Roc Rinaldi

Dr. mas, I work at Johns Hopkins. Isn't everybody a Doctor? Dr. HSU; Dr. Klipsch; Dr. Bose; Doctor Doctor.....oh wait that's a song.

speakerfritz is that a McIntosh in your picture?

EAR, I trust your judgement so I hope I don't get burned. Partly based on your recommentation I bought an f113 last Saturday instead of a Dr. HSU. It cost more, but what the heck. I can't play it yet because I do not have a line level feed from my stereo amp. Not to worry, I'm not crazy (not too crazy, anyhow). I have an eight channel A/V controller on order with a line level LFE. This is the first time I have ever bought equipment, taken it home, and not been able to use it. How strange. Well at least it looks beautiful. High gloss piano black. It requires auto polish to keep it shining and I have lots of that. Now if only I could hear it play. If not, it's still a nice end table. ......................................see EAR, some of us are listening to you. YOU BETTER BE RIGHT !!!

wait a minute..............there's something wrong here. Janet is not that big. How do I get the picture to view in normal size? Help.

It works. Now I'm in business. Keep checking this thread for Roc pictures. ....and thanks so much jamesV. ....Yes that is my wife Janet, having lunch with me in the Seattle Space Needle, October, 2006.

I'll try it.

Yes, every wife is different and yet they are all the same.

60 .....an age you will hate when you get to it. Did I say 60? I meant 160.

dtel, Do you know if forte IIs in oiled walnut and in oiled oak both have the exact same color grills? Of course I want all of my grills to match.

dtel how do I put a picture in a reply to you on this thread? I don't know how to do it. My pictures are in the Kodak software on my computer.

60 .....an age you will hate when you get to it.

OK remdog, I'm interested. Can you please send me lots of pictures of the speakers? Send them to rrinaldi@jhsph.edu How close are you to sandwich mass? What an odd name for a town. It's making me hungry. The auction in sandwich doesn't end until Sunday so it looks like I would be coming up there on Sat. 2/17 at the earliest. What have you been powering the forte IIs with? How many watts per channel? Can you rate the speakers on a scale of 1 to 10 for: 1. Cabinet condition? 2. Grill condition? 3. Sound and speaker condition? remdog, why oh why, are you willing to sell your forte IIs? I'm sure that you realize that it is a great speaker. Do you have a price in mind? Would you take a trade for my wife? Just kidding I think.

I'm not most people. My guess is that I will set all of the speakers to LARGE and send the low signals to the sub also.

Bill, it is a mighty fine speaker. Sounds great and I haven't blown a driver yet since I bought a pair of them in 1990. If Led Zep, AC/DC & The Stones haven't fried them in over 16 years of use (105db at my ears), nothing will. And they look good to boot.

dtel, I'm on it like mosquitos on a swamp !!! My new amp. is due in this week so the pressure is really on. I am willing to compromise on the walnut. I'm guessing oak stained dark will be close enough to walnut, given your comparison of f IIs & c IIIs. TOP PRIORITY is SOUND, second priority is looks, third priority is cost. (who am I kidding, cost doesn't matter very much at this point.) Sandwich Mass. is 8 hours away....a two day trip with an overnight...........but what the hell, I got nothing better to do and anything worth getting is worth working hard for. BTW, what is the status of the Alabama f IIs? Do you know if they are still available? The way I figure it, get something close in f IIs, later, if I then find exactly what I want, I'll just buy it and sell the oaks. I'm getting old so time is running out. What good is it to wait for the perfect match but be on my death bed at the time. I don't think I am allowed to take the forte IIs with me when I go. Although my wife has threatened to bury all of my gear with me. I'll let you know where the burial plot is so that ..........one dark night.......................when nobody is looking........you and Chrissy can make a night visit ...............for a scavenger hunt. Please continue to keep me in mind since I now have a vision of a total of 7 forte IIs to go along with the new JL Audio f113 sub I picked up last Saturday. The adrenalin is building now. I will send pictures to the forum members when I am done. ( I meant equipment pictures, not me & wifey pictures)

Thanks pop, your comments are helpful. But there must have been enough justification for Klipsch to produce the forte II or else why did they change from forte I? I heard that the forte IIs produce more bass with the change to a 15" passive woof and that their mid-range horn changed from plastic to metal. Mike Colter described the horn change by talking about how smoothly a bubble would flow out of it. (this part was hard to follow) Have you had any opportunity to do an A/B comparision with both the I & II side by side? If not, how does one actually make the comparison withour listening to both? I currently have two forte IIs so I am having trouble with wanting to accept Is. I can wait weeks or God forbid, months hoping for excellent IIs to go up for sale. I know it is a gamble to pass up really good Is while waiting for IIs. But with my luck I can almost guarantee that as soon as i buy Is then the IIs that i have been looking for will show up. BTW, this part of building my system is very, very stressful and is aging me quickly.

Thank you RichardP, you make some good points but I am struggling with the choices. My luck of course is that what I want shows up right after I compromise and get the Forte Is. I'm pretty sure that these will be my last set of speakers so I hate to give up on the Forte IIs but you may be correct about the slim chances. BTW, did you notice that one of the passive woofers is damaged in KY? What to do. What to do.

I'm not familiar with Jubilees, sorry.

Thank you for responding Spongeworthy. Right now I am holding out for Forte IIs in walnut. I know it is a long shot that I could find 5 or 6 of these but, I would hate to compromise quickly only to find what I truly want after I buy.

I am seriously searching for 5 Forte IIs, oiled walnut preferably, in mint condition. I will buy three pairs if necessary. I have two Forte IIs and want to add 5 for a 7.2 set up. They need to be within 350 - 400 miles of Baltimore, Maryland so that I can drive to see them, hear them and buy them. (...see me..hear me...feel me. Oh, that's something else, sorry) I am desperate to find the Forte IIs and will pay fair and reasonable prices for them. Please forum members help me find these speakers and end my search before my wife balks at my plan. Roc Rinaldi rrinaldi@jhsph.edu 410-256-8590

Everythnig has been thought of ... the problem is to think of it again. - GOETHE ( I'll bet you didn't already post this one. )

There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the way something looks...or heck, enjoying anything for any reason. However, when making comments about sound quality all the other attributes don't matter at all. And for the record, I go by my ears and good measurements (and to date the both coincide very well). I most certainly don't go by looks (as is evident by all my unfinished subs in my living room) and I don't go by predictions either (though I might use predictions for skepticism). Dr. Klipsch says "If it sounds good but measures bad, you are measuring the wrong thing."

Seriously, what would pro sound guys know about SPL anyway...??? [] Stupid Osha [*-)][] Btw, would you happen to have any articles that talk about the 'damage' of LF energy? I'm doing a presentation for Engineering Open House this spring where we'll be doing demonstrations on low frequency and small room acoustics. Apparently we have to keep things under 90dB, but I'm hoping that's "A-Weighted" so we can blast the subs up to about 140dB at 30Hz just to show the huge impact of modes [] But it would be nice to have some information to present so they can make an informed decision. I might need to make the analogy that wind is pretty much a 1Hz signal playing at very very large amplitudes (would 150dB on a very windy day be too high of a prediction?) DrWho are you aware of this? http://www.roger-russell.com/hearing/hearing.htm

Thank you so much Raider. I didn't realize that some dealers would give deep discounts. I found one on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I'm getting the JL Audio f113 for $2,200 including tax. Did you hear that EAR and mas, I'm getting a JL sub!!! Hooray!!! (..with apologies to Dr. HSU ) We are meeting tomorrow at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to consume the deal. The box weights 170 lbs. I guess I won't need my Velodyne anymore. Putting it up for sale very soon. BTW JL is raising their prices March 1. Once my 7.1 system is complete (if it ever actually is) I will share pictures with the forum members.

The JL Audio fathom f112 is $2600 - $2700. Wow. After reading several articles it looks like the recommended sub placement for two subs in mid-wall on opposite sides. So now maybe Dr. HSU on one mid-wall and my Velodyne on the opposite mid-wall. These two subs are not that similar so I'm not sure what problems I may introduce use two dissimilar subs, but it's worth a try. Oh God, maybe I should just get two f113s, sell the Velodyne and be done with it. I have a feeling that's where I'm going to wind up eventually. May God help my marriage.