Less is More

Posted by: Chris Bell on 15 July 2017

New office space has afforded me the opportunity to build a small system. I have a UnitiQute 2 on hand and wanted to find a speaker which could fill the room and keep my attention. I was planning on a pair of Tannoys or LS3/5A's but I decided to look beyond the "usual suspects". I had become smitten with the Klipsch Heritage series speakers and figured I would try them out. The Hersey III is a 3 way horn loaded speaker with a sealed 12" woofer. It's a 1940s design which has been mildly updated. They have kept the overall design unchanged in honor of founder Paul Klipsch.

They're designed to be placed near the corners and tow'd in 45 degrees. After about 50 hours of run-in time (they were terrible out of the box) the Klipsch's are starting to reveal their magic. Perfect, not by a long shot... but the sound is highly detailed, highly dynamic and demands your attention. They are 99db efficient and the 30w Qute has no trouble driving them. I thought they might sound bright and brittle, but the mid and tweets are smooth and not harsh. They don't go very low, 50hz, but my small 11'x14' room contains the bass nicely.

Initially I had wired them up with a 25' pair of NACA 5 but this proved to be too much cable to manage and I had no desire to cut them down. I swapped out the Naim cable for 8' pair of Canare speaker cable I had ordered online. To my surprise I prefered the Canare sound. I've been listening to Tidal Masters via my MacBook Pro Toslink cable into the UnitiQuite2. Small chamber trios are particularly involving.

Horn loaded speakers are very polarizing, it is totally different from my 500 series/Kudos Titan system at home. So far I am enjoying the sound. Perhaps less is more?

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by Richieroo

I heard a set of klipsch at the Penta Hi Fi show they were lush relaxed and very enjoyable ... with a soft mellow base ... that was quite tuneful. Enjoy!!!

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by james n

Chris Bell posted:

Fantastic - great looking speakers cool

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by Allante93

Ha! But if Less is More, just think how much more, more would be!

https://youtu.be/9WGOzIVoICY

Complainants of Kuma!

Allante93!

PS. Fraiser Crane, Sit com.

Funny!

3 Stacks of Naim, All Fraimed up!

Now that's More!

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by Skip

Klipsch speakers were born down the road in Hope, Arkansas. I almost had a pair in my first system 45 years ago. but bought the Large Advent instead.

My son loves his Unitiqute2b into the Blumenstein Thrashers. Less is more.

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by Chris Bell

Blumenstein's are made just down the road from me in West Seattle!

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by Clay Bingham

Brilliant out of the box thinking. I would love to hear that combo.

Enjoy

Posted on: 15 July 2017 by joerand

Chris,

Great post mate! For me, it carries great validity knowing what you've got upstairs. I have only one system, but still have become resigned to the "less is more" mentality, especially as my ears age. PSUs, expensive mains cables and ICs can add something to the game, yet can at the same time take away. Musicality is paramount for me and I don't need to spend or build complexity to get close to the music. I like to refer to Occam's Razor, where the simplest solution is the best explanation.

P.S. Blumenstein Audio has moved to Tacoma, but still pretty close to home . Great pics, as always.

Cheers,

Randy

Posted on: 16 July 2017 by Emre

Whatever chris photographs is looking far better than everything i have...

ıf i put a photo of this set it will not look attractive at all

They are better than Naim marketing photos

Posted on: 16 July 2017 by Chris Bell

The mighty Heresy III.

Posted on: 16 July 2017 by charlesphoto

Oh my those are gorgeous speakers! Bring them over! I want to hear them with my 110!

You know I'm with on this theme. Which reminds me I didn't get around to playing my office setup for you of the UQ2 with the LS50's. I have the Ls50's hanging, one firing into a corner and the other into open space with cheap carnival cable and they sound quite nice. Musical and fun and no need to blast them. Perfect for endless hours in Lightroom.

Posted on: 16 July 2017 by Skip

Chris Bell posted:
Blumenstein's are made just down the road from me in West Seattle!

You might want to try a pair with your UQ and see what you think. It would be interesting to compare them with the Heresy.

They are called the Triton now and they look like this for $1400.

The 8" full range paper cone Pioneer speaker is almost full range and they have a very simple crossover and a tweeter for 10K and higher. They are 92db and an 8 ohm load.

Posted on: 16 July 2017 by Bert Schurink

james n posted:
Chris Bell posted:

Fantastic - great looking speakers

I envy you having the opportunity to listen music like that in the office is a clear blessing. Enjoy it too the max.

Posted on: 16 July 2017 by Chris Bell

Skip, I plan to call Blumenstein this week and arrange a demo of the Triton's. I'm curious to hear them.

I've often said that Naim's best products are their entry level components and (now) the Statement level components. The UnitiQute2 proves how good a simple one box solution can be when mated to right speaker. It is a tremendous achievement in engineering.

Posted on: 17 July 2017 by Ron Toolsie

I heard some Klipsh speakers at my (then) local dealer circa 1982.....through LP12/Ittok/Asak/32/250. They made the otherwise excellent Heybrook HB3 sound sedate and plodding. There is something intangible about horn loaded speakers that other speakers cannot match. Even horn-loaded wind up gramophones have a certain gestalt.

Of course there are also things about statics/ribbons, dipole, acoustic suspension, omnidirection etc etc speakers that can only be obtained through those avenues.

Posted on: 17 July 2017 by Skip

Chris Bell posted:
Skip, I plan to call Blumenstein this week and arrange a demo of the Triton's. I'm curious to hear them.
I've often said that Naim's best products are their entry level components and (now) the Statement level components. The UnitiQute2 proves how good a simple one box solution can be when mated to right speaker. It is a tremendous achievement in engineering.

They are customer direct, not retail, but Peter S at Venice Audio uses them with his price sensitive commercial customers and put us in touch. They do very well with the UQ2b and make the best dorm system you could ever imagine.