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Low budget Heresy H700 restoration.


gigantic

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1 hour ago, gigantic said:

would it be best for the performance of the speaker, used in a 2 channel system, as well as the primary drivers in a 7.1 surround system, to use the type E network and upgrade the capacitors and inductors to that spec?

 

 

"Best" is subjective, but if you want to listen to them as PWK voiced them, an update to the E network would be appropriate.

 

I'd update the caps on the C and take a listen.  Order an extra pair of 1uf or 2uf caps at the same time to update to an E if you don't like the C.  With the k22k swap, the bass will be more pronounced vs an E.  Not necessarily a bad thing...

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12 minutes ago, OO1 said:

it depends on the K-22  woofer ,

 

there were a lot of variations  of the K-22 ,  Ferrite-Alnico-Round or square magnets .

The Ferrite square magnets were the best for bass   .

 

True.  But in his case he's swapping out a 16ohm and replacing with an 8ohm k22.  It'll be more bass biased in his C network vs an E where the mid and tweet are raised a tap 

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1 hour ago, winglet said:

True.  But in his case he's swapping out a 16ohm and replacing with an 8ohm k22.  It'll be more bass biased in his C network vs an E where the mid and tweet are raised a tap 

I'm swapping 8 Ohm K-22-K that have torn cones for the same. since the speakers that were in there when I opened them up have an "R" stamp on them, I assume that means they've been replaced at some point in the past 51 years. At any rate, the "new" woofers should arrive on Tuesday.

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more progress: finish is done and will cure for a few days before assembly. While it's not nearly as good as the finish work I've done on guitars, considering where it started, I'll take it. for reference, how we started: 
8H3Gl6e.jpg



and how it's going now:
gWO7h0r.jpg

 

dl4RFIp.jpg

 

vgcuHm7.jpg

 

because the edges were so brittle and would chip if you looked at them wrong, I put an 1/8" round-over on them. It's cleaned them up quite a bit, but I'll acknowledge that they're now modded and have little remaining resale value beyond parting out. I'm okay with that because in their previous condition, my partner was none too keen about me bringing them in the house and I don't disagree with her. They looked like I'd pulled them out of the trash, which in fact, I did. Further, this beats throwing them back in the trash, which I'd also considered because I had been moving them around in my carriage house for the past decade and had given serious consideration to putting them back on the curb. I'm glad that I didn't, this has been a fun little project so far.

 

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I had some scrap 3/4” mdf in my workshop, so I decided to play around with it and make new backs, so I didn’t have to damage the originals. Also, considering how thin the oem back panels were, they seem like a potential weak link in the cabinet construction; MDF, being both dense, structurally stiff and and not particularly resonant, should in theory, tighten things up a bit, with the rabbeted edges providing a good seal against the back. 
 

dAL69bt.jpg
 

i also cut and shaped a hole to fit a 4” port in the back: 

 

hHdIpAw.jpg
 

 

here’s a panel installed flush on the back of the speaker box:

 

VylJRKc.jpg
 

i wasn’t able to get in the paint booth today, but I’ll scuff-sand the panels and spray a few more coats tomorrow. Tuesday, the K-22-K’s arrive, as well as the speaker terminals, so I’ll begin putting everything together with the stock, type c network to see how they sound, before I upgrade the capacitors. 

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Sealing up the boxes with 3/8” x 1/8” neoprene tape:

Mi5UCf1.jpg
 

horns and badges installed:

ZXBvzQf.jpg
 

and now I check UPS tracking every 10 minutes, waiting for the K-22-K to arrive latter today, to assemble, test and begin updating the network to Type E spec, and then to @ClaudeJ1’s Baby Cornwall spec, once the Eminence Delta Pro 12A’s show up at the end of the week. 

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23 hours ago, gigantic said:

Whelp, I couldn’t resist a pair of Eminence Delta Pro 12A’s on Ebay for $200, shipped, so it looks like @ClaudeJ1 ‘s Baby Cornwalls are on the table, proper. Will still put them back together with all the stock components, just to establish a baseline, then do the mods

The K-22K is for sealed and not ported, so you will need the original backs with that. I'm pretty sure you know this already.

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Just now, ClaudeJ1 said:

The K-22K is for sealed and not ported, so you will need the original backs with that. I'm pretty sure you know this already.

Yes. I’m keeping the original backs intact to use with the K-22-K’s and have another set of backs that I’ve made to receive the ports, as well as banana terminals. I like retaining the option of returning them to stock. 
 

i may very well make another set of cabinets and either transfer the baby Cornwall mods to that, or build them as Heresy 1 replicas with original Klipsch parts. 

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On 9/3/2022 at 3:02 PM, gigantic said:

more progress: finish is done and will cure for a few days before assembly. While it's not nearly as good as the finish work I've done on guitars, considering where it started, I'll take it. for reference, how we started: 
8H3Gl6e.jpg



and how it's going now:
gWO7h0r.jpg

 

dl4RFIp.jpg

 

vgcuHm7.jpg

 

because the edges were so brittle and would chip if you looked at them wrong, I put an 1/8" round-over on them. It's cleaned them up quite a bit, but I'll acknowledge that they're now modded and have little remaining resale value beyond parting out. I'm okay with that because in their previous condition, my partner was none too keen about me bringing them in the house and I don't disagree with her. They looked like I'd pulled them out of the trash, which in fact, I did. Further, this beats throwing them back in the trash, which I'd also considered because I had been moving them around in my carriage house for the past decade and had given serious consideration to putting them back on the curb. I'm glad that I didn't, this has been a fun little project so far.

 

The gloss black looks great. I like that you can still see some grain of the wood. Very nice. You would be surprised what one may offer for those even if they are not "original". 

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55 minutes ago, gigantic said:

and then to @ClaudeJ1’s Baby Cornwall spec, once the Eminence Delta Pro 12A’s show up at the end of the week. 

In the spirit of "incremental modifications," when you get to the woofer swap/ported version. Don't change the crossover before you listen to them. If you feell they are too bass heavy in your room, then change the capacitor values on your E network in accordance with my original recipe of raising the mid and tweet levels by 3 db. But don't do it until you try it without first. I'm about to do the same incremental thing on my 2.0's before I go "all the way" so I can measure something I never tried.

Others, like @Fido have with auditory success. He claims they sounded as good as his Forte 1's without raising the level of the mid and tweet, so I will resolve this one way or another and look for your feedback in the near future.

 

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1 hour ago, gigantic said:

Yes. I’m keeping the original backs intact to use with the K-22-K’s and have another set of backs that I’ve made to receive the ports, as well as banana terminals. I like retaining the option of returning them to stock. 
 

i may very well make another set of cabinets and either transfer the baby Cornwall mods to that, or build them as Heresy 1 replicas with original Klipsch parts. 

Those "Portus Gilley/NW Bradford" stickers and PWK badges are worth a lot of resale money if you restore them to original, FYI.

 

But if you end up building something from scratch, I would do the Super H thing for those because they are not 100% Klipsch anyhow and their value is more sonic than resale. So if you can get 1-1.5 Kilobuck a pair for fully restored Heresy 1's, then you can use the cash to built Supers, make them pretty enough for the GAF, and enjoy better sound AND aesthetics in the process. The Heresy' are the most phase coherent of the Heritage PWK line by nature and have great imaging, which you don't give up with the SH. May all your decisions be wise ones!

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the UPS delivery arrived at noon, @dtr20 did an outstanding job packing the K-22K’s

 

uTqqalN.jpg

 

 I have everything reassembled, as PWK intended, with a bit more sound insulation added:

ygHRDJj.jpg
 

Voila! They’re ready to be taken home for testing:

 

vMuAqqf.jpg

 

I also made a set of risers for them:

 

ePtzXvq.jpg

 

Considering that they were rescued from and nearly ended up back in the trash, I’m pleased at how they’ve turned out. Total expenditure to this point is about $160 for the replacement speakers and paint. 

 

 

@ClaudeJ1,

the plan is to test them with the B circuit today, then upgrade to the e circuit. Then when the Eminences arrive, I’ll try them with the ported back and depending on the base response, do your recommended mods. I’ll keep you posted every step of the way. 
 

by the way, what do you mean by “restoring” the stickers? I had a notion to scan them, clean them up and replicate them, but I feel that runs close to forgery. 

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26 minutes ago, gigantic said:

the UPS delivery arrived at noon, @dtr20 did an outstanding job packing the K-22K’s

 

 

 

 I have everything reassembled, as PWK intended, with a bit more sound insulation added:

ygHRDJj.jpg
 

Voila! They’re ready to be taken home for testing:

You should leave them alone if they are still stuck to the backs, or reglue them on if not. Also, when I spent a day with PWK in 1985, I asked him why he NEVER used insulation in the Heresy cabinet, his response was: "I wanted a pure acoustic capacitance in the box." As opposed to the a resistance from insulation, which, I suspect may have increased IM distortion due to the very slightly lower bass response that might have occured. You may want to measure with and without to prove him right or not.

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First impressions: I’m not likely to report anything that anyone here doesn’t already know. Phenomenal sensitivity, dynamics and clarity, the imaging is incredible and it even sounds amazing in surround mode. But… everyone knows this is coming… no bottom end, it just falls off when things get low. With my subwoofer turned off, there’s almost nothing there at the bottom end of the spectrum below mid-bass. Treble is nice, but in the range of the human voice, it’s a little harsh, I’d almost describe it as sibilance, but it’s not distortion. Is this a characteristic of the Type C network? I’m just recovering from COVID and my tinnitus is working overtime, so that may be a factor, too. I think I’d appreciate choking the the midrange back a little bit. So far, I’ve listened to Talk Talk’s “Spirit of Eden” LP, David Sylvian’s “Secrets of the Beehive,” and my bass test tracks, Boards of Canada’s “Aquarius” and “Everything You Do is a Balloon”. On deck, I have Dark Side of the Moon, Charles Mingus’s “Black Saint and the Sinner Lady,” Henryk Górecki’s “Symphony No. 3” (with Dawn Upshaw), some Steely Dan, a little Slayer and perhaps some Wu Tang Clan, just to cover all of my bases. 

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33 minutes ago, gigantic said:

First impressions: I’m not likely to report anything that anyone here doesn’t already know. Phenomenal sensitivity, dynamics and clarity, the imaging is incredible and it even sounds amazing in surround mode. But

So it's the K22K Heresy you speak of. You should be more specific as to what specific config you are listening too anytime you give us feedback.

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8 minutes ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

So it's the K22K Heresy you speak of. You should be more specific as to what specific config you are listening too anytime you give us feedback.

Sorry, I thought I’d mentioned previously that I was restoring them to stock today and listening to them in stock configuration. Perhaps as soon as tomorrow, I’ll upgrade the networks to Type E. The Eminence woofers arrive on Thursday, however, I doubt I’ll get them installed until next week; I’m on vacation now, but we’re going down the shore to Cape May on Friday for a long weekend on the beach. 

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17 minutes ago, gigantic said:

Sorry, I thought I’d mentioned previously that I was restoring them to stock today and listening to them in stock configuration. Perhaps as soon as tomorrow, I’ll upgrade the networks to Type E. The Eminence woofers arrive on Thursday, however, I doubt I’ll get them installed until next week; I’m on vacation now, but we’re going down the shore to Cape May on Friday for a long weekend on the beach. 

Great plan. Sorry I missed some of your prior post, I was too busy looking at the ample photographs you provided. Enjoy your long weekend, now that the amateurs/tourists have likely gone home. LOL. The water should still be warm.

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