High end stereo speakers. Klipsch Heresy III or?

Fireballsocal

Fireballsocal

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I'm doing some dreaming here and wondered if we have any audiophiles on the board? My next house will have a dedicated stereo for music listening. For electronics, I will start with the small denon all in one receiver/CD player I have currently till I move up to a higher end receiver or amp/preamp setup. 

  I'm curious what people like for speakers. I have my eye on a new set of Klipsch Heresy III's. My last good speakers were a large set of klipsch reference series bookshelf speakers. I like the way they sounded but I owned a set of Infinity floor standing towers with a kappa ribbon tweeter that sounded amazing. I'll take a trip to a store to test some ribbon tweeter speakers before I buy, some ELACs or B&O's. What do you like? The best speaker I've ever heard is a bose 901. Before you crucify me and say those aren't real high quality speakers, they sounded amazing. They were installed by an audio pro in the house of my friends parents, way up in the air in a house with 20' ceilings. 

 
When I was into home audio I ran Mirage and they were amazing.  Klipsch is ok for what you get at Best Buy but you asked for high end.  Had a friend with a B&W (Bowers and Wilkins) set up 2 floor a center and 4 ceiling.  He played a clip from Phantom of the Opera and I was utterly blown away.  Almost as if you were at a live performance.  We scrolled through Jazz and Rock and I couldnt be more impressed.  I wanted a set up but hes a rich doctor and can afford that stuff.  Good luck.

 
I’m checked in on this thread,as I’d like to do a whole house speakers,as well as a designated home theater room. The family and I enjoy doing movie nights! I’d be needing a nice receiver as well as a amp to power everything properly. 

 
Dylanshaffer said:
I’ve had my eye on this setup for a while but they’ve been out of stock for the last several months. Will be in stock November apparently. 
 

https://www.psaudio.com/products/sprout-speakers/
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I watch the PSAudio youtube channel every so often. Great info. They have a listening room with an Infinity ISRV setup that will blow you away. It's a distant cousin to the Infinity floor standers I had awhile ago.  



These aren't what you find at best buy. My old reference series bookshelf speakers were though. The Heresy line is part of the Klipsch heritage series. Pretty hi end stuff. I'm not married to them in any way and would do some serious listening before dropping $3K on them but I'm at a stage in my life where I can pursue  a nice stereo setup. 

Klipsch-Heresy-III-Heritage-Series-speakers-2.jpg


 
NICE! Used to be a place in Riverside off of Indiana that had some incredible high end audio. Bought my subwoofer there and I've got a set of Robert's Architectural Audio in-walls (all hand wound and constructed) in the rest of the room. Sadly, I sacrificed some of the performance of these when I went to a Yamaha receiver as the Marantz I had was better quality but dated and stuck on 5.1 with no HDMI :crying:  ...still kicks ass though :hethan:

 
Oh man I have been a Klipsch nut all of my adult life. Personally have owned many models and different Klipsch speakers. All the way up to a pair of Corner horns which I had probably 30 years ago. Wish I still had them.  They now go for some serious money. https://www.ebay.com/itm/114910541056?hash=item1ac133b500:g:nXAAAOSwjyVhAXpE  I would not be afraid to look on search tempest or craigslist and buy a used vintage pair. Most people take very good care of them. So many to choose from. Smaller speaker but one of my favorites was always the KG4s. Just sold a pair a few years back I had bought new in the late 80s. https://www.klipsch.com/products/kg-4 They are still no joke for their size.  Have also owned Heresys, Cornwalls, Fortes, La Scallas, and now own a pair of KG 5.5s. Those were last built in 1997. You can do a search for any vintage klipsch speaker and find a link to the info on their website. Like this for my speakers. https://www.klipsch.com/products/kg-5-5 I personally like the older speakers. Just something about them. https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/8933-older-klipsch-speakers-why-are-they-worth/  Here is a hand built entertainment center my dad built around the 5.5s Built out of alder. I helped him buy the speakers and he later built the unit. We ended up with it and love it. Behind the bottom grill is a Cambridge Soundworks Sub to go along with them. Plenty of rumble and awesome for movies. 

20210930_210242.jpg

 
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Depending on which kappa's you had you'd have to spend $10 grand for speakers that sound as good. New isn't always better when it comes to audio quality. I just restored some kappa 8's and kappa 7's. Someone finally made a true polydome replacement. It's music Nirvana.

I'm a huge fan of denon. I run a modern AVR and some old Denon POA amplifiers. 

 
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HozayKwarvo said:
NICE! Used to be a place in Riverside off of Indiana that had some incredible high end audio. Bought my subwoofer there and I've got a set of Robert's Architectural Audio in-walls (all hand wound and constructed) in the rest of the room. Sadly, I sacrificed some of the performance of these when I went to a Yamaha receiver as the Marantz I had was better quality but dated and stuck on 5.1 with no HDMI :crying:  ...still kicks ass though :hethan:
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Marantz and McIntosh make some really great sounding equipment. I was using a Sony ES 5.1 receiver that I loved but it was huge and heavy and when I downsized to this apartment, I sold it to not have to store or move it. Lots of people push Preamp/Tube amp setups. I need to listen before I make that jump. I like the simplicity of a higher end all in one. 

onanysunday said:
Oh man I have been a Klipsch nut all of my adult life. Personally have owned many models and different Klipsch speakers. All the way up to a pair of Corner horns which I had probably 30 years ago. Wish I still had them.  They now go for some serious money. https://www.ebay.com/itm/114910541056?hash=item1ac133b500:g:nXAAAOSwjyVhAXpE  I would not be afraid to look on search tempest or craigslist and buy a used vintage pair. Most people take very good care of them. So many to choose from. Smaller speaker but one of my favorites was always the KG4s. Just sold a pair a few years back I had bought new in the late 80s. https://www.klipsch.com/products/kg-4 They are still no joke for their size.  Have also owned Heresys, Cornwalls, Fortes, La Scallas, and now own a pair of KG 5.5s. Those were last built in 1997. You can do a search for any vintage klipsch speaker and find a link to the info on their website. Like this for my speakers. https://www.klipsch.com/products/kg-5-5 I personally like the older speakers. Just something about them. https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/8933-older-klipsch-speakers-why-are-they-worth/  Here is a hand built entertainment center my dad built around the 5.5s Built out of alder. I helped him buy the speakers and he later built the unit. We ended up with it and love it. Behind the bottom grill is a Cambridge Soundworks Sub to go along with them. Plenty of rumble and awesome for movies. 

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WOW! That cabinet is beautiful.  Your Dad does great work. K Horns have been the ultimate setup for as long as I can remember. I'll never have the room to house them, I'd be satisfied just hearing them some time. The Heresy model was originally designed as a center channel to fill in between 2 Klipschorns. 

LegitDuner said:
Depending on which kappa's you had you'd have to spend $10 grand for speakers that sound as good. New isn't always better when it comes to audio quality. I just restored some kappa 8's and kappa 7's. Someone finally made a true polydome replacement. It's music Nirvana.

I'm a huge fan of denon. I run a modern AVR and some old Denon POA amplifiers. 
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Is there a big difference between a modern high quality A/V receiver and tube amps? I've never heard tube amps and have been happy with the higher end receivers I have been using. 

 
Fireballsocal said:
Marantz and McIntosh make some really great sounding equipment. I was using a Sony ES 5.1 receiver that I loved but it was huge and heavy and when I downsized to this apartment, I sold it to not have to store or move it. Lots of people push Preamp/Tube amp setups. I need to listen before I make that jump. I like the simplicity of a higher end all in one. 

WOW! That cabinet is beautiful.  Your Dad does great work. K Horns have been the ultimate setup for as long as I can remember. I'll never have the room to house them, I'd be satisfied just hearing them some time. The Heresy model was originally designed as a center channel to fill in between 2 Klipschorns. 

Is there a big difference between a modern high quality A/V receiver and tube amps? I've never heard tube amps and have been happy with the higher end receivers I have been using. 
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I've never owned a tube amp. The people that do claim the music is more "warm and natural". Those same people argue about RCA and power cords though, too lol.

I like the older A/B amplifiers. The newer stuff is all class d which I am not a fan of for car audio but it sounds really well at home. Buy the highest end model Denon you can afford. Stay away from their "s" series.  If you don't need the latest and greatest Dolby or DTS get a few years older model. 4xxx series  minimum.

Marantz is almost identical to denon, btw so don't pass on a good deal for those

 
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Fireballsocal said:
Is there a big difference between a modern high quality A/V receiver and tube amps? I've never heard tube amps and have been happy with the higher end receivers I have been using. 
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Depends on the source.  Most streaming services?  Not going to notice, IMO.  CD/DVD?  Maybe.  Hooking up your sources through HDMI anyway?  Nope.

Anything modern will be digital, which means it will have some sort of conversion loss.  The tube amps hooked up via good RCA cables through a true analog receiver will have fuller sound, but most of us won't notice so long as the source isn't chit (looking at you streaming services).

I'm running older Polk stuff, works well enough.  Rocking my old-school Cerwins in the garage. :biggrin:

 
@Fireballsocal  I'm a little bit of an audiophile. From what I've read and watched the new Heresy IV is awesome. They fixed them with a updated crossover if I remember correctly. If I didn't love my Klipsch KG5.5's so much (with Crites titanium tweeter upgrade) I'd own those. 

I'm currently using a Marantz NR1200 receiver to power them. 

 
Rockwood said:
  Rocking my old-school Cerwins in the garage. :biggrin:
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I had a fantastic pair of LS15 Cerwin Vegas that I sold to Ocotillo boy. For a big booming unsophisticated box, I loved those things. I thought they sounded great. Maybe I don't have the nuances it takes to be an audiophile but my wallet says that isn't a bad thing. 😁 

 
My home stuff is all Dennon and Klipsch, spent the money and never looked back... was the best investment I made for movie nights at home

 
Fireballsocal said:
I had a fantastic pair of LS15 Cerwin Vegas that I sold to Ocotillo boy. For a big booming unsophisticated box, I loved those things. I thought they sounded great. Maybe I don't have the nuances it takes to be an audiophile but my wallet says that isn't a bad thing. 😁 
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Yep. They’re in the rafters anyway, I just want to hear it through earplugs. :biggrin:

 
 
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In my theatre room in my last house I had Marantz Receiver, Integra Amps and B&W speakers. Sub was a custom Polk from the mid 2000's that was amazing. It sounded awesome for music and movies. The B&W were so smooth. 

Edit - Is Miller & Kressel still around?  They had some killer Audiophile stuff too.

 
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