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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
helomech
1,672 posts
 
I wouldn't call the H-IIIs bright, nor would I call them warm. Pair them with a bright amp, something like an Integra AVR, and you'll want ear plugs. Pair them with tubes or a MOSFET amp and you can listen for hours without fatigue. 

Having owned them for about 15 months, the only notable weakness I detect, other than bass extension, is a very slight horn coloration in the midrange. It doesn't "shout" or "honk" the way some describe horns, but does add a very slight "chestiness" or thickness to vocals - at least compared to my Spendor 2/3s. I plan to damp the midhorns with some bitumen (Dynamat) sheets in the near future. 
mrdecibel
3,063 posts
 
Dampening the midhorns will not only rid the H-111s of the slight chestiness you speak of, but the lower resonant, less vibratory and cleanliness of the mid horn will clean up the entire speaker. I promise. Enjoy ! MrD.
brooklynluke OP
21 posts
 
MrD. and Helomech, what's the best way to do the dampening? Has anyone posted detailed instructions? Seems like a worthwhile project!
wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
I think growing some sort of moss in the midrange horn should work...thick mold also does the job...doll house furnishings tiny shag carpets...dryer lint...
oblgny's avatar
oblgny
848 posts
 
I once owned for quite a long time a pair of Klipsch Epic CF-3’s that, over the years, began to grate on me in terms of the treble from the compression horn tweeter.  They were, I think, 103db sensitive so it didn’t take much to drive them and, at the time,  I was employing modest amplification anyway.  

The “brightness” bothered me so much that I actually stuffed a pair of socks into the mouth of the horns to remove the edges.  Obviously that was equally stupid and ineffective.  

Anyway, I stumbled upon a thread somewhere, possibly here, that addressed a resolution to the problem I experienced.  Seems the person with the identical issue simply removed the horns from the cabinet then packed them with Dynamat before putting them back in.  (This would be on the outside of the horn itself, not the inside.)

Now I cannot relate if that remedy worked to the ends hoped for, but it made me wish I had come across it when I still had the CF-3’s just to hear for myself. Sheesh.  

The most surprising thing to me when I removed the horns from the cabinets - for reasons unrelated to the aforementioned - was the internal wiring.  It was run of the mill 10 or 12 gauge speaker wire throughout!




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