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This song may break my Heresy speakers?


MeloManiac

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About a year ago I bought a set of RP160M speakers and really enjoyed listening to them. Last October,  I had the opportunity to buy a set of 1972 Heresy speakers for my listening room, and the RP160Ms migrated to the living room. Both speaker sets have their own sound signature/character, and for that reason I've respectfully refrained to make A-B comparisons.

 

So today I was listening to AnalogPlanet's playlist of 'Best of 2010s' recordings and I came accross Billy Eilish with Xanny. This song starts right off in the lowest frequencies, with really low bass, and then it gets even weirder with some effects thrown in. I thought the song was killing my Heresy woofers, so I paused the song as quickly as possible. Perhaps my tube amp would do better? Not at all. This song really beat the Heresy speakers in their own game. And with that I mean that the song can't be listened to on them in a comfortable way. So out of curiosity I went downstairs to the RP160Ms. And yes, they could handle this song better. Still not perfect, though.  So is this an 'age' thing, or is it because of the fact that the RP160Ms go as low as 45Hz (compared to 58Hz for the Heresy)?

So the question remains how this song is supposed to sound...

 

 

 

 

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When the music begins to play in Xanny, the low bass is heavily emphasized and deliberately distorted, imo. I'm listening to the track on spotify right now. So I don't believe there is anything wrong with your Heresies. They did something in the original recording mix, like seriously EQ/boost the bass guitar. 

But a track like this with such heavy bass boost can drive LF drivers crazy, so be cautious with the volume too. I took a lot of the bass EQ out listening to the track in a second time. Even her voice is distorted in the track at times. I'm not crazy about their effects in the song. 

 

The next track "you should see me in a crown" has a lot of bass boost too. Must be their trademark. 

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You do need to be careful with elevated low frequencies for woofers that are below the design cut off of the box.  They can cause over excursion and failure as the woofer unloads.  That is why low filters were designed and recommended.  If the woofer has a lot of xmax it likely won't bother anything though won't sound too good.

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1 hour ago, polizzio said:

 

Yes, I'm not a fan of the distortion either. And her voice is pretty nice on its own merit. I'm listening to the rest of the album.

 

Me too... My 10 year old daughter just walked in.... "Billie Eilish! She freaking good! She's huge among the young people!" Glad the young generation is starting to appreciate Klipsch, finally... My kids usually give me the 'evil eye' when I play my 'old' music loud...

 

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IF YOU want a song that will absolutely test your speakers to the maximum, look no further. 11 minutes of torture, but its a beautiful piece.

 

Get Out... by PITA.

 

@1:38 all hell breaks loose. Turn it up IF YOU DARE

 

 

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7 hours ago, ILI said:

today I was listening to AnalogPlanet's playlist of 'Best of 2010s' recordings and I came accross Billy Eilish with Xanny.

HA! I freaked out the first time I played this song! I had just finished rebuilding my amp and thought I had failed! The amp was ok, the song has a distortion effect. Like her or not, the music is well recorded, and is great for testing bass. I like her voice and look forward to her music maturing hopefully. 

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1 hour ago, Schu said:

IF YOU want a song that will absolutely test your speakers to the maximum, look no further. 11 minutes of torture, but its a beautiful piece.

 

Get Out... by PITA.

 

@1:38 all hell breaks loose. Turn it up IF YOU DARE

 

 

Well I made until to 4:11. Sounds like mostly noise to me. I'd rather some Floyd or St Germain.

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8 hours ago, pzannucci said:

You do need to be careful with elevated low frequencies for woofers that are below the design cut off of the box.  They can cause over excursion and failure as the woofer unloads.

 

Definitely an issue with bass reflex boxes, likely similar with passive radiators; but a sealed box, especially a smaller one, presents very much less of a problem in this regard.

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My advice is to not fool with tracks like these without a subwoofer which will go down to 20 Hz or so and with the proper crossover to prevent these subsonics being fed to the main speaker.  A typical crossover point is 70 Hz when main speakers are set to small.

 

I Built a "bigger Belle type" long ago and lost an EV woofer by playing the Telarc T-Rex track.  The one with warnings.  They are not kidding.  

 

"Modern" pop music has these very frequency tones, as do some movie soundtracks.  Traditional speaker designs can not handle them.  Further, they can't reproduce them and thus there is not warning to your ear that they are even present except for noise and crackling.

 

"Let's be careful out there." Like they said on Hill Street Blues.

 

WMcD

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14 hours ago, glens said:

 

Definitely an issue with bass reflex boxes, likely similar with passive radiators; but a sealed box, especially a smaller one, presents very much less of a problem in this regard.

As long as it is sealed.  Most Heresy's have long since lost their seals and need to be redone, edges and around drivers.  Not to factor in the folks that would drill holes in them to mount them.

Yes you are correct if sealed and reasonable xmax.

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I'd surmise that compromised seals would factor in only to the extent of the compromise.  On average the to and fro have got to be about equal, so "pumping" to an average position different from "normal" shouldn't be a problem.  So long as there are no audible cues that the seals have failed it should remain a non-issue.  But you certainly bring up a valid point.

 

At any rate, the few moments I auditioned the sample left me unimpressed.  Isn't it nice that there's so much music available to cover the range of admiration?

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If you think Xanny has lots of bass, check out Bad Guy, also by Billie Eilish.  It sounds pretty great on my system.  The song has had 57 million YouTube plays, plus she won 4 Grammys last night.  Not bad for an 18-year-old.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Islander said:

If you think Xanny has lots of bass, check out Bad Guy, also by Billie Eilish.  It sounds pretty great on my system.  The song has had 57 million YouTube plays, plus she won 3 or 4 Grammys last night.  Not bad for an 18-year-old.

 

 

Haven't you read the latest news? The 2020 grammys were rigged. Straight from their CEO.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51221137

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41 minutes ago, glens said:

I'd surmise that compromised seals would factor in only to the extent of the compromise.  On average the to and fro have got to be about equal, so "pumping" to an average position different from "normal" shouldn't be a problem.  So long as there are no audible cues that the seals have failed it should remain a non-issue.  But you certainly bring up a valid point.

 

 

Actually, there have been lots of comments on the forum (not many lately) about how having poor sealing on Heresys causes poor bass response.  It may have been part of the reason the Heresy II and III have permanently installed backs, meaning that the drivers and crossovers are all installed from the fronts of the speakers, through the driver mounting holes.  The motorboard (the speaker's front panel) is also permanently mounted on the H-2 and H-3.  That means that the only leaks can come from around the drivers, which is much less likely.  

 

A 48-year-old speaker cabinet will have experienced many cycles of absorbing and releasing moisture, and some warping may even have occurred.  The sealant that was applied in 1972 may be dried out or crumbling, and sections may even be missing.  I'd suggest taking the backs off the speakers and giving them a good inspection, maybe replace the capacitors, which are well past their peak performance (15-20 years is their typical useful life), and then re-install the backs with new weatherstrip or other sealer, after cleaning out all the original sealer.  The front panels on the OP's Heresys should also be checked for air leaks.

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