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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
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
Jimmy Hughes in the UK reviewed the Heresy's and seems to have got good results with the Shanling MC30.
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/klipsch-heresy-iii-loudspeakers-hifi-plus-71/
wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
I recently heard a pair of Heresys at a shop and thought they sounded great but did pull them away from the corners. I don't need no corners! I own a couple of REL subs so the upper bass reinforcement provided by corner placement isn't needed. I'd have to try these things in my room before replacing what I'm using and luckily the dealer allows the demos (broken-in) to be taken home for that purpose. 

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,173 posts
 
Wolf beyond the bass enforcement possible with corner placement (which can be tweaked with exact placement relative to corners), I find it also works very well with wider baffle more traditional box speakers in particular in terms of enlarging and opening up the sound stage and thereby reducing "congestion".
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,784 posts
 
I don't see why you can't throw any genre you want at this speaker. It should be able to handle anything.

So far we don't know what's going on in this system- it it really the speakers or are the speakers simply revealing problems upstream? I don't think I would take the speakers seriously while having only heard them on a solid state amp though. Tubes are still around for the simple reason that solid state often sounds harsh.
inna
7,296 posts
 
Tubes are still around because at their best they sound more correctly.
Rega is not really a name for amplification, the idea to try another amp is a progressive one. Trying both solid state and tube amps would be perfect. Better amps not necessarilly more powerful.
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