Wardsweb

So you don't need mega power and the Forte's have good bottom end. Your phono stage will be noticed in the mids and highs. A tube pre will take the edge off your highs just a bit. So if you find your treble a bit too much, that may be a good thing. If you yearn for ultra high sizzle, a solid state phono pre lends itself to more, to the point of shrill. All this depending on your source vinyl and how it was mastered, but generally speaking tubes give you warm without being dull and solid state can get edgy on horns. I like high end sizzle and my tube phono pre with large horns sounds wonderful. Either way, you really can't go wrong. It's more a personal taste kind of thing.

Let me ask you this: what turntable/cartridge and speakers are you using?

Not a simple A or B question. You want your gear to compliment one another. You want synergy. So, it depends on what cartridge, amplifier(s) and speakers you use. In my case, I use a high output moving coil cartridge, tube phono pre, a passive linestage, tube mono blocks and very high efficiency horn speakers. I changed the caps in the phono pre, not only to a lot better caps, but also, some values to work better with the passive linestage. The output caps were entirely too small for the linestage because it has a dynamic input impedance that can go as low as 10.4K. So, the .9uF was replaced with 4.7uF Mundorf Supreme Silver. That gets the phono pre to play nicely with the passive linestage. Why a passive linestage? The speakers are around 100dB efficient. They don't need a lot of power. My 845 tube amps have an output of 22 watts. A preamp with gain meant my volume was zero at 6 o'clock and too loud to stay in the room at 9 o'clock. Not much control at all. The passive linestage means I have a usable volume range from 6 o'clock to 3 o'clock. You see how each piece interacts with the next and how each component has a reasoning in the mix. Think about each piece in your system and how they interact with each other and what it is you like to hear.

They use all factory drivers, horns and crossovers, that I picked up at the Pilgrimage in Hope/Bodcaw.

The Smith horns image very well and while I knew they would have great horizontal dispersion, I have no clue how well they handled the vertical soundstage. I really like these horns.

It's crazy that it has already been a year since I built these. Still love them.

Here are a few to check out. Adele - Someone like you Diana Krall - Peel me a grape Eva Cassidy - Fields of gold Jane Monheit - Over the rainbow Jennifer Warnes - The well Karrin Allyson - Moanin' Madeleine Peyroux - Dance me to the end of love Melody Gardot - Your heart is as black as night Nina Simone - Sugar in my bowl Nora Jones - Don't know why Patricia Barber - Touch of trash Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish harlem Sade - Is it a crime Sarah K - He got you Sarah McLachlan - Angel Susie Suh - Won't you come again

Just came across a guy on Audiokarma selling this new in the box turntable.

Wow! She has got to go. That is NOT how you handle a record.

Started on the color today. Koi still needs final detail but you get the idea. Two weeks and he starts on the flower.

You mean like this?

Not available from Klipsch. I veneered them.

Yes those are the waterfall buginga Cornwall III's.

What you can't see are the mesh curtains that cover all the windows. These help but the biggest change was adding the acoustic panels behind the horns. It really brought the system to life. So much cleaner and more sensitive. Both pairs of speakers are high efficiency and driven with a 2A3 SET amp with 3.5 watts per channel. Still it can play way louder than you would want.

Some extensive house cleaning had me pull my system apart. Well it got me to thinking about changing some things around. I have simplified the system and still need to put the area rug back in to cover the tile, but I like how it turned out.