[ampsandsound]

Hey everyone... Not headphones but thought to share a project Im working on. Ive been a fan of horn based speakers. As a fan of low output tube amps horn or single driver speakers are the preferred choices. Normally I build big honking speakers... I even built one my wife kicked out of the house... too large. In an effort to finally get some speakers in the TV room I went after something she has accepted before... the Heresy. She has liked it before due to its limited height... it doesn't block the windows. I love it as, its a 1950s VW battle with a Porsche engine hiding under the hood.
The Heresy is an honest 96db speaker. Good for 50hz or so on up. Its a sealed box so no bass hump. Its mid bad is solid and its a fast speaker. Id consider it a gateway drug.

I went of CL in search of a local purchase. In a perfect world I would have found a gen 1 heresy. You want this type as it has the screw on K55 driver... the same mid range in other Klipsch speakers like the Cornwall, LaScala or K Horn. Unfortunately, as I planed to gut the speaker and start over, the only one in my price point was beat-up and a gen 1.5 Heresy. $400 later it was delivered to my door.
The plan is to use a ALK Crossover. Its adjustable and will make a Heresy actually sound good. Attenuating the mid and HF is super important and I still have HF hear and want to keep it that way.
The woofers as K22 are perfectly fine.. maybe even good, but the Eminence LFA12 is better and closer to the pro K24 spec.
The Tweeter as a K77 is good. Its even rebuildable now with new diaphragms should you need, but as I have access to Fastlane audio's elliptical tweeter... why not use a modern bad ass tweeter instead.
Fastlane's tweeter lens is $100 for pair. The B&C DE10 or DE120 are my choices and are fantastic. I might go with Eminence ASD1001B as its American made and a solid performer too.
I measured the drivers and got to selling all the parts I would not use on eBay.
The Mid horns were the usable but not my cup, K701 with the bold on K53. (No one wants a K53/K701 combo). It got sold off for $100 to a local buyer who had his own project.
I was able to purchase a K700/K55 push pin style (My preference on the K55) for $180 to my door. Normally this would be $200-$240 but I got a good deal. This will now make the Heresy a OG classic which has been upgraded. Same looking horn, but metal instead of ABS and Screw on instead of bolt on. (You can roll drivers if you wanted to now.).

The cabs were less than ideal. Klipsch builds with 3/4" ply and 1/2" ply for he back panel.
We laminated 1/4" to all the sides of the speaker... giving us a new corner edge and a stiffer cabinet.
The front and back are edge banded to hide the lamination.
The inside of the back panel had 1/4 MDF added. This will provide a key to center the back panel and panel increased surface area when its inset inside the cabinet... Long story short, its a hair smaller now but a ton stiffer.
Additionally I love the look of slant risers on the Heresy. I went to Bob writes and ordered a set.

Ebay slaes:
K77 Tweters sold for $90
E2 Crossovers sold for $50
K22 Woofers sold for $80

New parts:
ALK CSW700 crossover $350
Eminence 12LFA $130
Fastlane audio Tweeter Lens $100
Eminence ASD1001B $50 pair
K700/K55 $180

Wood Work
$200 for extra ply/finishing costs
$40 for the slant risers
____________________________
$810
$240
-$220
Total: $830

Im into the whole speaker for ~$1250. Its a lot of money for sure. I prob could have found a Heresy III for a similar price used, but there is noway it would sound remotely as good. Work has just started but I wanted to show the starting point, and plan.


Here are the before pics.















Should make a great 2nd set of speakers in my listening room.

 

[ampsandsound]

Reserved

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

The legendary Klipsch Heresy, I'd own a set too if I didn't live in such a small dwelling. Beautifully made and much more than a cult classic. It's amazing to me that Klipsch still makes these new after all these years... I'd much rather go your route and rebuild better than new.

There's a really cool company called Volti Audio, met them at Capital Audio Fest in MD. They have lots of nice parts for the Klipschorn ... and they make their own speaker as well, the Vittora (sounds incredible, as it should for $25K). http://www.klipschupgrades.com/vtrac.shtml

Can't wait to see your follow up pics!

 

[ampsandsound]

So as usual... 2 steps forward, 1 sideways and 1 back.
Cabs got done... 1/4" ply on all sides... edge banded the front and rear to hide the additional laminations.
The back panel was only 1/2" so I added 1/4" MDF to the rear to stiffen it up.
I went with Fastlane eliptracs. They were 2/16th shallow so we fly cut the mount to fur it out to be flush with the front.
I then realized my driver (eminence ASD1001B) prevented the horn from sitting flush. After a 1/8th" removed from the front baffle cleat... God bless the finish router and some sand paper.
With the eliptrac tweeter and the cabinet modified to fit perfectly. I spent too much time getting the tweeter in just right, but I wanted to use the eminence driver, so it was an all US speaker.
I was going to use the Eminence 12LFA... holly crap its a monster of a woofer. Strangly the 4 I had found there way into another project. I did have on hand some Bob Crites K24 replacement which are similar to the 12LFA but less impressive. I suspect they are more efficient as a result.The Crites woofer sounds amazing. I took the extra step and replaced all the screws, adding 4 to the woofer for god measure.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Keep up the good work!

 

[ampsandsound]

Progress continues. 2 steps forward, 1 back. By adding the 1/4" mdf. The k55 contacts the back. Just enough to flex the panel. I used by router and dug our 1/8" to clearance for k55. I wish I had made a job rather than drawing a stencil and free handing it. It turned out great but CNC milling always has me envious. Everything fits so nicely. Per ALKs advice I set the mid range at -10. (12, -2) and -8 on the tweeter. I assumed the k55 was 110db and the k24 was 95db. I think this was wrong. Perhaps the k55 is 106-107db? When I went from -12 to -10. Everything came into it's own. The tweeter was great at -6db but was starting to tickle. Exp told me to pull it back further and thus I got to -8.

The bass is smaller than a cornscala but man is this a wonderful sounding speaker. I have fantastic separation and soundstage. If I weren’t so neurotic I could say it would be my last speaker, but Id be lying. I do think it could be my last… no performance issues what so ever. It is not as large a sound stage as my big cornscala style speakers but side by side holds its own.