Breathing new life into old speakers

Scott_W · « **on:** 14 Jan 2008, 07:39 pm »

Greetings - So last week I sold my B&W 803Ds and ordered Salk Veracity HT3s. Whilst I wait for them to arrive I brought up my 20 year old Klipsch Heresy IIs from my basement. I bought these in college, in 1988, and they endured their fair share of abuse for many years. I have the Fet Ultra 550 amp and the Ultra pre, bought personally from Frank (I live in Mpls).

Anyhoo, I wasn't expecting much in the way of sound, but yowsa do these little Klipsch's sing and dance when powered by AVA gear!

Sidebar: are there any other owners of these speakers? These things are bulletproof and still sound tasty after all these years, at least when AVAs are in the equation!

Scott

martyo · « **Reply #1 on:** 14 Jan 2008, 07:47 pm »

Different speakers but the same results. I had Carver Platinums. When I switched to AVA driving them they came alive like never before.

Wayner · « **Reply #2 on:** 14 Jan 2008, 07:56 pm »

Don't have Klipcsh but I do have a pair of Dynaco A25XL's (40 years old) hooked up to my T8/170exr. They sound awesome. I think they would beat any 1K speakers is all aspects.

Wayner aa

mark funk · « **Reply #3 on:** 14 Jan 2008, 10:03 pm »

Frank makes some good stuff. Made my 30 year old Dahlquist DQ-10s sound like something I never heard from them before and all that clay helped too. I guess that's what drive anything in the house means.

gjs_cds · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Jan 2008, 03:19 am »

Quote from: Scott_Weinberg on 14 Jan 2008, 07:39 pm

I brought up my 20 year old Klipsch Heresy IIs... I have the Fet Ultra 550 amp and the Ultra pre.

With an amp that powerful... and speakers that efficient... I bet you don't get past the first 3 steps (volume knob) on the pre-amp!

Seriously--I'm curious. How many steps do you go up on the volume with the Klipsch? (Or at what "o'clock" position is the volume set?)

Scott_W · « **Reply #5 on:** 15 Jan 2008, 03:49 am »

I don't go much past 9 o'clock with the Klipsch's, and I do like it pretty loud. When I had the B&Ws, with the volume at 10 o'clock you could hear my system from the street. I could do just fine with the 350 amp, wish now I had got that one per Frank's suggestion. The 550 is so thunderous I can't imagine anyone needing more juice.
Scott

doug s. · « **Reply #6 on:** 15 Jan 2008, 04:11 am »

i have been quite impressed w/the old sansui sp2500 speakers i picked up for $20. they're 98db-efficient. here's a link to an earlier post i made about my sp2500's:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93549&highlight=sp2500

i am presently using them now w/my modded almarro a205a mkll, & they are eq'd w/a deqx 2.6pdc dsp/crossover. (overkill for $20 speakers, eh?)

anyways, the sound is really quite amazing. now competitive w/my coincident victory's, & my piega p5 mkll ltd's. airy treble, excellent soundstaging. dsp is an amazing thing...

doug s.

Brett Buck · « **Reply #7 on:** 15 Jan 2008, 05:45 am »

Quote from: Scott_Weinberg on 14 Jan 2008, 07:39 pm

Greetings - So last week I sold my B&W 803Ds and ordered Salk Veracity HT3s. Whilst I wait for them to arrive I brought up my 20 year old Klipsch Heresy IIs from my basement. I bought these in college, in 1988, and they endured their fair share of abuse for many years. I have the Fet Ultra 550 amp and the Ultra pre, bought personally from Frank (I live in Mpls).

Anyhoo, I wasn't expecting much in the way of sound, but yowsa do these little Klipsch's sing and dance when powered by AVA gear!

Uh, yeah, 225 WPC and 96DB/watt = earth moving/window shattering.

Just out of curiosity, and no criticism implied, why did you want to switch from the 803Ds? I have been very happy with my 803S's.

Brett

martyo · « **Reply #8 on:** 15 Jan 2008, 09:29 am »

Quote

Quote from: Scott_Weinberg on 15 Jan 2008, 03:49 am
I don't go much past 9 o'clock with the Klipsch's, and I do like it pretty loud. When I had the B&Ws, with the volume at 10 o'clock you could hear my system from the street. I could do just fine with the 350 amp, wish now I had got that one per Frank's suggestion. The 550 is so thunderous I can't imagine anyone needing more juice.
Scott

The 550 is the right match for the Salks with their 85db sensitivity. aa

Wayner · « **Reply #9 on:** 15 Jan 2008, 10:45 pm »

Thanks Otis!

I have been just oiling them with tonge oil but that seems to dry up every year, so I give it a new coat. I am interested in your suggestion. Where can I get that stuff?

Wayner

Legendlime · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Jan 2008, 08:17 am »

Here's my story about breathing new life into old speakers. Last year I replaced my Concept 11.0 with an AVA FET Valve 500 and a Fet Valve hybrid preamp that I ordered off of Franks used equiptment list. I set it up with a Thorens TD316 that I got from a guy in Goshen, Indiana and I'm using the tuner section of the 11.0 with the jumpers pulled going preout to the AVA preamp and a Pioneer CD player. I hooked it all up to my trusty Klipsh KG-4's. I realy loved those speakers. There not Heresy II's but I thought you could relate. Well, the KG'4s sounded kind of boomy and realy tiring. So I dragged a pair of Sansui SP-3500's, that I paid $10 for, out of the basement and I had an OMG experience. Those old 3500's sounded fantastic, a little light on the bass for a speaker with a 14" woofer but miles away from the KG'4s. The only problem was that they looked terrible. So that prompted me to order a pair of Salk SongTowers. I haven't recieved the Songtowers yet but with new spakers on the way I started pushing the Sansuis harder and harder. I figured if I blow 'em hey what the heck. Well, what I found was that those old speakers love power. When I got the preamp volume knob up past 11:00 it was OMG all over again, I've got a whole new respect for them. My cats are ready to abandon ship but I'm having a lot of fun.

cdorval1 · « **Reply #11 on:** 9 Feb 2008, 02:48 am »

Great thread. I've used my T7 and Ultimate 70 with my old Boston A40s, and they sounded great. A little bass shy because they're small bookshelf speaks--but the soundstage, smoothness, clarity and warmth more than made up for that. Amazing.

I'll second martyo on the very good match of 550 to the HT3s. They love the power. I find it very involving and real to listen at low to moderate levels--Frank says the 550 is Class A up to 20 watts. But prepare to be literally astonished when you crank it up--the dynamics and detail have to be heard to be believed. All without not a smidge of grain or distortion.

Scott, prepare to be blown away. Hope you can take some time off work. You might not want to leave the house.

Craig

avahifi · « **Reply #12 on:** 9 Feb 2008, 04:33 pm »

I have a client with old original Bozak Concert Grands who says a Ultra SL and Fet Valve Ultra 350 are bringing tears to his eyes.

I don't know for sure if this is good or bad.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Frank Van Alstine

gjs_cds · « **Reply #13 on:** 9 Feb 2008, 05:41 pm »

Quote from: avahifi on 9 Feb 2008, 04:33 pm

I have a client with old original Bozak Concert Grands who says a Ultra SL and Fet Valve Ultra 350 are bringing tears to his eyes.

Wow. I just did a bit of research on the Bozak CGs, and I must say that I am duly impressed. The design of this speaker system was well before it's time... and a lot of it's design elements could still be considered a bit "out there" by current standards.

As an amateur speaker builder, I have a great appreciation for designers that are thinking 'outside the box'. (Ok--bad pun, but you all get what I mean.) Traditional speakers designs (i.e., monkey-coffins consisting of drivers installed in an enclosure using passive XOs) have really run their course. But to see this kind of innovation from the 50s makes for great reading...

I wish I could hear these sometime. I doubt they'd have high resolution, but their design lends itself to smooth and satisfying sound reproduction. (Probably project one heckuva soundstage as well.)

rustneversleeps · « **Reply #14 on:** 10 Feb 2008, 12:01 am »

I don't have the Bozak CG, I have the B-303, the smallest Bozak made in 1963, but still huge in size comparing to today's bookshelf boxes. I don't want to comment on the sound, because after 45 years, I am sure the early capacitors need to be replaced.

I have never driven any old speakers (even though I have quite a few) with AVA gear, but maybe I should try it and see. I even have the Pioneer CS-801 with real compression horn midrange.