Paul Folbrecht

I was joking.. I am sure PWK never said any such thing.. in fact didn't he pass before the Forte came to be??

A Korneff 45 - you have good taste! But your Fortes are better than your K-horns. Even PWK preferred the Forte to the K-horn and stated so in public at least 1,000 times.

First of all I have to say I am completely amazed by these speakers. Mine are stock save Crites xovers (which did indeed transform them). I'll be damned if I don't think they're better than K-horns. Flame away. Do the K-horns have a tractrix mid horn? The fortes seem to have less harshness (almost none) and the bass is much tighter. Admittedly I had the K-horns almost a year ago and had only one good corner - I know that means I did not get the bass performance I should have. Anyway that is not really here nor there. These things are great, not just for the money but in absolute terms, and I've owned numerous speakers in the $5-$10K range. Current system is an Audio Note DAC 3.1 (built by me), custom-built JE Labs full-function pre, and First Watt F3 (a 15W single-ended transistor amp). I will soon have a JE Labs 45 SET amp as well. I'm wondering how well the 45 will drive them. (Well, the guy building my amp uses Fortes so I know it does a decent job at least.) Are there a lot of people happy with 45/2A3 SE amps with Fortes? I know there are a lot of you using these speakers with various push-pull transistor amps with moderate-high feedback.. I'm sure it can sound good but you don't know what you're missing.

I've owned K-horns. Upgraded xovers and mid drivers (Altec). Now have a set of 19s. The 19s are far superior in the most important areas - mainly they sound better-balanced and the mids are almost entirely free of any hardness or glare. That was not the case with the K-horns using 45 SET amps. Admittedly I only had one good corner and so did not get the full impact of what k-horn bass can do. I would wager it is superior in some ways. OTOH, the path delay of the long bass horn could be audible. To those who cannot live with any horn shout the Altec Model 19 is viable. I don't think the K-horn is without completely replacing the midrange.

I did pull the woofer and the magnet is not broken off. But the cone will not move. Weird, eh??

I paid $400 for the speakers + $190 for packing & shipping. They are 1990s and are in fair condition other than the shipping damage (both have some corner damage). I am asking for $200 back from the seller. He's out of the country at the moment.

Here's a K-23 from a Forte: http://cgi.ebay.com/Klipsch-K-23-K-woofer-Forte-speakers-/190418060264?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item2c55cd03e8 I guess that won't work in a Forte II?

It seems Mr. Crites does not have Forte II woofers listed. I've mailed him - but is there another source? I could demand return on the speakers or I could fix them.

AHA - the damaged speaker's woofer is dead! It will not move at all - I have never seen a driver in this state like this. I removed it and the cone has no give whatsoever from either direction. The other is fine. Problem solved! Thanks to all of you. My amp is a First Watt F3 - a single-ended class A transistor amp that is quite amazing.

Right. I would really hope that wouldn't be an issue but who knows. So basically you guys are all saying that the Forte II should be solid down to the low 30s? If so then yes I am a long way away from that. A complication is that if a UPS claim is filed they will take the speakers. My room is around 25x25 with a sloping 8-15' ceiling. Big.

You guys are right - I need to look inside and see if something was damaged. However, it's not liket there's NO BASS (sorry if I said that). There is decent bass to 50 hz or so. Since the woofer crosses at something like 650 cycles, if the woofer magnet was sheared or the crossover inductor shorted/broken the speaker would have NO BASS, and NO LOWER MIDRANGE either! It would be completely unlistenable. They're not like that. But I should probably open them up and check. The seller is thus far ignoring my emails about the damage due to his very poor packing. There was one layer of bubble between the bottom of the speaker (base) and the box!

I said the "BASE" was destroyed - the stand - this has nothing to do with the problem. Yes, I know that 6" is too close, but that would serve to increase bass output. I can't believe it's a problem with the speaker since it would have to be both of them. I think my expectations were just too high. I see that many people do use a sub or subs with Fortes so they like do have little output below 40 or even 50 Hz. A factor is that my room is *very* large. Open-concept house.

I picked up a pair of '90 Forte IIs. In Ok shape save that the base on one was destroyed due to bad packing. On the one hand these speakers are very impressive. In the last five years I've owned over 20 speakers many over the $10K point. These speakers are remarkable clear and coherent in the midrange and treble. However, and this is surprising, the bass is quite poor. It sounds as if they have little energy below 50 Hz. I also have a pair of Fostex backhorns using the 4.5" driver which are solid to 40-45 Hz - these have subjectively "more" bass than the Fortes. Is this normal? The speakers are only 6" from the front wall, firing straight ahead. I have not tried corners yet but I know it isn't going to make a huge difference. As they stand, for rock at least, a would be required.

Put in a pair of new Crites A crossovers today. Are the totally stock Klipsch AA networks, complete with their 29 year-old capacitors, worth anything, or should I just toss them? Same question with the K33 woofers I replaced with new Crites woofers - except in that case I'm sure the answer is YES as they are Alnico and in perfect shape.

Thank you for your confidence.

Mike, They are not bad overall - no major dings. Some edges coming up. It sounds to me like filling & putting maple veneer over the walnut is the way to go. Not an easy job for me by any means but even if I F it up good they'll still look Ok from the listening seat. I still can't get over how good they sound bone-stock. I don't know if it's the year or what but they are perfectly balanced and very revealing.

Tom, By re-veneering do you mean putting new veneer over the old or stripping the old? I have to believe that old veneer could be scraped off much faster than sanded. There are definite edge chips, etc. And peeling veneer. My woodworking experience is limited but I'm competent, have tools, and would practice! Oh, and I did briefly look into building new cabs and apparently the precision required makes it a near-impossible task for even an experienced amatuer - that is out!

Hi, The thing is I don't much care for the walnut finish anyway - would like a light wood or even black better. Walnut just doesn't go with our decor. A friend who is an experienced woodworker said the only way to get the veneer off is to sand - clearly next to impossible (incredibly time-consuming). Maybe I am better off building new cabinets from scratch.

I'm the new owner of a decent pair of '80 horns in the oiled walnut finish. The sound is good bone-stock - amazingingly good, even with the ancient caps in the xover! - but the finish not the best. Am I crazy to consider stripping that veneer and re-finishing them in (say) maple veneer? A search of the archives did not turn up much on this.

Hi guys, Some thoughts: 1) I just installed the Crites A/4500 xover, tweeters, and Alnico mid drivers. First impression is better clarity but they sound quite hot. I'm hoping this will be reduced with break-in (after all, these components are all brand new!) 2) I have never met a speaker that did not benefit from spiking. The theory is to tightly couple the cabinet to the floor to rapidly drain vibrations. Whether or not it works with La Scalas - which are indeed quite different than any other speaker I've tried it with - I don't know. 3) I will try putting them in the corners and toe-ing in to face me. This means my TBI subs can't go in the corners, though (I haven't tried them yet with the La Scalas). 4) Bracing: I have read the deal is to double-up the birch (another 3/4") on the sides. I'm wonderif if that's usually done on the outside of the cab or the inside (of the bass cab only). Anyway, part of the reason they don't disappear is that the cabinet *does* resonate. I don't care too much about that though. (I care about tight & clear bass, but not imaging.) 5) I can't read other posts while this Reply window is up so I forgot what else I was going to say.

Me too. I've seen two darn-near medical miracles; anything can happen, especially when there's prayer and the right attitude.

There are now some big - and I mean big - black boxes gracing our living room. Especially for the $1200 I paid for them - just yesterday - wow. My first pair of Klipsch speakers. I have been very seriously into the audio game for about five years now (into it all my life to some extent) and have owned more than a dozen speakers in that time, some nearly $20K retail. But I have never explored front horns. I knew, of course, that with anything but front-horns I was missing real dynamic impact. And I was, and now that I have that, and stunning microdynamics as well, I think I might be sold on front horns, even sub-par ones. Of course they draw attention to themselves with a cabinet that resonates and they are too big to disappear. That's Ok; audiophile tricks have not impressed me in some time. What they do, they do very well, and those are some of the most musically important things. They are a late 80s pair with what is supposed to be the worst crossover, the AL. But they have surprised me by NOT sounding edgy or shouty at all - I was expecting them to. (Because some say they are - but I am feeding them a very good diet, unlike some.) I already have new Crites xovers and tweeters - the highest bang/buck mods - on the way. Oh, and new Alnico midrange drivers. Their one *real* problem is that reverberant cabinet. It really draws attention. I have searched the archives and found some information on bracing, but I wanted to check if anybody has any tricks that I may not have found. I also plan to spike the cabs. Those rounded metal knobs can't be good on my plush carpet. No energy transfer.