Heresy woofers...

[ciurca]

Okay, so I own a Blues bar and restaurant in Ocean City MD....

A friend of mine offered me 4 Heresy speakers which he took out of his bar after they closed down....I get them and plug them in.....and get no bottom end.....

I take the back off, and put the speaker leads to the mid, and to the high, and get sound from both.......but no sound from the woofers......and it is the same on all four.......weird.

Is it possible to blow the woofers alone? It might make sense, cause the place they came from played a lot of bass thumping rap.....(not my type of music)

Anyone with any similar experiences? Should I get a different woofer and see if that works? Seems like a Heresy would be worth rebuilding.

Thanks,

Craig Ciurca

craig@backwaterbbqandblues.com

http://www.backwaterbbqandblues.com

[nak]

yes it is, and your gonna cook them horns if u skip the cross over, what r u thinking?

[nak]

my heresy's are from 1985 , 4ohm , the only thing original is the boxes , i mid horn n 1 cross over..........i blame it on the nad 2200pe amp per speaker , i had 1500 peak power to each speaker , 500 watts continuous, now im into clean sound , nak amp series 7, ya heresy go down to 50 hz , u will need a sub for low-end, and by the way , that original woofer in your heresy did 50-6,000 Hz, incredibly high frequency for a 12, but accuracy uncomparable

[nak]

if u wanna replace that speaker, your gonna want a pa driver, one that does up to 6,000 hz, 4 ohm is perf.........correct me if im wrong bob =]

[nak]

or will he need an 8ohm driver? bob?

[nak]

uhg , i use to know this , i went through it too....... those horns r like 12 ohm

[JohnA]

The woofers' voice coils can be burned out by overpowering them, especially with equalization and big amps. Heresies will sound like they don't have enough bass if they are not placed properly, inviting a bass boost. Those woofers can be reconed fairly cheaply. Call 1-800-KLIPSCH. Their 15" brother the K-33-E is about $100 new or $75 for a recone at Klipsch. Surely your K-22s will not be more. Layne Audio in Nashville has had an after market woofer for Heresies. You could try one of those. I don't think I'd believe his claims for increased performance, there is only so much you can do with that size box. Last time I looked there was at least one pair of K-22s for sale on ebay, too.

The Heresy will just get down to 50 Hz. I'd say the bass roll-off starts around 70 Hz and then only if you have then against a wall. I suggest putting them against the wall and ceiling in your bar, woofer up. Then, use gentle bass boost (no more than 5 dB) if the sound is not well balanced in your room. Make sure your amp is big enough to handle the boost without clipping; 5 dB is 3.6 times as much power as no boost. If you want to rock the house, get a pro subwoofer and eliminate the EQ on the Heresies.

An easy, safe way to test drivers is to *rub* the leads on the terminals of a 1.5 volt battery. Don't use a 9V. Finally, the crossover points for a Heresy are 700 and 6000 Hz.

John

[ciurca]

Okay, I replaced a woofer with new 12 inch Jenson woofer from Wal-Mart (just to check to see if it was the woofer or the crossover). Man, do these speakers sound fabulous. Now, what should I buy to replace four blown woofers? Any online retailers or brand recommended? What would any of you audiophiles do with four Heresy's that were given to you, just needing new woofers?

[NOZ]

It sounds kind of strange that all 4 woofers are blown. Usually when you blow a woofer, it still makes sound, just distorted(crapped out). It would take a tremendous amount of current to melt a woofers voice coil. Not like a tweeters voice coil which is very, very fine wire, and will just pop and stop working.

I think I'd do a little more searching before buying new woofers. Maybe they were bi-amped for the club. Check the cross-over behing the binding post. There is a wire that runs continuous to all of the negative terminals, make sure it hasn't been cut before the woofer terminal.

Sean

[boa12]

noz, i managed to completely blow out both k-33 woofs in my cornwalls when my ole kenwood kr9600 (1975) blew out a few of its big caps a few years back. & it was just the woofs. just ordered & got 2 new k-33-e from klipsch. don't know if the prices have gone up, or I got a great deal ordering thru my local klipsch dealer, but i got 'em then for $50 each.

c, i replaced them w/ new k-33-e woofs from klipsch parts & they sound as good as new. i'd follow john's advice on the battery test for each woof, & get 'em fixed or new replacements, from klipsch parts, 1-800-klipsch, parts.

[ciurca]

I found out that they had the speakers hooked up to a PA system, with hip hop dj's. It all makes sense now.

Now I need to dress the cabinets up, so my wife will let 2 of the Heresy's into our family room.

[boa12]

c, unrelated, but reminds me of my used car purchase in '83 - a '78 saab 99 turbo. the dealer said it was a one owner car, but major things kept going wrong with it.

finally called the supposed previous "one owner" & found out from him he'd bought it used from another dealer. & they had got it used from the Ford Motor Company. seems they had used it for a test car.

[Malcolm]

I am assuming you are referring to consumer model Heresys and not industrial models.

Heresys are definitely worth rebuilding if you are looking for something to use. And depending on finish and condition they would be worth roughly between $300 and $500 a pair when you are done. OTOH there is a thriving market for the parts from them. The tweeter, midrange and crossover network could bring nearly as much if you part them out.

I believe the best replacement woofers would be K-24s from Klipsch, same as used in Heresy II. I think that is what Klipsch Tech Support recommends.

K-22s show up on eBay frequently. If you go with those, just make sure they match the vintage of your Heresys. If the Heresys are really early ones with the Type C network, you will want the EV or early CTS woofer. Any of the later woofers with ceramic magnets, like K-22-E, K-22-EF or K-22-K should work if you have Type D, E or E2 networks.

Some folks report good results with the Layne Audio woofers. But I am with John on this one. You just are not going to go significantly lower in that box. The only advantage might be that you might be able to go louder at low frequencies before exceeding the thermal or mechanical limits of the woofer.

The woofers can be reconed by a good shop. But you are probably looking at generic cones and voice coils, not factory replacement parts, so there could be some difference in performance/sound. It will probably cost about half what new Klipsch woofers will.

The only other alternative is to find another woofer with similar efficiency. There are not too many current off the shelf products that match. Pioneer makes some that come close.

[WMcD]

My guess is that you're on the right road.

The woofers were probably blown by a dj cranking the bass. It is fortunate that the midrange and tweeters weren't blow. If you have some doubt you can test them with a battery, as suggested above. You'll get a click or scratch from a good driver, and silence from a bad one. John A. gives good advice, always.

The Herseys are little gems. There seems to be a decision point on whether you (1) restore them to orginal condition with a factory replacement or factory repair (replace the voice coil), or (2) substitute something like what you've done so far as your expreriment.

Let me strongly suggest (1). Call 1-800-KLIPSCH and ask to talk to Trey Cannon. He is a great guy. He will set you up with a factory approved solution. It will most likely be as cheap as some non-factory cure.

It is worthwhile to get the units back to original condition for may reasons. They'll sound best, and have resale value. I suspect you'll never sell them. You'll have piece of mind.

Gil

There

[HDBRbuilder]

My $0.02 worth:

Don't waste your money on the Layne Audio woofers...they are no better than the stock Heresy woofers(if they are even as good!!) and they cost more...just get some replacement woofers for your Heresys from Klipsch!!