ErinsAudioCorner

[hardisj]

I'm guessing they require line power, XLR for analog, AES/EBU for digital, and CAT 6 to connect the two together. Wonder if you can get away with using cable ties to put everything together, and then running everything along the wall or under the rug.

If I owned them, I would run the wire back through the wall. Realistically speaking, if someone can afford a $12k USD pair of speakers, I imagine they can hire a contractor to do some work for them to clean wires up, if legitimately necessary.

 

[hardisj]

I am now done with my testing of the Klipsch Heresy IV. Will be a while before I get all the data pulled together, analyzed, posted and reviewed. But, here's a sneak peak of the results.

0° on-axis; aligned with tweeter.

Reference, these are not. I picture them more like frat boy speakers. Very high sensitivity with the ability to get extremely loud. Klipsch's tagline is literally "pissing off the neighbors since 1964", so, I think that tells us all we need to know about their goals wrt reference and accuracy. Will be interesting to see how the SPIN data pans out for this speaker.

(FWIW, I reached out to Klipsch directly via email and Twitter to ask what the designed listening axis is. I asked on October 21. I assume tweeter, but who knows for sure. Who better to ask than the manufacturer (typically). Well, 3 weeks later and still no reply. I did get an acknowledgement. But, I couldn't wait forever so I measured at the tweeter axis. Not my fault if they can't answer a customer request.)

 

[MZKM]

I am now done with my testing of the Klipsch Heresy IV. Will be a while before I get all the data pulled together, analyzed, posted and reviewed. But, here's a sneak peak of the results.

0° on-axis; aligned with tweeter.

View attachment 93726



Reference, these are not. I picture them more like frat boy speakers. Very high sensitivity with the ability to get extremely loud. Klipsch's tagline is literally "pissing off the neighbors since 1964", so, I think that tells us all we need to know about their goals wrt reference and accuracy. Will be interesting to see how the SPIN data pans out for this speaker.

(FWIW, I reached out to Klipsch directly via email and Twitter to ask what the designed listening axis is. I asked on October 21. I assume tweeter, but who knows for sure. Who better to ask than the manufacturer (typically). Well, 3 weeks later and still no reply. I did get an acknowledgement. But, I couldn't wait forever so I measured at the tweeter axis. Not my fault if they can't answer a customer request.)

The speaker has a base, angling it. Do you think this will cause issues w.r.t. time-allignment?

 

[hardisj]

The speaker has a base, angling it. Do you think this will cause issues w.r.t. time-allignment?

speaker was aimed in that same fashion for measurements. Tested as they are typically used.*

*kind of an odd duck though. Some people swear by putting them on stands and not angling them (the guy who loaned them to me says he does this). Then others say leave them on the floor and keep them angled up. Klipsch shows them on the floor. I do the best I can with the info available to me.

 

[MZKM]

speaker was aimed in that same fashion for measurements. Tested as they are typically used.*

*kind of an odd duck though. Some people swear by putting them on stands and not angling them (the guy who loaned them to me says he does this). Then others say leave them on the floor and keep them angled up.

A step response for both orientations should show which is best.

 

[hardisj]

A step response for both orientations should show which is best.

i edited my post. They are not time aligned. Checked that. Haven’t measured a passive speaker that is, yet, though.

 

[MZKM]

i edited my post. They are not time aligned. Checked that. Haven’t measured a passive speaker that is, yet, though.

Not to say time-alignment is important, but that it relates to phase-alignment in a sense. One of the configurations will have dips in the crossover regions off-axis, the other (hopefully) will not.

I don’t want to make work for you, it’s just that I’m curious which orientation is actually best for these designs. You could do an in-room moving mic measurement at 90° (to keep positioning easy) with the speaker tilted up and another with it flat.

 

[hardisj]

Not to say time-alignment is important, but that it relates to phase-alignment in a sense. One of the configurations will have dips in the crossover regions off-axis, the other (hopefully) will not.

Oh, I knew why you were asking.

 

[Ericglo]

I am now done with my testing of the Klipsch Heresy IV. Will be a while before I get all the data pulled together, analyzed, posted and reviewed. But, here's a sneak peak of the results.

0° on-axis; aligned with tweeter.

View attachment 93726



Reference, these are not. I picture them more like frat boy speakers. Very high sensitivity with the ability to get extremely loud. Klipsch's tagline is literally "pissing off the neighbors since 1964", so, I think that tells us all we need to know about their goals wrt reference and accuracy. Will be interesting to see how the SPIN data pans out for this speaker.

(FWIW, I reached out to Klipsch directly via email and Twitter to ask what the designed listening axis is. I asked on October 21. I assume tweeter, but who knows for sure. Who better to ask than the manufacturer (typically). Well, 3 weeks later and still no reply. I did get an acknowledgement. But, I couldn't wait forever so I measured at the tweeter axis. Not my fault if they can't answer a customer request.)

The biggest thing I got out of that screenshot is that you need to restart your computer. As an aside, Microsoft drives me nuts with that and has turned me into a seeker. Just so I don't have Windows doing an update while I am in the middle of some task.

 

[AnalogSteph]

This one measurement already tells us a few things:

1. As usual for Klipsch, sensitivity is overstated by about 5 dB. Still pretty loud though.
2. Judging by the distortion peak, 850 Hz bass/mid XO seems accurate, but treble XO may be more like 6.5 kHz instead of the specified 4500 Hz. (Somebody's got bad handwriting or something?)
3. The bass driver reminds me of the budget subs you've tested. Seems to have fairly high Le, so that they had to rely on breakup modes to keep the response up in the lower midrange. Seeing distortion make it past 1% while being dominated by neither 2nd nor 3rd feels a bit sketchy.
4. The 48 Hz lower limit for a +/- 4 dB response spec is clearly inaccurate as well, at least if anechoic is your standard. These clearly need boundary gain. Do you have a reasonable estimate for how they measure on a floor when placed against a back wall? I imagine that would bring up the lower mids. One of our resident curve wizards may be able to consult VituixCAD once the full set is out.

The biggest thing I got out of that screenshot is that you need to restart your computer. As an aside, Microsoft drives me nuts with that and has turned me into a seeker. Just so I don't have Windows doing an update while I am in the middle of some task.

You can turn that off though, via group policies for Windows Update - at least in the Professional version. I wouldn't recommend Home to anyone but those with masochistic tendencies. Since group policies generally are a wrapper for some registry settings, hunting those down would work as well, but as always that may be easier said than done...

 

[hardisj]

The biggest thing I got out of that screenshot is that you need to restart your computer. As an aside, Microsoft drives me nuts with that and has turned me into a seeker. Just so I don't have Windows doing an update while I am in the middle of some task.

lol. Man, if that’s your main takeaway you might want to join a Windows forum.

 

[Vini darko]

I've seen a few videos of klipsh heritage speakers being disassembled. They are pretty basic (cheap) on the inside. No bracing , cheap resonate plastic horns and cheap crossover parts. Bass drivers look like basic guitar amp ones.
Paying for a badge
Edit not much damping material either

 

[MZKM]

1. As usual for Klipsch, sensitivity is overstated by about 5 dB. Still pretty loud though.

Their Heresy models actually state that it’s an in-room estimate. Their regular series models however, while being exaggerated just as much, but don’t have the same disclaimer.

 

[hardisj]

1. As usual for Klipsch, sensitivity is overstated by about 5 dB. Still pretty loud though.
2. Judging by the distortion peak, 850 Hz bass/mid XO seems accurate, but treble XO may be more like 6.5 kHz instead of the specified 4500 Hz. (Somebody's got bad handwriting or something?)
3. The bass driver reminds me of the budget subs you've tested. Seems to have fairly high Le, so that they had to rely on breakup modes to keep the response up in the lower midrange. Seeing distortion make it past 1% while being dominated by neither 2nd nor 3rd feels a bit sketchy.
4. The 48 Hz lower limit for a +/- 4 dB response spec is clearly inaccurate as well, at least if anechoic is your standard. These clearly need boundary gain. Do you have a reasonable estimate for how they measure on a floor when placed against a back wall? I imagine that would bring up the lower mids. One of our resident curve wizards may be able to consult VituixCAD once the full set is out.

1) Yep. I show an average of about 94dB from 300-3kHz.
2) The treble XO is indeed 4.5kHz, based on nearfield data.
3) I tend to agree with this. The impedance maps the FR in the 200-300Hz region with a bump at 300Hz which seems to coincide with port resonance but the woofer's NF also shows a bump there, so it's hard to know for sure. I would have to stuff the port and remeasure the NF (I might do this).
4) They spec ±4dB? Well, that kind of jives. My calculations show 94dB -4.4/+3.0 dB.



I am now done with all the data generation. Not sure when I'll find time to write the review and post it all. But, hopefully this week.

Weird speaker. I think some folks will be surprised at the data but others won't be.

 

[Helicopter]

Better than I expected. Jagginess should hardly be audible except as muddy sound. My1970s Heresys are way worse than this. I guess the FR efforts seen in the RP 8000F are also present in the Heritage IV.

Makes me wonder if they will do something that actually measures well someday, like an RF7-IV.

 

[Chromatischism]

The biggest thing I got out of that screenshot is that you need to restart your computer. As an aside, Microsoft drives me nuts with that and has turned me into a seeker. Just so I don't have Windows doing an update while I am in the middle of some task.

I hate it too, but I'd rather have a team fixing issues than one that isn't. A necessary evil.

 

[Ericglo]

You can turn that off though, via group policies for Windows Update - at least in the Professional version. I wouldn't recommend Home to anyone but those with masochistic tendencies. Since group policies generally are a wrapper for some registry settings, hunting those down would work as well, but as always that may be easier said than done...

Thanks, I will look into that.

lol. Man, if that’s your main takeaway you might want to join a Windows forum.

LOL, it just a big pet peeve of mine.

I shouldn't complain to much as I made a quick $5k of their stock around two years ago.

I hate it too, but I'd rather have a team fixing issues than one that isn't. A necessary evil.

I don't mind updates. I don't like them forced on me like Microsoft does. Ubuntu tells you an update is available and lets you decide when to do the update. I believe other Linux distros do the same, but I haven't played around with other distros in years.

 

[vavan]

Ubuntu tells you an update is available and lets you decide when to do the update

both win 7 and win 10 do the same for me

 

[hardisj]

Hey, everyone. I know a lot of you don't "do Facebook", but to those of you who do, I just started up a FB Page where I can update the status of tests and behind-the-scenes stuff. I have a "group" already but will be closing that down soon (I intended to make a Page but had no idea the two were different back when I started it).

Anyway, if you want to follow along here is the link. Please invite your friends. Hopefully we can spread the word that there is more than just the usual audiophile reviews out there and that objective data isn't evil.

https://www.facebook.com/ErinsAudioCorner

 

[CtheArgie]

You will get a request from a Charlie. It’s me.