Second Heresy Impression

[justin_tx_16]

Smooth as silk. Solid as oak. Bass as powerful as...

Ok, so no more of those like last time. Let's just say the second time around... wow.

Went to the studio, the marantz is in repair because one channel is out... it has been there for about 4 months it turns out and the guy says he (the shop owner) does not know where it is... yeah, that is just great.

Oh well, guess what I found... Technics SE-A808.

Here are the specs

1981

40 watts per channel RMS

20-20,000Hz

.03% THD

Class AB

Weight 15lbs

It has a dual power supply setup and is very well built from what I can see.

How does it sound? GREAT! This is the perfect amp IMHO. It is about 1.5 inches tall, 10 inches deep and about 16 inches wide. Quite small. It has a pretty darn big heat sink, and after 30 minutes of LOUD music (Cold Play, Sheila Nichols, Johnny Lang, Ben Folds) it was not even slightly loud.

It has 4 speaker output in an A/B style, so made for 2 but you can do 4. It also has a wonderful headphone output, the best I have heard on any receiver. Only one input, stereo RCA, and no volume control so I need a preamp.

There is absolutely NO hiss from the amp, complete silence. only problem is my 10+ year old sony discman which DOES has hiss, hiss I never noticed till today, but it has been confirmed that it is not the amp hissing.

the heresy's have PLENTY of bass. Don't let its size fool anyone. I played some Pomps and Pipes and even though it does not have a sub in the system, or a sub output, there was plenty of bass, especially with the volume up.

the vocals are astounding. i can not wait to get a better cd player and preamp, any ideas?

well, just thought I would share the great news!

a few questions...

1. the power cable is like 20 guage with very little insulation, if i put in a better cable will I notice an improvement in anything? not going for $400 cables, just I have a bunch of COMPAQ server power cables laying around and would like to put them to use. I looked and it would be pretty darn easy, just unsolder the old one and put in the new ones.

2. i am right now using some radio shack 16 guage speaker cables. sounds pretty good, but should i get some monster cable XP?

HDBR, have not checked my email yet (network problems... grr time warner) so excuse if you answered anything for me there., how does this compare to the receiver you and i talked about? one benefit of this guy... free

[Manuel Delaflor]

Good to read you are finally getting the "Klipsch sound"

Later you can try some tubes with your Heresy's... and experience more detail that you never knew it was on the recordings!

[maxg]

Now that is a bit more like it Justin. That is what we were expecting to hear the first time.

At least it puts pay to the myth that all amps sound the same!!!

I think that before you start hunting out tubes you might want to consider a better source!!!

I wont say vinyl I promise - maybe a slightly better Cd player???

[Invidiosulus]

Glad to hear you are happy.

The heresey really is an incredible speaker.

Sounds like you got a nice amp.

There is nothing wrong with free stuff

Peace, Josh

[justin_tx_16]

So now I need a good CD player and a good Preamp.

Shoot some models off please hehe. Don't want to spend a fortune, remember, this is going to college so nothing FANCY. Rightnow it sounds like $1000 and looks like $150, that is what I want hehe. In about 5 years I can get all nice and new stuff. fornow...

[Malcolm]

Glad you like the Heritage sound. Heresys do have plenty of bass for most purposes. Most recordings have little useful information below what they can reproduce. But there are some recordings, and of course DVDs, that have significant low frequency information. Sooner or later you will want a good sub. No hurry, though. The first twenty years I had my first pair of Heresys I did not have a sub. I only got one when I made the move to HT.

If you check out the cable forum over at audioasylum, you will find there is about as much controversy about power cables as speaker cables. IMHO if the power supply is properly designed to start with, there is no need to change the power cable. But simply increasing the size of the conductors should not hurt. If you do decide to change it out, just make sure you get the connections right. Foreign made cables do not always follow U.S. color coding standards. I have seen some where the hot and neutral conductors were the same color. The only way you could tell the difference was to check with a meter.

As far as speaker cables go, I am sure you have read the threads on them here. For more information, opinion and misinformation, check out the cable forum at audioasylum. Again, larger should not hurt. 12 gauge should be fine for a run up to about 50 feet. You can get away with smaller for shorter runs. IMHO Monster Cable is totally over rated and a waste of money. You are as well off with the same gauge generic cable from your local home improvement center.

As far as CD players go, at this stage, I would suggest you just buy the cheapest one with the features you want. There are differences in sound, but they are generally pretty subtle. You might want to get a DVD player instead. They play CDs, too.

[justin_tx_16]

i am going to get some cables tomorrow since i need them anyways, all my cables are about 3 feet short of the speakers being in the corners.

jeeze! looked at new preamps... anything under a grand? LoL! i just need a volume control and say 2-3 inputs of analog stereo, nothing special.

i have heard that DVD's don't play cd's as well as a cd player... any truth to that, for my setup atleast?

please reply here if you can with any suggestions and if you just have plain old advice for heresy's and two channel for the cheap. my broadband connection has not worked since friday so I am using AOL's free 45 day trial, that equals to really slow internet, so i can not get on as much, also ties up my phone line which sucks.

thanks!

[maxg]

Well Justin - if you fancy building yourself a preamp the Bottlehead foreplay is supposed to be an excellent pre and costs about $100.

Otherwise it might be time to hit ebay for something. There are lots of bargains out there - especially vintage stuff that can be picked up for peanuts (1970's Sansui, Pioneer etc.).

[justin_tx_16]

bought a CD player today, 5 disc Sony, got it for 50% off. Sounds pretty good.

Bought a preamp today... except it amplifies everything by 2 watts and sounds like CRAP. however, the tape output sounds wonderful, only problem is that it goes full blast, the volume control does not control it... grrr

I NEED A TUNER!

I NEED A PREAMP!

I need a bandaid... i sliced a big chunk out of my right middle finger while opening the cd player box, OUCH!

[Invidiosulus]

Hopefully your finger will get better.

I guess it could be worse.

My dad cut his finger on a computer chassis one day at work and had to get about 9 stitches

He couldn't play guitar for about a month.

Congrats on the gear, maybe you can get your pre-amp to work or find a different one.

We had a sony 5disc at work and it lasted forever.

Peace, Josh

[justin_tx_16]

I am still just in awe of these speakers.

Tonight my dad and I are working on a plan to make speaker stands for them. Right now they are on the floor with no riser. I don't want to make a riser cause i like a flat surface (i am very weird) and don't want to screw anything into the speakers.

So, since i also don't want to spend $90 for a metal, ugly, speaker stand, I am going to make one out of ply wood and paint it black. does anyone have any plans for this? how much weight should they have in them so they are not top heavy with the speakers on them? does it have to be at least 50lbs of like sand? anyone done this? i have plans thanks to HDBR for a riser, but i still would need a stand, since i stand mostly while i listen to the music, sometimes break out my trumpet (since i can not make it to orchestra practice as often as I would like). any thoughts on this?

i still need a preamp. Max, i looked at the Electronic Tonalities Foreplay and it sure sounds like a great deal, only I... I don't know. I just want something that i dont have to worry about. i am just terrified of someone throwing something in my dorm and breaking a tube. i also don't want to have to buid it. i did at one point... but now i don't. all i really need is so simple. One input. One output. One volume control. Things I would LIKE but don't need, balance, and another input. It is such a simple thing, why can't i find one that has a simple price? Tweeter guy shows me a BK that only costs $899... yeah, thanks. This was the one he later used to listen to the K-Horns.

I did get a new CD player Max, and it sounds great so far, even though use is limited to full blast listening haha, since there is no volume control. I did not do this on purpose, the pre-out on the amplified preamp is not controled by the volume control like it SHOULD be IMHO (since it IS a preamp). the amp itself is silent, no hiss from it or anything, something I was amazed by, since it is like 20 years old...

I am going to upgrade the power cable tomorrow. that will probably be like a 5 minute tweak, and even though it will probably not change anything, it will sure look nicer.

there is a ground on the back of the amp, is this only if using a turntable or the phono input? and if so, why? i thought i knew what that was... (mono, stereo, phono (like phonograph... an input that is special, someting different than a stereo especially for a turntable?... hrmmmm)

I decided against getting a DVD player, i already have one in my computer and I am getting an LCD TV/Monitor for college so I will just use my computer as the TV and DVD and Monitor. I have the ProMedia 5.1's and GTXP to handle the surround sound. Music will be the Heresy's business, and no one else's hehe. it is right now actually!

Ever since getting these speakers I have noticed myself pulling away from the boards to listen to them, since they are in another room due to the fact that i over loaded this one with promedia's, computers, and furniture. They are in my brother's room, just wait till he gets home this weekend, i cannot WAIT to hear him start to complain... until he hears them, oh how sweet that will be.

why is it that they sound better from another room than in the room they are in? like, sitting here... well, walking in the hallway (very hard to type and walk BTW) it sounds better than when i am sitting infront. I guess that is mostly due to the fact they are on the floor and I am about 4-5 feet above them standing. is that a correct assumption, wait, it won't post that... a$sumption.

this amp goes from 20-20Khz, is there a low frequency filter i can get? i know they have them for crap car speakers, and memory tells me that I saw some at partsexpress.com once. if so, what are they called?

i think i got it all for now. finally got our internet back. say good by to AOL's 45 day trial! It is so nice to go from 28.888 to 2097kbps.

[HDBRbuilder]

Justin...be prepared for a loss of bass when you put those Heresys up high off the floor...fair warning! They perform at their best when on the floor.

[maxg]

Justin,

A couple of things:

1. A pre-amp's volume control is not supposed to affect the tape out. The tape out is designed to run at constant volume into a recording device so that the said recording is made independent of the volume you are listening at. This is how it is supposed to work.

2. The most simple pre-amp is a passive pre-amp. Basically that is a volume pot and a bunch of inputs and doesnt require power. I would suggest a hunt around ebay for one - this may be your best bet!

Unfortunately I have no experience of passive pre-amps myself but I am sure others can advise on good ones to look at.

Good luck in your continuing quest!!

[justin_tx_16]

i figured as much with the tape out, but why sale an amplified preamp? it was 2 watts and it sounded terrible when amp'd up.

so what about risers then? will that lower the bass HDBR?

they are in corners now, sounds great, just better when i am in another room than when i sit in there.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of drivers and tweeters and crossover would this heresy have? i don't want to take it apart to check.

HDBR, i may just call you tonight, but on my heresy's, the side panels go from the floor to the top... as in, they are not covered by the top panel, you can see the two boards' ends from looking at the top, is that how it should be? my dad was kinda leary about that.

[Manuel Delaflor]

I like my Heresy's better with their tweeter slightly above ears level. I don't have to think about bass because I use them with a Large sub. They are also far from the walls, facing forward.

After many months of changes, this is what works best in my room. And Justin, what Im trying to tell is that everybody needs to work in his own room to see where will they perform the better.