Vintage 1975 Heresy- any repairs/ refurb to expect?

Hi gang, I am getting the itch to move up the Klipcsh food chain. There is a nice pair of Heresy's for sale locally for $600 :thmbsp:. I think these would pair very nicely with my amp. Only catch is they are 40 years old. I have not heard them yet, but seller claims to be the original owner, and that they were very well taken care of. Assuming they are still stock, and have no obvious repair needs, what kind of refurbishment are they likely to need to bring them back to their original level of performance ( if any)? I really love old gear, but want to be realistic about what I might be getting into.

Thanks!

Eric

They better be perfect for 6 bones. And gold plated.
But I just bought some '75 heresy's. They sound delicious. I'm not going to touch them unless a catastrophic failure to a driver occurs.
Audition them before buying and find out why the seller is selling.
Maybe wait for another pair to appear on CL and compare.
I don't think the 6C pair are going anywhere soon.

OK, thanks, everyone else agree 6 Ben's is too much?

How do the suspensions, caps, tweeters, ect hold up with time?

4 is more like it, if in great shape.

Going price lately for the H is in the $500-600 if all drivers work, cabinet in good condition, grill not tattered and logos present.

Then figure on recapping if not already done and deciding if you want to use them as is or become a wild modder. There are a goodly number of things persons do with them to improve the performance.

Check out Bob Crites for some ideas and suggestions.

Not around here. Decos I bought yesterday for $200 pr. swap meet.
CL here starts about $375.
Check this link.
http://www.kruipen.com/klipsch-heresy-2.html

Starting to get into "dollars & cents" category but I bought a nice pair of Heresy's for $300 and Cornwalls for $700 on CL in the Bay Area and we usually are on the high side. Both wanted $100 more but negotiated down.

$400 seems to be the going price on eBay, of course shipping is involved. If finding a VERY PRISTINE pair with the finished cabinets then I could see $600, but they would have to look near show room perfect.

Probably been said but market is DEFINITELY the determining factor

If you're in a small town then it's unlikely you're going to find a pair for less than $500, but if you're in a big area, you might get a similar pair for $250. Of course it works both ways; smaller markets have less potential customers and vice versa

Regardless, speakers are only worth to you what you're willing to pay. If they're the best pair you can find the area, I'd suggest watching the ad and if they're up after a week/month, then offer $400 and use the fact that they haven't sold to your advantage

I don't know why I wrote this as it's common sense, oh well

As Brian said, they likely will need new capacitors soon. I have a pair of 1975 Heresy's. One of them sounded weak when I got them. New caps fixed the problem. Easy to do on Heresy's.

Price is a bit high. Average ebay price over the last year is $476.65.

Why don't you...

eric.hall.mn said:

Hi gang, I am getting the itch to move up the Klipcsh food chain. There is a nice pair of Heresy's for sale locally for $600 :thmbsp:. I think these would pair very nicely with my amp. Only catch is they are 40 years old. I have not heard them yet, but seller claims to be the original owner, and that they were very well taken care of. Assuming they are still stock, and have no obvious repair needs, what kind of refurbishment are they likely to need to bring them back to their original level of performance ( if any)? I really love old gear, but want to be realistic about what I might be getting into.

Thanks!

Eric

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Take a hard & long look at the Bob Crites CS 1T which will better a Heresy in every way there is. Best regards Moray James.


Regarding your question about changing parts. Drivers are likely to be as good as new unless they have been physically damaged resistors and inductors will be as good as new but capacitors are 40 years old and they have at best a life expectancy of 20 years (working to spec) for the large can paper and oil units so yes the capacitors must be replaced they are long past due and are waiting to self destruct. Twenty - twenty five years is a good safe replacement date unless you can hear obvious distortion then sooner. They can run a long time but it is not a plan to leave them in for more than about 25 years. Better safe than sorry.

eric.hall.mn said:

OK, thanks, everyone else agree 6 Ben's is too much?

How do the suspensions, caps, tweeters, ect hold up with time?

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I paid $300 for 1987 Heresy II's, yes $600 it way too much.

The caps probably should be replaced after 20-25 years.

I sold my pair for $500.00 10 years ago. They were built in 73. They had a smooth sound. They are now monitor speakers in a Baptist Church choir room and perform perfectly using a 45 watt per channel NAD integrated amp, turntable, , Marantz profession CD recorder/player and an old Nakamichi Dragon Cassette recorder they use for record playback during rehearsals. I took them out side and measured them with a Crown 12+ TEF and they were as new in 2003. One of the choir members lives in the neighborhood and says everything still sounds great. I hope the ones you find perform as well.

Update- they guy was really cool, he just dropped them off for me to audition at my leisure. As you might expect, they weren't quite as perfect as he had described, but ok. He claimed they were completely original, although I could see the backs had been off at some time- he did claim to have have checked out a few years back.

The sound was ok, but not not great. I had to turn them up to get much detail, and then there were some funny sounds in the mid to high range- I'm sure the caps and domes are shot like others have suggested. Also, I can see why some people are disappointed in the base response- there was presence, but not much kick, like you expect from that 12" driver.

Needless to say I'm going to pass, unless he wants to drop his price, to ~150, then I might consider them as a fun project to rebuild the XO's and horns as others suggest, and see if I like them better.

While I have your attention- what do folks think of the RF-7? I don't see a lot of discussion of these on this forum. Specs on paper look pretty impressive, are they in the same performance league as the classic Klipsch's?

Thanks for all the replies

The Heresy's are notoriously bass-shy, even with that 12" woofer because it is such a small cabinet. If you want "classic" Klipsch with bass, look at the "three sisters"--Forte, Chorus and Quartet. No way I'd ever pay 6 bills for Heresy's--lots better on the market for that money.

Should I feel guilty for paying $150 a pair for Hereseys

with the paper label and sequential serial numbers.,dark oak Formica cabinet, missing Klipsch badge? Work perfectly.

BajaVida said:

with the paper label and sequential serial numbers.,dark oak Formica cabinet, missing Klipsch badge? Work perfectly.

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No. I think that's about how much they should cost. I think the cost of the new H3 is ridiculous. I think the going rate one the 1s and 2s are also ridiculous.

BajaVida said:

with the paper label and sequential serial numbers.,dark oak Formica cabinet, missing Klipsch badge? Work perfectly.

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Great speaker at a phenomenal price, you definitely stole those.

Bought the speakers from a co-worker who wanted to give them to me.

Said they had been in storage for 14 years. I insisted I pay for them.

I have 1976 Heresy, they are very fine speakers. Knowing a couple of things about them may increase the chances you like the way they sound...

They like tube amps and some of the warmer vintage SS amps.

The crossover networks in the old Klipsch Heritage speakers (Heresy, Cornwall, Belle, La Scala, and Klipschorn) all used an autoformer element to determine the relative output of the midrange and tweeter levels with respect to the low end. The horns for mid and tweet on the CW, B, LS, and Khorn are fairly high elevation above the floor. The way the Heresy is meant to be placed is on the floor in a corner which makes the elevation of the mid and tweet horns closer to the floor... so the autoformer tap for the Heresy has the high end set louder somewhat to compensate for its horns being so low to the floor compared to the bigger and taller Heritage speakers.

If you place Heresys out of the corners and up on stands, then its horns are higher and the woofer is without corner support and they can sound bright with little bass... this is the way typical speakers are placed, but the H's need to be down on the floor pushed all the way into corners. Doing so will support good bass (but not "slam bass") and tone down the high end. On the floor in corners they may be quite satisfyingly full and smooth for most typical music.

If you do insist on placing them out in the room up on stands, you can make simple reconnection to the different taps on the autoformer to drop the high end a few dB for both the mid driver and the tweeter (requires a change in capacitor value to keep the same crossover range), and then use a good musical sub to lightly assist the low end. This can also sound great although at a slight loss of efficiency.

Details on which autoformer taps offer what levels and how to calculate the matching cap values to maintain the same crossover behavior (and much more) can be found on the klipsch.com forum.