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After some advise and experimenting and critical listening I decided to build some 10" high stands, any higher and I really had to sit up straight for optimum sound. I decided to build them out of wood because steel is so expensive and I work with it all day at work. All I have to work with is is a 18v Ryobi combo pack a hand held belt sander and an orbital sander. I built one prototype first and hated it so went back to square one and came up with this. It still needs to be painted flat textured black but I like it much better than the stock ones already. I will post some finished pics.

Right now I have them on some stands that are solid as all get out the stands are exactly 12" tall and I have spikes on them and have the speakers perfectly level. I put a piece of masking tape exactly 9" down from the top on the side( exactly the center of the mid horn ) and then shined a laser down the line and it hit exactly where my ear is. It sounds the same in the sweat spot but more even response in other seats ans across the room. I will have to play around with it and might just use these stands or make new ones maybe modify the stock risers, I have a few ideas and am a TIG welder/ fabricator so have some more ideas, Sorry for the hijack, Thanks.

Yeah that Academy center rarely come up for sale around here and kind of expensive on flee-bay. Right now my current center seems to be fine with them. I will keep checking, Thanks.

My most recent find for 20 bucks at a garage sale, needed a re-foam job and one tweeter, also had to re-veneer the tops because of water damage because of plants, arg. Also I was wondering what would be a good center channel match for these forte II's ? would any with close to the same sensitivity match? Thanks.

you can try a very simple mod which takes almost no time to do. Set the speakers up so that the centre of the mid horn is at your seated ear level. This will provide you with the very best possible stage and image. Easy to do and undo if you don't like the change. Does not have to cost you a dime. Best regards Moray James. I have them set up that way with the spikes, tilted back so the mid is pointed right at ear level, much better.

Mine already had the Ti tweeters and re-capped x-overs when I got them so I have no reference to stock but they sound amazing. It took a bit of playing with set up but well worth it. All I have done is add some weight to the passive as recommended by another member here and it made them dig a bit deeper and added spikes to them which also helped. I probably will not do any more mods because I am afraid I might not like the mods. Good luck to you.

Klipsch speakers can be a bit tricky on placement as I have found out with a recent pair of Forte 2's. I too had some shrillness but thanks to this forum they now sound fantastic. I also have some other non horn speakers that are picky on set up as well, just a few degrees and they are painful sometimes. Congratulations!

I have had the disease for a long time, lol I have owned hundreds sets of speakers over the years I have owned some KG 5.5's and like the Forte II's better. Unfortunately my living room is set up wrong, the right side has no wall at all, none of the speakers I have owned have much bass in here except some Polk SDA SRS 2's and some Infinity quantum line source. It took an act of congress to finally get this arrangement approved with the war department for this, hopefully some day we can buy a house with a basement again and I can have a dedicated listing room and home theater room. Maybe I will discuss re-arranging the room differently but this seems to work fine with all the different sets of speakers I own. I did mess around with toe in and found my standard toe in to sound best for me. They are back in the 2.1 ch room and wont be moving or playing with arrangement because of a herniated disc in my back. Thanks aging.

Thanks! Regrettably I got rid of the Carver M 1.5t some time ago, It would probably shine with these Forte II's. I got rid of the Polk SDA as well but don't really miss them that much. That Dayton stuff is great and parts express makes it simple to build your own with knock down cabinets and all the trimmings. Sealed are a great way to start, just get the internal volume right and your good and yes it is addictive but you get so much more for your money than buying pre-made.

Thanks! you are making me hungry Jim. These pulled double duty and filled in the bottom end nicely. Not using either at the moment because I am trying out some subs I bought at the pawn shops. here are some more pics I did build another one just for music it was a Dayton titanic 10" with a bash 300 in a small sealed box, nice and punchy.

Here are a couple of homemade subs I made, on top is a Dayton 18" classic sub with a Dayton 250 watt plate amp. I built this out of 3/4" MDF internally braced and dampened with fill. I painstakingly sanded and painted the cabinet with hammered look paint. I also made a grill for this as well but not shown. I also added 1" rubber feet. I ordered stuff to build two of these but one amp was on back order so I built one and figured I would built the other one later, good thing I found out one is all I need for my tastes. This one is about 4.5 internal cu ft sealed. The one on bottom is another 18" Dayton classic sub with a bash 300 amp down-firing and about 4.2 cu ft sealed. Same 3/4" MDF and internally braced dampened. I just got lazy and wanted not to worry about this one so I went with a vinyl wrap. I made the feet out of triangle shaped pieces of MDF glued together then sanded. All in all I am happy with the way they both turned out, They go deep and still surprisingly tight due to the sealed design. Next I want to build a small 10 or 12" compact sub and use a Earthquake slaps passive or something like that. But it will be a while for funds on that.

As of right now these are in the number two position in my current speaker line up, there is some music I like better on them because of the highs, truly a great speaker. Even as deep as they go I find they still benefit with use of a sub, not too many speakers I have owned suited my tastes without one though. Good thing I have that "sub" base covered.

Those were beat up, nice work!

OK I am glad I got advise on this forum and didn't rely on the advise of these so called experts. I toed them in to my regular speaker status and the difference is night and day. The highs are still a little high but I guess that's just the way they are, nothing you cant get used to not really fatiguing, You can really hear all the high hat and ride cymbal work by the drummer. And they sound good at all volumes. I guess what happened is that not being toed in and the tweeter has a wider dispersion than the mid all you would get are the highs, Anyway they sound much better now, I am glad to because I was thinking of getting rid of them last night. I don't know if I will do anymore upgrades or not, I am at the point where I could get my money out of these and maybe a few dollars more and they sound pretty excellent right now. Thanks again everyone.

I understand the concept of toe in but got the idea of no toe for these in here http://www.soundstage.com/greg01.htm now you are saying toe them in? Standard triangle being farther back the they are apart crossing over a few feet behind your head? I did notice that the brightness really went away when you turned them up and they come alive, they seem to sound fuller turned up. I don't really have reflections because I have room treatments. Thanks again! also is there anywhere I can download the PDF user manual?

Does anyone know if these Titanium tweeter diaphragms have to break in? point is I don't know how long ago the previous owner did the caps or tweeter upgrade and they're a bit too much for my tastes and was wondering if they mellow out over time? If not has anyone else felt they were a bit much? if so did you mess with upping the resistor in the x-over to mellow them out? Everything is flat with no tone control whatsoever and they can become a bit overwhelming on some music. I also have room treatments, I hooked them up in my main room to my tamer amp and still a bit over the top. I have them 15" from rear wall 8" 2" in between them and 10" back no toe in and angled them slightly up with the spikes. Thanks in advance.

How much was the titanium diaphragms and filters? I can wire them into x-overs as I have rebuilt many.

Yeah maybe I will but I have been down the upgrade rabbit hole before and know you never get your money back out of them. These have every indication of being keepers but time will tell. We have been tuning passives for a long time by experimenting with adding weight, I don't know if they really experimented back when these were made other than putting bigger passives. I used hot glue so I can undo it if I don't like it but so far do.

I just got done spiking them and that too made a difference as it always does. I wonder why Klipsch didn't put threaded holes for spikes? I just got some t nuts and put them on the bottom. The only thing I can see myself doing to these is maybe tame down the tweeter a bit with a resistor. I will hook them up to my other system and amp this weekend. There have been a few speakers that I have owned that simply don't get along with the Rotel, these might be one of them.

Yeah completely stock mids, I don't know if I will ever do titanium. maybe replace with just some new ones that sound better? or do they all sound the same until you get to titanium? On a weird note I put my ear up to a mid and could hear a slight buzz come out of it, whats weird is that the power was off on the amp the cd and even the power strip breaker bar and had been off for days. it even still did it when I unhooked the speaker wires. The only thing I can figure out it that its from the power stored in the capacitors and inductors slowly draining through the mid, weird though. Anyway I did the washer trick the two washers weighed .12lbs on the scale at work a dab of hot glue to secure them might have brough it up to .14 lbs or 2.4 oz. The only thing I notice is that the one I did just digs a little deeper not sloppy or anything just a tad bit deeper. So I did both and they are just pleasantly a tad bit deeper overall, not sloppy at at really. If you like yousr the way they are then leave them alone. I used to play drums so I like to feel the kick drum. one of the reasons I built my own subwoofers with 18" subs, lol.

Thanks, yeah good old Loveland. I might take you up on your offer. I e-mailed Bob today and he sent me a reply saying I did not need anything on the tweeter, he did say however if they had or if I added the titanium mid I would need a filter that cuts out the top because it puts out the same hi frequencies as the tweeter, the titanium naturally goes higher. I will pull them this weekend and see. I got some stainless steel washers from work and I will glue them to the passives also. I will also give them a try on the ATI as well. Thanks for all the replies and advise.

Thanks, Nah I got rid of my Carver a long time ago, I have a ATI AT1502 on my other rig that I will try them out with next, it seems to be a little better fit with some speakers.

Thanks for the info, I don't know if the mid has new diaphragms or not, I guess you would have to take apart. i was surprised to see the Sonic caps in the x-overs and now upgraded tweeters. This very well could have been a forum member that owned these, I cant I imagine what the pawnshop gave him for these or why they would even pawn them anyway. I will get around to upgrades but just enjoying these for right now.

Is that good? here are some up close photos

some pics I am not using the sub with these.