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Heresy Crossover


T_Shomaker

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You might be interested to check out Al Klappenberger's crossovers on alkeng.com.

He designed one for Cornwall/Heresy and though there was not enough demand for this crossover (to continue building it for customers) he still has the schematic, pics, and parts list on his site.

Compared to his type A replacement which is quite popular, it seems that the cost of the crossover relative to the value of the Heresy left a number of folks thinking it was not cost effective. With his parts lists and vendor contacts, it wouldn't take too long to figure the price for a DIY project.

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You can replace the inductor, Solen solid wire, 2.5 mHy and replace the caps with a good polypropylene capacitors and you should like the end result.

Dean offers three types of caps in the upgrades he does (but not for the Heresy): Audience Auricaps, and an "ultimate" upgrade package using RelCap's AudioCap PPT Theta. There will also be a "anal retentive" upgrade package using the RelCap PPFXS MultiCap. There are also Hovland MusiCaps. For the Type E network you need 2 - 2.0 uF capacitors.

Here is the schematic as posted by John Albright in this link:

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/files/Type%20E.jpg

John also proposed some other changes in:

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=30409&forumID=71&catID=19&search=1&searchstring=&sessionID={05361A9D-92CA-4E03-B898-630B8322C18E}

If you go to the search section and type in "heresy crossover", you will get a list of possibilities.

I found the inductors made a big difference in the bottom end with my Cornwalls. 12 awg solid wire ones are about $42 each, 14 awg would be cheaper. The caps also made a nice change.

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If I owned Heresies, and they were my long term solution for audio -- I would build ALKs for them. The crossover Al designed for the Heresy is actually quite similiar to the one he designed for the Cornwall. However, these crossovers would cost as much or more than you paid for the Heresies.

I can upgrade any crossover, it's really not that difficult. In fact, anything on a board using point-to-point wiring and solder lugs is much easier to upgrade than something on a PCB -- where in all likelyhood you have to drill holes and jumper to accomdate the larger parts.

The most cost effective upgrade is to simply to change the old parts and swap in some nice "conditioned" film and foil capacitors in the tweeter circuit. I would be very careful with the inductors. I don't recommend changing out ANY inductor unless you can find a match that comes within 5% of the originals in both inductance and DCR. I've seen pictures of other people's work here on the forum with the Type A and AA, where they have clearly used an inductor based on the inductance value alone -- with a DCR value much lower than what was originally factored into the design.

Teach yourself how to solder. It's cake. You can do it in one Saturday afternoon. With a little bit of practice, and a little bit of study -- you can yank those old parts and do the job yourself for about $100. There isn't much to the Type E. You should also change the wiring while you're in there.

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$200 is a little bit more than I wanted to spend so I don't think this project is going to be possible right now. I still have to buy a sub, refinish my heresys, get new grill material, get a new cd player, get new 7591 tubes, get a tuner, and get a tt to replace my stepdad's ugly tecnics that I'm using now. I was only going to be able to do this now if this was going to be a fairly cheap upgrade. I wish I was 16 and was able to get a job because I would already have all this stuff.

Thanks,

Taylor

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When you say "new" crossover, are you referring to the one designed by Al for the Cornwall/Heresy. The reason there are more parts is because Al engineered the crossover to have a constant impedance. A lot of math goes into his designs. The more things you want to correct, the more complex the crossover becomes. Since Al probably makes use of a modeling program, he can see things that PK couldn't see 40 years ago.

Below is the AK-4 crossover for the new Klipschorn. The early Type A has less parts in it than your Type E. A big difference. Of course, some believe simpler is better. I'm on the other side of the fence however. I find "comfort" in the complexity.

download.asp?mode=download&fileID=26882&

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Oops sorry, I forgot to answer your question.

How big of a difference? To someone with a critical ear -- quite a bit. To someone who wants a smoother sound, with less hash and more clarity -- enough of a difference to do it. To someone like my wife Debbie who seems satisfied with AC Delco -- not much. :)

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You may have a diaphragm getting ready to go, that doesn't sound like a crossover problem. Is the sound out of both tweeters? If so, you might want to clean all of your connections.

The AA is a good crossover. I would just upgrade the caps.

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