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Disappointed w/ Klipsch Heresy III. Now what?

I'd be very grateful for some help with a quandary.

I recently replaced my Ohm Walsh 1000 speakers with Heresy III speakers, running two-channel from a Rega Brio. I was pretty excited about the Heresy IIIs based on reviews — they were efficient, so my 35-watt amp would get the job done; they were supposed to have real punch in the low mid-range, so I could hear the upright bass clearly; they reportedly had excellent imaging; and best of all, they were supposed to sound great at low volumes. They are also indisputably beautiful, which was an important factor for my wife. (The Ohms are elegant, but you have to be an audio lover to see their beauty.)

I set them up, and . . . not so bad, pretty good. Especially loud. In fact the louder the better. Crank them up and they sing. But loud is not really an option with a new baby. So how do they sound quiet? They sound like the band is trapped in shoe box. Really in two shoe boxes because the L and R don't merge that well. The sound stage is tiny. All the detail is gone, the joy is gone. They are no fun at all. Music just seems like a bunch of noise.

But I want to believe! I want to make these speakers work. So I am faced with a quandary. I could:

1. Buy stands, a subwoofer and a tube amp, all of which people in various forums have recommended to improve the various failings I hear now.

2. Replace the Rega with something much more powerful and pull the Ohms out of the closet. (Suboptimal because it will make my wife sad because of the aforementioned perceived ugliness.)

3. Just start all over again. Different amp, different speakers.

I'd kind of prefer number 1. But I don't want to end up with a bunch of stuff designed to solve a problem and then not have that problem solved! (And I'd also just as soon avoid getting a subwoofer.)

Final note. Positioning is an intractable nightmare. It is the one thing that I can't really change, because of how our living room is layed out. It is obviously a big problem though. The living room is a big rectangle, 18 x 40 feet, and the speakers are near the corners of the 18-foot ends, on either side of a couch. I can move them around — closer or further from the couch, closer or further from the wall. But I can't raise them above the height of the couch or move them out in front or over to another wall. That discussion went nowhere!

What should I do?

 



brooklynluke
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 

"Oh, and as for break-in, I'm at maybe 100 hours? That seems like it should be enough to get a sense of where things are headed no?"

No. The Heritage Series of Klipsch needs a lot of time to break in. I'm thinking 200 hours is not nearly enough, and you should leave them playing as much as possible, even when you're not at home.

Are you using the risers with them? If not, then you should. Also, position them slightly in front of the couch, or at least even with it.

brooklynluke OP
21 posts
 
Yogiboy, good point about horn speakers. All of the descriptions of how they sound *seem* like a sound I would like! And when they are loud, I like them quite a lot! It's just hard to know.

tls49, good tips! On risers: I was thinking about getting some stands made that raise them up about 8 inches. (Any higher and we run into the aforementioned WAF challenge.) That would decouple them from the floor, which would lead to less bass but — so I understand — would also clear up the congested mid range and help with imaging. I was thinking of trying the experiment by raising them up with 8 inch stacks of coffee table books, though that may not be a comparable situation to a stand.

I will bring them closer to the front of the couch as soon as I get home! And it sounds like no matter what I should spend a little time with them just to see how things go. What do you think about getting a subwoofer or tube amp? Assuming each was properly matched and of high quality, which would do the most to improve things?
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,830 posts
 
That was a big change in regards to speaker design and sound!

You should expect to have to tweak further whenever a major change is made.

I would probably want to use a tube amp with Klipsch Heritage speakers including Heresy.

Whereas with the original OHMs the key would be throw power and current at them for best results. Class D amps are a natural for those.

Klipsch and OHM are about as different as can be. No other single gear is likely to sound optimal with both.

You need to decide where to start and then be prepared to optimize around that accordingly. You can start with the right speakers (gotta make the wife happy), which is a very practical approach, or the amp, if you gravitate towards particular kinds for example tube or SET amps. End results will be radically different in each case for best results.

It may take some time to get everything just right. Buy and sell used if you can so as not to be able to experiment and take a few chances with minimal financial hit. Do not assume more cost = better results. BEst results are obtained by choosing good gear that works well together and sounds right in your room to you.

First step with the Heresy's would definitely be a tube amp, maybe a SET.   Then go from there.    Or try a good quality Class D amp, 100w/ch or more with the OHMs.   Or set up both concurrently and compare and then sell off the losing gear.

tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 

You don't need stands to decouple from the floor. Just put a cone shaped spike under each corner of the riser.

Also, the book idea will not decouple from the floor.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,571 posts
 
Traditionally, speakers like the Heresy did best with tubes. Its easy to imagine it being a bit harsh with a transistor amplifier. You don't need a powerful amplifier so you have lots of options. I would recommend something with at least 15 watts per channel. Our smallest amp drives that speaker with ease.

As I recall that speaker is fairly deep. So I would back them up so that the back of the speaker is only a few inches from the wall. That will help with the bass and due to the depth of the speaker, will not mess with the imaging.

I would also check the phase; simply reverse the red for black on one speaker only and listen to the result. If the speakers are out of phase with each other I can see the system acting very much like you describe!

Keep your speaker cables short. High end speakers do not deserve to have the cables in the wall! This will help regardless of the speaker.
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