Klipsch Heresy IV Speaker Review

[Henry53]

After reading your comments, we seem to agree that our brain can play tricks on us with audio.
What I see is that he has a certain resilience in the face of a loyalty gap.
High fidelity involves reproducing the recording as closely as possible to the mastering.
The mastering still has to be done on speakers with the same curve as ours. Not to mention that many masterings are also done to sound good on low-end equipment.
But I digress.
In any case, it's nice to chat with you. THANKS !
All that remains is to wait for serious studies providing answers to our questions.

Serious studies already exist, they demonstrate clearly how the human brain processes information, including sound, and how precise the brain is at doing so. There is a fundamental issue, the mind doesn't play tricks, the mind responds to established principles and criteria. These principles and criteria are part of being human. The brain has a massive capacity to collect information, its collects so much it has to prioritise the information in order to process it. Thus the main principle is to ignore that which is of no interest and concentrate on that which is, a meter cannot do this. A meter is accurate regarding what signal is produced, it however does not tell you what sound is heard. A meter for instance cannot tell you how a persons brain processes that information. Take this topic, Klipsch Heresy speakers, some people think they are wonderful, some, myself included, think they are terrible, in fact amongst the worst speakers I have ever listened to. They are, to me, bright to the point of being painful. This is not a trick my brain plays or their brain plays, it is the way we listen and hear and everyone is unique. So different people from exactly the same speaker hear completely different attributes, that's proven science. Searching for a perfect signal that will please everyone if futile. It's like the perfect steak, you like what you like.

 

[kyuu]

So different people from exactly the same speaker hear completely different attributes, that's proven science.

No it's not. We have decades of research and papers on psychoacoustics that says otherwise. When double-blinded, which isolates the ears and brain, people do in fact tend to like similar characteristics in their audio reproduction.

You're free to disregard the science and go gaga over audio woo. That's your prerogative. Just don't pretend that the science backs up your position in any way.

 

[Henry53]

No it's not. We have decades of research and papers on psychoacoustics that says otherwise. When double-blinded, which isolates the ears and brain, people do in fact tend to like similar characteristics in their audio reproduction.

You're free to disregard the science and go gaga over audio woo. That's your prerogative. Just don't pretend that the science backs up your position in any way.

Double blinding cannot isolate the ears or the brain because without them you cannot hear! Science does say exactly what I'm saying, people hear with their brain. Yes you can predict what a signal is like however that does not define how people hear it. The Klipsch speakers are an example as are others that some people love and some people hate. All I hear with Klipsch speakers is howling treble and distorted vocals, yet close friends of 50 years continue to try to convince me they sound great, I obviously agree, they do, to them.

 

[Beave]

Double blinding cannot isolate the ears or the brain because without them you cannot hear! Science does say exactly what I'm saying, people hear with their brain. Yes you can predict what a signal is like however that does not define how people hear it. The Klipsch speakers are an example as are others that some people love and some people hate. All I hear with Klipsch speakers is howling treble and distorted vocals, yet close friends go 50 years continue to try to convince me they sound great, I obviously agree, they do, to them.

I think you misunderstood the intent of his phrase "isolates the ear and brain." He didn't mean that it isolates the ear and brain from each other. He meant that it isolates the ear and brain from other senses (visual being the main one), thus removing biases such as how the speaker looks.

 

[Henry53]

I think you misunderstood the intent of his phrase "isolates the ear and brain." He didn't mean that it isolates the ear and brain from each other. He meant that it isolates the ear and brain from other senses (visual being the main one), thus removing biases such as how the speaker looks.

Most people when asked think music sounds better when we see it being played as well as hear it being played, why is this? Because the brain is what you hear with. And no one actually knows or can measure what a person is hearing only what is being played, is there a correlation between a better generated sound and better heard sound, maybe, but far from always. And its a correlation not a proof of causation. If it was a proof of causation a more accurate speaker would sound better to everyone, they don't. As an example people who produce and mix music for a living use monitor speakers, but that's not what they listen to at home.

 

[Beave]

Well, I tried.

 

[Henry53]

Well, I tried.

The reviewer clear dislikes these speakers, they are very, very inaccurate, but many people love how they sound, to them? Like you, sorry I tried. If measurement dictated perceived sound quality these wouldn't have been made and played by probably millions of people for over 50 years.

 

[Norcal]

Is there a limit on how many people you can put on ignore? Seems like a lot of candidates lately.

 

[Ludovic]

So if I understand correctly, studies show that we all like more or less the same equalization. And that we don't hear exactly the same way but very closely.
Is a study explaining that some favor dynamics over distortion or the opposite? the physical impact on precision?

 

[Sal1950]

Double blinding cannot isolate the ears or the brain because without them you cannot hear! Science does say exactly what I'm saying, people hear with their brain. Yes you can predict what a signal is like however that does not define how people hear it. The Klipsch speakers are an example as are others that some people love and some people hate. All I hear with Klipsch speakers is howling treble and distorted vocals, yet close friends of 50 years continue to try to convince me they sound great, I obviously agree, they do, to them.

That's simply a matter of preference. Some find a special shade of blue gorgeous while others find it gaudy.
But you can still measure its exact color with a color meter and calibrate a video display to be accurate, or tint a
auto paint color to match a damaged panel.

Serious studies already exist, they demonstrate clearly how the human brain processes information, including sound, and how precise the brain is at doing so. There is a fundamental issue, the mind doesn't play tricks, the mind responds to established principles and criteria. These principles and criteria are part of being human.

The part you refuse to understand or acknowledge is that YES, we all live in our own little particular auditory reality and it is individual to each of us.
BUT, when YOU go to a live concert it sounds exactly like a live concert to YOU.
When I go to a live concert it sounds exactly like a live concert to ME
A speaker that reproduces a recording of that concert that is and Measures Accurate will sound like that live concert to the BOTH of us.

OTOH
A speaker that has tonal or distortion issues when listened to without that live concert reference just falls back to a personal preference that has ZERO relevance to our own particular auditory reality. YOU either like it or not.
I like red, you like blue but if we're not color blind we both see the same things.

 

[Ludovic]

not entirely true, we must not forget the mastering. High fidelity only concerns the creation of the mastering which enhances the concert.
But I agree with the general idea.
Even if many old monitoring speakers were not neutral.

 

[Sal1950]

not entirely true, we must not forget the mastering.

That wasn't the point, you have to assume a accurate mastering.

 

[Ludovic]

That wasn't the point, you have to assume a accurate mastering.

yes I think I'm quibbling, I understand the general idea.
It remains to be seen if I'm just a victim of my vision, or if the heresy have an element that makes me like them more than speakers without horns and with a little lower sensitivity.
It seems that when I watch audiophile YouTubers, many seem to like these speakers even on stereophile. I'm not fooled, there may be money behind all this. But some of them seem passionate.
These seem to be speakers that are considered impressive at first, then tiring later. The first thing is irrefutable, many of my guests are impressed. But hey, their benchmark is often low. Fatigue, I would like to believe that they are more tiring than more neutral speakers.

 

[Sal1950]

It remains to be seen if I'm just a victim of my vision, or if the heresy have an element that makes me like them more than speakers without horns and with a little lower sensitivity.

It's up to you, and it's not that the Heresy doesn't have some positive attributes.
Klipsch speakers have been a favorite whipping boy for some in the high end for decades.
I owned a pair of La Scala's for over 30 years and investigated just about everything that came down the road along the way.
Many offered improvement in some areas, but in my price range none offered an overall upgrade for my tastes and habits.
YMMV

 

[Snarfie]

Steve's Review let say it is in the Ear of the Beholder.

 

[Henry53]

That's simply a matter of preference. Some find a special shade of blue gorgeous while others find it gaudy.
But you can still measure its exact color with a color meter and calibrate a video display to be accurate, or tint a
auto paint color to match a damaged panel.


The part you refuse to understand or acknowledge is that YES, we all live in our own little particular auditory reality and it is individual to each of us.
BUT, when YOU go to a live concert it sounds exactly like a live concert to YOU.
When I go to a live concert it sounds exactly like a live concert to ME
A speaker that reproduces a recording of that concert that is and Measures Accurate will sound like that live concert to the BOTH of us.

OTOH
A speaker that has tonal or distortion issues when listened to without that live concert reference just falls back to a personal preference that has ZERO relevance to our own particular auditory reality. YOU either like it or not.
I like red, you like blue but if we're not color blind we both see the same things.

Not true. In fact I tried with coloured golf balls. I buy red, orange, green and yellow. You may be surprised the vast difference of 'colours' people see. They are not colour blind the see what to them is red, you may see , what to you is orange. You can't argue.

 

[Henry53]

So if I understand correctly, studies show that we all like more or less the same equalization. And that we don't hear exactly the same way but very closely.
Is a study explaining that some favor dynamics over distortion or the opposite? the physical impact on precision?

We hear the same way, we don't hear the same thing.

 

[kyuu]

Not true. In fact I tried with coloured golf balls. I buy red, orange, green and yellow. You may be surprised the vast difference of 'colours' people see. They are not colour blind the see what to them is red, you may see , what to you is orange. You can't argue.

That's semantics. It doesn't mean what they see is actually any different. If you're arguing that a person's preconceptions, other senses, and social cues can influence how they describe something even when they are experiencing the exact same sensory input, then sure. That's why double-blind testing is important to isolate those things.

 

[Henry53]

That's semantics. It doesn't mean what they see is actually any different. If you're arguing that a person's preconceptions, other senses, and social cues can influence how they describe something even when they are experiencing the exact same sensory input, then sure. That's why double-blind testing is important to isolate those things.

Double blind or completely blind makes no difference to what you hear or what you like, it changes your expectation if anything. Try this with people who have never heard a hi fi system in their lives, no preconceptions, no badge identification. They can clearly identify better equipment, tell them the price and suddenly cheaper ones sound good!

 

[gino1961]

Hi I wonder if any PA speakers could provide a similar performance at much lower price