Heresys used - advice on purchasing

[fantail]

Dear Forum

Your opinions will guide my search and purchase decision. I love

the sound of the older Klipsch speakers. I can fit only the

Heresys space-wise.

What should I look for? Aesthetics are less important to me.

How much should I pay? Ebay lets them go for between $300 and $600.

Where should I look? I'm looking in Ebay and Audiogon.

What's with the square or round magnet on the woofer? I have no data in this.

What's with the different crossover designs? I care mostly about sound quality.

Thanks for your input.

fantail

[Daddy Dee]

Heresy's are fine speakers. From time to time forum members list them

for sale. To my memory, they are usually $500 and excellent condition

from from forum members.

From my observations on Ebay, there is not a large price difference

between the rough cabs and nice ones. Go figure, but that's ebay.

On Ebay, whatever you do, you will want to feel confident in the

sellers ability to pack these things, because they WILL BE DROPPED on

the corners by UPS or FedEx. They are so dang heavy, corner damage is

all to common in shipping. This is a big problem, IMO. Good luck on

trying to get any adjustment out of one of these loser sellers and UPS

or FedEX would properly not pay for damage, since it was the fault of

inadequate packing. Thus, if you can run across a pair with original

cartons, that is a real plus. Those will be packed appropriately and

will probably travel fine. The cost of UPS shipping will be more than

$30 each. (actual cost) Sellers will often charge as much as $100

apiece for shipping. That's too much, IMO, but part of the nature of

things on Ebay. Bidding on a pair close enough for local pickup is a

plus.

Crossovers will need to be refreshed in speakers over 20 years old.

Doesn't cost much, but is a necessity if you want the kind of sound for

which these beauties are cabapable.

Good luck.

[fantail]

Daddy Dee,

Thanks for your help and information. I have since learned that

the Forum is full of super-expert advice accessible through a good bool

search routine.

Just one more thing. Since you mentioned Forum members sometimes

list speakers for sale, where do they do that? Or, is there a

place where I can place a want ad?

[travisc]

There are a pair of decorator Heresy on ebay right now(this means no grill cloth or finish). Except for the messed up woofer, they look ok and will probly go on the cheaper end, another woofer would be easily replaceable(I have two for sale square and round)Square magnets were used up until the late seventies, they are a k-22-ef and the round k-22-k were used afterwards and are considered a direct replacement of the older ef or eminence driver, they have since moved onto a k-24 and I think the new Heresy 3 uses a k-28? You will enjoy the Heresy if your looking for a tight punchy pantleg flapping bass as opposed to earth shaking lower frequencies.

good luck and happy hunting

[Flason]

If you are close by to Tampa\St. Pete, I have a set of late 70' or early 80's Heresy's I'll sell for $250. I bought them from a local used record dealer and I believe he got them from a police auction. Really not sure of the year but I had posted them here a few months ago with no interest. If you are a distance then I'm sure you will eventually see some for a very resonable price in your area.

[fantail]

travisc,

I saw those on Ebay. I may look into them further. And thanks for the

offer of woofers. My guess is, given the discoloration of the

cone, and the brittle appearance of the tears, these speakers may have

been exposed to excessive moisture and suffered paper degradation (Item

location, Virginia Beach, Hmm). And this hypothesis makes me

think the other woofer, and perhaps other drivers may be compromised as

well. It's probably useless to indulge the seller with such a

question given the nature of his other offerings (99-cent novelties and

stuff).

Should I approach my purchase of Heresys with repair and replacement of

components in mind, I'll remember your kind offer. And thank you

for the information on the evolution of the woofer models.

Regards,

fantail

[travisc]

ya got a point there on the moisture thing, I like the look of the Decorators, my GF doesnt but I like to see my horns. keep vigilant on the Heresy and good luck

[Kriton]

Uh, fantail, where are you? Might make a difference as to what is available, who will look if we knew where you were?

K

[fantail]

travisc,

Decorator. So that's what they're called. I like the look

too. I keep the grilles off my speakers always. I have

never heard a truly acoustically transparent fabric. But the

again, I also remove the insect screens from my windows.

fantail

[fantail]

Kriton,

Thank you for your suggestion and offer. (You know I only registered

this morning). I hadn't imagined that my request for advice could also

be a de facto want ad on this Forum. So many forums have so many

rules about what can and can not be discussed, and not wanting to step

on any toes, and being too impatient to look up the rules, and assuming

that the official Klipsch portal may wish to discourage commerce in

their wares in the secondary market of used stuff, well... Enough

said.

I am in downtown New York City, and I can drive a car. And as you

know, I would like to buy a pair of heresys, more or less in keeping

with the criteria outlined at the start of this thread.

Thank you so much for your consideration.

Regards,

fantail

[Malcolm]

Heresys from the mid 60s or so through the early 70s had 16 ohm woofers

and Type C crossover network. Later Heresys had 8 ohm woofers and

Type D (relatively rare) or Type E crossover networks. The

difference in these two networks is simply a phase change made after

Klipsch found out they sounded better that way. The last of the

Heresys were kind of a transitional form to the Heresy II. They

had a K-52-H or K-53-K squawker driver and a Type E2 crossover

network. There earlier ones all had K-55-V squawker drivers and

sound amazingly alike to me. The last ones sound a little

different, not worse, than the earlier ones to me. There were

only two tweeters, the K-77 which had an round alnico magnet, and the

K-77-M which had a square ferrite magnet. The K-77-M has maybe 2

to 3 dB higher output above about 11 kHz, which is a barely audible

difference if you have good ears. Probably the most desireable

ones are the ones produced in the early 80s with the K-55-V squawker

driver and K-77-M tweeter. The other models that are highly

sought are the ones with woofers with alnico magnets produced before

about 1974. The nature of the magnet circuit makes them more

compatible with CRT displays than the ones with ferrite magnets.

The differences in the crossover networks are simply to deal with the

different components in the speaker. They all use the same

autotransformer, same woofer inductor and same types of filters, with

the exception of the E2 which adds a 33 uF capacitor to the woofer

circuit. Early networks use motor capacitors which are nothing

special. Later ones use metallized film capacitors which are

better. If you don't like the capacitors, they are easy to

replace with you favorite "audiophile" brand in the same value.

[fantail]

Malcolm,

Thank you. Wow. That is very informative. Now I know!

fantail

[travisc]

nice thanx Malcom appreciate the knowledge

[Daddy Dee]

fantail,

The forum does not have a classified buy/sell section. I'm sorry that I've had an attack of amnesia as to who it was that had a pair for sale for a considerable time. All I remember is my impression that they looked good and were priced fairly.

good luck with locating a nice pair.

[ricktate]

Why not be the first to get a new set of Heresys on the forum?Rick