Al Klappenberger Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 Hi guys, I thought somebody might be interested what happens if you put a Klipsch Heresy on steroids! Here's my results. Part of the objective in doing this was to get some use out of the old parts I removed from my Belles. I didn't want to just leave the old K55V drivers and K500 horns sitting in the attic and I didn't want to sell them in case I ever wanted to restore the Belles someday. I could have used the K77 (T35) tweeters from the Belles too but I found two Beyma CP09 constant directivity tweeters on eBay for a song! These require equalization but will go flat to well over 20 Khz (as if I could actually hear that high)! The woofers are the K-24-K which I bought new directly from Klipsch. These are the 12 Inch woofers used in the Heresy II. The crossover networks are separated into the woofer / high section and the squawker / tweeter section. These are prototype designs having extreme slopes of roughly 70 dB / octave. The equalizer needed for the Beyma tweeter is built right on the high frequency baffle board next to the tweeter. All of the parts from a Heresy or Heresy II could have been used though including the crossover. The woofer cabinet was designed to get the most from the 12 inch K-24 woofer. The box is about 4.3 cubic feet with a 6 inch long 4 inch diameter port. It goes very nicely down to 30 Hz. The efficiency measures about 90dB / 1W / 1 meter. Al K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 AL, Looks nice!...too complicated for me in that network though...LOL! One of these days I will get out the soldering stuff and get enough more experience soldering electronics and breathe in enough solder fumes to get after building networks for myself, though! LOL! Does that woofer cabinet, since it is ported, have any problems with the woofer's excursion limits? Or is that particular Heresy woofer model NOT a short-excursion model? I readily admit that I am no expert on all the woofer types used in Heresys over the last twenty years...so I just wondered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Klappenberger Posted March 16, 2003 Author Share Posted March 16, 2003 Builder, The woofer is a classic bass reflex or "vented" design. Like any open box, the woofer can be damaged by sub-sonic energy, like that casued by record worp. The fix is a simple R-C subsonic filter. It's just a chance I'm willing to take. The box was built by a local cabinet shop. I can't take any credit at all for the woodwork. All I did was cut the hole for the port and screw it together! Oh yeah... I did make the baffle for the squawker and tweeter horns and the grill cloth frame too. Al K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 I'm also intriqued and extremely impressed by the networks. Geez Al, how do you come up with this stuff. It looks like you figured out how to mathematically remove most of the capacitors and replace them with inductors. I get a headache just looking at them. So, how do they sound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Klappenberger Posted March 16, 2003 Author Share Posted March 16, 2003 Dean, OUTCH! Replacing caps with inductors is just exactly what a filter designer does NOT want to do! It just looks that way becasue the inductos are so big compared to the caps. At least I hope that's the reason. Al K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubeCraft Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Al, was there a reason you mounted the mid-horn and the woofer to the back of the motorboard? Since on the Heresy II they're mounted to the front, I always thought that, if I was "reboxing" my Heresys, I'd do the same. Any thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 congrats al, looks killer! how does it sound? tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Klappenberger Posted March 17, 2003 Author Share Posted March 17, 2003 TC, The woofer would be better mounted on the front of the board, but that only if it needs to go higher. I am crossing over at 600 Hz like the side of a barn. It was simply easier to mount it behind the board. The squawker horn is mounted behind the board just like it was mounted in the Belle. The flange on the horn is not flat enought to mount it in front, through the hole. There is a small "bump" right at each screw hole. Tony, I have not had a chance to audition them with anyhting but the TV so far. I bought a Nakamichi receiver on Ebay for use with them in a surround system, but it is not hooked up yet. The sound seems quite good though. It has plenty of bass yet doesn't seem boomy on speech. The high end sounds like the Belle since it's using the belle squawker. Al K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Al, That really does look awesome! You're obviously not following PWK's advice (in the online videos), in which he describes the K.I.S.S. method . You seem more inclined to follow the ALK philosophy M.I.B.B. (make it better, baby!). Good work! fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Klappenberger Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 Fini, You got it! It take a genoius to make it simple. Any dope can make it compicated! AL K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry N. Cruse Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Fini, What on line stuff are you referring too? I.B. Slammin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Terry, Go to the Klipsch Listening Lounge, and from there to the "Distractions/Multimedia Archive" section. There are several enlightening and entertaining clips of PWK speaking on a variety of subjects. Worth a download. fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabulousfrankie Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 I never even know those videos were there. Thanks for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dflip Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 Wow, they look great, but those networks must cost a few dollars to put together. About 13 capacitors and 8 inductors per speaker. One of the caps looks like a Hovland, $22 US or so and the rest are Solen (at least they are less expensive). I would think the big ticket item are the inductors, a 2.4 mHy is not cheap, and you have a couple that size. In a Cornwall, we would be talking pricy, but in a Heresy, these are Cadillacs. The crossover networks are worth more than the speakers. As usual your electronic expertise shows through. I can solder the connections, I just can't figure out if the elbow is connected to the knee or the tricep muscle? That is why many of us rely on your for expertise. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Klappenberger Posted March 27, 2003 Author Share Posted March 27, 2003 Don, I have attached a better picture of the network alnoe. Actually, part of this design was a computer analysis of just what parts I could cut corners on and still keep the performance high. The yellow cap you probably think is a Hovland is actually a Bennic mylar cap. That's one of the ones I was able to compromise on. It's connected right across the woofer, which is a non-critical place. Most of the caps are Solen FastCaps. A few are non-polor electrolytics. Those are also in the woofer filter. The idea was to try to get the total loss to be as close to adding up to exactly 6 dB with the theoretical 3 dB inherant at the crossover. This was to try to make a flat summation. I wound up with 5.5 dB which worked pretty well. With perfect lossless parts the crossover would be 3.01 dB which will sum up to a slight peak assuming the channels were in phase. AL K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobMarshall Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Twenty years to late for some incredible ideas and people that understand and appreciate them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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