Heresy IV

[BigStewMan]

1 minute ago, CECAA850 said:

@dwilawyer sending you a text.

how many you going to send? 😀

[CECAA850]

Just now, BigStewMan said:

how many you going to send? 😀

I have no idea obviously. 

[Travis In Austin]

Just now, CECAA850 said:

I have no idea obviously. 

Ok, going over to phone.

[Travis In Austin]

2 minutes ago, BigStewMan said:

how many you going to send? 😀

 

I think we are gonna need a bigger boat.

 

His problem only problem is trying to decide.

[CECAA850]

2 minutes ago, dwilawyer said:

 

I think we are gonna need a bigger boat.

 

His problem only problem is trying to decide.

Variety is the spice of life.

[BigStewMan]

11 minutes ago, dwilawyer said:

His problem only problem is trying to decide.

yeah; but, his head is his only house unless it rains. But, it’s just low yo yo stuff.  Travis, you may be the only other forum member that would get that reference. 

 

[314carpenter]

Sharing a post with more pics of the Klipsch rooms at RMAF.

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/3089080-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019-pictures-impressions.html#post58522260

[pzannucci]

18 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said:

The "limiting factor" which caused the Heresy to be a three-way "CLOSED BOX" design (AKA "sealed cabinet" design) was directly due to the use of a short excursion woofer in it.  With the short-excursion woofer, a sealed cabinet was a necessity to keep the voice coil from being damaged from "slamming" at high-output levels.  IOW, as the cone moved forward in excursion, the air volume inside the cabinet reacted to that excursion like a vacuum to limit its forward excursion, and as it moved rearward the air volume "over-pressure" limited its rearward excursion. 

 

This issue can be somewhat nullified with the use of a longer excursion woofer...thus allowing for tuned porting of the speaker....it is what it is.  The cabinet still NEEDS to be built as air-tight as possible with the exception of the port, itself, in order to eliminate internal volume air leaks from anywhere EXCEPT the port...this provides for consistency in the performance from cabinet to cabinet.  The other problem involved in porting the Heresy was ALSO always related to its interior volume...which was originally specified to eliminate the slamming of that short-excursion woofer. 

 

Even when we went over to the drop-in front HBR speakers, PWK was quite concerned that with the new construction design, the interior volume of the cabinet would remain "In-Spec" ...that is why I had to take one "at random" that I had built and carry it over to the lab for PWK, himself, to measure the interior dimensions so that they matched the interior dimensions of the previous HDBR build specs.  That is what PWK is doing in this pic...measuring the interior volume of the HBR cabinet I had just brought over to him...the first thing he asked me was whether I had built it specifically for the measurements...to which I replied:  "Negative, Mr. Paul...I pulled it off of the pallet I had just moved...regular production"...PWK smiled and said "Good, that is what I asked for!"  I had been told to await his measurements and then let the foreman know what he said...so I did...that is how I got this pic...while waiting.  BTW, it was good to go!😉

Off subject but can't help noticing the braces on the La Scala.  Apparently someone either recognized the sidewall problem and tried to fix it or tried to prove it didn't exist.  Surprised it didn't make it's way into production.

[DizRotus]

51 minutes ago, pzannucci said:

can't help noticing the braces on the La Scala. 

 

Nice catch.  Notice too they are not centered vertically in the opening, which was a topic debated recently.

[pzannucci]

1 minute ago, DizRotus said:

 

Nice catch.  Notice too they are not centered vertically in the opening, which was a topic debated recently.

Don't want panels of the same size to resonate at close to the same frequency.

[jjptkd]

 I'm curious how much the port added to the bottom end.. I see the H-III only goes down to 58hz if I had to guess I'd say mid to low 40's? 

[geoff.]

Yes, the specs...!

 

And the official tech speak behind a tractrix port.

 

Hit me!

[Travis In Austin]

@McBlueMeter It appears that they are saying that the MSRP on the Heresy IV is going to be $3,000

 

I am waiting to hear back on what they are saying is the official availability date for them.

 

Travis

[HDBRbuilder]

7 hours ago, pzannucci said:

Off subject but can't help noticing the braces on the La Scala.  Apparently someone either recognized the sidewall problem and tried to fix it or tried to prove it didn't exist.  Surprised it didn't make it's way into production.

The braces didn't become a production thing simply due to the cost of hand-fitting them to either side of the doghouse...way too much labor time would have been involved, driving up the price of the LaScalas.  Keep in mind that there are varying minute differences between the bass bin side panels and the dog-house panels, which would have required hand-fitting of each brace.

[Islander]

23 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said:

The braces didn't become a production thing simply due to the cost of hand-fitting them to either side of the doghouse...way too much labor time would have been involved, driving up the price of the LaScalas.  Keep in mind that there are varying minute differences between the bass bin side panels and the dog-house panels, which would have required hand-fitting of each brace.

 

It was probably simpler and faster to just go to 1” side panels.  They look better, too.

[HDBRbuilder]

2 hours ago, Islander said:

 

It was probably simpler and faster to just go to 1” side panels.  They look better, too.

The company could not AFFORD to go to 1” side panels for the La Scala due to the increases in production costs involved…here is why:

 

1.    The pic above showing the La Scala with the braces was taken sometime in mid-to-late 1977.  Klipsch doubled the size of its production facility in 1976.  The construction of the expansion of the plant began in late 1975, but was not ready to move into until the end of summer in 1976.   I’m sure that the company still had a HUGE loan to pay-off on that expansion.  Even though the company was producing more speakers than ever, the company HAD TO constantly borrow money to meet the payroll and production costs while awaiting the payments by the dealers for the speakers shipped.  These were very short-term loans, but the interest rates were around 20% or more in those days, which SEVERELY ate into the company’s profitability.  The company, like so many others in the audio industry, was struggling for survival while actually increasing production (unlike most of the competition!).  This was the time frame where what became H/K International was actually buying-up other speaker companies, such as JBL and ALTEC, who were giving up the struggle to remain independent entities.  The world-wide economic situation was terrible for the audio industry, in general, but Klipsch was actually GROWING under extremely difficult financial strains. Klipsch was already having to raise the prices for the speakers way too often in order to stay afloat in those days.

2.    The La Scala was, at best, the THIRD largest seller in numbers, but those numbers still only amounted to a VERY small percentage of the numbers of speakers manufactured by the company, and lagged EXTREMELY FAR BEHIND the numbers of the top seller, the Heresy, and the Cornwall, which was actually not selling in numbers very much higher than the La Scala numbers at that time.  It was the HERESY speakers that kept the company afloat, PERIOD!

3.    Klipsch would not have had the discount thru high-volume purchases of 1” custom-laid “void-free” birch veneered plywood to justify the change for just the SIDE PANELS for ONLY the La Scala production.  This was directly opposite of the company's production intent…which had always been commonality of parts between the speakers, in order to secure discounted prices thru high-volume purchases.  IOW, since the amount of custom-made 1” plywood would not have been discounted for a high-volume purchase, it was simply not done.  It doesn’t help things that stuff like saw blades would get dull much sooner when cutting 1” thick panels.  And to top things off, we would have had to use either longer nails or screws to attach those sides during construction…and that is an expensive thing since the nail-guns being used at the plant were already shooting the longest nails they could.  It also would have added to the WEIGHT of what was designed as a relatively-easily-maneuverable stage speaker. 

I     PWK probably felt that if somebody wanted to "solve the resonance problem" after purchase, they could add their own braces to the bass bin,...but the company could not afford the losses entailed by "pricing a damned-good speaker out of existence" in order to solve a resonance issue which very few buyers at that time would even care about very much!

 

[whitebird]

Hello.  I am new to this forum but I am interested in the Heresy IV.  I was at RMAF and listened to them with the Cary SLI-80HC amp.  In speaking with the Klipsch rep, he stated the change in the Heresy IV from the III is:  (a) the speaker is now a bass reflex speaker with port in the back, (b) all three drivers are updated based on what they learned from the Forte III, (c) the box is about 1" taller to accommodate the updated design, (d)  the riser is updated (in black and no curve), (e) grills will be updated , (f) binding posts are updated to a higher quality, and (g) in addition to the standard three finishes, the IV will be available in distressed oak with the linen grills,

 

Finally, availability will be December 2019.  Hope this helps.

[Islander]

Thanks for that, HDBRbuilder!  It’s great to get the inside perspective on building and pricing speakers.  In many fields other than audio, like cars and motorcycles, some great machines have been built, but they had to be priced out of the reach of most buyers, so very few were built, and now they’re just names that few remember.  PWK was too smart to let that happen to his speakers, and to his company.

[Travis In Austin]

10 minutes ago, whitebird said:

Hello.  I am new to this forum but I am interested in the Heresy IV.  I was at RMAF and listened to them with the Cary SLI-80HC amp.  In speaking with the Klipsch rep, he stated the change in the Heresy IV from the III is:  (a) the speaker is now a bass reflex speaker with port in the back, (b) all three drivers are updated based on what they learned from the Forte III, (c) the box is about 1" taller to accommodate the updated design, (d)  the riser is updated (in black and no curve), (e) grills will be updated , (f) binding posts are updated to a higher quality, and (g) in addition to the standard three finishes, the IV will be available in distressed oak with the linen grills,

 

Finally, availability will be December 2019.  Hope this helps.

Were they playing those H4s at all?   Or just the cornwalls?  What did this Rep look llke?  Guy with glasses and a goatee,  or bald guy that talks a mile a minute.

 

One of those two guys you can never trust.

 

Just in time for Christmas!

[whitebird]

They played the Heresy's (at my request) but they were going back and forth since they had two identical systems, one for the Heresy and one for the Cornwall.  On the other question, guy with glasses and goatee....

Edited September 10, 2019 by whitebird