Heresy question

[castironandtubes]

Hi everybody, my first post. I have a set of '85 Heresys that I aquired a few months ago and set off a total replacement of my sytem from ss to tubes. I'm really into them but I can't shake the thought that I'm sure I would like the older ones (pre '78) better as 9 times out of 10 that's the case with me. My question is this - is the cabinet that much different (for sound) or could I accomplish more or less the same thing just replacing the drivers and horn (I notice that some people here seem to prefer the K-77-M tweeters, so maybe I'll think about that one). Also, looking at alnico woofers on eBay, are there any particular EV's that would be the most compatible? (I rarely see Klipschs) Thanks in advance for the help.

Dave

[hwatkins]

If older Heresy is your goal I would suggest buying them instead of modifying your existing pair mainly because of the crossovers - if I am not mistaken they are set up for the drivers (at least that has been told to me as I make a box that houses older K77 and K55 drivers). Ebay has alot of the older speakers show up.

A simple thought is that you are going to be more than mildly please with the HIIs on tubes. There is some discussion about preferences here, but it may well be over such small differences as to not be noticed by most folk's ears - with pluses and minuses for both.

I have both Is and IIs and have a slight (very, very slight) preference for the IIs. It takes quite a bit of real listening work to tell the difference (at least for me).

[Malcolm]

Assuming you have very late Heresys, not Heresy IIs, AFAIK the only difference in the cabinet between any of the Heresys is cosmetic. Cutouts for the speakers are the same size. So, if you want to, you can just replace everything inside with earlier stuff without modifying the cabinet at all. If you have Heresy IIs, the differences are because of front mounting and a different tweeter.

If you want alnico woofers, I, too, would recommend you just buy Heresys of the appropriate vintage. All of the Heresys with alnico woofers have a different crossover network than yours, and a different squawker driver and horn. IMHO the best alnico woofer used by Klipsch was the K-22 used in the mid sixties, which was a 16 ohm EV SP12B. But you won't be able to go as loud at low frequencies as with a newer one, like a K-22-K, because of differences in thermal power limit and Xmax. CTS also provided at least two different alnico magnet woofers during the seventies that were also labelled K-22.

There are other alnico woofers with appropriate sensitivity manufactured by Stephens, University, Altec, etc. that will work as well.

[castironandtubes]

Thanks for the response guys. I'm sort of leaning toward DIM since I can do it in increments as long as the finished product provides the desired results, which it sounds like it will. In the last few months I've only seen one set of 60's Heresys on eBay and budget is a bit of a concern so I might not be able to spring when "the one" comes along. I guess the horns will have to come at the same time as K-55-Vs and the crossovers will have to come at the same time as the alnico woofers. What would the appropriate Klipsch crossover be? Are there any other crossovers (Altec, EV, University etc.) that might work? Thanks again.

Dave

[Malcolm]

Heresy used Type C network from sixties through early seventies. Assuming you have a type E2 network in your 1985s, they can be modified to Type C by changing taps on the autotransformer, changing the 2 uF cap feeding the autotransformer to 1 uF, and removing the 33 uF cap in the woofer circuit.

That leaves the woofer and squawker. Both show up on eBay fairly frequently. With a little effort and luck, you should be able to buy alnico K-22s for about the price you can get for your current woofers. But the K-55-V and K-700 horn are probably going to cost a good deal more than you can recoop by selling your current squawker. There isn't all that much demand for the K-53-K compared to the K-55-V.