should I upgrade?

[wilkic65 1]

I have a pair of Heresy II they are all original and in super good shape with the stands, original boxes and sequential numbers. They sound fine to me but I question if I should do some upgrades like recap the crossovers horn seals or change woofer. I feel leaving them alone will help resale as long as I take care of them but I know the internals are aging 

Edited December 29, 2020 by wilkic65

[Alexander 463]

Aside from physical damage - caps would be the only thing that you may want to update/refresh.

 

 

[RandyH000 5965]

10 hours ago, wilkic65 said:

I have a pair of Heresy II they are all original and in super good shape with the stands, original boxes and sequential numbers. They sound fine to me but I question if I should do some upgrades like recap the crossovers horn seals or change woofer. I feel leaving them alone will help resale as long as I take care of them but I know the internals are aging 

Change the woofer , no , but you can rotate it 180 degrees ------replace the horn seals , no  , unless you remove the horn and the seals are damaged ----

 

-crossover recap - is a pain if you have the round cup  as the space is very tight  --   less if these are the square cup ---upgrades can't hurt and the cost of new capacitors  is quite low -

[wuzzzer 1831]

2 minutes ago, RandyH000 said:

Change the woofer , no , but you can rotate it 180 degrees ------replace the horn seals , no  , unless you remove the horn and the seals are damaged ----

 

-crossover recap - is a pain if you have the round cup  as the space is very tight  --   less if these are the square cup ---upgrades can't hurt and the cost of new capacitors  is quite low -

 

Question about this.  I see rotating the woofer 180° recommended for older speakers.  What about my 1980 and 81 Heresys that have their wires soldered to the input terminals on them and their wires aren't long enough to connect to the crossover if I rotate them?

[RandyH000 5965]

34 minutes ago, wuzzzer said:

 

Question about this.  I see rotating the woofer 180° recommended for older speakers.  What about my 1980 and 81 Heresys that have their wires soldered to the input terminals on them and their wires aren't long enough to connect to the crossover if I rotate them?

rotating 180 degrees helps to avoid the  cone  sagging too low to start rubbing the voice coil   ,  as you rotate it 180 degrees , it settles -

 

Wires are always an issue when you rotate the woofer ,   the trick is to move the  crossover as well to the opposite side  , if not , you have to replace or cut wires and extend the length of the wires  -

 

[richieb 7223]

44 minutes ago, wuzzzer said:

 

Question about this.  I see rotating the woofer 180° recommended for older speakers.  What about my 1980 and 81 Heresys that have their wires soldered to the input terminals on them and their wires aren't long enough to connect to the crossover if I rotate them?

Simple really. I just turn my LS topsy turvy - bass horn on the top, HF on the bottom. They sound like shite but eliminates “woofer sag” 

[pzannucci 1044]

8 hours ago, richieb said:

Simple really. I just turn my LS topsy turvy - bass horn on the top, HF on the bottom. They sound like shite but eliminates “woofer sag” 

Don't forget to rotate your seating position.

[Bubo 334]

On 12/29/2020 at 10:20 AM, wilkic65 said:

They sound fine to me

 recap the crossovers horn seals

or change woofer.

Caps have a shelf life, 30 years it's time

New gaskets for the screw on compression driver, they dryrot

Crites and others have the parts.

Leave the woofer alone, rotate makes sense

Wires can be replaced with standard 12GA speaker cable

If you don't want to solder a new wire, you can strip,

splice a section of new wire soldered and shrink-wrapped.

If you are uncomfortable, ask your friends, one of them knows how to solder.

If the cabinets are oil finish, watco natural oil them.

[yamahaSHO 344]

On 12/29/2020 at 8:51 PM, RandyH000 said:

rotating 180 degrees helps to avoid the  cone  sagging too low to start rubbing the voice coil   ,  as you rotate it 180 degrees , it settles -

 

Wires are always an issue when you rotate the woofer ,   the trick is to move the  crossover as well to the opposite side  , if not , you have to replace or cut wires and extend the length of the wires  -

 

 

 

I'd just solder on new, longer wire.  

[RandyH000 5965]

1 hour ago, yamahaSHO said:

 

 

I'd just solder on new, longer wire.  

that's the  way of not having any more issues -

[billybob 13506]

On 12/29/2020 at 11:20 AM, wilkic65 said:

I have a pair of Heresy II they are all original and in super good shape with the stands, original boxes and sequential numbers. They sound fine to me but I question if I should do some upgrades like recap the crossovers horn seals or change woofer. I feel leaving them alone will help resale as long as I take care of them but I know the internals are aging 

If it ain't broke... Welcome!

[Islander 1596]

If you really want to spend some money, update your Heresy IIs to Heresy IIIs.  Klipsch used to sell the kits for around $300 per speaker.  These can only be fitted if you have the square connector cups, since the new crossover is on a new square pocket.  The kit includes everything needed to make your speakers Heresy IIIs.  That way, you'll not only have new caps and woofers, you'll have whole new crossovers, and much more.  Installation is straightforward, and should take an hour or so.  No soldering is required, it's just a parts swap.

 

Also, the sensitivity goes up, from 97 dB/W/m to 99, and the lower bass response limit goes down, from 63 Hz to 59 Hz.  You can hear the differences immediately, and your speakers are still totally Klipsch.  Highly recommended!