Iteachstem

I just looked in my stash of stuff.... I'm guessing it's long gone. That was several years ago.

Time to resurrect this thread and see if anyone wants to contribute. We all talk about comparing speakers, but lets document our experiences! I found this picture and remembered when I did this A/B comparison of a Forte vs. Forte II Speakers:Forte vs. Forte II Room:2 car garage Electronics: Emotiva pre, Crown K2, Dell computer with WAV files. Demo Songs: Jimmy Sax-No Man No Cry / Stevie Ray-Chitlins Con Carne / Pink Floyd-Time I know it was conducted in a less than ideal area, but for me, the original Forte's sounded just a little sweeter to my ears. Perhaps it's just because I refinished them and liked the darker color, but when I had my better half do the random A/B switching, I picked the Forte every time.

To answer the question "Ever try moving away from Klipsch speakers?" The answer is yes. I'm glad I did... more on this later. If you haven't listened to other speakers produced by other manufacturers, then you are missing out on a lot of what the audio world has to offer. To me, that's part of what I love about the wonderful world of audio, that exciting feeling of exploring what else is out there. Striving to improve your listening experience! Comparing one speaker to another, pairing a set of great amps against each other to see which one your ears tell you is more pleasing, etc. It's like only trying a cheese pizza... sure, you might think it's love at first bite, as you sink your chompers into the warm flavorful combination of flaky crust combined with a luscious tomato sauce topped with stringy mozzarella cheese, but what do you have to compare it to? If you've never had it with any other toppings, like sausage, pepperoni, olives, garlic, etc. then how do you know that your cheese pizza is the best for you? It's almost a "must" to get out there and try other combinations. Who knows, you may decide that your first love is what you find yourself returning to, but you owe it to yourself to get out there and explore the wonderful world of audio! To say that Klipsch is the only speaker you'll ever listen to is very narrow minded. I understand brand loyalty and the cult like following some people have with different speaker manufacturers, but to say they will never even consider something else is downright foolish. I am 48 years old and have been wowed with electronics, speakers, and music since I was in grade school. I tipped over my brothers old Jensen speaker, lifted it a couple inches off the ground after placing it in the corner of our basement, connected it to our Peavey Pacer guitar amp and fed it a signal from my old Panasonic boom box to make it my first ever subwoofer! Yikes! Yes, I have come a long way since then, but I've always been curious about speaker design. I have tried many speakers over the years, as I like to purchase speakers in need of a little TLC, restore/refinish them, and then compare them to my speakers I currently own. Then, I decide if they bump one from my current lineup, or go on their way for someone else to enjoy. This allowed me to try many different speakers over the years. Now being a teacher, I'm on a limited budget, so I can't speak to any fancy $$ speakers out there, but I have to say Klipsch has the most bang for the buck! However, for my ears, the ones I own and have tried are not necessarily the best overall sounding speakers to listen to. For example, I did an A/B comparison with my RF7 II's compared with my set of Focal Chorus V's. (Both paired with my dual 15" subs) The Focal's stomped all over the RF7's when it came to detail in the upper frequencies! However, if I was looking for a speaker to crank and stand alone without any subs, then I would for sure choose the RF7's. I guess what I'm saying in a rather long winded attempt, is that there is a speaker out there for every purpose and for every person. Have fun an explore what the audio industry has to offer. Go out on a limb and try something you normally wouldn't ever listen to, who knows, you may just find a new love of your audio life!

I liked my 6's for computer speakers at first, but they have a hiss that was too audible being that close! (Plus the sub out has noise!) I would suggest other speakers... if you're not opposed to buying a nice used set, you have a lot of great options in the $1,300 price range.

Now the fun part... listening!

Thanks. I don't really like the look of shiny wood when it comes to speaker finishes. There are some exceptions, of course, but I usually like the wood to look natural.

Getting there...

You could cut a piece to fit at the bottom of the cabinets while you have them open. If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

Nope! Unless you are planning on running thousands of watts to them.... but I'm pretty sure you know what would happen in that case. Most often durring "normal" listening levels, we only use several watts of power, so no need for larger wire. The main reason people change the wire inside is if they have everything apart anyway, and just want to make it look nicer.... but who really spends a lot of time looking at the insides of their speakers? Or, the other reason is that they think they will hear a difference using larger, more expensive wire. Those are usually the same people that spend thousands of dollars on pucks to keep their very expensive speaker wires off of the ground.

Two 18" subs paired with one 15" 2 way per side is perfect. Sell the rest or use it elsewhere. The subs cab be tucked under work benches, etc. to save space. 80hz crossover max, anything higher than that is never a good thing in my experience. If you don't plan to crank it, I would set the x-over point even a tad lower on the subs with a high roll-off slope. As long as you keep the very low stuff out of the mains, (below 60hz) you should be good to go. Back in college I had a very respectable DJ set up in the basement for our parties. I ran two DIY 18" EV subs per side with a 24db slope at 30hz high pass and an 12db or 18db crossover point at around 70-80hz low pass. This kept the 18's from flying out of the cabinets when I had a little too much liquid motivation! I powered them with Crown Macrotech 2400's. I paired the subs with DIY coaxial mains with a 15" woofer and a 1" concentrically mounted driver. These were powered by a Carvin FET 1000 and FET 450. I had the 15's crossed over at 80hz 12db slope on the low end and something around 2.5kz on the high end/

I saw these on accessories4 less if anyone is in the market. It says you have to buy 3.... so I'm guessing it's the last 3 remaining? https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/klip-ki362bsma2/klipsch-ki-362-b-sma-ii-each-commerical-15-3-way-trapezoidal-high-output-loudspeaker/1.html

I don't usually mess around with the volume of the dampening materiel that much. Klipsch is pretty good about including sufficient material. If anything, I add just a tiny bit if they didn't have at least 3 sides covered (One side wall, the top or bottom and the back) There is damping material that you can buy, usually at astronomical cost, but I'm guessing you won't get a good return on your investment like you will by updating the crossovers. If you do a lot of woodworking, try throwing in a brace or two connecting the side walls.

The cones are hard to damage with just gentle cleaning. (Poly cones and rubber surrounds) I have always just misted a little "SPARKLE" window cleaner on a microfiber rag and just gently wiped them down.

Hello, Might I suggest separates? The only reason is that instead of changing out receivers ever so often if you want the latest audio formats, you can just change out your processor. All you need is a decent multi channel amp or two. I'm not one to chase the latest formats, but I did have the change to pick up a 9.2 processor for under $500. I recently went from an outlaw audio 976 (awesome audio processor, but a known remote volume issue!) to an Onkyo DHC 80.3. You can usually find them as people are dumping them for the next batch of processors with ridiculous amounts of surround channels. I am happy with the unit so far ( about a year of use on it)

Nice job! I'm a big fan of washing the speaker grills. I am finishing up a refinish on a set of KG4's and I'm always amazed at how much dirt I get out when I wash them. I put them in the tub and use laundry detergent and a gentle scrub brush and give them a good wash and rinse. The grill frames are plastic, so you don't have to worry about anything warping. You can always tinker around with adding side to side bracing inside, but I've never heard any real difference in the actual sound of the speaker, only when you tap on the cabinet with your knuckle.

This is my living room, and as you can see, a lot of the wood floor is covered!

Hello, Just to throw in another option for you to consider: Vinyl plank flooring with a plush area rug! If you are worried about floor flexing/moisture/bugs/etc. over the garage, vinyl plank flooring is awesome. You can lay down a plastic moisture barrier and do the floor yourself. I did it in 1/3 of my basement and it's super easy and looks great, not like the vinyl of the past. I wish I would have used it on my main floor, as I used 3/4 cherry flooring and, as beautiful as it is, it was expensive and almost 75% of it is covered with an area rug and other furniture. Here are the pics from my basement (I would recommend a less cheesy area rug... this was an old thin rug that now servers as bedroom duty in one of the basement bedrooms):

I would wait, the R line is pretty cheap sounding, their RP line is much better. If you absolutely must buy one of the two at the moment, then I would go with the RF-82 II's over the R-820F. I haven't hear them side by side, but I've owned several RF-82's and they are not bad once you set them up and get them EQ'd properly. I was not impressed with their R lines after hearing a couple of them recently. Overall, I would look for different speakers for what your intended use is... depending on your budget, there may be better options for used speakers out there.

What are you mainly going to use these for...stereo or home theater use?

I used this as the EQ on my sub channel in my home theater. Balanced in/out is great for low noise. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! Asking: $75 pick up 60511 in Illinois $100 shipped

The grills are washed. Oh my, I never cease to be amazed by how much dirt builds up in these grills over 30+ years. Here's a before and after:

Thanks, I love them, but you have to stay on top of keeping them clean much more than lighter colors, as dust shows up very easily! Not a bad thing, as I try to keep a clean house, but you know, life happens... I also did my kitchen cabinets a very similar color... I always wanted nice dark cherry cabinets. And I just refinished a set of KG4's using the same kitchen cabinet stain...

Finish is applied.... just need to pick up some matte poly, wash the grills and put everything back together.

They look pretty tired for 2K. I've noticed a lot of people are shooting pretty high when they price speakers lately. I guess the reasoning is that groceries went up around 30% that everything else has as well. I would offer 1K and have fun refinishing them and doing some driver/crossover work.