Hello everyone, I'm a new Forte II owner and I'm having some problems. I bought the speakers on eBay, and they showed up in great shape. I hadn't gotten my new amp yet, so I temporarily hooked them up to my Pioneer home theater amp. The mids and highs were great, but the bass was very weak. I decided to wait until my new amp showed up today and give it another try. The amp I bought is a Trends Audio TA-10.1, which is Tripath based. It only does 6 watts per channel (at mid volume, with low distortion), but I figured that would be plenty with speakers this sensitive. Still though, they were very lacking in bass.
I called my Klipsch loving friend who had recommended these speakers to me, and he was baffled. He suggested that there might be a problem with the x-overs, and it might be a good idea to rebuild them. I pulled the radiator off after that and took a look inside. Everything looked great, but I suppose that doesn't mean there isn't a problem with the crossovers. I tried disconnecting the horn and tweeter and just running the woofer. Still not very loud, although if I cranked the amp all the way up (10 watts per channel) it started to sound better. On a whim I connected the amp directly to the woofer, bypassing the crossover. It played full range fine, but it wasn't any louder. That makes me think the problem isn't in the crossover.
The woofer sounds fine, it's just not very loud. I can push it in and out without any scratching sounds or rough feel, so I assume the voice coil is ok. Also, if I push it in the radiator moves out, so I assume the cabinet is leak free. I called my friend again and all he could think of is that they needed more power. He had originally recommended an Adcom GFA-535, but I wanted to try a digital amp since I'm a big techie. I don't know anyone locally with a nice amp to try, so I'll have to buy another amp to test the "more power" theory. Anyone have any ideas? Is there something wrong with my Forte's or do they just need more juice?