I've owned a pair of Klipsch Heresy III's since early 2010, and they've never really "wowed me," beyond playing them for the first time after having used cheap towers and bookshelf speakers for most of my life. Since then, I have developed a love/hate relationship: I love that they are very sensitive and can be driven with very little power, and I love how they can be played at very low volumes and still sound halfway decent, but I hate their lack of imaging, how fussy they are about room placement, their weird size (too small to be floorstanders, too large for bookshelves), and one-note bass. Their flaws are becoming more and more pronounced, now that I have a great speaker amp (Stereomour 45) and a very small, urban living room with bamboo wood floors. There's practically no place to put the speakers to begin with, and no matter where I do put them, they look and sound out of place. I can't get far enough away from them to develop a sound image, so everything sounds like it's coming from inside of the box. There's also no center image to speak of, and resultantly, no dimensionality to the sound. Also, because they practically have to be placed in corners due to how short the living area is (8ft?), they are very boomy in the bass.
Which brings me to my question: I've lustfully eyeballed Clark's Orca speakers since they were much cheaper, and keep debating whether I should go that route. My past experiences with single-driver speakers weren't good: I could always hear the whizzer ringing at certain frequencies, and they just sounded "shouty" and harsh to me. To this day, I can watch a YouTube video of single-driver speakers and even via the crappy camera microphones, can hear what I consider to be overly pronounced midrange and a honky, harsh quality. I'm attracted to the beautiful finish of the Orcas, the simplicity of not having a crossover, the possibly of great 3-D imaging, and the opportunity to support a home-grown business. For others that own these speakers, how do they compare to other single-range models? Do they really overcome most of the downfalls of that methodology? If so, will a 45 run these things in a small room, or would I have to go back to 2A3's?
Again, most of what I play on speakers is classic, instrumental jazz, along with some classical piano and the occasional Beatles record. I save the heavy metal and other obnoxiously loud rock music for headphones (much to the relief of my neighbors, I'm sure). I guess what I am looking for is a speaker that just "disappears" into the room, leaving a jazz quartet or piano in its place. My Klipsch boxes might be efficient, but you never forget that you are listening to speakers.....
I should mention that at least initially, I would run these without a sub. I don't need a ton of deep bass - I just want what is there to be clearly separated, not boomy and puffy like what I get from the Klipsch speakers if every parameter isn't carefully adjusted. A matching sub could be purchased later on. Also, I'll have to admit to not caring for the aesthetics of the wooden stands - I'd prefer metal. Has anybody used the Orcas with such equipment?
Opinions would be appreciated!
