To the unknown soldier...

[MeloManiac]

... stationed somewhere in Germany in the 1970s. I know the chances are slim you'll read this. But I want to let you know your Heresy I speakers have found a warm home and I'm not a collector, but a music lover, like yourself, I guess. I'm enjoying listening to them as I'm typing this, and they sound fantastic!

I recently bought this pair of nice Klipsch Heresy I speakers in Brussels, Belgium. The seller, a collector, told me he bought them in an audiophile shop in Germany 4 years ago. According to him,  they were previously owned by an American military person stationed in Germany. They were sold to the shop when the soldier returned to the US. Apparently, quite a few Klipsch speakers arrived in Europe like that.

If this is true, I would like to greet you through this forum and let you know how much I enjoy listening to them. I can tell you took good care of them and I will do the same. They just needed some dusting off and walnut oil to make them shiny again. Now they are good for another 47 years, I guess!

 

[HDBRbuilder]

Your Heresy speakers were likely bought while the Soldier was stationed in Europe.  There was a company called the EUSAREUR Audio/Photo Agency which had stores on American military bases in Europe.  They sold lots of Klipsch Heresy speakers and La Scala speakers to American military members back in those days.  This company heavily discounted what they sold...often selling things at or slightly above around 50% off what we now call MSRP!!  So they did a brisk business!

 

I would imagine that those two Heresy speakers sold thru that agency for around 275-350 USD a pair in 1972...think about that for a few minutes.  For the average ENLISTED Soldier, that would STILL have been between 1.5 and 2 month's take-home pay in 1972 in the Private thru Specialist pay grades (E-2 thru E-4) range!!  Soldiers back then would go to the credit union, take out a loan for their stereo equipment, and make monthly payments on that loan.  I know, I was one of them...stationed in Europe from 1972-1976....I bought my stereo equipment at the same stores...my cameras, too!

 

I also spent over a month in Belgium working with the 3rd Para-commando Battalion in 1974....here is a video of that operation:

I was a young American paratrooper then, in the 1st BN, 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team.  My Company, B Co, participated in the operation which was a joint operation with the BE 3rd Para.  We participated in an amphibious assault on the beaches at Ostende, then made parachute drops, linked up, and eventually  crossed the Meuse River, and finished up in the Ardennes...then went to Schaffen and made balloon jumps to get our Belgian para wings awarded.  Some of the still photos in the video were taken by me.  One of my old 3rd Para friends made up this video of that operation a few years ago!  THis is the original shortened version...but there is an extended version also on YouTube....lots more pics taken by myself are included in that version.

 

Working with the Belgian Para-Commando guys was always a treat!  Great Soldiers, tough as nails...and party-animals when off-duty...we had lots of fun together in Diest clubs!

[rplace]

Nice grills, love the look!

[Frzninvt]

I bought a pair of Heresy's and Forte's while stationed in Ramstein, GE in the late 80's and both pair came home with me.  It was some of the best times to get lots of top notch gear at the BX's, PX's and Audio Photo clubs over there.

[mark1101]

My first pair of lascalas were purchased from a vet who bought them in Europe when he was stationed there..........but then brought them back home with him.  I had to drive to Virginia for them.  I enjoyed those for several years.

[MechEngVic]

Thank you to all our vets on this forum.

[MeloManiac]

5 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said:

We participated in an amphibious assault on the beaches at Ostende, then made parachute drops,

In the video, Koksijde Airport is mentioned. I can tell you it has recently been closed down and is no longer a military facility. 

 

[MeloManiac]

5 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said:

I know, I was one of them...stationed in Europe from 1972-1976....I bought my stereo equipment at the same stores...

 

I'm curious about the facilities you were living in. Were these like homes, with private rooms where you could safely keep and enjoy your music gear, or was it more like dorm rooms with little privacy (and little personal space to listen to music)? Were there other speaker brands popular among the troops, or was Klipsch what everyone wanted?

 

It is kind of funny that a shared interest in loudspeakers brings us to the topic of military exercises and NATO... I want to express my thanks for giving me this information, it really adds to the history of my speakers. 

[HDBRbuilder]

1 hour ago, ILI said:

 

I'm curious about the facilities you were living in. Were these like homes, with private rooms where you could safely keep and enjoy your music gear, or was it more like dorm rooms with little privacy (and little personal space to listen to music)? Were there other speaker brands popular among the troops, or was Klipsch what everyone wanted?

 

It is kind of funny that a shared interest in loudspeakers brings us to the topic of military exercises and NATO... I want to express my thanks for giving me this information, it really adds to the history of my speakers. 

Actually, most of the speakers bought were Japanese-made, but a large volume of AR and JBL speakers were also bought...the funny thing is that they never had the Heresy or LaScala speakers in stock long enough to even have any out in the demo rooms!!  They moved pretty quickly...so quickly that by the time a shipment arrived, most if not all had already been purchased, and there were seldom any available in stock to put them in a demo room!  Therefore I never got a chance to hear them while overseas because nobody I knew had them!  The Bose 901's were popular along with the 501's, too!  I had purchased JBL 4311 monitors, which I sold one week before I returned stateside because I had bought FOUR JBL L-36 speakers which had been drop-shipped to my father's house a month or so before I returned. Less than a month after I returned stateside and left the Army, I was working at Klipsch and just over six months or so after that (when I got my FIRSTY quarterly bonus check!) I sold the JBL's and replaced them with Heresys which I had built at the plant.  Even though I lived less than 30 miles from the Klipsch factory, I had never heard any of the speakers until I started working there!!  Go figure!  The rest of what I bought in Europe I shipped home:  H/K 900+ quad receiver, Teac A2340-R reel deck, DBX II model 124 quad noise reduction unit, Technics SL-1300 turntable, Technics RS-676-AUS cassette deck, 2 each Soundcraftsman 2012A equalizers, etc...still have all of that except that I sold one of the equalizers years ago to a buddy!  I paid right at, or below, 50% of MSRP on everything I got, because I caught EVERY item either on sale or on inventory close-out sales.  My goal was to listen and observe for a year or so...I had a short list of what I w3as interested in...so, I paid attention to what was going on around me...and what had to be returned for constant repairs, taking into consideration WHO the user was....did they treat the equipment delicately or were they rough with it....then I crossed-off the list the items that were constantly in for repairs when handled lovingly, for sure!  And what I finally purchased piece by piece was what was great equipment and would have a long life...waited for a sale to be on the item, and grabbed it up!  Pretty simple!

 

Soldiers stuck with living in the barracks in open bays had to go over to the craft-shop and build a large cabinet for their stuff….and keep it locked-up when outside of the building....BUT those of us living off-post in apartments (as I was doing when I bought my stuff!) just had to secure their apartment to prevent unwanted hands on the stuff!

 

My unit was seldom actually at our duty station because we tended to be in different NATO countries working with their paratroopers on joint exercises most of the time...gone for about a month, back for a few days, then gone again!  England/Scotland, Norway, Sardinia, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Turkey, etc...

[JohnA]

Cool beans. 

 

 

FWIW, my 2nd pair of La Scalas came from a military family at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.  I do believe they were bought in Germany and hauled home.

[Frzninvt]

I brought back a boatload of gear that I bought at either the Ramstein AB BX or the Vogelweh PX and the Audio Photo Club at Ramstein.  I bought my JBL B-380 subwoofer and BX-63A crossover from the Mainz-Kastel Army post they had a three story building with a large number of the manufacturer's represented and a music store on the bottom floor.  I talked them into selling me the floor model B-380 since they did not have one in stock and they threw in a brand new set of grills for it that JBL sent to me directly.  I was like a kid in a candy store they also did tent sales in the summer and offered discounted returned gear at the BX's as well. 

 

It took awhile to save up money to get the stuff I wanted.  I came back with a DBX CX-3 Preamp, BX-3 Power Amplifier, TX-3 Tuner, DBX 3BX-III Range Expander, DBX 120X Subharmonic Synthesizer/Crossover, Denon DP-62L Turntable, Teac R-999X Cassette Deck, Yamaha CDX-1110U CD Player, Yamaha DSP-1 Sound Field Processor and matching MX-35 amplifier (I bought four a/d/s L200C's to use with it when I got back).  The JBL B-380 Subwoofer and BX-63A crossover network, and Klipsch Forte's that made an incredible combo and the BX-3 could be run in 3 channel mode 400W for the sub and 125W for the Forte's.  I lived in an apartment off base for most of my stint I did have the system in my dorm room and everyone on the floor had some sort of system and it got competitive.

 

I started with Heresy's, moved to Cerwin Vega D-8's.  Tried Polk Audio SDA-2's, RTA-12C's, and a pair of Bose 601 III's, and finally the Klipsch Forte's.  You could order out of the overseas AAFES catalog up to like 30 days after you got back to the states so I bought a DBX 14/10 Computer Equalizer and a 5BX-DS 5 Band Digital Range Controller and had them shipped to me.  I used the Heresy's in my 1977 Mercedes 240D with a Nakamichi TD-700 tape deck, Alpine 3015 equalizer and a Carver M240 amplifier it rocked!  Really good times in Germany I loved it.