sire

I fought from purchasing that $1200 set. Of course now I wish I had. Just prior I had purchased a set of Oak Oil that were in very good shape. I have decided I want to go ahead and get a said for surrounds. Oak is the preference of course I saw yours on Audiogon but they were black and there were no pictures. The shipping would put them a little expensive for not exactly what I want. I really would like to find an Academy first but I could get another set of Forte IIs and sell my Rb5s and RS3s Mike

I once experimented using a phantom center when I first purchased my RB-5s. Just was not quite as clear in the vocals without another Rb-5 as a center. This worked great until I purchased my Fortes. Even doing the level check with my speakers you can tell a timbre difference with the Forte mains and rb-5 center. I changed my setup to a phantom center and the quality seems pretty good at the moment. The sweet spot only has room for one chair and that is mine. I am pondering now if I really need a center. Would make life easier when I get my DLP in the fall. Won't have t worry with large center speaker location. Is there anyone running their system without a center by choice. Pros, Cons?? Mike

Hmmm, I wonder how many board members are looking for an Academy? I know I am one. Though, I am listening now using a phantom center. Not bad actually Mike

Thanks for the info on manufactured in 1993 As for the sub, I am listening with the 6 channel analog outputs. Does not matter if I set the speaker settings in the player to large or small. Sounds pretty good with the Fortes actually. Now I have a problem that the receiver loses all the settings whenever there is a power flux. At least I wrote all the settings down so I do not have to run the check again. Mike

My recently purchased Forte IIs are sitting in their new home. I have moved my RB-5 IIS to rear surround duties. I am still evaluating but it is looking like I might be putting my RS-3s on the market. I am contemplating locating a second set of Fortes and using them for surrounds. Expensive contemplation though. Anyway, can anyone tell me the age of my Fortes? The back label has the following info: FII Oak Oil #19 Grill S/N 259399074 & 259399075 Thanks to a fellow board member (jerohm) my one damaged riser has been repaired. Still working out exact placement. Seems my family room is the dreaded rectangle shape and I have my setup along the short wall. From some previous readings, this seems to be a bad shape for good acoustics. I am not sure yet about my experimentation with my new Pioneer 587a player. No matter how I configure the speaker settings, it does not really use my sub. I am not sure if I need it for non-DVD movies. Mike

My current setup allows me only enough room for one receiver and one player. I am currently using my JVC DVD player for movies and cds. I have it connected via a digital coax cable to my H&K receiver. I recently purchased some Forte IIs and honestly at the moment I think the RB -5s sounded better. I have read that the older speakers are sensitive to a good or bad source. I am wondering if I should try another player. Not ready to swap receivers yet. I have been thinking abuot saving my $$ for a Sunfire Receiver but that is far off. Thanks Mike

I will try setting it back to 60HZ. Since these are large speakers I thought I should set the speakers to large. If I set them to small and my xover setting would be 80HZ, what advantage does that give me? I was doing that with my bookshelf speakers and it sounded fine. I thought with larger speakers I should change the settings to match. Mike

Just purchased some Forte IIs. I have H&K AVR 520. If I set the main speakers to Large the choices on the receiver is 40hz or 60hz. If I look at the specs on the speaker it is good down to 32HZ. Appears I should set it to 40 since the speakers go that low. Is this logical thinking? The sub rattles the room alot harder set to 60. I am using a Sunfire True Architectural Sub (no passive radiator) Mike

I don't normally get involved in political or religious conversation as they tend to get heated quickly. I will say this. I do take offense to Hollywood attempting to control the outcome of the election. I doubt if anyone in Hollywood has a clue what the real America is like or what it is like to dedicate your life for your country. But this is America and we defend the right for opposing opinions to be spoken. I served for 20 years. I understood completely what I signed up for. Families and military need to understand up front prior to enlisting. They are committing to putting their life on the line for the defense of their country. It isn't sign up to get college money, have a steady job to make a few $$$, etc. I personally would rather fight abroad then have my family at risk fighting in the streets of America. I mean, just recall the Towers falling. I will never forget and I will never forgive. Typically other countries count on Americans having short term memories. I am hoping no one forgets the horror of 9/11 I apologize in advance if I got on my soapbox. I am done. Mike

I had not updated the profile yet. Thanks for reminding me. I am now the proud owner of a pair of Oak Forte IIs. I have been lurking for awhile and never could find a pair close. I ended up purchasing off Ebay and praying to the shipping god. They are in the house and only one riser was a casualty. And thanks to a board member is will be repaired once I get the parts. Mike

Hi folks Looking for an Academy to round out my home theater. Preference is Oak Oil but most important is functional and in excellent shape. I am not expecting to find the deal of the century. I am expecting to pay fair market price for one in excellent shape. If anyone has any leads, please let me know. Mike

Outstanding thanks. PM is there. I really think it is great members of the board actually have no problem assisting strangers. Restores my faith into mankind. I do believe if you try to live and do the best you can and not take advantage of people or situations that things will come around for you in the end. Thanks again. If you need any assistance in the future do not be afraid to ask. Mike

Proud new owner of a pair of Oak oil Forte IIs. Any problem if I use Scotts Liquid Gold (with rich organic oils) on them? I have this laying around the house and would like to get something on them real soon. The speakers appear to be in excellent condition with one riser as a shipping casualty. Any one know where I can get a line on the riser plastic supports/attachment brackets? Does someone have a spare riser they do not need? I am hoping my H&K receiver will work with these speakers until I can upgrade. Heck, I still have a working Pioneer sx-950 receiver laying around the house. I guess I have a hard time throwing away stuff when it still works and I paid a few dollars to purchase it. Thanks Mike

After a couple of bad experiences on ebay I had decided to save my dollars for a reference upgrade of my mains to rf-5 or rf-7s. Figured you could not beat brand new but of course there is no longer any Klipsch dealers in town. I ended up working some overtime which gave me some extra $$$ and instead of applying it to bills, I decided what the heck and surfed ebay. I first heard Klipsch Heritage in the 70s and I was impressed. Do not have space to go Heritage large but I could go the reference floor standers or maybe a pair of fortes. A pair of Forte IIs were up for auction advertised excellent condition with factory boxes. I couldn't afford new reference but the Fortes were in the ball park. I am the new owner of a couple of Forte IIs Oak Oil. The rs3s have been moved to the closet, the rb5s have been moved to the back and I still have a rb5 as center. I am thinking I will have to join the search for the elusive Academy. I have no doubt I paid too much but they were supposely in excellent shape. I had the OT $$$ dollars and an opportunity so I went for it. Now I had to sweat the UPS delivery. I thought I was going to have another bad ebay experience as the seller did not ship for a week with no communication. I thought I was shafted again. They arrived yesterday. I did not see any large crunches or dents in the boxes but when I moved them indoors I could hear loose stuff sliding around in one of the boxes. I opened one box and was glad to see the corner styrofoam corners on the speakers. I pulled one speaker out and inital inspection did not reveal any gouges, large scratches, or dents. Wow! Now for the next one. I opened it up and identifed the casualty. The riser was in 4 pieces, 3 out of 4 plastic corner supports/attachments were broken. The speaker itself looked just as good as the other one. I have no doubt the factory corner blocks protected the speaker. Of course Klipsch does not sell these plastic brackets. Anyone out there have spare plastic supports or a spare riser for sale? I am thinking about taking it to a furniture/cabinet maker to see if they can repair the riser or even better. I am thinking they can duplicate the risers but I want them to be 12 inches tall. They did sound better when I sat on the floor. I am going through placement issues but I do not have alot of choice. I have about 7.5 feet between the speakers against a flat wall and the limit from the wall is about 16 inches. I have lost the wall space for my sunfire architectural sub. The speakers are at 13 inches now from the wall. I am thinking increasing the height will make the biggest difference in sound at the moment. I am hoping the rb5s will work out for surrounds. Placement is better than rs3s. I know I am babbling but I have wanted to own a set of the older speakers for a long time. I figure I can sell these speakers if they do not have exactly the sound I am looking for. Time will tell. Mike

I would like to thank all the board members for their support. I definitely have moved on will not let this episode take any more of my time or attention. Thank you for the tip on http://www.audiogon.com. I would not take anything from this guy if he was giving it away. I do feel better since I have been able to "share" here. To end this thread I will display the last communciations I had with the "experienced E-bayer" Thank again to everyone. I do see another pair of Fortes on Ebay at the moment. Mike After I cooled off some I was curious what exactly set him off so I responded and asked him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------His Most folks who ask for shipping totals (especially when the listing indicates 'actual' costs), either have very little eBay experience (which ALWAYS leads to mis-communications and bad comments left for fellow eBayers), or hasn't read the description completely (which ALWAYS leads to misunderstandings and bad comments left for fellow eBayers). In either case, you would be ahead of the game if you simply chalked this up as a valuable lesson learned for your future on eBay (and it IS valuable!), and moved on. As to your 'bad' transaction: Did you know that you can get Phone Numbers, Locations, etc., from eBay just by clicking on the 'contact' info on the auction site?? Did you know that it is VERY easy to have someone arrested and put in jail for Internet Fraud? We've done it three times already and plan on doing it many more times to eliminate the 'crooks' on the internet! We are in our 50's, run a successful brick-and-mortar store, and are successful on eBay and other sites. We have NO tolerance for frauds, thieves, pranksters, or malcontents. And, we do everything legally within our powers to stop them (which is a LOT!). BUT.....the buyer has SOME clearly defined responsibility to be cautious and thoroughly investigate a seller---ALL the tools are right there on eBay and the net. Mis-informed buyers are just as dangerous to the reputations of decent folks as are the frauds. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine Well, I am almost in my 50's and unfortunately was too trusting with my last transaction. The seller had reasonably good communication up to the point when he promised to refund. The item was nonfunctional and was advertised as "new in the box". Shipping back and forth took around 10 days. I gave him a chance to respond which took me out of the 30 day transaction window with paypal. I was too trusting I guess and did not want to file a complaint to make him look bad and give him a chance to follow through on his promise. As i said previously, neither Ebay or Paypal was helpful. Was a very frustrating day yesterday. That was my first purchase of a significant $$$ amount. I always pay promptly when an auction closes. I try to establish communication with the seller immediately. A person's reputation is valuable. If you do not have nothing else, at least you sleep well knowing you always try to do the right thing. I try to live by "treat people as you would like to be treated" I retired from the military after 20 years and did not apply for disabled veteran status. They were highly encouraging it so you can get some benefits with VA hospital, certain job preferences, etc. I probably could have qualified as being around jet aircraft for 20 hears, I had some high frequency hearing loss. I did not apply for it as it did not feel right with me personaly to claim to be a disabled veteran for such a small thing. Just because you can does not always mean you should. Maybe we both were a little short fused there. I saw your posting that stated actual fully insured ground shipping charges. I read the description. That is why I was interested. I just wanted an estimate so I could factor that in to what my top bid was going to be. I did not think that was unreasonable. Good luck with your auction and business. I do not think I would want to have to work with the public on a daily basis. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- His - The experience is over As things have 'cooled down', we would still offer this reasoning behind Not giving a shipping estimate (when provided with a zip code, we don't give 'estimates', we give EXACT costs). Because of their size, and the two Large & Heavy Boxes, shipping to, say, New York City would be about $14. per box, while shipping to Los Angeles would be About $73 per box-------quite a difference!!!

I did reply to his email of course. Not the one in my mind when I first read his email. I had to fight an emotional response and probably gave it more of my time than it was worth. Below is my reply to his email and his reply to mine. I did weaken a little. I guess I will never be a huge success in this world as I try to live by "treat people like you would like to be treated" For a positve note I am glad he showed his true colors at the start so I do not have to go through another "Ebay experience". My world will not fall apart if I do not find a pair of Fortes right away. Mike --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mine I am located in Florida. I thought my emails have been courteous. I do not make a living off of Ebay. If I see something that interest me and I can afford it, I will bid on it. As for Ebay experience. I recently purchased a auto radio/cd player off of Ebay. The cd changer was non functional. The seller said he would refund my $$$ after I sent it back to him. His feedback was good. I sent it back to him and have not heard anything since. My mistake for trusting positive feedback information.So far I am out of $320. Paypal could not do anything, Ebay has been silent, I am having to go through my credit card company for a charge back. So if I look at your barely viewable pictures and do not see the risers, what harm is in asking a question? Your attitude sucks! Most people would encourage questions from the buyers so there are no problems later. I read your feedback. Read the previously sellers one also. Did not do any good. But do not worry, I will not ever do business with you. Not that it will do anything but I might forward your "friendly" emails to Ebay. Maybe I will post your friendly email on a few forums also. I can't believe your unprofessional attitude --------------------------------------------------------------------------- His Actually, we ENCOURAGE you to send them to eBay! And, we ENCORUAGE you to post to forums! However, as you apparently haven't read much else of eBay's rules & regulations, there IS one bit of advice they give: Be VERY careful about what you write when it will be read by the public! eBay, as you probably do not know, since you seem to know so little about anything, is NOT a democracy---it IS a business venue. As such, they make 100% of their revenues from sellers, and exactly '0' from buyers. Consequently, they support sellers with various tools---'Blocked Bidder' lists (yes, you're on ours!), 'Contact' information, and so on. It is ridiculous folks like you who give eBay a bad name! You DO NOT know how to READ----and you don't read EVERYTHING in a listing, which you should do without hesitation! And as to your original question about shipping: Do you think that by not sending your zip code you will somehow remain anonymous? Wrong! Do you think 960 eBayers are wrong about us???? Look to yourself----that's where the problem lies! --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I recently inquired to a seller on Ebay about a set of speakers he was selling. I would like the board members opinions on whether I was out of line or not. I am not a big E-bayer but that seems to be the only place to look for the older style speakers. My inquiry was could the seller give me a rough estimate of shipping cost and with a followup email I asked if the risers were with the speakers as in the pictures they did not appear to be with the speakers. I admit I failed to give my zip code as I was in a hurry but was expecting a range depending on location. His response is below. His response initially fired me up. I am still going through a bad experience on E-bay with a seller refusing to refund my purchase and I have already sent back the product to him. Anyway comments or constructive criticism is welcomed. Mike --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello. We never received your location---for the purposes of shipping costs. Additionally, we note that you have little eBay experience. Do you know what 'feedback' is? Did you READ OUR FEEDBACK COMMENTS? Do you think we'd sell these without the risers and not say so?????? We need a response from you or, unfortunately, we are not interested in having you bid on our items! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Been thinking about purchasing Fortes as I have not been real impressed with my rb5 IIs. Rf-7s are a little pricey and RF-5s you cannot find or are still a little pricey also. What are the pros or cons over one or another of the above Fortes? I recall when I was in England many moons ago I was impressed hearing a large set of Klipsch speakers and that experience turned me on to Klipsch. I think they were LaScala or Belles. The comparison was Bose 901s to the Klipsch. No comparison of course. So I am thinking I might prefer the older speakers instead of the newer ones. I do not have room for the large profile speakers but Fortes would probably be ok. So is there really any significant difference in the forte models above? I know it will be more difficult to use them for home theater. No room for any type of standing surround speakers either. I wonder if some type of ceiling speaker would be "ok" using Fortes. Anyone have a setup like that? I do have a sunfire architectural sub that seems to be enough for my room. Door frames and walls vibrate, Fireplace doors rattle, etc. Mike

I really do not have room on the sides for any direct speakers. The only place I have been able to put the surrounds is on the back wall. I have been contemplating just buying some reference ceiling speakers and using them instead of placing the large boxes on the back wall. The system sounds ok, not much better than ok. I have no room for any of the heritage across the front as I intend on buying a big screen Samsung around spring of next year. That leaves not alot of room on the side. So far I have not been impressed by the multichannel music but I am sure my surround placement has alot to do with that. I have looking for a system that can do both surround and stereo music, and not break the bank I had thought about one of these years purchasing the Sunfire Ultimate Receiver but I am thinking the speakers should come first. I am not sure the RB-5 route is what I want. I was thinking some type of tower speaker would improve my system to some extent. Decent in stereo and 5.1 multi I did listen to some rf-7 at the store once, I did not do any type of real test. They sounded nice, but at least with the music playing they did not make me go "wow" I was thinking maybe some 3 way fortes might help. Maybe I don't know what I want. Mike

Getting the upgrade bug. Currently have rb5s across the front with sunfire architectural sub and rs-3 surrounds. Wanting to improve quality and been looking at rf-5 but have been toying with changing complete system and going with forte II for mains. From experience I seem to prefer stereo instead of the multichannel for music. Could be because I do not have optimum placement for the surrounds. I am limited in available space so the "big boys" are not an option. I do recall what got me interested in Klipsch is hearing some big speakers when I was in England about 25 years ago. I am thinking the older speakers are what I am looking for. I understand I would have to completely start over for a 5.1 system. I cannot have two separate systems. I do not have room for direct radiating surrounds. If I got lucky and found some fortes and even luckier and found an academy, what could I do for surrounds? Any chance ceiling rc5s work good enough since they are for ambient sounds anyway? Opinions and your experiences are welcome. Thanks Mike

Does this mean I should hang on to my SX-950? The unit has moved with me from Air Force base to Air Force Base over my career. Got it around 1976. Finally decided to get something else this last summer because I wanted to play with home theater. Guess I do hang onto things for quite a length of time. Maybe I should hang onto it and get some some RF-5s or something and put the rb5s in the bedroom. Mike

Thanks Moon I am using rb5-IIs across the front and rs-3s across the back. If you leave them at large the xover is 60/40. I have left everything at large for the moment. Not sure if that is correct for the surrounds or the small bookshelfs. all of the seem to go down to 60 so I left them all set at large and set the xover at 60. The DTS levels I had to raise 3 db above the dolby settings to keep the spl even. I put the sunfire cube in a corner up front behind the LF speaker. I am happy to say I am not going to have to find the rattles and quiet them.

Hi I have read in different places there were some unique configurations to get LFE to work correctly with an HK avr 520. Do you recall what your settings were? I want to set a baseline and then adjust from there for my taste. Also, is it the boards consensus to set all speakers to large and set the crossover to 60 or ???. I have tried it setting speakers large and small and have not heard much difference. Mike

I only had one night to test it and did not have enough time to fully test the sunfire model. Looks like it is the architectural model of the Mark IV (single driver). I did not have it in a corner and did not test placement as I did not have long enough rca cable to do this. I did call the owner of the store and asked him if there was any room to negotiate on the price since it was a 3 year old demo. I was pleasantly suprised as he quoted me $839 + tax. This was inline with some of the going prices I have seen on ebay and there is no shipping and it will have the manufacturers 2 year warranty. I could not pass it up as the size gives me more flexibility on placement. Looks like a moving a subwoofer around the room is on my weekend schedule. I am very happy to say this completes the audio portion of my theater. (at least for now). On the horizon is a Samsung DLP television unless something better comes out. Thanks Ear and Indy for your advice and comments. Now if I can just keep from going into Sound Advice and looking at the rsw-12 for $689 Mike

I placed the sub within 1 foot of my TV with no discoloration on the picture tube. The best price they could give for the sub was $999. I was hoping for a little more discount since it was 3 years old. Though I am not sure if that was the best thing to do since it would be under full warranty for 2 years from date of purchase. I went back and forth on whether this purchase would have been a compromise and I should just hold out for a signature architectural model. Also, the klipsch rsw-12 cost is around $689 but a much larger footprint. Decisions, decisions. I keep thinking the more flexibility in placement is driving more towards the sunfire cubes. Whatever I decide to purchase will probably be the one I keep for many many years. Took me 25+ years just to upgrade my receiver so I could have a home theater. I did try out the Moria chapter from LOTR and the sub definitely added to the movie but I did not feel the effects like some people describe in this forum. My wife was happy that you could only feel the bass in the family room and not in other rooms adjacent. Does this mean the subwoofer was inadequate or was I expecting too much? Mike