Listening #119 List of the month

Sidebar 1: List of the month

Most rock-band reunions are the proverbial eggs that shouldn't be cooked. The five original members of the Byrds shouldn't have made the awful Byrds in 1972. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young shouldn't have made the awful Looking Forward in 1999, with its awful hippie-baby cover photo. The surviving members of the Who shouldn't have played that awful Super Bowl half-time show in 2010. And every time someone mentions the possibility of a reunion of the Smiths, God kills a kitten.

But there have been exceptions—seven, in fact. Here are the greatest rock reunions of all time, listed alongside each exemplary latter-day concert appearance or record release. These are presented in no particular order—although, if pressed, I would point to the new album by the dB's as singularly great: It stands alongside the best of that band's early work.

1) The dB's, Falling Off the Sky (2012)
2) The Bonzo Dog Band, Let's Make Up and Be Friendly (1971)
3) Mott the Hoople, five-night stand at the Hammersmith Odeon, London (2009)
4) The Pixies, concert tour (2004)
5) The Band, Jericho (1993)
6) Big Star, In Space (2005)
7) Led Zeppelin, Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert (2007)

COMMENTS
Jerome W's picture

Dear Art, 

I wonder if you used your Shindo CC amps when you listened to the Heresy III. I am quite sure you did. Because indeed I had the exact same experience with the Shindo Apetite : it was a very bad matching with the Heresy's, to my great surprise. While the Apetite is very happy driving my big and pretty difficult PMC EB1i ! ( 88 dB and 6 ohms nominal impedance.... ) 

The Heresy III gave me a wonderful presentation of all styles of music, with a smooth and refined treble, with my Mc Intosh system composed of C48 preamp and vintage MC2205 power amp. For the price they are by far the best speakers I have heard and I could live all the rest of my life with only them. ( I say this in perfect consciousness while I have 3 systems at home, the top one using Wilsons WP8, and Shindo preamp / power amps... ). Jeff Dorgay from Tone Audio published a review about the Heresy III titled "Perfect Balance". I could not agree more. 

mikesp1's picture

I totaly agree, If there was only one loudspeaker in the world, I would be very happy with the heresy! I paired them with Wyred4sound class d amps and they realy sing. Here are some lifestyle photos:

https://www.mediaelectronics.be/product/klipsch-heresy-iii/

Jerome W's picture

It is very cool to be able to post comments on line like this. 

It would be much cooler if a respectful question to the writer could be answered. 

I really wonder which amp(s) was used in this listening of the Heresy III. 

Art Dudley's picture

Apologies for the late response. I did indeed use my Shindo Corton-Charlemagne amps, which were made with Hammond output transformers having selectable secondary windings (set for 8 Ohms during this and most other reviews). I don't know what output transformers are used in the Appetite integrated amp, but I doubt very much that they are Hammonds -- and would in fact suspect that they are, as with most current Shindos, Lundahl single-secondary transformers, optimized for 16-Ohm loads (which characterizes all of Ken Shindo's own loudspeakers).

In any event, I'm glad that you enjoy your Heresy loudspeakers in your Mac system.

 

-- Art

Jerome W's picture

Dear Art, 

Thank you for your answer. 

I tried them with my Corton Charlemagne Q monoblocks and the Giscours and it is much better than with the Apetite but still, these speakers like rather warm amps : they sing wonderfuly with the Mc Intosh MC2205 and with my Manley set up consisting of the 300B Neo Classic preamp and the Snappers monoblocks. 

IMHO, you just did not pair them with the correct amplifier. It would have been nice to give them an other chance ! ;)

Best wishes, 

Jérôme

helomech's picture

The Heresy IIIs require sufficient break-in as well as thoughtful amp pairing. The highs do mellow out after a couple hundred hours. Can we assume they were given a comparable amount of break-in as speakers that receive full feature reviews?

As for amps, despite their high efficiency, the H-IIIs don't perform as well with flea watt glass. Feed them 50 watts of KT88 power and you'll have a very different experience regarding the highs.

Lastly, these speakers are intended to be used with grills in place. Given the typical reviewer penchant for removing grills, I think it's worth noting the configuration for these demos.

Bill Call's picture

i'm pairing a Marantz 2270 Receiver with my Heresy III's and they sound great!

grx8's picture

Many years later but please tap your H-III into 4 Ohms, the difference is incredible. Mc225 and Mc275 agrees.

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