chuckears

It's pointed pretty well to ear-level; I think imy disappointment might have more to do with the sound not filling the room as much due to the lower placement. Thanks for the suggestions; the viewing distance lost by placing it on the wall would not be to my liking, but it would admittedly be better for sound output.

Attached a photo of my setup; the Academy is pretty snug down there, and as I indicated, is tiltled slightly upward. All connections are fine, and I have balanced the output with an SPL meter as always; the sweet spot still enjoys a nice, balanced sound, but for viewers/listeners off to the sides, dialogue is sometimes a little difficult to make out without turning up the volume to levels that can be a bit too much for anyone sitting in the middle. Maybe it's the Mrs. and my own aging hearing, but I don't feel like the sound I'm getting fills the room like it did before. Placing the center on the wall behind would look clumsy; setting it on the floor in front of the rack would be similarly ridiculous.

I found that adding subs to my Fortes brought a realism to good recordings; by reproducing the room cues of the recording venue (again , with good recordings), I was able to pick out in three dimensions a realism that did not bring the artist(s) to my room, but rather brought me to the artist. I was there, feeling th energy and emotion in a way I never was able to do with the Fortes on their own. There is a LOT of material in the teens and twenties of the Hz scale that needs to be reproduced, and I think a lot of subs that are mid-bass heavy instead of being true subwoofers actually detract from the realism an audiophile (i know, it's a dirty word to some) is looking for.

The front soundstage of my modest HT is a pair of (crossover and tweeter diaphragm-upgraded) Fortes and (similarly upgraded) Academy. The Academy sat atop my big-box 55" Mitsubishi RPTV for several years (angled slightly downward for optimum effect), and served me very well. When I recently switched to a 70" Sharp LED, the Academy was moved to the open shelf on the cabinet just beneath the new display, and I am a little underwhelmed by the output I am receiving from it. I have tweaked the angle of the center upward to assist, but either the change in position to being so low to the ground or the perceived larger display size (or both) are leaving me wanting a "bigger" sound... I am feeding the Academy with the 150-watt channel of a three-channel McCormack amp, and have tried more power from a pro amp, but did not like the sound quality compared to the McCormack. Having limited funds available, changing the whole front soundstage is out of the question - as is changing out the stand I have in place for the display. Taking the RC64-II for inspiration, I have begun to wonder about building a couple of bookshelf-size speakers - the same height as the Academy - to place on either side of the center channel, each sporting a single woofer, with a horn tweeter in each placed on either end and in the same orientation as the tweeter in the Academy, and driving them with the other two channels of my McCormack amp (my HT Processor sports multiple outputs for the Center, so I would not have to worry about splitting the signal externally). The full orientation of the drivers would look like: [] O O [] O O [] - of course, not to scale. The first concern I am facing is soundwave cancellation due to this untested orientation of drivers; I think it will be possible to minimize this issue by modifying the spacing and angling of the two flanking speakers, but would hate to find it untenable after the work involved in building the boxes. The other concern I have is getting the crossover networks figured out; I built the upgraded crossover for my Academy - based on diagrams circulated in the forums, with assistance from Bob Crites - but I am assuming that the same circuit would not be utilized in a build that uses just one woofer instead of the two that are in the center. I look for any thoughts or suggestions on whether or not I am looking at anything near feasible or reasonable...

What is the deal with potted plants on beautiful Klipsch speakers? I made it clear from day-one that nothing potentially damaging is to be placed on top of my Fortes... The only time of year anything lands on top of mine is Halloween, when witch-Lucy sits there for a couple of weeks.

I agree that the C7 is a great-sounding speaker... It is noticeably louder and clearer than the Academy, to my ears. BUT... with material on film soundtracks that pans across the front soundstage, or that is located between the center and mains (and therefore requires sound from both to contribute to audibly matching the location of voices or foley), there is a mis- match between the tonal quality of the C7 and older iterations of Kilpsch speakers that renders - to my ears and many others - an unnatural and odd-sounding quality that forced me to find the Academy to better blend with my Fortes. The only better option would have been to either use another Forte (not feasible with my HT living room set-up) or to try and build a center channel with Forte components (not within my technical capability). I could well imagine owning a complete Legend-series surround system - the clarity of the C7 is actually better than the Academy - but I am pretty well set on keepin my Fortes, especially after the crossover, binding post, and Ti diaphragm updates performed in the last few years.

I think the C7 sounds terrific, and would love to hear a complete KLF surround system. However, as others have mentioned, the Academy is a better choice with the series of speakers of which your Chorus is a part, and will yield a more seamless front soundstage.

The spkes would go on the underside of the risers, not the speaker cabinet/enclosure itself. I have never noted the risers to not be secure; I have always lifted the entire speaker by reaching my hand under the riser and lifting at least half the weight of the Forte just by holding the riser-section. ...but you do have me considering a mod that effectively doubles the height of the riser by building a small rectangle roughly the same height as the risers and attaching to that... the biggest challenge being to match the wood grain of the riser (it might be more practical to just go with black stain).

Wow... Removing the risers would be way more invasive overall to the Forte than drilling the holes in the bottom of the stands. I am pretty fond of their appearance as-is (but I appreciate the input and photos). I assume you will not bother posting a response over at audiokarma, even though I dropped your name there :-)

I am looking to add spikes to my 25 year old Fortes, to implement a common tweak and couple them to the floor since they sit on wall-wall medium-thickness carpet. The spikes I am looking at are about one and a third inches tall, with options for quarter- inch or 6mm threads... am curious as to whether this would be a good choice for the Forte; I would not want to find out after I drill holes in the bases and install the inserts that these are not going to work for me: www.oregondv.com/1375spike.htm

Just wanting to "future-proof" these speakers, since I intend to keep them pretty much forever; I would not want to find myself needing a part that is no longer available. The "catch" happens about 1/2 to 1/4-inch on their way back to their original position, and lasts for about a second.

I have loved my Fortes ever since purchasing them new in 1988; in recent years, I have swapped out the old crossovers with some nice Bob Crites builds, upgraded to Cardas binding posts, and installed titanium diaphragms in both tweeters. I have no intention if getting rid of these beauties any time soon, and was wondering about the lifespan of the passive radiators. I have noted a "catch" in the passives when I push them in a little... They both pause when returning back to position, and I don't recall that happening when they were new... Dayton makes a 12" pr for a fair price (I haven't measured to see if they will fit in the cut-out), and I am curious about thoughts or similar experiences with replacing the Forte passives... http://www.daytonaudio.com/index.php/sd315-pr-12-passive-radiator.html

I would love to see logo merchandise (clothing and cups, primarily) with the lower-case "k", like my Fortes...

There is definitely something wrong here... I had a C7 for over a year, and it was an amazing, dynamic, clear center that made me seriously consider going from my Fortes to KLF30's... both series were out of production when this took place, so I went for the simpler upgrade, and bought an Academy to blend better with my Fortes. But I still consider the KLF-C7 the most dynamic center of its style. You might want to check to make sure both woofers are outputting, and that you are wired in phase...

Even though you seem to have received all of the replies you need to make your decision, I would like to add my own experience to contribute to the "Yes, you do!" camp: I ran my Fortes for about 10 years with no sub, and enjoyed them pretty well... the Forte have the lowest rated bass of the Klipsch speakers, digging down to 32 Hz (although the might K-Horn actually sounds lower to my ears - it's all in the dynamics and room acoustics). I had two epiphanies when I began to upgrade in the late 90's: I was able to generate a much deeper bass slam from the Fortes by changing from a Carver 120 wpc amp to the McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe (185 wpc). The other was when I worked a sub into the mix - one that truly went down to just below 20 Hz. I went from enjoying listening to music in my living room to seemingly being transported to the recording venue. Musical tones rely not only on harmonics generated by the physcial properties of the instrument itself, but on what the sound does in the room/venue in which it is recorded. There were times on certain well-recorded material when I could not only locate the instruments in a virtual 3-dimensions, but also imagine the size and shape of the room - it was as if I were actually there when the material was being recorded. That's what a sub did for me - and I wouldn't bother with one that cuts off in the 30's... you need one that digs down into the low 20 hz range, or down into the teens, if you intend to enjoy a lot of film material.

I'm with Pops! I have 50 or so concert dvd's and perhaps 5 movies. Of those, 2-3 of them were probably bought for my wifes niece to see when she's over. I think the most sage advice would be to watch and listen to what he likes, and intends to use the system for the most... I have the inverse ration of film to concerts, with something like over 150 films to just a handful of concerts; IMHO, there is a very short list of reference-level concert films on DVD and Blu-ray - the recording quality varying significantly from disc to disc - but of course the same can be said for film soundtracks, as well.

I can't speak for the setup package that came with your receiver, never having used them. I have always calibrated both video and audio using a setup disc such as AVIA or HDBasics in the source player (DVD or Blu-Ray). The internal program in my Blu-Ray player - and even my mid-to-high-end Anthem HT processor - are not as accurate as the test tones generated by the aforementioned discs, read by my trusty RS analog SPL meter.

...so don't!

Inception Kill Bill Cloverfield Saving Private Ryan LOTR: Return of the King Any of these would be not only a great test for the new sub, but also films worth watching... I cannot stress enough the necessity of calibrating with a setup disc and SPL meter... if you have the sub set too high, you could damage it during the loudest and most bass-heavy moments in any of the above-mentioned Blu-Rays; too low, and you are missing out []

Just curious as to whether there is a consensus as to the preferred bass tuning on Cornscala projects. I am mulling over starting the project - love the big mid-horn sound, but also want the deepest bass possible, as I frequently listen to music without my subs, to bypass the DSP in my Anthem HT processor. My Fortes have prodigious bass for their size, and I would not want to give up much of the low-30's bass to satisfy my midrange sweet tooth. I've seen split boxes, but generally prefer the whole-box appearance, and the extra volume it would offer. Also, I have not heard the Tractrix horn that many of the newer builds are featuring - is there any consensus about the Tractrix vs. exponential horn still used in the La Scala and K-Horn? I prefer the looks of the exponential. but my project would likely sport a grill cover, making appearance secondary to SQ...

A shot of the Sonosub - I had intended on taking pictures during the construction phase, but was so uncertain about how it would turn out, I didn't bother. The 12" Dayton MK3 is down-firing onto the painted MDF base; I painted the tube with Krylon Make-It-Stone textured spray paint; most builders wrap speaker cloth around theirs (it was how my Hsu 1220 was finished), but I wanted something different, and with three cats in the house, did not want to offer them a big scratching post [:|]

A closer look at the Birch Box; I call this shot "The King and Queen", the King being the sub, the Queen being the 11-year old cat who claimed it...

For my Sonosub, I worked from the descriptions and instructions of others who have built, and used a program made just for these projects to determine the size and port lengths. I designed the Baltic Birch box myself, just using online calculators to determing the correct dimensions, etc. (Sorry about the dim photo... not much of a photographer, I'm afraid...) Very nice indeed. Are you designing your own enclosures, or are you using plans?

If you are, in fact, referring to the cylinder-shaped subwoofer, usually made with a Sonotube or other brand concrete form, I have owned (and built) both, and can tell no difference in sound quality. They are visually very different of course... I am currently running a home-built "Sonosub" with a 12" Dayton MK3 driver in a corner, and a Baltic Birch box with a 15" Tempest-X driver between my display and left main speaker - bothe are tuned to around 16 Hz. The Sonosub outputs a little louder - probably due to the corner placement, but possibly from slightly higher sensitivity of the driver. They offer very balanced, non-locatable bass output.

...and wonderfully quotable: "Miners, not minors..." "At least he's outside" "Just like my mom used to make" "I'm just jazzed to be on the show..." , or just about every line delivered by Sam Rockwell's "Guy"