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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

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,008 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.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,008 posts
 
Atmasphere, please correct me if I am wrong. There is a couch in between the speakers. If he pushes the speakers closer to the wall, that means more of the couch is in front of the speaker. Will that not mess with the imaging?
You'd have to try it but there's a good chance it won't hurt at all and may even help.

That is assuming that the couch is soft. If so, it can reduce diffraction issues between the speakers, and since the high frequency drivers are horns, this should work out quite well.

IOW its worth a shot to simply push the speakers back.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,008 posts
 
Traditionally, speakers like the Heresy did best with tubes. Its easy to imagine it being a bit harsh with a transistor amplifier. You don't need a powerful amplifier so you have lots of options. I would recommend something with at least 15 watts per channel. Our smallest amp drives that speaker with ease.

As I recall that speaker is fairly deep. So I would back them up so that the back of the speaker is only a few inches from the wall. That will help with the bass and due to the depth of the speaker, will not mess with the imaging.

I would also check the phase; simply reverse the red for black on one speaker only and listen to the result. If the speakers are out of phase with each other I can see the system acting very much like you describe!

Keep your speaker cables short. High end speakers do not deserve to have the cables in the wall! This will help regardless of the speaker.
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