Tyson68
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Posts posted by Tyson68
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I currently have them 16in from the back wall and 8' apart.
I think I'll start with the triangle approach for initial setup, see how it
is and then adjust from there.
I know I can get the cabinets to ring if I hit them on the sides, but when I
play test tracks from Stereophile Test CD 2, I can't hear the ring or feel it.
So I'm not sure if upgrading the bracing would do anything sonically at the
65-75db listening level i use 99% of the time. Of the people that have upgraded
the bracing for their Forte 2's, what was immediately noticed?
The Ti upgrade for the tweeters is in the works.
I can use lead fish weights if I want to try adding weight to the
passive right? Assuming I put them on the back side.
The mid-range at ear level is an idea I want to try, just need to run the
numbers to see how high I have to get them.
No thoughts about the Fog/Smoke test? We do it all the time to check for
vacuum leaks in car engines. Guess I'll just have to check and see if what's
used for checking vacuum leaks will eat away my drivers or not.
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I moved about a year ago and basically slapped my system
together to get it working, after I got moved in I completely forgot about it
and never went back to be sure everything was the best it could be.
Well, I finally had enough of the imaging
issues with voices off center to the right, a center channel that had to be +6
db louder then the rest of the system, no soundstage at all beyond the
speakers, no bass (from forte 2’s no less), and a left speaker that seemed to
be possessed as it kept turning around slightly every few weeks.
So a couple of weekends ago I took apart my entire system
and put it back together, minding cable paths, cleaning connectors,
dusting/cleaning/de-spidering (arachnid spiders that is, daddy longlegs absolutely
LOVE the passives).
As I took it apart I found the following:
- Left
Forte 2: Riser was warped causing it to be unbalanced, negative speaker
wire nut was loose, positive wire was corroded, pushed in the passive to
check air tightness and the woofer moved but immediately went back, I’m
talking .5 of a second is all it stuck out. Thinking I cracked the box
somewhere I didn’t want to look at it anymore and moved on.
- Right
Forte 2: The terminals were loose, both wires were corroded, and the air
tightness test was about 1.5 seconds for the woofer excursion. Great,
maybe two cracked boxes.
- Center
Academy: Out of phase; wired it wrong, clunking inside box; removed the
woofers and found one bucking magnet broke off and the wires were not even
attached to it (my fault on the wires though, I removed the same woofer a
few years ago when I first heard it clunking, the bucking magnet was still
on (loose) and I couldn’t remove it, looks like I forgot to put the wires
back on).
So, after I fixed everything and got it back together and
tested, I finally got the sound I remembered before the move, but it was still
lacking bass. Based on my research here I think its time to replace the caps.
I’ve been dealing and messing with audio since the
late 70’s, I should know better. But even after 30+ years I still messed up the basics.
I did get
the Forte 2’s air tight the best I could, got the woofer to stick out 2.5
seconds. And when I tap on the passive it immediately registers on the woofer
now. My research here said 3 seconds, but I don’t know where I’m going to get that
last .5 of a second with out putting a smoke machine inside it to see where it
leaks.
Actually, the smoke/fog machine is not a bad idea, and probably
the best way to be sure the box isn’t cracked, any thoughts?
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As said above the wireless isnt built in, in my case i bought one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024G48VA
And after connecting it to my PC and setting it up in my Onkyo 708, it worked perfectly.
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Here's my Forte II's and the Academy above the tv:
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Took this one years ago, in Yellowstone. Steam devil maybe?
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----------------On 7/23/2004 5:38:57 PM Number 9 wrote:All in all, I spent perhaps $70 ... for a serious listener like myself ... worth it. But don't expect a HUGE change. Maybe one day with PIOs.----------------
Could you list the part numbers (and what kind of wiring you used to upgrade) and where you bought them?
Thanks!
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Sure is getting to be a small world.
Of the places you mentioned:
Simply Stereo- This is where I bought my Academy the year it came out. My dad bought a demo RS-3 set from there a couple of years ago.
One you didn't mention was Hi Fi Hutch, this is where I bought my Forte II's in '89.
I'll have to check out this Fry's, those places are only about 45 minutes from me.
Tyson
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I ended up using wood shims used to shim doors and windows etc, they are angled and you can use as many as you need to get the right angle, in my case I just used 2 -one on each side.
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So far i've only done the base mod and upgraded the wires from the posts to the x-over board, if you remove the terminal post box you'll see the micro-wires they used. After I saw this for the first time, it made no sense to me to use a 12 or 10 guage speaker wire from the amp, and have 18-22 guage from the binding post to the board.
If I can get the money together, I think i'll tackle the electronics part of it over Thanksgiving.
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My HT is within a foot or two of yours in both dimensions and I think it sounds great with one speaker in the back.
To test, try Spiderman during the 'goblin ethereal voice' and outside party scenes. And in X-Men, the scene where Wolverine tries to get out of the institute.
If you have or get Lord of the Rings, the combat in the caves is...well...yikes!
Also, in Aliens Extended Version, the Aliens pounding on the pressure door after the sentry guns run dry is short but creepy.
Predator DTS version also has some damn good enviroment sounds when the team is on it's way back after wiping out the base camp.
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On my system I stopped at 6 speakers and went with 1 RS3II rear channel. It was just my luck that Tweeter had one brand new in the box. My thinking was, if it's mono, why bother with 2 speakers?
My system:
Denon 3802
Forte II's front
Academy Center
RS3's for L&R Surround
RS3II for rear channel
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Back in the late '70's, there was a company called ULTRAPHASE that sold their speakers by demonstrating the time correctness by having 2 drivers playing white noise. They would start out a few inches apart and slowly pull them together until the voice coils were inline.
While the effect may not be audible in music, with white noise you can definitely hear it change tone/pitch and then sync when the voice coils are inline.
The speaker itself had a slanted design, like a THIEL speaker but midrange and tweeter were set to fire horizontal, with all voice coils inline top to bottom.
My Forte II's took their place and the ULTRAPHASE sit in a corner now, so I guess that says it all, no?
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I'm trying to help out someone in another forum:
http://www.dsmtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?s=12ad0d83100e6744eba6e1dc17c80a20&threadid=95608
I'm still dumbfounded by his remark about the RF-7's:
>RF-7's lack some midrange realism to me. I do like there dynamics alot.
I always thought that midrange realism was directly related to the source material. Use the wrong microphone and NOTHING will sound realistic, regardless of amp and speaker combo.
Even in an A/B compare, if one set of speakers has 'midrange realism' and the other doesn't, which is the correct representation of the recording? If the recording was biased against realism (and I know this before the a/b compare) then that would mean the speaker that showed 'realism' was tweaking/coloring the sound, correct?
I know that listening to speakers is subjective, and not everyone will hear the same thing from them, i'm just opening the theory box to get some logical answers/discussion on this.
When you have Forte II's that make crap recordings sound like crap and great recordings sound great you tend to get crazy with the ?'s
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myram,
That is exactly the kind of stand that I need for my home theater. Looks like a good New Year's project...
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Tyson Schettig
Forte II '89
Academy '93? not sure
kg4 '85
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You can try Visio 2000/2002 from Microsoft, or this shareware program:
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,10615,18005,00.html
MSPaint (or PhotoShop/PhotoPaint, etc.) will also let you do it, but i'd rather give a cat a bath than try it with a paint program!
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Tyson Schettig
Forte II '89
Academy '93? not sure
kg4 '85
Audio Audit reveals possibly cracked Forte 2 box...
in Technical/Restorations
Posted
I'm pretty sure i got room issues after moving the speakers around a bit.
I noticed that when i stand up in the listening position, i would rate the bass level as a 7 out of 10.
When I sit back down, the bass drops to a 3 out of 10...it just disappears.
I have a typical setup with a LCD Tv on the wall, an equipment rack under it that holds my academy and the rest of my system and the speakers on either side. The floors are wood, but i have carpet in front of the speakers all the way back to the listening position (just area rugs).
The only place i can think of starting is to remove the equipment rack and see if its blocking the bass and directing it upward.
But i think you might be right, I may not need new caps yet.