vondy

Room it is. I moved them into our bedroom and hooked them up to the HK. No problem rattling the windows on some more bass heavy songs. In here I'm able to close off all the doors and pull the shades down. Room is also bigger and more square. Guess the next step is to build my sliding barn door for the living room and see if that helps by closing it off. That or buy a new house just for the fortes ;-)

I guess as far as ohms are concerned, there's nothing I can actually do with my current setup? No switched to switch to change anything. It is what it is.

Strangely enough, I just turned on Pandora through my avr for some background music. Noticed how much better the bass seemed. The onkyo has more power than my 2 channel amps but I've never really enjoyed it for 2 channel listening. It does have deeper bass at lower levels though. Maybe the EQ kicking in?

I'm always a bit confused over the ohms, fortes say 8 ohms on the back so where would all this 4 ohms talk come into play? I use an emotiva DC-1 for my dac. It can double as a preamp so I'm open to any stand alone higher wattage amp recommendations people are enjoying with there fortes. I've thought about trying some of emotiva offerings.

Guess I'm going to have to do some experimenting to figure it out. Thinking about moving them into a smaller room I can close off just to see the difference. I've checked all the wiring several times but have not switched the old crossovers back in. I think I still have them....? Couple things to make clear... I'm not expecting sub bass from these. I'm expecting more of a live bass. My two channel listening, which is what I'm describing, is from my Emotiva, or HK 430 in the past, not my Onkyo AVR. I'm hoping all I need to do is upgrade amps, otherwise I'll eventually have to find another speaker that will work in my room. My old JBLs I had since high school had plenty of punch in this room. The fortes should too I suspect. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

I did the battery test on the woofers to make sure I had the polarity hooked up correctly from the crossovers. All the wiring is hooked up correctly, I'm assuming Bob's crossovers are correct. I agree that these should not be bass shy, even in a room that's not ideal. I feel like our little Bose bluetooth speaker puts out a better balance of bass sometimes. I think the lack of bass is causing the speaker as a whole to sound bad, harsh, etc. Below is a to-scale layout of my room. There really is no other layout we can do as this one has been the best over the years for us. The only thing we have talked about is maybe doing a sliding barn door to close off the room when I'm listening. I still have this gut feeling that more power is needed, I don't really have the money to mess with it now but will give it a try before I ever get rid of these.

These are pretty pristine I'd say. Bought them from a forum member and they are almost perfect. I replaced with Crites crossovers and Tweeters. I've checked several times to make sure everything was wired up correctly. Something just seems to be wrong. They sound fantastic listening to something like Norah Jones, but when you play anything, from any source, more upbeat, they sound harsh and shallow. No punch. I know they are capable of it, I've heard some pretty low frequencies from movies on them. And I'm not looking for a crazy amount of bass. I want more if that live feel. I'd say my Heresys sounded more dynamic to me. They didn't have quite the realism as the fortes but they felt more alive. I've just never been that happy with my fortes as much as I want to be. They seem very difficult to place, and I've tried every which a way. Used lasers, tape measures, stands, etc. There has to be more to these speakers after what everyone else has said. The room is not that big, there is a large opening to the kitchen so maybe that has something to do with it. I feel more power will help but I guess I won't know till i try.

I know it sounds weird, fortes are supposed to have tons of bass. I've tried placing these all over my room, in and out of corners, Crites crossovers, everything nice and sealed up, etc. They just sound a bit anemic. I'm thinking they need more power. Started out with my HK 430, what's that, 25 watts? Then tried the emotiva mini x with 50 watts. Seems like I should be getting more punch at 65-75 dBs. So the question is, would more power make these more dynamic? Not that I want them loud, I get the feeling though, as efficient as they are, the woofers need more power to really move at lower listening levels. Thoughts?

I have an Academy between my Forte IIs for HT. Would never use it for 2ch though. Mostly because it's not needed, my Fortes are not that far apart. They image so well too that it sounds as if the center is on anyway. Plus as said, the Academy is not a perfect match to the Forte IIs. If you had to do a center because of space, I'd use another Forte II. So is the KLF-C7 really a better match to the Forte II for a center in HT? Should I be looking to switch out?

I think it would be cool to see a sub like the one used in that 2.1 setup designed for heritage speakers. How good would that look paired up with some matching Heresys!

I don't know much but I just got the Emotiva phono pre while it's on sale. Sounds great on my modest setup. MM and MC. Way below your budget but built very well. https://emotiva.com/products/pres-and-pros/xps-1

I just replaced my beloved HK 430 with an Emotiva Mini-X, Stealth DC-1 and their Phono Preamp. I have to say that has seemed to take care of most of the harshness. It's not running my wife out of the room at reasonable levels so that's a good sign. I'd love to get a hold of some tubes one of these days and see what they do.

Sent you a PM.

Looking to buy a phono preamp. Sub $150. Preferably with a USB connection to record from. Thanks

Very nice! I like the concept and the execution. A friend with a woodworking shop has signed up to make me a couple of exact replicas for the risers, but this idea of using them without the factory risers is starting to sound appealing. I may do both as an experiment-since my impending retirement is going to give me some time to tinker-and to which I'm looking forward. I have never liked the factory risers so I was glad to get rid of them. Had kind of an 80's look to them. Not a fan of the grill bevel either but can't do to much about that. I wish they used the Heritage grill material and had them receded a bit. They would look like a tall Heresys.

Mild thread drift: I've always been curious about the concept of sand being put into various stands, especially the large ones like above. ^^^ Are you really putting loose sand in the bottom (like a child's sandbox) or are you putting in sealed bags of sand? I would think loose sand would be a nightmare when it comes to time to move the heavy stands, and a mess to clean up. I got some "premium" sandbox sand, it was completely dry, and poured it through a hole drilled into the top of the stand. Everything else is sealed so the only way it would leak out is if someone picked it up and turned it over. My main purpose was to make the base heavy enough so the heavy Forte on top wouldn't knock over easily. Don't want the kids getting squished. They actually slide on my wood floors pretty easily if I need to work on positioning.

I built risers from some scraps I had lying around for my forte 2s. Didn't notice any lack of base. They are filled with sand and weigh close to 100lbs each I believe.

I rarely use the app actually, my wife never. I don't think it's that intuitive of an app. Not too difficult but no where near as easy as picking up the super simple remote and using it. That's why my wife loves it. Just push one button and it turns on everything that needs to be on. Then from there you have your simple navigation buttons and volume. Your wife might love it if she's more app savvy. Mine is always on her phone but other than Facebook she is pretty clueless when it comes to figuring out how to use things. The "base station" has wifi so it talks to your phone or remote, remote through RF I believe. From there it blast out infrared or bluetooth to your other devices. There is also a wired infrared module that you can stick inside a cabinet if your gear is hidden away. I have no trouble using just the base station and the IR hitting all my stuff through glass cabinet doors. It's also always nice to not have to point the remote anywhere.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L5H1IQM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage This is the only remote I have ever liked. Works wonders and is super simple. My wife loves how easy it is to use. There's an app for more advanced settings. The remote itself is RF and talks to an IR blaster. It also has bluetooth so it will work with a PS3 or Amazon Fire Stick. We love it! Only complaint is no backlight. Unless you are using the app of course.

Out of curiosity, did we ever determine that the white spot was the positive side?

Unscrew the terminal cup. They are mounted to it.

Which Onk AVR do you have? Mine is an Onk 717 (2012-13 model) and it sounds great with my CF-4's, but the CF-4 does not respond as nicely to the tube amps like the Heritage speakers do. TX-NR609 Sounds fine for HT just not as good for 2ch. The HK 430 has more of a live presence to it. It seems faster, tighter, more detailed, punchier, etc. I'd love to try some tubes someday when money permits it.

I'm not sure if Harsh is the right word but I do find that mine can be fatiguing depending on the type of music and level of volume. Even if I'm listening to my remastered from the source top notch Analog Productions Norah Jones vinyl album. If she hits some high notes, the Forte II's will grate on your ears a bit. They are at their worst when playing any type of 90's alternative, ei. Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. I'm sure the recordings weren't all that good but I have a feeling it's more than that. I'm guessing mostly my room. It is a shame you have to go through so much to get a speaker to sound great. And they do sound great under the right circumstances, but it seems like you pretty much have to have a dedicated listening room with all the fixens to get everything you want to listen to to sound great. Most of us don't have that luxury. I mostly keep to the acoustic and less heavy music when I'm really trying to enjoy them. Hoping with some more tweaking, someday, they will sound great with everything. I've never really tried any amps other than my refurbished HK 430 and Onkyo AVR. The HK 430 blows the Onkyo away I have to say. I have found that toeing them in in front of my listening position helps to tame them. It also helps if they are only toed in slightly, almost straight forward. They sound better in front of the LP though. Pointing them right at your ears, or close, is the harshest. I've also raised them 13 inches on some custom built stands to get the midrange more at ear level. That has helped. Edit: I also have Crites new crossovers as well as titanium tweeter upgrades.

The 430 was rebuilt by a forum member here so it's about as good as it gets. Foam method makes sense now thanks.

I never get the volume past 10:00. I guess it's possible, my HK430 only has like 25 watts. It could be the room, etc, playing a roll. I've been interested in trying other amps but don't have the funds now. Thanks for the nice comments on the stands!