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Old School Stereo Cabinet - Speakers?


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I'm designing an old school-eque entertainment center system, this will be in the form of a window bench (on castors) with a lift up lid hiding a Samsung Frame TV and stereo built in. The front will fold down for stereo music only listening with my NAD M12 as the hub. Think old school Grandparent's Mantovani listening set up with a modern twist!

 

So I need some speakers I can build into this unit & the problem I'm having is, after years with K-Horns, La Scalas, Cornwalls & now Heresy IVs I just can't leave the tonal signature of the Heritage series behind but the IVs are just too large to fit. So...would I be happy with the Heritage Soundbar (albeit an expensive proposition considering I'll not hook up the centers) or the RP series or am I going to be forever wishing for "real" Heritage?

 

Or is there another option I haven't considered? Something custom perhaps? Dimensions are flexible but doubling as a bench it needs to be a low seating height.

 

 

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Place the Heresy's horizontally. Forget all the mumbelty crap about dispersion, beam width, whatever. You want good speakers in the cabinet-just do it.

Or better yet; strip the drivers out of the Heresy cabinets and mount them directly in the furniture, cabinet volume be damned!

 

If you must, place your existing Heresy's on their sides and give a listen to see if you like it.

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Maybe build something youself... put in a 10 inch woofer and a tweeter. looks large enough for that. The depth makes it look like you are seeing the top or bottom of a cabinet.

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Many consoles of that era fired the woofers out the ends. Perhaps you could put a set of Heresy horns in front and fire the woofers out the ends. I'd still draw it ten times trying to get an entire unmodified Heresy in. I truly love that design but dropping a Heresy pair in is the best way to not mess up the sound.

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Thanks all, these are some fantastic ideas & some already along the lines of my thoughts. The more I consider this the more (as you y'all say above) I realize that something outside the Heritage range will always be "meh". I don't have the speaker design chops to replicate a 10" version of the cabinet but side mounting the 12s is very intriguing, maybe just remount the horns to to top of the cabinet & flip it end on?

 

Agreed, the simplest solution is the sideways Heresys, going back to the tape measure...I also considered a new baffle board with the horns rotated but the spacing doesn't allow for that.

 

This is the design the cabinet will be based on, obviously without the open shelves;

 

15496229_jklavconsole1sizedforweb.jpeg.1c706346aba9e8c1a52c0222029f092c.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Pondoro said:

Many consoles of that era fired the woofers out the ends. Perhaps you could put a set of Heresy horns in front and fire the woofers out the ends. I'd still draw it ten times trying to get an entire unmodified Heresy in. I truly love that design but dropping a Heresy pair in is the best way to not mess up the sound.

 

Or the bottom? But the 12's crossover fairly high though (around 700Hz) for that?

 

What about the Heratige Soundbar, pricey & I'd be ignoring the center drivers but is this worth considering? I would be able to stay with a tube amp too.

 

https://www.klipsch.com/products/heritage-theater-bar

 

 

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That Heritage Theater Bar looks amazing. But when I saw the price I thought, “Better to cannibalize a set of Heresy speakers!” If this is his only sound system I would run separate speakers and use the console for storage. If he has a prime system and this is a second system in a different room then I’d try to reuse some Heresy speaker internals. That theater bar seems too expensive when compared to a “real” Heritage two channel system. 

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This will be the "only" system, the backstory is that this is a home we are building that has spectacular views over a Scottish sea loch and we want the ability to be able to roll the entertainment center out of the way when not in use or being used for some background music. So aside from WiFi and a power cable it's self-contained.

 

I've spent literally weeks in front of a CAD program (Vectorworks) experimenting with speakers & placement & this option always comes back around. Our music listening is very important to us & we've found, needs to be in the area we most use. We had a home with a lovely Cornwall (IMO the best Heritage product) system in a dedicated room & another home with Klipschorns but found we rarely could afford the time to dedicate to listening only and we enjoyed being "with" the music while doing other things.

 

I'm going to replicate the system with the IV's sideways this evening and see how that works out.

 

 

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I read about someone having his Heresys sideways but don´t remember the thread. A quick search found this:

 

On 2/5/2013 at 11:14 PM, moray james said:

I run my H3 up on 22 inch high stands and if I turn them sideway they have to be raised a lot to keep the centre of the mid horn at ear level but they do sound great that way.

Last post, this thread:

Maybe @moray james could tell You more about his listening experience?

 

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1 hour ago, philipbarrett said:

 

I'm going to replicate the system with the IV's sideways this evening and see how that works out.

 

 

I dont want to tell you not to do it , but Heresy Speakers sound great higher up , like close to 3 feet high -

  the Heresy brings out the detail in the vocals ,so the mids and the HF with a touch of bass ,but ,  they are unbeatable at ear level  , if I were in your position the Heresy speakers would be at the  far left and right but  closer to  28-30 inches high

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3 minutes ago, RandyH said:

I dont want to tell you not to do it , but Heresy Speakers sound great higher up , like close to 3 feet high -

  the Heresy brings out the detail in the vocals ,so the mids and the HF with a touch of bass ,but ,  they are unbeatable at ear level  , if I were in your position the Heresy speakers would be at the  far left and right but  closer to  28-30 inches high

But remember, the horn is asymmetrical so you're actually increasing the vertical dispersion by putting them sideways, however you are compromising the horizontal.

 

 

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Idea #2: You can still stick Heresy's on the ends in their normal orientation, with the grills removed. You will create your own grills that will be part of the furniture. The Heresy's will slide in from the rear.

 

Construct the cabinet so the Heresy's are as low to the ground as possible. The center section that houses all the equipment-that will be slightly higher from the ground to accommodate the casters, but the top of the cabinet will be totally flush unlike the red/white thing in the photo, and you'll mount the casters as widely spaced in that center section as possible. Hide the casters with a skirt.

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14 minutes ago, Peter P. said:

Idea #2: You can still stick Heresy's on the ends in their normal orientation, with the grills removed. You will create your own grills that will be part of the furniture. The Heresy's will slide in from the rear.

 

Construct the cabinet so the Heresy's are as low to the ground as possible. The center section that houses all the equipment-that will be slightly higher from the ground to accommodate the casters, but the top of the cabinet will be totally flush unlike the red/white thing in the photo, and you'll mount the casters as widely spaced in that center section as possible. Hide the casters with a skirt.

I love all of this except don't hide the casters. Display them proudly. (Vintage-looking ones)

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On 7/24/2021 at 3:15 PM, philipbarrett said:

need some speakers I can build into this unit

Retrofitted an old Telefunken stereo console with RF-3 speakers and xovers. Actually, RF-3's and some other Klipsch woofers (don't recall the type). Unable to find the thread on the "actual build," but here is the starter thread for this ...

 

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Ok, so don't shoot me for a whacko idea....  it's related to what I once did.

 

I had LaScalas and some Academy's.  The Academy's were meant to be placed above the main speakers....how to do this?  I put a 2x2 piece of plywood under the LaScala.  It stuck out the back where I mounted a sconce to it and then 6'ish feet of pipe.  At the top, I built a platform and the Academy's sat on the platform (which had edges so they couldn't slide around)

 

What if you built this but instead of putting them inside (maybe you WANT them hidden??) instead, built in some vertical supports and place them above the cabinet yet, all the hardware is attached to the cabinet so it moves as a unit.

 

Roll them in, roll them out.  Because they're on risers, you now have added storage space for whatever you care to hide.  They'll roll in/out with the cabinet.

 

Know that when I did this, I only had the ONE vertical (3/4" pipe) holding them up.  They would sway back/forth if you moved them.  Was never an issue for me but if I re-did it under what I'm thinking here, I'd want them better braced so they'd stay in place while moving.

 

Oh, and I painted the pipe/hardware some hunter green or something to match the decor.

 

I really can't believe I did all that and never took a picture of it, but I didn't.

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3 hours ago, Coytee said:

 

 

I really can't believe I did all that and never took a picture of it, but I didn't.

I can't believe it either!

 

Well the on-the-side experiment proved interesting but not in the way I had expected. Basically putting the speakers that close (total width around 64" with HF on the outer ends) pretty much destroyed the soundstage I have been enjoying with the Heresy about 8' to 10' apart. And by destroyed, I mean it, yes the stereo imaging was still there but the huge spread was gone. Interestingly though, with the horns vertical, height placement was not that critical.

 

I'm thinking I am going to have to place the speakers in the room, perhaps with small floor pockets behind to wire to & have the cabinet still roll but house only the components & fold-up TV.  We laid it all out on the floor & think it's a compromise we can live with as opposed to living with the knowledge that your listening could be better. It's not like we don't already have a motorcycle also parked in the space!

 

Best laid plans of mice...

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