Belle's found me

These are without a doubt my favorite looking Klipsch speaker, but I just have not been able to find any local until now. I'd like to bring them back to being mint condition, maybe add custom crossovers and other upgrades too. I found them about 45 minutes from my home, looks like they are untouched and still original. I will look for numbers to see what year they are, they sound real nice running on my Fisher 500-C. :thmbsp:

Very nice! And I concur, best looking Klipsch Heritage speaker. :thmbsp:

Nice collection!

Thanks guys, when they first came up for sale about 5 months ago, I made an offer but was turned down. About every few weeks the seller would text me with his new lower price, he got within 50.00 of my original offer so I jumped at the chance.

I don't see too many threads come up about Belle's, I'd be interested in seeing if any mods work well, or if most are left stock. I know these have sat unused in a garage for many years, but I really didn't expect them to still sound this good. The crossovers look pretty old and corroded, that will be my first job to tackle.

I found the serial #s on the backs, they are consectutive.
2S 755 RM
2S 754 RM

You didn't buy those, you stole them. Do not pass go, do not collect $200!

I always said if I found a pair for about what you paid for those, I'd buy them to appease the wife a little, and move my Khorns into a man-cave.

You did good!:thmbsp:

I had mixed results with Belles. A radiologist's wife didn't want Korner horns in her house and the thought of having La Scalas almost made her turn red. But she liked Belles even though she never heard any of the speakers . The Doc wanted efficient speakers because he didn't have room for big amps and lots of electronics. He started out with a Mcintosh MA1900 and Nakamichi 700 cassette and a Dual 1229 turntable, The speakers were sort of built in though not attached to wall cabinets in his library and after a remodel were built into the family room. Another pair replaced the original pair in his library with updated separate Mac tuner, pre-amp and power amp. Later on I added a urei parametric EQ and he loved the sound. His wife finally figure out what hifi was and demanded an electronic up grade for her system, in the family room, too. Though the speaker did not reach below 40 Hz that well the sound was great.

One time we had installed a big disco in Mexico and the owner didn't want just black boxes in his office to monitor the sound and and wanted up scale in the DJ booth, too. So I installed Belles using Mcintosh 2155 power amps. But connected them to the 2 ohm tap to tighten up the bass a little and to cut down the power available to the speaker from close to 200 watts down to about 45 watts with the impedance mismatch. Each had there own EQ and the Boss had a CR-7 remote as I recall for his office. Well, the sound was great and the pair in the office were magnificent. The booth pair the woofers lasted about a month as I expected. So I cut down the edges of some 421 16 " Altec woofers to replace the Eminence woofers, touched up the EQ's and all was well. Eventually the T-35's failed and were replaced with the newer ceramic models and the crossover updated. The system was still going strong after 20+ years when I retired in 2004.

Nice find on those speakers....they look to be in great condition.....I like the rest of your gear....

Since these stock crossovers look every bit as old as 1978 units should, I opted for complete Crites replacements. I like their sound already, to my ears they are much smoother than Lascala's and they are so much better looking. Interesting thing is, when I look up the serial #'s I don't find RM, they look to me to be mahogany, so is RM rare mahogany or red mahogany?

RS Steve said:

These are without a doubt my favorite looking Klipsch speaker, but I just have not been able to find any local until now. I'd like to bring them back to being mint condition, maybe add custom crossovers and other upgrades too. I found them about 45 minutes from my home, looks like they are untouched and still original. I will look for numbers to see what year they are, they sound real nice running on my Fisher 500-C. :thmbsp:

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Now you have Belles!! It's good to see that you have an open mind regarding petite bookshelf speakers. Perhaps as a surround pair mounted on the walls to complement your GODZILLA FRAIZIER 11s!!!!!!

NOW we're talkin'! I like a guy who has the ability to think outside the crate...er...box...

Before you go too far down the expense on the upgrade path... if you consider any other upgrades, this one will probably yield you the largest gain (might also be the largest cost)

Drop your two upper horns and take it to a 2-way speaker. Here's an example. One could build a new tophat for them (I'd not want to butcher the top to make this horn fit where the other two currently reside)

I might have added to the prior post, that is the Klipsch K510 and it has a 2" throat.

One thing about these that bothered me and I just had to fix was one of the bottom grills. Some PUNK idiot tried prying the grill loose to try and see the woofer, :thumbsdn: man does stupid stuff like that just get me going.

The grill was out of position from the prying and would not go back unless I took it loose. To do that, the whole speaker has to be taken apart, :tears: but now it's done and I'm pleased. All the screws that hold the bottom grills are hidden, quite a job to get it all apart.

I have decided not to modify them other than the Crites crossovers, I like them now so I'll just let them be.

Congrats! I'm sure those Crites updates are sounding great. I'm using their crossovers in my Khorns. Did you get their tweeter also? I really should get their upgraded crossovers for my KLF 10s. In due time! Anyhow, keep us updated! Great looking speakers.

Beautiful set of Belles Steve, congrats! :thmbsp:

Thanks guys, I have always loved the looks of the Belle, tried many times to get a pair but shipping always ruined it. From what I could figure out, this young kid got them from a friends fathers estate. He had no idea of what they were, he probably forced the grill out of position. :nono:

Anyway, it was a great chance to get them, and to find mahogany ones is just perfect. :thmbsp:

But I really do not need anymore speakers! :dammit:

RS Steve said:

Thanks guys, I have always loved the looks of the Belle, tried many times to get a pair but shipping always ruined it. From what I could figure out, this young kid got them from a friends fathers estate. He had no idea of what they were, he probably forced the grill out of position. :nono:

Anyway, it was a great chance to get them, and to find mahogany ones is just perfect. :thmbsp:

But I really do not need anymore speakers! :dammit:

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You might want to consider a dainty little subwoofer to go with that set:

How would you like to refoam that surround?

Good on you and your Belles. You are correct in that there isn't much talk about this Heritage line. My Belles are early '80s models, bamboo grills and OO (Oiled Oak) finish. Gorgeous looking to be sure although the bamboo shows some water stains. I haven't figured out a good solution as of yet to counter the stains :tears:.

I bought them in January 2009 and used the original AB Xovers for over four years, which seem to not be favored by Klipsch enthusiasts. The ABs are very bright sounding. In June 2014 I finally "upgraded" to some A/4500 Crites Xovers and the CT125 Crites tweeters to go with them (See my signature). I like the new sound quite a bit. CDs never sounded better. I added the phono stage at the same time and the sound is that much more impressive.

I should've done one Belle at a time and listened to the difference but I didn't. It would've been nice to listen carefully to the Xover change. Where I noticed the most improvement is the brightness. It's more controlled. The tweets aren't working as hard to deliver and the Crites Xovers are giving more workload to the mid horns. The just opened up. Vast improvement, IMO.

Good luck with your decision whether to upgrade or not. Either way, enjoy the heck out of them.

S.J.

Man in Cave said:

Good on you and your Belles. You are correct in that there isn't much talk about this Heritage line. My Belles are early '80s models, bamboo grills and OO (Oiled Oak) finish. Gorgeous looking to be sure although the bamboo shows some water stains. I haven't figured out a good solution as of yet to counter the stains :tears:.

I bought them in January 2009 and used the original AB Xovers for over four years, which seem to not be favored by Klipsch enthusiasts. The ABs are very bright sounding. In June 2014 I finally "upgraded" to some A/4500 Crites Xovers and the CT125 Crites tweeters to go with them (See my signature). I like the new sound quite a bit. CDs never sounded better. I added the phono stage at the same time and the sound is that much more impressive.

I should've done one Belle at a time and listened to the difference but I didn't. It would've been nice to listen carefully to the Xover change. Where I noticed the most improvement is the brightness. It's more controlled. The tweets aren't working as hard to deliver and the Crites Xovers are giving more workload to the mid horns. The just opened up. Vast improvement, IMO.

Good luck with your decision whether to upgrade or not. Either way, enjoy the heck out of them.

S.J.

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Thanks for the story, and good information. I have read up on the Crites upgrades, along with the ALK crossovers. For now I am just doing a stock type Crites crossover, but who knows what the future holds.

Wow did the crites crossovers wake up the highs, very nice detail and crispness. :thmbsp: