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Refinishing and upgrading Heresy 1's


yamahaSHO

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I picked up a set of 1982 Heresy last year to go in my workshop, with the intent to refinish them.  I started the project earlier this year, as well as many others, so I am getting back to finishing said project.  Earlier this year, I took them apart, glued, filled, routered, sanded, stained, and finished, and then was forced to finish other projects before coming back to them.  I am currently in the process of finishing up the front baffles with Duratex and additional bracing to the rear panel.  Once those are done, I will put them back with new drivers (Crites woofers, A-55's, and CT-120's) and upgraded crossovers, which I've put on a smaller board.  

 

The day I purchased them:

 

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Temporarily setup in my garage:

 

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Filling and sanding:

 

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Added bracing:

 

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Wood is finished:

 

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Nearly finished front panel.  Will do one more coat of Duratex after I get the other speaker at this point.  I want to do the final coat at the same time with the same consistency of the watered down Duratex.

 

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I did not veneer over the original plywood.  I glued, filled, sanded, and routered prior to treatment (for blotching) and stain, followed by many coats of wipe-on poly. 

 

Here is the rear brace mocked up.  It will also support another brace/support for the mid horn. 

 

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I sunk screws into the baffle prior to coating, so now it will use magnets vs velcro. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Working on getting the front texture/finish even between the two speakers and I think one more coat tomorrow will do it. Looking forward to testing these out.  

 

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I picked up a new amp to drive them and also curious on how it does vs the T amp I have been using. 

 

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These were actually in pretty decent condition... But I think you know me at this point from the last 20 years on car stuff. I wanted to refresh them to better than new and give them another 50 years. If I ever found myself where I've moved in a house that will not work with the La Scalas, I'd be happy with these... But for now, they'll be shop speakers!

 

Plus, this is good practice for the La Scala refinishing next year, which should get a cool finish without taking away from the original look. 

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I forgot one of the horns had some poor prep work at the factory and some corrosion under the paint, causing bubbles. That said, I sanded and painted them today and I was pretty happy with how they turned out given the difficulty of getting it even down the throat. I need to let them cure a day or so and I might put them in the oven to help speed that up.

 

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I will be making a bracket to support the squawker so that all that weight isn't hanging on the baffle screws... Just waiting for the clamps to show up. The bracing will serve purpose there, and you can see how the rear panel is braced. 

 

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Back panel has been coated with Duratex... Original terminal holes have been filled and I will install binding posts for use with banana plugs. 

 

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I hope to assemble this week... Which reminds me that I need to solder the crossovers. 

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I went ahead an added some mass loading to the mid-horn.  I never really had a problem with the sounds or any perceived 'ringing', but didn't think it would negatively affect sound, so I gave it a try without going overboard.  

 

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I lined the walls of the cabinet with some egg crate like foam.  Figure it would help with the volume removed from the bracing and slightly bigger drivers.  I will not add any stuffing.

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I did put the tweeters back in.  I am going to run some caulk around them to make sure they have a seal, and I will do the same when I install the mid horn.  

 

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Nearing the home stretch as I get a little done every day.  After they are back together, I'll have to get the grilles done.  They have some slight warping, so I am going to see if I can get them flat again with some moisture, heat, and clamping to a flat surface.  

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3 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

Looking great!  My next project is to replace the midrange gaskets and add foam gasket tape to the cabinet back and under each driver behind the motorboard.  I think that's all I'm going to do to mine for a while. 

I elected to caulk as there isn't much flange on the horns to put a gasket on, and I didn't want it poking out. 

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3 hours ago, yamahaSHO said:

I elected to caulk as there isn't much flange on the horns to put a gasket on, and I didn't want it poking out. 

and if you didn't want to be able to easily remover the horn later. that's not good but if that is what you want fine. I just wanted others to know that this is a poor choice for some good reasons. Please note that if you are happy with your choice then I support you in your choice, they are your speakers and you can do with them what you like. I post this only for others so they might think twice and consider the consequences when they decide to do this. enjoy and carry on.

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It's a thin bead on the outside, they should remove fairly easy. The wood where it was caulked was also treated with polyurethane so in the case they need removed, it won't pull wood.  Nothing poor about the choice and I am glad you made it clear to me that they are mine to do as I please. My bracing will be difficult to remove as well, maybe I should not have done that.

 

No, I don't want to remove them ever again. They made it 38 years prior to this... 

 

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30 minutes ago, yamahaSHO said:

It's a thin bead on the outside, they should remove fairly easy. The wood where it was caulked was also treated with polyurethane so in the case they need removed, it won't pull wood.  Nothing poor about the choice and I am glad you made it clear to me that they are mine to do as I please. My bracing will be difficult to remove as well, maybe I should not have done that.

 

No, I don't want to remove them ever again. They made it 38 years prior to this... 

 

Jason you put thought into what you did and you considered things and that makes a big difference. I made my comment to give others perhaps less cautious pause to consider prior to welding their horns and drivers into their cabinets with no easy way to remove later. I have seen some unbelievable things over the years. Here is a small photo of the brace work inside of one of my four H3 cabinets. Not going to remove that but a lot of thought went into these before any wood was ever cut. That is 3/4" square English White Oak (a very stiff hardwood) and it forms an all panel matrix brace structure. These Heresy can make bass up on 21" tall four post stands. In the photo of the finished cabinet on its stand the flash lights up the F11 Acoustical felt over the woofer and around the horns, placed over the woofer it acts as a very effective acoustic filter which permits bass to pass but eats up out of band past crossover woofer output so past 750Hz. you are listening to ht lower range of the mid horn and not to a combination of the woofer and horn.

Heresy 3 bracework 2.jpg

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It's caulk, not glue.  I would not call that welding. I've seen your bracing before (pretty sure you posted it for me in another thread recently) and it's nice, but I never thought the speakers sounded bad to begin with, so I did a more simple solution to improve what was there. No, I don't plan to remove the bracing. 

 

I have put mass on the horn and will put some on the bass driver before closing up, but it was for whatever improvement it offers since I was already rebuilding them to go past my lifetime... Which probably won't be a problem considering they had never had any treatment to protect the wood before I got them. 

 

In the end, these should be better than they have ever been and I don't want to get sucked down the modding hole... I have cars and SxS' for that. That said, these speakers will be used in my workshop.  Room acoustics is what's going to be the problem here. However, if I move to a place that won't support my La Scalas, I'd be happy to use these in my living room as I have a capable sub already. 

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9 minutes ago, yamahaSHO said:

It's caulk, not glue.  I would not call that welding. I've seen your bracing before (pretty sure you posted it for me in another thread recently) and it's nice, but I never thought the speakers sounded bad to begin with, so I did a more simple solution to improve what was there. No, I don't plan to remove the bracing. 

 

I have put mass on the horn and will put some on the bass driver before closing up, but it was for whatever improvement it offers since I was already rebuilding them to go past my lifetime... Which probably won't be a problem considering they had never had any treatment to protect the wood before I got them. 

 

In the end, these should be better than they have ever been and I don't want to get sucked down the modding hole... I have cars and SxS' for that. That said, these speakers will be used in my workshop.  Room acoustics is what's going to be the problem here. However, if I move to a place that won't support my La Scalas, I'd be happy to use these in my living room as I have a capable sub already. 

my "welding" comment was not directed at you Jason but at folks who did not really think about what they were doing. I do appreciate the difference between calk and glue as well as the manner in which you applied the caulking but many would be modifiers do not. I don't plan on removing my brace work either.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got all the final stuff in today and the speakers are currently sitting on the floor in the living room, and I'm enjoying listening to them with my Emotiva BasX A-100 hooked up to my phone.  :)  I will probably run some sweeps on them in the next few days to see if there are any issues I may be unaware of, but they sound fantastic to me.  Now I need to try and straighten the boards for the grilles so I can wrap them and glue on magnets.

 

 

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13 minutes ago, yamahaSHO said:

Got all the final stuff in today and the speakers are currently sitting on the floor in the living room, and I'm enjoying listening to them with my Emotiva BasX A-100 hooked up to my phone.  :)  I will probably run some sweeps on them in the next few days to see if there are any issues I may be unaware of, but they sound fantastic to me.  Now I need to try and straighten the boards for the grilles so I can wrap them and glue on magnets.

 

 

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is this regular Foam-------or a specific type  ?

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