Darnon

Well, I did state that I'm going to upgrade my amplifier. Research on this board and SH has revealed several folks' pointing to Benchmark's AHB2 - which IS clean power AND 100wpc. So what is it? They're wrong? I think that I was pretty clear when stating that the mid range deficiencies pointed at the Denon. Whether or not cleaner power comes from more power or from lower power is for me to find out. The Denon is obviously the (very) weak link in the chain. To compliment the Forte's for how good they are, however, as I stated, the Denon will absolutely rock the room. It's not lost on my though that I'm not going to know if the Forte's are keepers until I have a proper amp - which is why I've also built the rest of the system to, in the event that amp evaluations don't result in a conclusion that they are keepers, I can sell them and feel confident that the TT, cart, phono, and new DAC/preamp/power amp will translate to support different speakers. Edit: I also didn't come up with the conclusion that Forte's are very revealing in that what you put in they put out. It's the experience from folks whom I have have read public reviews and had private conversations with whom have a wide range of amplification. My $900, 20yr old Denon also agrees.

First post on this board: For what it's worth, I picked up a pair of used Forte III's a couple of months back for $2600 shipped. I'm the second owner, and they came in the original boxes, packing material, everything. They appeared to be brand new. Anyways, I'm driving them with a 19yr old Denon AVR-1802, that I picked up new in '01. I added a Sutherland 20/20 phono w/ LPS and an then an REL T/9i sub. My listening room is much smaller at 12'x12'. 95% of what I listen to starts from a Technics SL-1200GR w/ a Nagaoka MP-500 cart. My takeaways with the Forte's, after a couple of months is in line with what's been stated: their touchy feely beasts - requiring great attention to placement/positioning; need a sub (or 2 - I'm able to get away with 1 REL but still wonder how a second would sound); lots of power - the 80wpc from the Denon isn't enough to move the Forte's passive 15" radiator and while I've achieved the 'phantom center speaker' with careful, tireless tweaking of speaker positioning, the Forte's are often thin in the mid range frequencies. High frequency treble is never an issue with the Forte's and the addition of the REL sub (again, if my room was any bigger I'd have 2 subs, no question) the bass is taken care of, but I feel that solving the mid range 'thinness' will come from more power. So, I'm looking strongly at Benchmark's AHB2 power amp and a worthy preamp/DAC (maybe a used Benchmark DAC2) Do I think the Forte's are worth list price? No. If you can pick up a pair for around $2500 shipped, add a sub or two, and have a lot of (clean) power to drive them, then they'll rock the room like $8000+ speakers. To be clear, though: there's plenty of records that absolutely fill my room with awesomeness and I'm left wondering if I need more power. The Forte's are very revealing. What you put in, they spit out. In the end, I think that I've made the correct decision with the Forte's.