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
I have a pair of Heresy IIIs and I absolutely love them. I run them with a vintage Scott 299c and the pairing is a match made in heaven. I’m no expert but to my ear every genre sounds great on it. Source is exclusively the VPI Classic which doesn’t hurt, the Scott has a great phonostage. My vote is to get that vintage integrated, have it rebuilt and then give the speakers time to break in. Also the big soft couch between them is gonna kill the soundstage but we all have to make do the best we can and sometimes that’s a big soft couch between the speakers, oh well. Get the vintage amp and enjoy. A Scott of Fisher would be perfect. 
What you describe is speaker placement issues. I had a pair of the originals and had the same complaints. Spent a lot of time with placement and they ended up sounding wonderful for what they are of course.


Hi I'm a Harbeth and a Lyngdorf dealer.

If you want to keep the Heresy speakers try them with the Lyngdorf TDAi 2170 it will make them sound the best they can sound.  The 2170 will make the volume issue much less important as each frequency will get the correct voltage to make the speakers sound good when you use the Lyngdorf room perfect.  The 2170 also has a really great built in DAC.

If you don't want to keep the speakers the entry level Harbeth P3ESR sound great at lower levels.  �Small drivers produce less volume which may help you.


You should remember that the Heresy was designed (I'm guessing reluctantly) as a small 'center channel' for Klipschorns, which were designed in the monaural era and happily ate a room corner. The stereo age was a disaster for the behemoths as many spouses were understandably opposed to having another corner taken up. But for those who were able to run two, it became apparent that the wide spacing (like yours) led to lousy stereo imaging. Klipsch was always an 'advocate' of a center channel, something no properly phased stereo setup should need, for this reason alone. Thus the little Heresy was designed to emphasize the vocal range, not to act as a budget Khorn (though that didn't stop them from eventually marketing it as such).


My Heresy III's are about 10 months old. They took a long, long time to break in. Have been very pleased with matching them up with a new Pass First Watt J2 power amp.