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JEM Performance capacitor rebuild kit - Heresy Type E network


wuzzzer

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Received my kit from JEM Performance today.  Very nicely packaged, sent Priority Mail.  Comes with very detailed instructions and a schematic that even a novice could follow.  I'm replacing the caps in my center Heresy that has a completely stock network from 1980.

Commence soldering!  🙂

 

 

Screenshot_20210108-165612_Gallery.jpg

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Right now I'm listening to The Eagles Farewell Tour on Blu-ray.  The center Heresy sounds really, really good.  I don't know if capacitor break-in is a thing or not but I'll play music through my center for a few days and see if I can tell a difference.  All I know is compared to the 40 year old PIO caps, these sound great.  Before I was getting a little crackling sound with certain voices but now everything is crystal clear without being too bright. 

 

In addition to replacing the capacitors, I added Parts Express foam speaker gasket at the edges of the midrange and tweeter horns to help seal the cabinet better.

 

Also, as I was working on the network,  I noticed a fair amount of corrosion around the screws on the opposite side of where you plug the drivers in to.  At the very least, if you don't feel you need to replace anything in your network, unscrew and tighten all the screws a few times to help everything have a better contact.

 

Back to listening!

 

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3 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

Right now I'm listening to The Eagles Farewell Tour on Blu-ray.  The center Heresy sounds really, really good.

 

Question ;   how do you rate the Sonicaps  capacitors sound versus  the Klipsch capacitors sound -

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22 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

Question ;   how do you rate the Sonicaps  capacitors sound versus  the Klipsch capacitors sound -

 

It's a difficult comparison because the JEM capacitors are in my center and the Sonicaps are in my mains.  All I know is my center sounds really, really good. 

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9 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

 

It's a difficult comparison because the JEM capacitors are in my center and the Sonicaps are in my mains.  All I know is my center sounds really, really good. 

Oh c’mon Wuzzer, take the time to replace one of the L or R speaker with the center and place some 2 channel music to appease us please! 😆

I mean “inquiring minds want to know”.

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14 hours ago, Madman1 said:

Oh c’mon Wuzzer, take the time to replace one of the L or R speaker with the center and place some 2 channel music to appease us please! 😆

I mean “inquiring minds want to know”.

 

As you wish!

 

So, I just finished a listening session where I replaced my left front speaker (1980 Heresy, stock drivers, Sonicaps) with my center speaker (1981 Heresy, stock drivers, JEM Performance caps).  Both speakers have exactly the same OEM Klipsch drivers.  I don't remember their part numbers exactly but the tweeters are both square magnet, K-77 I think; midrange on both is soldered lug K-55V; woofers are K-33-R, I believe. 

 

I used Beatles mono tracks on YouTube for a comparison.  I know, certainly not high quality as far as media is concerned but I don't own any mono recordings and my receiver doesn't have a mono feature. 

 

I sat on the floor directly between my Heresys which are about 10 feet apart.  I had them toed in so that they were firing just behind my head. 

 

I don't buy in to all the cliche audio terms so I'm just going to describe in my own words what I heard.

 

- Naturalness.  The JEM speaker sounded more natural across the board, more analog.  Instruments sounded more like they sound when you hear them live.  The Sonicap speaker sounded more 'digital'.  It sounded as if it were overemphasizing things such as high-hats, cymbals and upper octaves of vocals.

 

- Smoothness.  The JEM speaker was smoother overall, not as harsh or grainy in upper frequencies.

 

- Distinction.  At higher volumes with the JEM speaker I was able to follow different instruments up and down their frequency ranges while the Sonicap speaker kind of mushed everything together. 

 

I was not expecting to hear such a difference.  Now, take this all with a grain of salt.  As we all know, everyone's hearing, room, electronics, etc is different so your results may be different than mine.  All I know is as soon as I'm done posting this I'm emailing Jim at JEM and ordering the kits for my front mains.

 

Also, please don't take this as I'm bashing Bob Crites or any of his products.  I've bought a lot from Bob over the years and he does provide a lot for the Klipsch world that isn't available anywhere else and his customer service is fantastic.

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Hmm... You have me considering giving these a try.  I bought my Heresy's woth Solens already installed and they sounded good. I have put Sonicaps in, however, they have not been used yet on the rebuild. My La Scalas have Sonicaps with the A4500, and they sounded great... No grainy sounds or anything.

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13 minutes ago, Chief bonehead said:

Unnecessary 

Out of curiosity, is the desired Klipsch approved  performance something you can measure where if capacitor X reads this then it will work well with network Y.  Or is it  one of those things in audio where you put it in the circuit and it sounds right but you can't point to a specific measurement or characteristic that says why. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or is it 

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7 hours ago, Bobby Z said:

Out of curiosity, is the desired Klipsch approved  performance something you can measure where if capacitor X reads this then it will work well with network Y.  Or is it  one of those things in audio where you put it in the circuit and it sounds right but you can't point to a specific measurement or characteristic that says why. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or is it 

It several things but the most thing is that when it is placed in the circuit that it provide the right voltage to the drivers as specified by Klipsch. 

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10 minutes ago, Chief bonehead said:

but the most thing is that when it is placed in the circuit that it provide the right voltage to the drivers as specified by Klipsch

So by that logic, why wouldn't any 2.0 uf capacitor work?  I can see different materials causing different sounds and if you were to say that this particular material used in these Klipsch approved caps from JEM contribute to that Klipsch sound more so over any other type on the market, then I could have respect for that.  

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42 minutes ago, The Dude said:

So by that logic, why wouldn't any 2.0 uf capacitor work?  I can see different materials causing different sounds and if you were to say that this particular material used in these Klipsch approved caps from JEM contribute to that Klipsch sound more so over any other type on the market, then I could have respect for that.  

Have you ever done voltage transfer curves? And then ran a free response on the speaker to make sure that speaker still performed as intended?  The total network has to perform a certain way. Arbitrarily changing components without checking to see what it does to the overall response is not a good idea. Whether or not you have respect is not my deal. This is what is approved. You can either get them or not. 

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On 1/8/2021 at 7:06 PM, wuzzzer said:

At the very least, if you don't feel you need to replace anything in your network, unscrew and tighten all the screws a few times to help everything have a better contact.

That can have a huge effect on sound and be the first thing you check when troubleshooting a sound issue.  I've fixed a bunch of dead drivers and intermittent sound issues by doing that.

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