|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
184.167.92.120
In Reply to: RE: Crites and Klipsch posted by Brian Levy on August 28, 2014 at 06:54:21
Try putting them up on 24" stands instead of down on the floor with risers, for a more "neutral" tonal balance and cleaner bass response. Dick Olsher of The Absolute Sound discovered this fact during his review...
Follow Ups:
I have previously had them up at ear level and the loss of bass was very pronounced. It would have required a sub to live with. My music choices are not bass thumping being mostly classical, jazz, opera and soloists. So the low end of the HIIs does not bother me. Comparing them to other speaker I did have and still have there is only on recording where the bass issue arises when they are coupled to the floor. Off the floor and it becomes more of an issue. I usually set them up equal distance from abutting wall near but away from the corners and canted so the tweeter is at ear height on axis or slightly off. I have tried other positions and even a Soundcraftsman equalizer to see if there is an improvement and so far none was found with the original build. I will have to see if with the changes things are different.
Having them flat on the floor or even rasied up a couple of inches at my listening distance also did not work, changing the sound and not in a good way. I eventually settled on a 1x2 trip lifting the front to get the tweeter pretty much aimed at my listening position while leaving the rear edge coupled to the floor. It seemed to dial in the without losing the bass and yielding a well balanced presentation with from decent to very good sound stage and imaging depending on the amp I tried.
I now have them on the risers and am thinking the 1x2 strips may be the better route for my room. Lifting them even that much off the floor decouples them and the bass energy is reduced. The risers won't go to waste as they will fit under my Wharfedale W70s; the optional Wharfedale legs lift the speakers but do not cant them. Sadly, the risers' dimensions are too large for the KLH Fives.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Hi Brian,
I have one bit of info about the aftermarket crossovers for your speaker. The Crites crossovers are like the originals, reactive, and with an irregular impedence curve. The ALK ones are resistive, and have a flat impedence curve.
This may or may not matter to you depending on your amp.
I don't say this to knock Mr. Crites, or his crossovers. He is a great guy whom I've dealt with in the past. Just food for thought.
Jamie
Big speakers and little amps blew my mind!
If I were attacking them to make improvements this my be interesting. The situation is that I had just committed to sell them with an end of year pickup when one of the tweeters died. I felt it was better to fix them and absorb the cost rather than just knock a few bucks off.There are a number of things I can see and a layperson the HIIs should have done to them that would definitely yield an improvement before I would invest the type of money into them with speculative potential results. One option would include taking that type of capital and selling the HIIs and buying a set of used Cornwall or another speaker altogether. The HII IMHO is not worth the current price or even much more than the current average used prices. At least for my wants, needs and listening pleasure.
Even if I were not keeping them, they stand well behind 2 other sets of my speakers in-house and about on par with a third. With the redo, they are sounding better than they did making them more competitive but, not amount of work will get them past what I have, just closer and more competitive. This does not mean they are bad or there is not any potential but sometimes you just can not make an Aston Martin out of a Chevette.
Anyway, before digging into them, I have a set of JansZens Z412HPs I could invest in getting going as the power supplies and crossover's need some doctoring and from history, I know that are a more worthy investment in would quality roi. When the HIIs go, the proceeds are going into the JansZens as my set has a board full of caps needing replacement meaning it is not a project for those with limited bankrolls.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Edits: 09/12/14
The JansZens look cool. I would like to hear a pair.
Big speakers and little amps blew my mind!
I remember as a salesperson having persons coming in the store wanting to buy something like a set of KLH 17s and a Bose 1801. We wrote on the sales ticket that the amp likely will fry the speakers as it was far too large, we had discussed it with the customer and explained the speaker would not be repaired under warranty if fried. But, try to get some college kid anything. He would buy on Friday and on Monday would come in screaming the speakers suckers and were defective and the amp blew up over the weekend. While he was there we pulled the drivers that reeked smoke or worse the cones were ash. He denied they played the music loud. We pulled the amp and the meters were nearly pegged to the right, it was running hard and hot when someone decided it could be cooled with a beer.
We told the kids to take it out of the store and go see Bose and KLH directly. His father, a lawyer called that afternoon and was yelling law suit. I laughed so hard he was taken aback. I told him to go for it but he should look at the stuff first. The next morning, the kid came in with the dad and plunked down the cash to buy the small model KLH compact with speakers and fm tuner.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
I wonder if that would work with my Heresys. They are the older model with ferrite magnets and first order crossovers. I am sure they will still need a subwoofer.
Dave
There's only one way to find out! I don't see why this tweak would not work with your speakers. The Heresy III is supposed to sound similar to the originals in most respects.You will probably want to keep using your subwoofer. If anything, you may want to adjust the sub's volume up a little in order to compensate for the slight reduction in mid-bass energy that this tweak brings. Just don't turn the sub up too much or you'll be back to where you started from...
Edits: 08/28/14 08/28/14
Unless you are using a flee-powered amp or a very powerful sub, it is hard for a subwoofer to keep up with Heresy, if you turn it up.
Dave
Try (if you have not already) turning the crossover setting on the sub all the way down while turning the sub volume level up just enough to *barely* fill in the frequency trough.What we perceive as "slow bass" from our sub is sometimes attributable to excessive overlap between the outputs of main speakers and sub(s). Keep it on the lean side in the middle, too much fat is a bad thing. Raising your speakers up on 24" stands (and your sub(s) up on 18" - 20" stands) may help your bass sound "faster" too, because acoustical problems can also contribute to the perception that bass is too "slow".
Edits: 08/28/14 08/30/14
Thanks for the suggestions. I have a pair of old Heresy speakers that I was going to try in my home theater system. I have just the stands too.
Dave
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: