986257?hash=item36481b5ad1:g:380AAOSwYyVcavtH

 

I was interested in the topic because I had never even heard of the H-700's, then there were a couple of pair available at the same time.  The Other Guy (I couldn't find the FB thread) said his were more rare than anyone else's and he found one pair which sold for about $3K so he wanted that amount for his.

H700 means that it had the K-700 Mid-Range horn lens.  That's all!  

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4 hours ago, wvu80 said:

 

Thanks.  With your kind permission, I added that note to my Heritage Prices spreadsheet. 

No permission needed...add away! 

 

The only thing "RARE" is the label itself designating them as H-700's...and that was just a stop-gap nomenclature anyway!

 

To fully understand, you have to remember what was going on in the audio world at the time and how it affected Klipsch decisions.

 

When PWK introduced the Heresy, it wasn't even called that.  It was the "model H"...which came about from a conversion with a colleague, PWK was talking about the speaker while sketching it out on a napkin, at a restaurant (IIRC!,) and the colleague mentioned that PWK's decision to market a supplementary NON-FULLY-HORN-LOADED speaker to the K-horn seemed to be Klipsch Heresy!  Remember, it was the FIRST speaker to be successfully-marketed by PWK as a supplementary speaker to a K-horn!...to be used in a separate room or in the same room with a K-horn...most people then had monaural systems, anyway!  But PWK loved the three-speaker stereo array and I am sure in the back of his mind he was thinking "not only is it a supplementary speaker, but it also a budget stepping-stone to selling an additional K-horn down the road as more people go to the three-speaker stereo array...using the little speaker as their center-channel".  He was "looking into the future" of audio, and his own business!  Make sense?? 

 

All throughout PWK's "audio career" he had to look into the future!...much of that attitude had to do with other technologies catching-up, actually!  His game-plan was to design and market speakers for a living, and to support his other audio research interests!  And he hoped it would all work-out for him that way!  Make a good living, and continue the research he loved, without needing to resort to a different career, which would force his TRUE interests back to "hobby-status"! 

 

WE ALL HAVE THAT KIND OF DREAM, don't we??  He wanted to live his dream, just like everybody else!  Pretty simple!

 

He had all kinds of ideas for speakers, but his MAJOR LIMITING FACTOR was that technology had not yet gotten to the point he could implement some of them!  THAT IS EXACTLY WHY the Jubilee development came so damned late in his life...he was waiting for technology to catch-up and he was part of the great many others who were assisting in nudging it forward!  He wanted a TWO-WAY fully horn loaded speaker which would out-perform the current three-way Klipschorn!...he was waiting on technology to catch-up in the UPPER frequency horns!..so that could FINALLY HAPPEN for him!

 

OK, back to the Heresy:  The Heresy DID NOT NEED TO BE a full-spectrum speaker...its design parameter was to be SUPPLEMENTARY to a K-horn, therefore it just had to be similarly-voiced, ...and also didn't NEED to have a bass horn...the K-horn provided the bass!...but it at least needed to provide SOME BASS!!...especially if used in a separate room!

 

VOILA! The Heresy!

 

But, PWK soon realized early on after its introduction that non-K-horn owners were buying them as an inexpensive alternate to the cost of owning a K-horn...so improvements began relatively early-on in the life of the Heresy speaker!  Things were upgraded...especially for the woofer and the mid-horn lens...this happened in stages and for the woofer end of things was based on purchase cost, quality, longetivity, and performance-matching with other drivers already in the Heresy.  So, with the upgrades in those things, cross-over network changes were required here and there.   One of the things PWK wanted even before the mid-1960's was to improve the mid-horn-lens...better dispersion and such...the K-700 was the answer to that! and it actually REMAINED the answer for the Heresy for around two decades of Heresy production!! 

 

By the time the K-700 was ready to be used in production, the big move from monaural to stereo systems was in full swing...and had been so for a few years!  PWK was concerned with people buying an additional Heresy to go with their old one when they up-graded to stereo, and how different they may sound from each other...so how do you let people know that they may not sound the same as the one they already have...because you have changed the mid-range horn lens??  Simple: just name it after that horn change!  And how long do you NEED to call it that before you can just call it a Heresy again??  Not very long!...just a few years, MAYBE even LESS, would be enough!  In the audio world, news travels quickly, EVEN IF you don't advertise much!  People will review it due to the "new name", compare it to the previous one, and word will get out about the differences...too easy!

 

Voila!  The H-700!  Pretty simple!

 

I really don't consider them "RARE"...simply because so many of them were sold!...in a relatively short-time-span!...using THAT nomenclature! 

 

Also, there is really very little difference between it, and the Heresy speaker that followed it,  other than the nomenclature of what it was CALLED!...they are both voiced pretty-much identically!..same cabinet, same tweeter, same mid-horn and driver...yadda yadda, yadda...a bit of crossover change came about, but not REALLY much over the next twenty years of the combined H700 and (what is NOW called the) "Heresy 1" version production-time-span. Pretty much the same speaker throughout that time, for all intents and purposes, anyway!

 

Some really nit-picking people will argue my opinion...talking about HOW VERY MUCH DIFFERENCE THOSE CHANGES MADE, and they actually DID, when every one of them is added together...but I say they still sounded about the same!l ...But,  to each his/her own!

 

So, truth be known, what ACTUALLY IS RARE, is just what was written on the LABEL-tag of the H-700...and that's about it!  IMHO!!

 

 

 

 

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50 minutes ago, HDBRbuilder said:

 

He had all kinds of ideas for speakers, but his MAJOR LIMITING FACTOR was that technology had not yet gotten to the point he could implement some of them!  THAT IS EXACTLY WHY the Jubilee development came so damned late in his life...he was waiting for technology to catch-up and he was part of the great many others who were assisting in nudging it forward!  He wanted a TWO-WAY fully horn loaded speaker which would out-perform the current three-way Klipschorn!...he was waiting on technology to catch-up in the UPPER frequency horns!..so that could FINALLY HAPPEN for him!

 

 

Fascinating read, thank you for that. 

 

Does this describe the reason that the "Reference Series" and most of the newer, later-day speaker designs from Klipsch have been two - way designs - even though they're not fully horn loaded? 

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