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H700's - sometimes I just can't say NO


garyeanderson

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So I sold the Cornwalls and LaScala's and well I was back in craiglist and saw so H700's 3J677 and 3J676. well you see I got a pocket full of cash so I call to look and looking is a bad thing cause I am already there and the trouble begins. I ask to open them up and it has later klipsch mid and high (K55m and K77m square magnets), The woofer looked right as does the type C network. I don't even open the other until I get home and it has the K22 (The picture below) so I buy them anyway.   

 

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These H700 were in poor shape and had bacon grease spatters on the tops and one side each, I cleaned them with acetone and sanded them with a DA, the bottom of one  had been damp at one time and was opened up slightly so out came the glue and clamps. We'll see how that works. the other was less severe so I got out the boiled linseed oil and had at it.

 

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That K55M is not OEM to that Heresy.  The K55V is the earlier model.

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Here is the history of the H-700:

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Origin of the Heresy, by HDBRbuilder: (from Klipsch Forums 06/14/2019)

The story of how the H-700 Got its name

 

 

The only thing "RARE" about the Heresy H-700 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 HeresyRemember, 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, longevity, 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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  I pulled off the clamps last night and the seem at the bottom opened right up, I pretty much figured that would happen s I was not surprised or bothered by it. I got a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil on and called it a night. I took a couple of pictures this morning. I am still having issues with this "new to me" camera. The bacon grease stains are gone and most of the scratches too. there are still several dings and edge chips but for a 49 year old set of speakers they look alright, I wish I looked like I did that long ago:biggrin2:. Not so though...

 

Yes the squawker and tweeter are incorrect and I knew that when I bought them but the cabs, backs, mid horn, crossovers are the right ones, not sure about the K22's though . I may swap them into a pair of Khorns that I have with the AK3 networks and use the K55v and K77 round magnets in the H700's.

 

I am glad you posted  HDBRbuilder  history post here, I read it before going to look at these and a couple other posts. There was not a lot on them so I guess I should tag this for future reference.

 

 

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Yesterday was a bit on the slow side so I did another boiled linseed oil application. I started on the bottom after removing the riser. I poured out a dollop of oil about 3 inches in diameter and with a new cotton cloth spread it out over the whole of the bottom. I turned the cabinet 90 degrees and repeated this. Then a repeat of the above with the second H 700. By this time the cloth is pretty well saturated (4 - 3 inch diameter pools) so I wet out the tops at this point. This picture shows how wet the sides are, I am pushing around a puddle until it is a nicely evened coat, just after I took this picture I wetted out the top with the oil soaked rag, some falling to the floor as I spread it. I left it on for the best part of an hour and wiped off the bottom and re-attached the riser and stood it onto the bottoms and continued with the 4th side, after the 4th side had been coated I left it for another hour before mopping off all of the excess.

 

 

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The excess oil removed and waiting for a quick polish

 

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On 11/30/2019 at 8:43 PM, garyeanderson said:

So I sold the Cornwalls and LaScala's and well I was back in craiglist and saw so H700's 3J677 and 3J676. well you see I got a pocket full of cash so I call to look and looking is a bad thing cause I am already there and the trouble begins. I ask to open them up and it has later klipsch mid and high (K55m and K77m square magnets), The woofer looked right as does the type C network. I don't even open the other until I get home and it has the K22 (The picture below) so I buy them anyway.   

 

IMG_1011.thumb.JPG.732367bbbc84228b76a5a4fdddc08ab7.JPG

 

After I bought my 1972 Heresy speakers, someone pointed out here on this forum to replace the caps, because one of them was slightly leaking. I can't help noticing that one of your caps (the one to the right) looks to be in a very similar condition as mine (slightly yellow color with some mild corrosion), also crossover model C. I replaced all the caps with Janzen Cross Caps - actually the first time in my life I held a soldering iron. 

Do you plan to replace the caps?

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3 hours ago, ILI said:

 

 

After I bought my 1972 Heresy speakers, someone pointed out here on this forum to replace the caps, because one of them was slightly leaking. I can't help noticing that one of your caps (the one to the right) looks to be in a very similar condition as mine (slightly yellow color with some mild corrosion), also crossover model C. I replaced all the caps with Janzen Cross Caps - actually the first time in my life I held a soldering iron. 

Do you plan to replace the caps?

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My plan at the moment is to continue with my plan of two more coats of boiled linseed oil in the upcoming week and get the backs installed. Then I hope to listen for a bit before I do anything more.

 

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On Wednesday I happened to be going by the local (30 miles) electronics supply so I pulled off of the highway and went on in. I wasn't expecting there would be much of a selection of brands of capacitors but I figured I could get some 1 mfd and maybe some 2 mfd. I studied what was on the display rack and thought that as long as I was there I would just get what they had. So for $3.04 I got enough to do both C type networks. I didn't have high expectations of these NTN capacitors being "musical" but for the money it couldn't hurt. So yesterday I put them in and played the H 700's for a couple hours. To be honest I could not tell the difference. I did the first one, reassembled, and played so I could A - " B them. I then did the other just so they would match. I left the old oil can caps in place "just in case" I wanted to go back. There are two conclusions that I can draw from this, the new ones are no better than the 46 year old oil cans OR my hearing is just plain bad.

 

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