shauns@vice.UUCP (Shaun Simpkins) (03/12/84)
I should mention to the listening audience out there that Klipsch speakers
generate very polarized opinions. I fall on the negative side of the fence.
To lend a little more substance to my admittedly violent denunciation of Klipsch
Heresys, I submit this further clarification of my terms.
Sigh... yes, I did use a ``salesman's line'' in the description of the Heresy's
characteristic stridency. (Some vague recollections of horn length and taper
characteristics vs bandwidth float through my mind right now, but they're too
foggy to quote. I will therefore state only my perceptions of the sound
quality here. Afterwards, I'll go back and pull out some books on speaker
design to remember why.)
By `sounding like a horn' I mean an emphasized
midrange which gives brass instruments more punch but does disservice to strings
and voice, which need a very flat speaker frequency response to sound natural.
The second component of `sounding like a horn' is directionality, which the
Heresys have in spades, even away from walls and corners. In direct comparison
with my present speakers, the effect is akin to listening to a
megaphone. Yes, a good megaphone, but one nonetheless, with an undesirable
quality of sound. Just as you cannot divorce the characteristics of the
megaphone from whatever is played through it, neither can I divorce the
Heresy's response from the music. The colorations are obvious.
Yes, when properly designed, horn radiators can sound alright. The
K-horn is an example of that. However, I think that Mr. Klipsch compromised
too much in the design of the Heresy.
As I have mentioned
in past postings, I like a dispersed sound field, since I find it very hard to
sit rigidly in THE SWEET SPOT while listening.
It is very irritating to move 10 degrees up or 15 degrees to the side of on
axis and have imaging drop to zero from an already paltry level and the top
octave or two disappear.
My present speakers do not exhibit this extreme directionality. They of course
do not have the bass extension that the K-horns do, but I think that my
speakers, and many other direct radiators, sound better and are more
listenable over extended periods than any Klipsch product.
Which brings me to the question about headaches on extended listening. Sorry,
but it's real. It has been noted that excessive top end or
distorted reproduction, even when that distortion is NOT obviously audible,
can cause noticeable listener fatigue after a short audition (remember the Heil
Air Motion Transformers?). Well, it happened with the Heresys and didn't
happen with the ones I now have. So what can we conclude from this? A/Bing
with different cartridge/TT said that the fault lay in the Klipsch product.
However, I cannot conclude that horn loading was necessarily to blame. Many
problems sufferable by any speaker technology could have caused it, but at $700
a pair a lot of those problems should be worked out...
Super high tech doesn't always excite me. Functional technology does. Up until
~15 years ago, Klipsch's speakers could be considered in the elite.
Unfortunately for Mr. K, direct radiator systems made great strides
and surpassed his venerable K-horns. In the past 5 years, I've heard many
speakers that leave the Heresys in their dust, and at 1/2 the price. It is
for this reason that I seriously question the purchase of Heresys. If you
really want a Klipsch product, buy a K-horn. Or a LaScala. The Heresy runs a
very poor 3rd.
...the wandering squash,
--
Shaun Simpkins
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