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Maintain / upgrade my old Heresys?


TheGoodTexan

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Greetings - new to the forum, but not new to Klipsch at all.  My dad was a Klipsch dealer in Texarkana, TX from 1970 until he sold the business in 2008.  So I grew up with every model Klipsch speaker in our home, and listening to them all at my dad's retail storefront.  My ears have been tuned to the Klipsch sound forever... and classic Polk ADA not too far behind.

 

Someone gave me a free single 1980 Heresy years ago, which I never used.  Then I found a pair of 1980 Heresys at a local used book store for $300 a few years ago.  I use them as L/C/R in my home theater set up.

 

We had some water damage issues and had to jackhammer up the basement to install a foundation drainage system, and I used that opportunity to pre-wire in-wall for my home theater set up.  Now as everything is about to come back together, I'm thinking about pay a little attention to the needs of my Heresys.  Can you guys point me to some threads to read regarding upgrading/updating the crossovers?  What about the Crites tweeters - is that something that I need to consider/investigate?

 

Also, I'm an electric guitar player and have used Eminence guitar speakers forever.  I was having to rebuild a guitar cabinet a while back and ordered an Eminence Delta Pro-12A for it (they are amazing guitar speakers).  Just for fun I put it in one of my Heresys for a bit to crank some music through it and get it broken in.  I liked the sound of that a lot.  So I may consider replacing the woofers in all three of my Heresys.  I read where some folks do that and then vent the cabinet?  Seems like it might begin to deviate from the signature Heresy tone... but I don't know.

 

I use a pretty hefty subwoofer with my system (two old school Rockford Fosgate Power Series 10s, with a Crown K2 power amp).  So I'm not hyper concerned about squeezing extra bass out of the Heresys.

 

Thank you in advance for pointing me in the right direction on these things.

 

TGT

 

 

Edited by TheGoodTexan
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1 minute ago, TheGoodTexan said:

 

Thank you sir.  I have been searching and reading.  Appreciate any help I can get.

Maybe a pic of their condition will spark a conversation. Think that among all the heritage, the Heresy has the most information archived here a member said.

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@TheGoodTexan, the 1980 Heresy have E crossovers which are as straightforward as can be. Even if you haven’t done soldering, there’s really only 3 items that need any work, learn to solder from YouTube and a bit of practice…. source some components and rebuild your own. Search “JEM” for Klipsch approved parts, or … Also read the Super Heresy threads. Welcome to the forum.

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@TheGoodTexanalso, as a new member, you can't send or receive PM until you post 5 items ... so do some more replies in this thread and you will also perhaps receive some answers via PM.  Also, with PM you can if you wish offer email address which others can then freely communicate to you.  Up to you how far you go with crossover update/upgrade ... spend a little / spend a lot.  And welcome to the forum.

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23 hours ago, MC39693 said:

@TheGoodTexan, the 1980 Heresy have E crossovers which are as straightforward as can be. Even if you haven’t done soldering, there’s really only 3 items that need any work, learn to solder from YouTube and a bit of practice…. source some components and rebuild your own. Search “JEM” for Klipsch approved parts, or … Also read the Super Heresy threads. Welcome to the forum.

 

Wonderful.  Thank you!

 

I've never designed a crossover, but I solder quite well (for guitar purposes) and I do understand the components of a crossover and how they work.

Edited by TheGoodTexan
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@TheGoodTexanperfect.  The crossover schematics are in the forums, just search crossover... there's a lot of pages but you can find the E crossover easily enough.

Most of all for the 1980's the caps can do with an update.  Again, you have lots of choices, contact JEM (their information is in the forum), or otherwise.  I'm not a designer but the E crossover is the best to work on and the 1980 cabinet back comes off to afford easy access.  There are some easy other changes you might consider, but if you wander through the forum especially in the Technical Modifications older posts, you'll see lots there. 

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18 hours ago, MC39693 said:

@TheGoodTexanperfect.  The crossover schematics are in the forums, just search crossover... there's a lot of pages but you can find the E crossover easily enough.

Most of all for the 1980's the caps can do with an update.  Again, you have lots of choices, contact JEM (their information is in the forum), or otherwise.  I'm not a designer but the E crossover is the best to work on and the 1980 cabinet back comes off to afford easy access.  There are some easy other changes you might consider, but if you wander through the forum especially in the Technical Modifications older posts, you'll see lots there. 

 

E crossover - got it.

 

Thank you for pointing me in the right directions.

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If you replace the caps from JEM, the signature of the Heresy will be maintained. Anything else will not be the same. It doesn't mean they will necessarily sound bad, you amy like them better, but they will be different.

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

Heresy_Type_E.jpg.5d2e10b6c333384c66ee9a0c29ab6703.jpg

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Just my opinion but I don't care for the bickering over the choice/source of replacement capacitors. To believe it's even audible, I have to see some spectrum comparisons -- that is, data. Otherwise it's just opinions. Happy Thanksgiving Klipsch fans. I'll be listening to my 72 KHorns with caps I replaced about a year or two ago.

Pnort

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“JEM caps” are tight spec metallized polyesters made for Klipsch by Tecate Industries. “Crites caps” are Sonicaps, distributed by Soniccraft.

 

Yes, I’ve read through that before. It’s interesting. The first test is between three similarly spec’d capacitors. It simply shows if you stay within the same dielectric family, differences (measurable and audible) are minuscule. Two of the caps were polypropylene, the third was polycarbonate - a cap I have no personal experience with. 
 

Second test was between an unknown polyester and some electrolytics. He concludes:


“If you replace capacitors, especially electrolytic capacitors, with film capacitors in the crossover, without checking with an LCR meter, you will most likely notice a change in sound. However, 99% of the change in sound is only due to the different capacitances caused by the capacitor tolerances and not because the film or high-end capacitor "sounds better".’”

 

I sometimes think the quality of the test equipment often exceeds the skills of the person performing the tests. At any rate, regardless of the reason(s), an audible difference is “likely”.

 

@captainbeefheart

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K-28 is approved by Klipsch for use in the Heresy. Yes, it has a 4 ohm voice coil, so there is a 2dB bump through part of its response. No crossover changes required, so I’m guessing the impedance is close to where it’s supposed to be near the crossover point. 
 

https://reconingspeakers.com/products-page/klipsch-k-28-e-woofer-part-121225/

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On 11/24/2022 at 2:16 PM, pnort said:

Just my opinion but I don't care for the bickering over the choice/source of replacement capacitors. To believe it's even audible, I have to see some spectrum comparisons -- that is, data. Otherwise it's just opinions. Happy Thanksgiving Klipsch fans. I'll be listening to my 72 KHorns with caps I replaced about a year or two ago.

Pnort

 

You don't have to see any actual measured data, knowing the crossover design impedance characteristics and capacitor dielectric properties; specifically dissipation factor you would know that ESR could change high frequency response.

 

I just looked at a polyester and foil capacitor datasheet, DF = .7

 

Now compare that to just about every Polypropylene capacitor that has a DF of .1 or better.

 

Since DF is a ratio between ESR and Xthe math tells us that ESR will be higher for a capacitor that has a DF of .7 compared to .1 or less.

 

2uF at 10kHz

 

Xc = 7.95

 

Between the two capacitor types, one with a DF=.7 and the DF=.1

 

Polyester and foil ESR= .7 * 7.95 or 5 ohms

 

Polypropylene ESR= .1 * 7.95  or .79 ohms

 

So with one cap we have an ESR of 5 ohms at 10kHz while the other only has an ESR of .79 ohms. At higher frequencies the transfer function has changed due to the difference in ESR which is directly related to dielectric DF. The polypropylene capacitor will be brighter sounding since it has less losses at higher frequencies due to lower ESR.

 

The lesson is, if you don't have a thorough understanding of the networks and overall good working knowledge of passive filter design then replace the capacitors in your networks with the Klipsch approved JEM capacitors to make sure you retain the intended transfer function of the filters.

 

@Deang

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