EpicKlipschFan

congrats! excellent deal! shoot, go for $2500... because if the ones on ebay are worth $2000 yours have less cobwebs so they must be worth $2500. as for the dust caps, im not aware of any that are sold with the klipsch logo but there may be some i havent found yet. you can buy the correct felt type in the right size that will look fine but no klipsch logos. or depending how bad they are pushed in you might be able to pull them out?

finishes are like asking what the best amp is or what your favorite color is, its all subjective opinion, some like oak some like walnut some like painted black. personally i prefer the oiled walnut finish, its much darker than oak & has a more refined smoother grain pattern... also matches more modern decor with the darker color. oak is kinda dated in my opinion & was popular in the 90's. also oak are more common because of the era these were made so the oiled walnut is a little more "rare" & can bring a higher price.

not trying to be correct... just provide accurate info.

oh where to start.... im not trying to argue that a bunch of lower end speakers in a room is better than quality speakers set up more in line with what we as "audiophiles" feel is correct. my point is regarding the OP asking about 4 speakers in stereo mode, it can be done & for certain situations that i mentioned it has its advantages or will work ok. i too grew up & dont do the multiple speakers anymore like when i was a broke teenager. doesnt change the fact that not every persons needs or room layout is the same. i have & probably will again hook up 4 speakers in 4 corners of my room & enjoy them at low or high volumes, i switch up my systems from time to time just for a change... some people even use the 5 channel stereo on their AVR's for a more room filling sound at times or prefer multi channel SACD over traditional 2 channel cds. im not debating sound reproduction vs reinforcement, just an example of how multi speakers can & do have benefits for certain situations over just 2. there's plenty of live music out there that if you're trying to "recreate the event" it was never just 2 speakers, it was a huge venue with multi speakers. same applies to live music in a bar or a party or group of friends at a house... ive never been to a party or had a group of friends over & had anyone say, turn off the other speakers man & let me sit in the sweet spot for accuracy. gotta keep things in perspective here. i agree 2 ch stereo is best with 2 speakers for most listening, but there are many other situations when 4 can & do work just fine. again, i dont have a boatload of speakers in my set up & it doesnt necessarily trip my trigger... just giving examples of where it can "work" & mentioned how my friend has his stereo set up.... & the parties or playing drums & guitar together are a blast with that many speakers.

take a closer look at the pics in the ad of the grilles... thats a blob of remaining glue, not the emblem.

im not disagreeing with asking what you want, or that an item is worth what someone will pay... within reason. the point i was making that some seem to be missing or trying to defend, is that when you INTENTIONALLY jack up the price for the sole purpose of trying to take advantage of someone, that is wrong. period. we've all heard about used car salesman ripping people off, or a mechanic taking advantage of an old (or young) lady that doesnt understand cars, this situation is no different. if its not intentional & just ignorance, thats different & falls back on the syndrome i explained above. again, if you do a lot of work or upgrades etc & raise the value of the item, whether its a car or a house or a speaker thats fine. dont get me wrong, i have bought a lot of things with the intention of making a reasonable profit, have sold all kinds of audio gear & cars etc over the years, but nobody walked away feeling like they got scammed & most were very hapy or even became personal friends. especially in the community of a hobby like on here, if you do that to others, you get a bad name real quick like. & businesses do this every day within reason, take levis jeans for example, sears didnt pay $40 for them but thats what they charge & new levis are "worth" that much based on other retailers prices. imagine if you went into a store & saw the same levis for $80 or $120, would that be cool because "they can charge whatever they want?" no, most people would likely walk out of the store & tell everyone not to shop there because they are a ripoff! thats all im saying on situations like this. buy what you want & pay what you want, but i will always call out a scam when i see it or tell the unsuspecting guy hes getting taken when i can... & these fortes with cobwebs & cosmetic issues are NOT worth anywhere near 2000 dollars no matter how you try to justify it.

fair price. strange he pulled the emblems off the grilles & stuck them on the cabinets.

did you read my full post? i have a friend that does exactly that, he has 3 pair of dual 12" woofer speakers ran on 3 separate amplifiers, granted its not accurate imaging etc, but i guarantee its a fuller sound with crazy amounts of bass compared to 2 speakers with 2 woofers or even 4 woofers. you can clearly hear increases in sound & bass when he kicks on each amp. & the current setup he has is all speakers are up front next to each other in the corners, its still has decent stereo separation. it's all about budget & wants/needs. im not saying one is better than the other, just different ways to skin the audio cat. & on that same note, have you ever been to a live rock concert in a large stadium or even in a smaller bar... they dont have just 2 speakers pointing to one sweet spot, they have multiple large speakers, to make a "room full of sound" still only using 2 channels of stereo music, so everyone in the building gets blasted with sound. yes its not a semblance of accuracy, but for large rooms with many people in it, like at a house party or a group of friends, nobody cares about a sweet spot to get perfectly imaged stereo sound? 2 different scenarios & maybe the OP wants more sound in his room than just a single sweet spot?

no, you dont have to remove the rear panel to confirm either. you can see the shiny metal tweeter diaphram from the front vs a flat dull plastic type original. the crossovers can be verified by removing the 6 screws on the speaker wire connection cup & pulling it out a bit, there will be big white capacitors that say sonicap on them, or a complete board that says B&C sound if they replaced the full crossover board, but usually they just replace the caps on the original klipsch board. or you can pull the rear passive to look inside at the crossover. as far as sound, the new ones are going to sound a lot different due to the newer technology horns & using all titanium mids & tweets. but regardless, original forte & forte 2 sound very good & please do some research on the price, used fortes have recently had their prices increase quite a bit from what the average market value is due to the price of the new forte3. just know that even for mint condition fortes with factory shipping boxes, fortes should cost quite a bit less than $1000. id say 500-800 depending on condition & finish. the tweets are like $60/pr & the xover kit is under $100 so they dont really add much value to the price. just do your due diligence & check recent sold items on ebay & look on craigslist & facebook marketplace to get a good idea of current prices.

i agree with most of that. but if you're running a scam to intentionally take advantage of a fool, they go hand in hand. its possible this guy is desperate for cash & limited options etc, but if thats the case he should probably price them more realistically so they would sell & get him some cash for whatever the reason is. i'd bet a dollar this guy knows exactly what hes doing & is just hoping he finds a sucker. & hey, more power to him i guess, that's what capitalism is all about. if he did some work to them or replaced parts etc etc then he deserves a reasonable amount of profit, just like anything in this country... but based on the pics he couldnt even wipe off the cobwebs! & if its due to his ignorance, then that falls back on the barret jackson syndrome, he did a google search for klipsch forte & saw current forte 3 prices & said if new ones are $3000+ then mine are worth $2000. i guess the question is, if we see a new member showing off his new to him $2000 fortes, do we tell him???

the "problem" i have with things like this, is that asking a ridiculous price is just taking advantage of or ripping off someone that may not know any better. im sure if you were new to the hobby & heard how great klipsch speakers were & saw the MSRP for new models & thought these fortes were a good deal, you would not like to find you paid 2-3 times what these used fortes are worth & sell for on the average used market. yes its a free market & he can ask what he wants but its kind of a jerk move to jack up the price to such a ridiculous level hoping someone bites. theres a fool born every minute but takes a scammer to intentionally take advantage of them.

just curious, but why should 2 sets of stereo speakers be avoided completely? back some 25 years ago when i was first starting to build a system for a house i moved into from a condo, i had 2 kg5.5 & 2 MTX dual 12" woofer tower speakers, in the condo i only had a receiver with A & B channels & could only listen to them at lower levels. at the house, i bought an onkyo M504 amp & hooked it to the onkyo AVR pre outs & ran the MTX off the amp & klipsch off the receivers 105 watts per channel. the klipsch & AVR was for normal listening & surround sound, but when i wanted to really crank it up LOUD i kicked on the amp to drive the MTX speakers in the rear corners of the room & it was a night & day improvement in volume & mainly bass levels. yes you lose stereo imaging but it filled the whole room with a very full sound that didnt require a sweet spot & the bass was chest pounding for a poor guy in the 90's without a sub. with the amp off it was a more refined sound but would not come close to the volume level that the 4 stereo speakers could do. for certain situations there is an advantage to running 4 speakers that way, receivers have had A & B channels for 4 speakers since the 70's. & whats funny is i sold the MTX to a friend many years ago, & found 2 other pairs of them for him since hes on a budget & not really a critical listener & doesnt care to spend the $$ for klipsch speakers. he also has my old onkyo receiver & runs 2 extra 100wpc onkyo amps that have daisy chain pre outs (in & out)... with 6 dual 12" speakers, (yes that 12, 12" woofers) running in stereo mode, there is so much headroom that the woofers barely need to move to get awesome bass & even though the mtx speakers are more of a house speaker like cerwin vega, it sounds pretty good for what he wants & cost all of about 500 bucks!

LOL! just another delusional seller that thinks these are worth that much... they arent even in that nice of condition. he probably did some "research" & saw other wackos listing them for $1000-$1200+. Its the barrett-jackson syndrome brung on by the new klipsch model prices.... like with cars, a guy sees a super rare or high end restoration mustang or any model car sell for a outrageous price at a high end auction & thinks his run of the mill mustang or backyard rebuild is worth that price. & for klipsch, people see the new fortes, heresy, cornwall or lascala & K-horns sell for high prices & think there 20-25+ year old speakers are worth anywhere near that much. i see countless sale ads for used 1980-90's klipsch speakers, mainly K-horns & lascalas, & the seller states " these speakers cost $12,000 to buy today so mine are worth $5-6-8k", but they have issues like water rings or chips/scratches & x-overs need to be rebuilt etc etc. an analogy i like is thats like saying your 1989 Ford F-150 truck with 200k miles & rust & worn out engine is worth $10-15k because a new F150 costs $50k! delusional!

looks great! that is a dark cherry stain on the cabinets?

heres a modern cover of it...