Klipsch Heresy IV (Objective) Speaker Review

Old Klipsch Cornwalls will crush the Hersey.

 

thanks Erin for your in depth review of the Heresy IV’s. I’d be curious if you have reviewed the Vandersteen 2 ce Sig II speakers?

 

Cornwalls probably work better in a larger room.

 

I agree they work well in a decently large size room. But, what I have noticed is that horn speakers in general, do work fine in smaller rooms.

You can see photos of audiophiles in Asia, where rents are at a premium and room space is quite small. None the less, they still manage to cram fairly large horn speakers into small living quarters.

My A7's sound fine in regular home environments. This is surprising, seeing that they were designed as small venue commercial speakers. Altec defined a small venue to mean up to about 800 people.

Back at the motel, they sat on either side to the entrance to the kitchen. The perfect sweet spot seemed to be when I was about 4' away from them, while walking into the kitchen.

You would never think of near field listening to A7's, but it works...

Some people listen to the full size Klipschorn's in small rooms.

Go figure?

 

Ya, when I lived in a studio apartment, I put socks in the horns. Worked nicely.

 

As a teenager, I had four A7s in my bedroom. It's a miracle that I still hear pretty well at seventy-five, albeit with tinnitus in my left ear. I must say that I never found the VOT to be excessively bright in my domestic setting. But when they were reviewed by one of the mainstream stereo rags–either High Fidelity or Stereo Review–the reviewer recommended taming the 811s by turning them around, so they reflected off the wall! I'll try to find the review and post it.

 

Alas, I was unsuccessful in my search. However, I found the following link–RETURN of a LEGEND: ALTEC A7 Speaker-System; The Voice Of The Theatre (Home and Studio too) S-V . It is must reading for would-be and actual Altec fanciers.

 

That is really where the difference is. The problem with Altec was their crossovers, which they refer to as a frequency dividing network.

The problem was not that Altec's frequency dividing network could not divide the frequencies, they could.



But at home, the HF horns are louder than the bass speaker and the you have to attenuate the volume level of the HF driver with the control on the processor, so that the volume of the HF horn matches the volume level of the bass driver.

Using a variable potentiometer to do this, as most every passive crossover does, results in the sound becoming more and more "dull" as you decrease the volume level to the HF horn.

In concerts, they leave the attenuation at zero, so it is not a concern.

The large Altec's that they use in the studio have the same driver's but the studio models have a smaller magnet, so the output of the HF driver is reduced.



The ALK crossovers I use on my main A7's use an autoformer with different taps that you adjust to achieve this same function. The result is attenuation but with introducing the "dull" that a purely resistive analog volume control does.

But, a sock works equally well in a small room to attenuate the HF.

 

Yes, I had read this same article about the new millinum release of the legacy A7's.



The new Altec A 7 'Legacy'

After noting that they were being offered for $6,000 per-cabinet, I resigned that I would not likely be owning another pair of A7's again. Then I came across the restored and upgraded pair I now have, on eBay.

Still, I wasn't at all pleased that they painted a $12,000 (pair) theater grey legacy speaker with that gawd awful black spatter paint.

They also raised the crossover frequency from 500-Hz. to 900 Hz.

 

I have an older Heresy which isn't ported so I have no first hand ability to comment.

 

The Altec two-way systems with the 511B and the 811B sectoral horns are not the least bit bright and can even be rolled off a bit, depending on the driver and the diaphragm being used.

Turning the horns around is an absolutely stupid idea!

Again, the woofer is not surface mounted but is mounted deep inside the interior of the cabinet, the voice coil of the woofer is on the same vertical place as the voice coil is on the HF horn. This provides for time alignment, which is critical for coherence in a loudspeaker design. You can better see this from a side angle.



Later on, I also acquired a 2nd pair of cabinets, the A7-500-W, which also gave me 2-pair of A7's though I used all four in our living/dining room area.

Altec's top of the line home speakers were still the A7 design, just with the bass cabinet inverted and the HF horn inside of the cabinet's, which were covered with a walnut veneer.



These had all alnico driver's. The grills on this stock photo are not the original factory grills.

 

very interesting and knowledgable info on these classics. nice work.

 

It also shows that large horn speakers like a commercial A7 can be successfully used within a home audio environment.

The same holds true for Klipsch horn speakers, which were designed for home audio.

Two horn speakers in a single home.

The LM 805iA is a powerful pure class "A" tube integrated amplifier that produces 48-Watts, which can drive sensitive speakers like the Fortes to high SPL's with incredible dynamics.

 

This is an interesting link concerning measurements, sound quality and the original Klipsch Chorus- is flatter always better?


Klipsch Chorus

 

Not really heresy but you can see where the design came from and what home base is for Heritage sound.

 

definitely ahead of their time with the first center channel speaker

 

I’d like to hear it. My fisher 400 has a center channel output but it is an rca connection. I tried to connect a sub to that output and the sub did not survive. That fisher only makes 27 wpc, using the center has to bring that down to 15 watts? And...I dare say this picture predates my fisher with the center channel by about 8 years, they were likely working with even less power in that room. A far cry from a crown AVR or adcom SS.

 

Also, water is wet and fire is hot.

 

And... Most old water will put out new fire.

 

You can also see why they weren't worried about bass.

 

Steve Huff just named the Heresy IV his speaker of the year. Of course it's worth noting in comparison with Erin's review that Steve reviewed them with a $25,000 Rossi amp.

HiFi: My Speaker of the Year 2020. Klipsch Heresy IV. | Steve Huff Photo

I like Steve's reviews but he's been all over the map lately. In the span of a year he started with Heresy IVs and said they were going to stay in his house a long time, then traded them in for Cornwall IVs, then he bought the QLN Prestige 3 and said it was the best speaker he's ever heard, then reviewed JBL L82's and said they were his speakers to get off the merry-go-round, then he moved to a new house and is back to Heresy IV's. That's a lot of end game in the span of a year.

 

That’s nothing new for him. He does the same for amps.

 

They cram big Tannoys and JBLs into tiny spaces as well. Not confined to horns.

 

Steve Huff spoke with VH after his death, I think this sums up the value of anything he says...

Eddie Van Halen Spirit Box Session. He Speaks & has a Message. - YouTube

 

Ha, Ha!!!

-Bill