Has anyone compared the Heresy to new KLH model 5?

Sean at Zero Fidelity (search you tube) picked the KLH 5 as his speaker of the year…

Lotta reviewers liked the Model 5 which is one reason I selected it for

our groups June event. Standmounts under $3k.

JB- love to hear a model 9 someday. 

Can't abide Mr. Roberts for too long. Maybe his wife will someday

show herself too. She can't be any worse than my imagination

has her.

caryking

18 posts

01-20-2022 11:56am

I bought the KLH Model 5’s.  I’m sending them back as they didn’t meet my expectations.  I recognized the positives of the speaker (reviewers have talked about the positives); however, the negatives were far worse than I can handle.

The negative, for me, was all about the lower midrange.  There were hollowed out and very thin sounding.  Perhaps I like a warm romantic sound.  They did have a lot of detail retrieval which is nice; but, not at the expense of a neutral to warm sound.

That said, some may find them extremely enjoyable…

I appreciate the feedback, but without knowing the source I couldn't go based on this. I know for an absolute fact components can easily cause the effects you describe. For example, many popular receivers have cheap internal components where money and R&D is more allocated to features than reproduction of good, faithful sound. Many sound like tin cans which I hate with an absolute passion. Just recently I compared a Parasound Halo A23 that some rave about. Hands down down, my modified Dynakit Stereo 120 solid state trounced it in every regard with my Heresy's. Yes, that cheap 120 solid state everybody says is so bad. Proves how much nonsense there is on the web.

So, I can only take so much. One has to know more about ones situation to better assess the bigger picture.

Andrew Robinson really liked them....but he liked the Heresy better.   These are KLH in name only......Henry is long gone,    They used to be right down the street from me in Westwood MA.  That was in the 80's.     One of the last speakers they made worth mentioning is the KLH Computer Controlled Loudspeaker.  Three models.   I have a pair of Model 2.   They were pretty good ,  

Its probably a good speaker but they are counting on name recognition to be successful in my opinion.   Think Altec Lansing  ......  

mrdecibel

2,549 posts

01-20-2022 3:36pm

I am a Klipsch Heritage guy. Have you damped the horns ( mids and tweets ) and the woofer baskets ? Crossover, too. Cleans them up considerably. Heresy IIs can use subwoofer help with the lowest octave. Without reading review after review, are you not getting good sound staging, bass and imaging ? Are you able to connect with the musicians; their playing, their artistry, their message to you ? What equipment are you using with the Klipsch ? What is the room like ? Have you played around with the speaker location / listening seat situation. Tweaked it ? I am answering your question in the only way I know how. My best.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm very satisfied and quite astonished at the sound of my Heresy setup and it definitely connects me to the musicians like you mean. In some instances I will use the REL T5i sub or subs paired for certain genres of music. My living room is a bit cluttered though and there's wires everywhere with all this stuff connected.

I was merely looking at the KLH as a more complete balanced speaker to place in the living room instead with less clutter and a smaller footprint and not use the subs since my understanding based on the reviews is that the KLH bass is very good. Everything is relative, so perhaps the soundstage is bigger with the KLH compared to my Heresy II's?I really don't know. I've never compared the two side by side. The KLH are small but everyone seems to think they sound big for some reason. For example the soundstage on the Magnepan .7's was HUGE. A large wall of sound but didn't image so well IMO compared to the Heresy. 

I'm mainly looking at the KLH asa single solution, complete speaker without the need to ever want to implement subs to minimize clutter. I'm not a bass head, for example my REL's are hardly audible in the sense that I don't let them drowned out the stage in fact most would probably never know they were hearing subs with my setup because I make a point to make sure they are barely audible or stand out with attention.

I have no intentions of ever separating from my Heresy's. I've had them for several years for a reason and all my amps drive them beautifully. Can't say the same for the KLH at their supposed  90db which most claim is a bit optimistic. I don't know why there always seems to be controversy about the true sensitivity of speakers these days. It could be all the marketing BS which I absolutely hate with a passion. Marketing to me is the reason there's so much bad information out there.