No vested interest here.
Over Christmas I spent an hour at Hawthorne Stereo in Seattle just listening to the KLH Model 5s. Hard to find in Arizona.
Background- I built Cornerhorns from a Speakerlab kit in the 70's. Subsequently I owned Chorus 1s for a few months and have listened to Heresy speakers over the years many times. Originally the Heresy was designed as a center channel speaker for the cornerhorns. They were always way shouty for my ears. I am told the newer ones have been calmed down some. Hope so.
To me Heresy is not the Klipsch modeI would choose but then I would go JBL or old Altec first. Looking for the bigger compression horns.
As for the KLHs, they were powered by a Naim Super Atom and the 5s loved it.
The sound had the widest sound stage I have ever heard short of a $20k+ system
of Linkwitzs latest iteration powered by five different amps. Yes I do like a wide sound stage.
Besides the sound stage the overall fun factor was as good as it gets.
Now the vocals were not the best I've ever heard, the bass boomed a little but
not too bad, the top end was acceptable. At $2k I would buy these over the new
L100s at double the price every day of the week. Be warned though that on Feb 1st
the price will be $2,500. Crotchfield though out of stock does show the old price
as of yesterday.
Speaking with the KLH Nat. sales Mgr last evening on another matter he tells
me they will have a 2 way Model 3 out in March for $1,750 I believe. They are
all pretty excited about the positive feedback they are getting.
Rated at 90 Sensitivity they are not as efficient as any of the Klipsch speakers.
Happy shopping. Get an in home trial period.