They image intensely. Clear sound and full bass

Larger. Not witeless

I picked up a pair of the Heresy II's on Craigslist a couple of years ago for $250.00. The serial #'s matched and were made in 1989. I LOVE these speakers. Prior to owning these I had ( and still have ) a pair of of VMPS Tower speakers which are beast's !!! I wound up blowing a woofer and could not replace it , Brian Cheney of Itone audio passed away so I have yet to find one to this day. Anyhoo. I have heard many pair's and models of Klipsch's over the years and alway's found them to be very bright and in your face with the mid's and high's. However I alway's liked the UBER clean sound that some of the models produced. Based on reviews on here and other sites I rolled the dice and bought these , all I can say is WOW !!! You will need to add a sub for the low's although the woofers do produce tight and articulate sound. But the overall tonal balance and dynamic's these baby's produce is astounding. I'm using a very old adcom GFA 545, tried the 555 and it was to much power and just to bright with the Heresy's. The 545 makes these puppy's sing. PLENTY of power even if you like your music VERY loud . As others have noted quality recordings have never sounded better but if you get a bad one they will reveal every flaw and sound iffy. But I am continuously amazed with these, bring's a smile to my face every time I crank em up. Very engaging and just plain awesome. I listen to many different types of music, ( Metal, pop , classic rock, some dance , some country, Jazz ) you name it and these almost alway's take my breath away. Of course no speaker is perfect, at times when I initially crank them up they can sound kind of harsh, but after a few minuets that seems to subside for one reason or another and they just start to sing, and man do they ever. Hell I even play some Latin Disco CD's just to hear the sound quality that waft's from these speakers. It's just like being in a night club !!! Yes they will go that loud and still be crystal clear. It is truly amazing how much sound they produce. It's simply mind blowing. Close your eyes and you would never believe that these speakers are this size !! TRUST ME. Anyway's , I will never ever get rid of these, I'm 46 years old and will have them till I die. Oh and did I mention that movies sound brilliant as well. With a sub these speakers can run with alot of much higher priced competitors, and I'm talking audiophile not Sony or Polk's.

Anyway's, I hope my review will help some people with their decision about picking a pair up. I truly LOVE these speakers. The WOW factor in these is way up there. Always put's a smile on my face. Grab em if you have the chance.

--SUPER BARGAIN HT-- Nabbed these off CL for $150/pr, disguised as KP201 professional speakers in textured black with handles, corner guards and metal grilles. I didn't think I needed them but couldn't pass up the deal. One had a mid compression driver dangling by one screw to its horn, and one tweeter diaphragm was also blown, both easily fixed ($20) with no follow-on issues. Decided to try them in my HT in place of Dynaco A25s, and while the Dynas go much lower (32hz!), the HII are far more dynamic. So I built a 1000 watt sub ($250) to help them out. Now after also recapping them ($25) I like them almost as much as my Fortes upstairs, and prefer them for electronica and pipe organ for the extra 1/2 octave of bass from the sub. They provide a richly satisfying listening experience on all well-recorded music and reveal bad recordings for what they are, earning the label "reference monitor". And they totally slam dunk their HT mains duties, delivering sound rivaling a well-equipped commercial movie theater. At typical used price ($400-500/pr), easily better than any new speaker you could purchase at a similar price (except perhaps for DIY kits like Pi or DIY Sound Group... definitely worth a look if you are handy). Rounding out my HT: vintage Klipsch KG3 as center ($55) and KG1.5 surrounds ($35/pr). Awesome sound on a budget! Thanks, Craig's List!

Save the technical engineering BS. Best noise ever.

I bought my H2's from a dance studio for $200. They were spray painted black. I stripped the cabinets and restained them with Watco's Danish Oil. They were originally Oiled Walnut finish.
All the drivers are in great shape, as well as the crossovers. The speakers sound better that all the others I have, which is over 10 pair. The play with two pairs of Cerwin-Vega D-9's for extra bass, which is a lot!. I also use them without the extra bass. The sound the best in the corners angled at 45 degrees and about 18" off the floor. They play through a Carver C-1 preamp and a Carver M-400t amp. Awesome sound!!!

It must have been around 1976 when I got my first job (humpty dumpty potato chips)and my first pair of speakers from the hi fi store.Farrah Facett was on my wall and all was good.I had no way of knowing that as the grey hair and many pairs of speakers inbetween that the Heresey 11 would still be the fronts to my 7.1 man cave.They do not make them like thy used to but these were such a good investment 800 cad.Hands down the Best

I bought my Klipsch Heresy II models via e-Bay for $600 plus shipping. I selected them because I had previously owned Heresy I speakers and wanted a good pair of right and left front speakers for my home theater. The intent to use the speakers as home theater speakers was a significant factor in selecting the Heresys.

Heresy speakers typically roll off at about 50 hertz (Hz) in the bass. The bass that is there is tight and full, but they just don't go too low. Used "naked," you can bump up the apparent bass with a judicious bit of equalization, but it never works perfectly. For perfect bass with Heresys, you have to go to a...

Subwoofer; which opens an entirely new can of worms. To get the smoothest transition from the Heresys to the sub, you have to roll off about an octave above the bass cutoff point of the speakers. I've tried running the Heresys full-range and cutting in the sub at the 50 Hz point, but I never get as smooth a transition as I want. In other words, I can almost always still hear the transition from the Heresys to the sub if I'm listening for it.

My best results came from using the AV receiver (I use a Yamaha with good results and sweet sound) with the crossover set at 90 Hz. Although this is a high crossover point, I got by with it because my subwoofer (an expensive M&K model) was fast enough and had a flat enough frequency response that the transition became inaudible.

The subwoofer characteristics are critical. Most subwoofers are built with a very peaked frequency response (I call them "one note wonders"). This type of bass can be very dramatic with movies, but it works poorly for music. Most subwoofers also lack the ability to go very deep into the bass frequencies or to play very loudly without distortion (except at their one peak frequency). To play deeply and cleanly requires expensive subwoofer drivers and expensive electronics. Most subwoofers lack in these areas.

Back to the Heresy speakers - The Series II Heresy speakers sound like they have flatter frequency response than the Series 1 models. The Series 1 models used the Electro Voice T-35 tweeter which was a bit bright on axis and a bit dull off. This wasn't the fault of the tweeter (which is actually a very good tweeter) but rather the fault of "Uncle Paul" Klipsch who chose to mount the tweeter (and midrange) behind the 0.75" thick baffle board. Paul had his reasons; the Heresy was intended to be used in the room corners or on the walls. To prevent excessive wall reflections from the drivers were located behind the baffle board. This did limit the dispersion, but had terrible consequences to the frequency response (particularly off axis).

The Heresy II and III speakers eliminate this problem by using drivers mounted on the front of the baffle (just like every other speaker on the market). This reduces the sound quality when the Heresys are placed in room corners, but improves it when the speakers are on the walls (where most users place them).

Things that I particularly like about the Heresy II include:

1. Very good lower midrange articulation - Unlike the Klipsch Cornwall, whose 15" woofer struggles to hand off to the midrange horn at 700 Hz, the 12" woofer of the Heresy II sounds clean, sweet, and detailed all the way up. I've not been able to hear the transition from the woofer to the midrange, and that says a great deal about good driver matching and competent design.

2. Smoother frequency response - Unlike the Series I Heresys, the II models are a paragon of frequency response virtue. No particular band of frequencies "stands out," and the speaker just sounds like music.

3. Excellent dynamics at all volumes - Most speakers (particularly panel speakers like Magneplanar), have to be played at a certain "threshold" volume or louder before they really begin to sound dynamic. The Heresy speakers (like most horn-loaded speakers) have good "jump factor" even at very low volumes. This means that you can play the speakers really softly and still have them sound like music. This dynamic ability is what separates speakers that sound like speakers from those that sound like live music.

4. High sensitivity - The Heresy speakers will play very loudly with little wattage. This makes them suitable for lower powered amplifiers or even AV receivers (whose power ratings are little more than advertising and wishful thinking). Although the speakers will provide excellent performance with low power, the higher powered amplifiers can also be used to good effect.

Things that I like less about the Heresy II speakers:

1. The birch finish on my speakers isn't very pretty.

2. The speakers must be used with a good subwoofer to sound their best.

3. The speakers aren't the ne plus ultra in imaging.

Despite the shortcomings, the Heresy II speakers are an excellent addition to the front of a home theater AND music system.

At the time I was 23 years old and I grew up with full K-horns in the home and now moving out needed something to tide me over till I could afford my own some day. It was at this time when I truly realized how good my father's speakers actually were compared to everything else out there I looked at. Nothing else would do. Everything else I listened to sounded like crap. I was spoiled growing up on full K-horns and needed something that I could afford that would at least come close. Then I found It, and bought some 1986 Heresy II's used for $450 from a used audio equipment restoration store. They have been absolutely Fantastic over the last 4+years that I've used them. Their no full size K-horn but For the size, price, versatility quality, and dynamics these things Look and Sound Great! My friends think they look old until I turn them on and then they are blown away by the sound quality and dynamic. They no nothing. I have them in plaster wall corners raised off the ground about 2 feet as to put the speaker horns and things at ear sitting level. My living room is perfect because it's an old house upstairs and so the room is small towards one side and gets larger towards the other side, in a sense their placed inside a big horn and the plaster walls don't vibrate and resonate like drywall dose, it's perfect! At first I drove them with an old solid state Pioneer amp which was a very noisy amp that didn’t' do them justice as they screamed at me to get them a new amp. Then I hooked them up to an old pioneer sa-4...something tube amp and they really came to life! I literally cried at the difference in clarity. Awesome! Brilliant clarity! The tube amp really brought the bass out more clear, powerful, and accurate compared to any solid state I tried on them. These were made for tubes! Fantastic speakers designed by a real engineer and not cost cutting image over substance screw the consumer accountants! They appear to be very reliable for a 20+year old speakers as they still look and sound flawless. Sound good with all kinds of music and work well with a good sub with heavier music like dance and rock and roll. Great Speakers!!

I bought this pair used from a guy that really takes care of his equipment, the cabs and drivers are beautiful. Because they had the square inout cap, I bought the conversion kit ($277 per speaker). As HII's they were smooth till their kind of high bass roll off. The conversion kit brought the bass roll off to 58 Hz and increased a very efficient speaker into an extrelely efficient speakers.

As HII's they were not just screamers, they had great tonality, rich in fidelity at low volumes as well as high volumes. The cabs are great quality, I eould get at least another 20 yers form these speakers, the HIII conversion kit insure that they will be here in all their sonic splendor.

These speakers are truly a long term investment, sound quality is superb, the craftsmanship is unequaled.

Clarity, transparency, efficiency

Heavy liitle buggers to lug around the world, but worth every gram.
A tiny bit weak in low bass, but even a cheap sub compensates, when properly set up.

My wife and I bought these in 1986, after auditioning various speakers, using mostly jazz, classical and Hawaiian music. The accuracy, clarity and beautiful transparency brings me pleasure every time I listen to them. They've been in constant use around the world throughout our Air Force careers, and have only been relegated to secondary status by a pair of even older Klipsch Cornwalls we purchased used while living in Germany. Our music-loving daughter now claims them as her own, and I have little doubt that they will bring musical joy to at least another generation when her kids inherit them.

Customer Service

Never needed

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch Cornwalls, Infinity SM 112's, Cerwin-Vega U-15's.