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
Have you tried pointing them slightly upwards? You simply place something underneath the front feet/spikes of the speaker to change, somewhat slightly, the vertical direction of the speaker. It will be very hard for your eye to ever pick up the slight change you have effected but I had somewhat the same problem and this helped. Acoustics can be nearly as important as the speaker itself as I would imagine you known Changing the focus of the speaker can work magic in some instances, one of which being clarity and definition at low volumes. Good luck.
@macnut5,

The Heresys do not begin roll off at 120 Hz. You must have some major room nodes if that's what you're experiencing. With the right room and placement they have useful bass down to about 45Hz, and the -3db roll off point is approximately 60 Hz, give or take. 
Helomech, so your staetment is based on what? Do you own Heresy 3s? Have you ever made any measurements? If so, let's see them. 
I do own them and have used my Velodyne software to plot both un-corrected bass and corrected bass.
@brooklynluke 
I concur with posts recommending additional break-in. Many speakers require 600 hours to settle down.
I bought a pair of Zu Bookshelf speakers last year and suddenly, after many hours of playing, they sounded better than I remembered.
I don't know why this happens, but, in my case, it did.
I would also get one of Atma-sphere's amps. They are one of the finest amps I have ever heard. PM Ralph and see if he has one.
Bob