1977 Klipsch Heresy HD-BR - ORIGINAL BOXES, sequential S/Ns, E networks. Unique and much loved!

Offered is one pair of much-loved Klipsch Heresy speakers from 1977, with sequential serial numbers and original boxes!  These speakers belonged to my mother and father in-law, and mom was a classical pianist.  She attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music and absolutely loved these speakers.   She now lives in a much smaller place (Dad is gone), and these no longer can be accommodated.  I'd keep them myself, except that I don't need them and would much rather have someone else enjoy them than have them languish in a box.

This set is quite unique, as they are HD-BR models.  "HD" means "decorator" version, with no grilles and a flush surface to the baffle board.  The BR is of course, the stock birch finish.  "But wait," you say, "These aren't birch and they have grilles!"  Well, no they aren't and yes they do.  At some point, the folks decided that they in fact did want grilles and a richer finish on the cabinets, so they had a cabinet maker add a veneer and fabricate small frames around the edges so that the stock grilles would go right on.  The grilles, BTW, are in fantastic shape, complete with original Kilpsch badges.

When the cabinet maker did the veneer, he (or the folks, or both) really didn't care about the look of the baffle board, since it would be covered by the grille anyway.  So, you'll see that the veneer on that surface is not particularly well finished.  It appears that it was folded over the front edges, miters cut in the corners with a blade and that was it.  Not even nor symmetrical.  Both baffle boards are a little different from each other in terms of the added trim (ignore the minor color differences in the photos, that's a camera artifact), and one has some sort of repair where the veneer strip is different on one edge and a somewhat different color from the original work.  Again, when the grilles are on, this is not visible.  An easy fix if this bothers you would be to remove the grille edges, re-veneer only the baffle boards and put the frames back on.  But I'd just leave this all alone, it's part of the character of this pair.  Even more interesting, the original Klispch badges on the baffle board are present, but one is covered by veneer and the other is not.  If you're super critical, it wouldn't be hard to get the cabinets redone.  But that sure would remove a lot of the character and charm of this pair.

The finish has a reddish cast to it and it's lovely.  The folks say it's teak (I'm not a wood guy, so I can't absolutely identify it), and that's what it looks like to me.  In ordinary room lighting conditions, there are almost no noticeable defects.  There is some wear and tear that comes from being the focal point of a music-loving household and the ravages of time, most of it on one speaker.  It has some damage to the upper rear-right corner, which you can see photographed in the harshest-possible lighting conditions.   In addition, on that same cabinet there is some damage to the upper front right corner of the frame.  Again, it's been photographed in the worst-possible light so that you can see it.  It's been repaired with furniture wax and looks quite good in ordinary lighting conditions.  The only other defect is a broken connector, which is easily replaced and works just fine as-is.

These sound just like they should.   All drivers work, and the crossovers are original E-series.   No, they're not the double phase-plug K55Vs, we're a few years too early for those!  There is one inexplicable thing, and that's the 22R woofer (R means 'replacement") in the one cabinet.  Mom says that these were bought new and doesn't have an explanation for this.  The only thing I can think of is that the dealer changed one woofer (perhaps it was a demo pair and something happened?) or the factory did, for reasons unknown.  The good news is that the Thiele/Small parameters of all of the various versions of this woofer are the same (otherwise like would always have to be replaced with like and cabinets would have to accommodate and be matched to any differences), and thus there should be no sonic difference at all between the two.  Also, an identical original woofer can be had for not a lot of money if it's truly required.  But my critical and musical mother-in-law never complained about a problem, and believe me, she would have!

Of course there are other nice Heresy sets out there that you can buy.  But not many come with a story and the love that comes with a pair like this.  For me, gear with a history always means much, much more and is always more satisfying to experience music with.

Shipping these will be difficult and not inexpensive.  While we have the original boxes, we do not have the original packing, so that will have to be invented by me.  I will have to make appropriate inner packing.  That will take additional time, and time is always money.  Also, the original boxes are too weak and old to ship in as-is, so while the speakers won't be double-boxed (unless you request that and we factor that into costs), the original boxes will be wrapped in extra cardboard so that they become strong enough to ship and the exteriors won't show or get damaged in transit.  These will weigh about 50 pounds each, and the boxes will measure 25x19x17.  I use FedEx Ground/Home Delivery, so to estimate your shipping costs you can plug those numbers in at the FedEx site using "drop off at FedEx location" as the shipping method.  Make sure that you select residential if that's where the speakers are going, include signature required and state a value (I use purchase price plus an estimate of shipping costs) to get the correct costs.  Add $30 handling to that amount for the additional work, and then multiply the total by two.  That will be total shipping cost, and of course I'll double-check and make any corrections before you pay.  These will take about 3 hours to pack and also have to be driven into town (a 35-mile round trip) to ship.   Southern California area pickup/delivery can also be arranged, but Covid will make that more difficult as I am hardly traveling at all these days.

On payment:  it's been a while since I've sold anything on Audiogon, and the rules have changed a lot.  It looks like PayPal is really the only option unless I jump through a bunch of hoops.  Since they tack on an additional fee of 3%, that is reflected in the price.  Note that if you live in Canada and want these, you will need to make special arrangements.  I will only ship to a US address, and if PayPal is used, it must match the PayPal confirmed US address, so your best American buddy may have to make the transaction and receive the boxes for you.   If you pay with check or money order, it will need to be in USD.

About me: I don't sell a lot of equipment and thus don't have a plethora of feedback here at Audiogon.  I do, however, maintain a 100% positive feedback level at eBay under this same username and have been with them since 2000.  I also own and operate tapeheads.net, a well-known tape, music and audio site.  Your happiness, experience and satisfaction are extremely important to me, and you can buy with complete confidence.

I hope that you'll love these as much as my parents-in-law did.  I'm really looking forward to them making music for someone again.