Pull the trigger, yes or no!

[Cal Blacksmith]

The new terminal board in back.

[Cal Blacksmith]

a better view of the back with port.

[Cal Blacksmith]

The woofer, rope calulked and mounted from the front.

[Cal Blacksmith]

The mid and high end section.

[Cal Blacksmith]

and last but not least, the crossover. I still need to figure out exactly how to hook up a single run of wire to these speakers. I just bridged the two inputs on the terminal on the back to test them and it seemed to work out fine.

[Cal Blacksmith]

I havent had the chance to check out more than that all the drivers work. They were setup in the middle of the room when I listened to them at the sellers house so they were sorely lacking in bass but the drivers were working so I will need to check them out up against a wall or in a corner like they will be mounted for HT. I dont know how I feel about the port, if PK thought they should have been ported, he would have made them that way from the start. Oh well, listen and discover. That is where the fun is right?

[Speedball]

Cal,

It sounds to me you got a smokin' deal...a couple weeks ago at our local dealer a pair of speakers like that for sale were priced at 1200.00.

Sure...those have been modified but they also might sound even better then original. Oh, I also really like the Walnut finish.

I made some frames/covers for some speakers once out of hardwood Maple then stained them accordingly.....very strong and rigid, lasted for years.

[Marvel]

Very nice. Having the ports on the back means you can't mount them against the wall for rears though. The guy did a lot of work on them and the components are easily worth the price.

The stands themselves aren't cheap.

Marvel

[colterphoto1]

How does that port mod sound?

You got quite a deal, getting two pristine, highly modded Heresies for $275. Were the stands included also?

Can you A/B these with unmodded Heresy and post a report please?

Michael

[krustyoldsarge]

The crossover chokes look like an upgrade (could be wrong). Anyway, excellent score!

Like Mike said, we're all holding our breath to hear your impressions of the sound, ported Heresy's don't show up at the forum every day!

[DoubleJ]

Not too sure how they determine Serial #'s between models but my Single Cornwall has a S/N of 18S911. That as close to matching Serial #'s I've seen.

OBTW..Nice score on the Heresies !!!!

JJ

[Cal Blacksmith]

I will do some A/B with my unmolested H2s that I also own. It is nice that both of these are in WO, they match well. The wood is not quite as nice as the photos show. I would rate it 7.5 out of 10. These are 1978 models and in the last 27 years they have had a few scratches and some dents. There is one chip on the upper back corner of one of the speakers that is about the size of a pencil eraser. There is a small crack in the veneer of the other speaker but it is not split or separated. From 5 feet away they look like 9s.

Yes the stands were included in the price and I do believe that the crossovers have been modded also. The chokes are huge and are attached with zip ties. The cans are only held on with their leads. There could be some room for improvement in the quality of the work on the crossovers, but we will see this weekend how they sound.

I was not going to flush mount them for rears, as it would be much more difficult. I was going to space them an inch or two from the wall and about the same from the corner. If needed, I could switch the rolls that I have for each set. The new ones could go up front for mains and the H2s could go in back for surround. This might be the better voicing anyway as my center is the La Scalla top section I got from Fzninvt last year. The K55vs in the Heresy 1s might voice better with the K55m in the La Scalla top section. Only testing will tell. Let the games begin!

[Olorin]

One thing that works to your favor re: the port mod is that the Heresy's removable back makes it relatively painless to knock up a new backboard and go back to a sealed enclosure. You'll want to give those ports at least one port diameter from any obstruction to prevent weirdities in their behavior. They may be weird already, but listening will tell you if that is the case.

All in all I'd say you made a nice pickup. $300 is a great price. Congrats!

[colterphoto1]

I'd rope caulk those metal horns, surprised that wasn't done already. It made a tremendous difference in my K400's LaScala. I'll be doing all my Cornwall horns as they are rebuilt.

If you keep the port mods, they might work best in the front, where you can position them farther from the wall, like Olorin suggested.

Michael

[J.4knee]

Cal,

Re: the timbre differences between the H II's and you LS section center will be minimal if indiscernible in an HT application. Musically they are far enough apart to make it a little less palatable. If you use your systems as I do in a multi role set up for both multi and two channel the Heresy 1 might be a better match for music although they are voiced similarly. I notice the disparity when I play my multi channel SACDs and DVD As with the Heresy II I am currently using for a center channel. I think a lot of it has to do with the woofer doing more work on the vocals and that freq range in general. But I think you will see that in both Heresy and Heresy II. I guess it is just going to be a try and see issue. Anyway congrats on the score.

R/Jim

[krustyoldsarge]

Dunno about moving the port to the front, might be a mighty tight fit!

[Cal Blacksmith]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I also own another pair of Heresy speakers that are the front speakers on my ht system. The new ones were to be the rear surrounds. I intended to say that I could move my old Heresy speakers to the surround positions and move the new, ported ones to the "front" positions. Not move the port to the front of the speakers My appology to the members for the confusion.

[J.4knee]

Well A/B results? Do tell inquiring minds want to know!

[Cal Blacksmith]

This was the setup. The new speakers were set up side by side with the first set of Heresys. The modified H1s are without grills and the stock H2s have cane grills. They were placed to try to make things as even as possible. I used an early 90s Yamaha receiver which had built in a/b speaker switches. I used my B&O turntable for a source, (it still has it!) and an LP that I knew well and is a good test of orchestral instruments.

The results were interesting to say the least. The first time I compared them, the ports were open and the speakers were at least 1 port dia from the wall. The Heresy2s performed as expected and sounded great but a little bass shy. Full, rich mids and clean clear balanced highs.

The ported, though that was not the only mod, Heresys had a brighter top end while the mids were lean and thin sounding compared to the H2s. Bass? WHAT BASS??? The bottom end was nearly gone. Enough was there to show that the woofers were working but the bass fell off a cliff.

Next I took some hand towels, rolled them tight and stuffed them into the ports and repeated the test with the same music. This time around the H1s had a little more bass and the mids filled in a bit but they never came up to the same depth that the H2s have.

After a few seconds, your ear became adjusted to each speaker setup and I found it interesting that the H1s while bass shy and thin in the mids were pleasant to listen to. They seemed more accurate and clear with the upper mids. When I changed back to the H2s, they sounded bloated and thick until the ears made the adjustment then they sounded balanced and richer. It is hard to say which sound I preferred. It differed for different passages of the music.

The sound stage of the H2s seemed wider though it sounded taller on the H1s. Again, hard to say which I would rather have.

I will try next time screwing a board over the ports to really seal them off. I will also need to glue toothpicks into the screw holes holding the back on as nearly all of them were stripped out. I will also seal the backs with some thin foam insulation.

[Marvel]

I would be very tempted to cut new backs and get them back to original, and go from there.

Marvel