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stringless

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  1. I'm not getting rid of my fortes ;o) I'm not looking to replace those. I just can't use three of them in my theater. The Fortes are in a completely different system, in a completely different room. Put another way, a trio of KLF-20 would replace an existing trio of SF-2. Make sense? I just threw the Forte in as a baseline, because many people have them and are familiar with them, and so am I. It's a good baseline to extend comparisons from. What I'm looking for is to bring as much of that magic horn midrange into my cinema-- without the sideways bulk of the old-school Heritage designs. I love my fortes. Why would I want to get rid of 'em? So -- Forte bass vs. KLF-20 bass -- what's the difference? I know the Forte has proably the best bass I've heard short of a Klipschorn or Altec A-series. So what's the deal with KLF bass -- tubbier? Thuddy? SLow? Less forceful? Less impact? My cinema does have a sub for LFE. Let's talk midrange, which is my biggest concern. How's piano, violins, cello, guitar, voices through the KLF? How convincing would be a ratchet wrench, or a zippo lighter be? Such things are borderline miraculous on the Forte, but ordinary and unremarkable in my SF-2. Usable,sure, and even enjoyable. But then I walk to the other room, hear the Fortes, and go "Man, if only.."
  2. Beechnut: Yes. And not just any 3-way speakers, Beechnut. The Magic Trick is to have a horn midrange as well as a horn tweeter. The lower you can get away from the cones and into the horns the better, ime. Fortes and Cornwalls are 700-ish hz. Klipschorn is 400hz. Those are all so much lower than my Synergy's 2.8khz and the RF7's 1.2khz. The only skinny speaker Klipsch makes now with a horn midrange is Palladium. Why am I stuck on having a horn midrange? Blame my Fortes. Blame the Altec A4s in the moviehouse I grew up with. Because no other mirdrange driver I've heard will do what a horn mid does. If I had unlimited space and money, my theater would have 3 new Cornwalls, Jubilees or Klipschorns in false corners behind a perforated screen, two Heresies for surrounds and we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But I'm limited by money, space and availability, so it came down to the KLF, a speaker I had never even heard of until I had the idea to go hunting for a skinny speaker with a midrange horn. I have 3 identical speakers up front. I have zero timbre issues up front, nor in the back. And when / if I go KLF-20, it'll be 3 of them up front, and I'll even try to get all 3 of them from roughly the same vintage. I don't belive in having a "special" center channel. When you go to a movie theater, there's no "special" center channel. It's 3 of the same up front. The only reason people make "special" centers is because most people have their screens so low to the ground they can't put a full-sized 3rd speaker in the center. I got around that by raising the screen, and I got away with that because of the chairs I use. Put another way, the chairs dictated where the the screen went, and that in turn freed up space to put 3 floorstanders under the screen. Once you taste 3 identical speakers up front, you can't go back. My "timbre" question was more on how the KLF-20s will get along with the SB2s in the back. A back-to-front pan, for example, would show any gross mismatch. Think of the slow overhead pass by the sub in Hunt for Red October, or the chopper in Titanic, coming up from behind and above the listener. My hope is that the KLF series is close enough in voicing to do well with my SB2 rears.
  3. Howdy, folks. I've searched the forums a bit, but can't quite find what I'm looking for. Here's what's going on: I built a home cinema out of a 9 x 12' bedroom, based around a 7-foot screen, under which now sit 3 SF-2s. The surrounds are SB-2, and those are as big as I can go due to space and layout constraints. I also have a separate two-channel system made around a pair of '87 walnut Forte, and have had them for nearly 10 years. I'm well-aquainted with the sound of horns, especially horn midrange -- and that's what the SF2 lacks. It's a good little speaker, but it ain't no Forte. The Forte is voice magic, it's violin magic, it's just pure sonic bliss, and I want to give as much of that as I can to my home cinema. I would love to go with 3 Fortes as my front speakers, but no space. There are objects d' art I display under the screen, and Fortes are just too fat. They'd chew up all the space under the screen. So, wanting a horn midrange, and since I can't afford (who the @$@! can!) Palladium, I got to searching, and found the KLF-20. Size-wise it's as big as I can manage. The crossover points are very similar to the Forte -- 750hz and 7khz. I'm selecting speakers based on size and driver layout, not sound.. I know. Mortal sin. But it is what it is, I cannot change the cinema around. The way it is is the only way it can be. I already beat my head into the wall over this when I built it. I'm just hoping the KLF-20 has *some* of the Forte midrange magic. Even if it's "different" what I"m looking for is for the midrange to be done by horn. My questions: 1. It's a no brainer that the KLF-20 should trump the SF2 in terms of midrange and everything else. But having never heard a pair, and not having any that I can listen to, how is their timbre? Their "sound"? Would they integrate nicely with my SB-2s that I have as surrounds? Remember I can't get a bigger speaker back there, not even by an inch. 2. Compared to the Forte (I), how's the midrange? I have heard a friend's Forte II with a Tractrix mid, and I'm not entirely sure I prefer it to my original's exponential mid. How's the rest of the sound? Does it have that same ethereal transparent nature of the Forte with similar quality of bass? Deep, tight, controlled? These KLF's will be driven by the same receivers I use with my Fortes and in the cinema -- I have a pair of Panasonic XR-55s and they do magic with the Fortes and SF2. I don't want flatulent, loose bass --- I get plenty of that at my local multiplexes, thank you. The idea here is to top even what the top-shelf theaters around here have in terms of hi-fi sound, not sheer SPL. Something like Master and Commander and Titanic I play with dialog 40 to 60 and explosion peaks to 90-95db. That's almost cinema-loud as it is. I use no dynamic range compression and don't touch the volume knob while the movie's playing. 3. I need to search this particular subject but while I"m here may as well get your input -- I hear there was a glue issue with the KLF line. Is this common enough that I have a high chance of getting a bum cabinet considering I'm looking for two pairs? I already read it's a fairly easy fix -- what I'd like to know is roughly what % have flaked out -- it's something I can use as leverage to drop the price. I need 3 minimum, ideally two pair, keeping one for spares. 4. Anything I should know? Parts availabilty is good? I had to replace my Forte tweeter diaphragms, and Klipsch *made* me a new set and mailed 'em to me, the total bill was 17 dollars per diaphragm. Does the KLF enjoy this level of support? I'm loath to ask about "upgrades" because people have different ideas on sound, but I will ask if the cabinet is decent as it came from Hope, or does it have any glaring deficiencies that most KLF owners gripe about? 5. Was the most common finish black? Whatever speakers go into this cinema have to be all black. I have all the time in the world to find me two pairs of these. Right now this is the beginning of an idea, the very first planning steps. Any help will be appreciated.
  4. I've searched both here and Google, and can't seem to find who currently makes receivers using TI's PurePath chipsets. I find tons of links to TI's own materials on PurePath, but nothing on who makes AVRs using them. Why am I fixated on PurePath? It sounds awesome, to my ears. I have two XR55s, one's running two Fortes, the other is running 3 SF2s and 2 SB2s for my theater. This is the one I wish to replace. It's not broken or anything, and it will remain employed in my house -- just not in the theater. I need HDMI and want other bells and whistles like built-in AirPlay, etc. And I'm aware I could add an hdmi switcher and control it all from my Harmony, but I'd like to experiment with something new. I've had these XRs since 2005. So -- who's making this these days? Or something close to it? Something slim, light, cool-running that sounds like tubes but goes for $700 or less? With at least 3 HDMI inputs and one HDMI out. And since it's for a movie theater with a projector, dim display is a must -- really dim. Denon? Marantz? Sherwood? Seriously, no one seems to say what they use except for pioneer, and tha'ts a bit too much $ for me. Part of the 55's charm was outrageous performance at a ridiculously low price. That's something I'd like to keep in my next AVR. Thanks for any responses. I can't belive it's this hard to find a cheap purepath receiver. I further can't belive the lack of information on it. Either it's dead, or everyone's using it and not saying it.
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