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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
erik_squires
16,041 posts
 
I would not approach this as an equipment problem.

The issue is speaker placement and room acoustics. Can you do anything on the latter? 

If not, bring the speakers closer together and as far from the side walls as possible.

You can experiment with blankets and pillows. Throw some on the floor between the speakers, add a rug, put temporary items on the walls next to the speakers as an experiment. Q the peanut gallery.

This is just an experiment to see if you can find some idea of how room acoustic improvements could benefit you, not a solution. If you like what you hear, reach out to GIK for professional solutions.

Best,

E
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,173 posts
 
I’ve considered Klipsch Heresy or similar Klipsch for use with my Bel Canto c5i digital integrated. Wonderful 60 w/ch Class D digital integrated with all the modern bells and whistles. No tone controls but this amp is smooth airy resolving and neutral like the best tube amps but makes all speakers I use with it sound their best ever. As long as 60 w/ch is enough. Plenty for the Klipsch and enough to do a very nice job with Ohm Walsh as well to which I can attest.

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,173 posts
 
Its a very good idea to experiment with placement to get a better handle on the room acoustics. In most cases things are far from optimal when waf is a big factor and that is often tricky to address well with just eqiuipment changes. 

wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
With my listening room I'd have to build a set of moveable corners…The Heresy IIIs I listened to recently were powered by a cool little SS Luxman M-200 25 watt per side (did not know that amp existed, but then I don't get out much) amp that sounded great, and that amp has a display that will show you how many watts it's using. Cool indeed. I think it hit maybe 3 or 4 watts.
whatjd
1,139 posts
 
If you listen to Jazz and good acoustic music, Magnepans. 
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