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Will Forte II's fit my listening style and room?


Dsrtjeeper

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Hi all. I've been lurking here for a while and decided to join. I'm contemplating buying a mint pair of Forte II's. When I listen to music; I close my eyes and try to picture the performers as well as instrument placement. I like to feel as if I'm there. The closest I ever came to this is with Maggies and tubes. What has always been lacking in my systems is "boogie." I like to feel the kick drums in my chest. Without that toe tapping beat; I get bored quick.

My listening taste are very broad. It runs the full gammut from old George Jones to reggae, jazz, blues and 70-80's rock. I love acoustic music and the dreamy music of Pink Floyd. Female vocalist entrance me as well. So many of the cd's are recorded so poorly, especially 70's rock.With all this in mind; will the Forte II's quench my thirst? I'm going to listen to them on Saturday.

Then there is my room.... I've read that these speakers like corner placement. I can't do this in my room. I listen in a 14' x 20' room with the speakers on the long wall. The nearest corner is 5-6" to the side of the speakers. Speakers are 7-8' apart. I sit against the opposite long wall.

I have never had any luck listening to any type of metal dome tweeter as they cause my ears to bleed with their ringing. Are the Fortes harsh in this same manner? I've read so many reviews about the harshness of the Fortes and it has me wondering. Many of these reviews were from people using cheap receivers and Bose, KLH, Cerwin Vega, etc... speakers, so I have to consider the source.

Basically; I'm looking to rock as well as be wooed by Sarah Vaughn. What are your thoughts?

Thanks to all,

Eric

Associated equipment is as follows:

Cambridge Audio Azur 840A integrated

Cambridge Audio Azur 840C CD Player

Harmonic Technology Interconnects

Anticables Speaker Cable

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Hi Dsrtjeeper,

and welcome.

In my opinion, the Forte IIs are some of the most articulate Klipsch short of the Jubilee.

As far as harsh sounding, the Forte IIs are less harsh than the Forte Is. If these Forte IIs sound harsh, the capacitors in the cross overs need replaced. I don't believe in the whole speaker modification thing, but the capacitors do go bad after time, and Bob Crites offers replacements here on this forum.

As for the Bass you seem to like / Kick Drum response, the Forte IIs are great with Corners. They NEED corners, and corner placement is critical because of the rear passive radiators or "drone cones" as Paul Klipsch refered to them. If you don't have two corners, could you build false corners for the speakers? Place them at a 45 degree to the corners and experiment with moving them in and out to get the best response. Adjust your sweet spot to just beyond convergance of the intersecting centers of the speakers.

If corners are absolutely not viable, considder a musical sub, but realize that one in a corner, and one out of the corner will have less then desirable effects.

Just my 2 cents, and welcome to the forums.

Roger

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Heritaage speakers wont give u a flat kick drum bass feel. The bass is spread out for a wide sound stage(exception Cornwalls). Defenitly try a sub wit the Fortes..I always wanted to have a Forte II sub combo. If you want a solid flat bass response that you can feel get a pair of KLF 20's or 30's. or RF-7's[:D]

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Heritaage speakers wont give u a flat kick drum bass feel. The bass is spread out for a wide sound stage(exception Cornwalls). Defenitly try a sub wit the Fortes..I always wanted to have a Forte II sub combo. If you want a solid flat bass response that you can feel get a pair of KLF 20's or 30's. or RF-7'sBig Smile

You've got to be kidding right.

You obviously have missed something along your audio venture.

My Chorus II can you hit like ,well let me put it like Queensryche would say, a 2 ton heavy thing.

Seriously dude, place your speakers properly and give them some real power and come back with your report on how they dont kick. To not misunderstand, I'm not talking just loud here I can do loud with a clock radio that hurts my ears . I'm talking real power that can control and move a big woofer.

Geesh, a speaker that can realistically hit 130db and dont kick [bs]

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Stormin playing from my Denon 3802 3805 AV receiver I was able to get solid flat kick drum bass response from the klfs 10's and 20's and most of the kg line all the way down to reference speakers but the chorus II's did not. Thats just my experiece with consumer grade amplification. I know I probably shouldnt voice in my opinion without having the audiophile gear lol[:#]

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Interesting to hear about chorus II's. Forte II's are very forgiving regarding amplification, and while corner placement is optimal, they still sound very good without it especially in smallish rooms so I would not be so quick to disregard getting forte II...speaking to the original poster.

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Hola Jeeper-

I just bought a pair of forte ii. I too have some placement issues regarding the room they were intended to go into, specifically that I could not corner load them. My situation was worse than yours because I could not back them up to the wall they were on either. I could get close by boosting the bass, but it still wasn't really what I was hoping for. I could only get them about 1' from the back wall, and in that position the sound was dominated by the higher frequencies, resulting in a pretty strident sound (you know, all the sort of things you typically hear about horn speakers being shouty, etc). If you could get yours closer to the back wall you may have better results.

I was about to return them but decided to try them out in another room where I did have corners available. Huge difference, and unlike any other speaker I've tried the corner thing with, the results were not boomy at all.

Forte II's are a pretty damn respectable speaker all around. They don't play favorites and work very well with all the genres I've tried. They are not strident or horny when placed properly, and the midrange is simply glorious. (My reference is a treated office w/ M&K Pro monitors/sub, which sounds fantastic. The fortes match that system for midrange clarity and resolution, and may surpass it in dynamics...and the M&K's are being pushed w/ a 500w/chan amp in order to get there...I've driven the fortes with each of my various amps, from the crown to the SETs, and they seem to like it all.

The fortes project a big, enveloping soundstage, but don't image the same as my other systems. The soundfield is very much like a live show, and you know how convoluted and non-specific that can sound. The SETs help with this somewhat, but it is still comparatively bombastic and live sounding compared to the M&K's, for example, which are more like sitting in the studio. I have some DT BP7006 towers in the living room, and particularly when driven with SET amps, they do the holographic/disappearing act extremely well, but the forte's crush them in bass and midrange clarity, merciless resolution and dynamic impact. The Klipsch don't 'disappear' so much as energize the whole room. They have no 'boxy' coloration, very airy, clear presentation. I wish I had gotten them sooner, they are a real treat.

Nothing is ever perfect, but forte II's are worth a gamble. If they don't work for you, you would have no trouble unloading a mint pair.

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Forte or Forte II are excellent sounding speakers, one of my good friends has a pair of Forte and invites me over a few times every month to crank some tunes and drives them with a run of the mill Denon receiver with decent results.

I swore they were Forte II's but thats what i get for assuming i guess, though i have not spent as much time with Forte II's i know they too are excellent performers and in my opinion may be somewhat better at low volumes than my beloved Chorus II's but are no comparison when push comes to shove.

Now i never had corners for my Chorus II's until recently and never had complaints but do agree corners help, maybe it was that i had hallways just off the placing of my speakers, thats another reason i love my LaScala's room placement is not nearly as critical as others.

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Stormin playing from my Denon 3802 3805 AV receiver I was able to get solid flat kick drum bass response from the klfs 10's and 20's and most of the kg line all the way down to reference speakers but the chorus II's did not. Thats just my experiece with consumer grade amplification. I know I probably shouldnt voice in my opinion without having the audiophile gear lolZip it!

Well the KLF is a totally different animal with its own strengths and weaknesses.

But to get a Chorus II/ Forte II or Quartet to play at its potential you need a couple of good corners.

And unlike the others you mention if you want to get kicked in the sternum from a Chorus II feed it some real power not those toy receivers. The K-48 in the Chorus II takes some real muscle to get it moving. But make no mistake it will kick like a jack hammer.

My Marantz 250M /Aragon 4004 MK II and Crown K2 are not audiophile amplifiers but the one thing they do have in common is they can supply plenty of power to make a Chorus II slam. The QSC SRA 2422 I had could with ease as well. But receivers are left long in the dust at the starting line.

Just so you know I didn't just pick up a pair of Chorus II's and try them for a couple of weeks I've been working with them for 20 years.

I just don't like to see a speaker condemned from inexperience.

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Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm trying my darndest to figure a way to position these in my room. I do run a Velodyne HGS 12 sub which may help any lack of bass due to no corner placement. The only thing I don't know if I can do without is the lack of imaging. The imaging helps me feel like I'm at the event. I'm still talking to the seller and may give them a listen tomorrow.

Eric

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I'm still a forte newb, but rest assured that they DO image quite well. They require a little space between you and the speakers to pull it off; if you're too close, you get a wall of sound, but at a slightly greater distance the image locks in and is extremely convincing. I think this is due to the sheer size of the speakers and their highly directional nature. I also mentioned that I am lucky enough to have another system which does the holographic imaging trick very well, and it is indeed fun to virtually crawl into, up, and around the layers of the mix. The forte's, on the other hand, are a damn close facsimile of live music; its a much more visceral experience.

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I've read all the replies and countless reviews and decided on sticking with more conventional speakers that will work in my room. I picked up a sweet pair of NHT ST-4's locally and I'm liking them so far. They have a slightly recessed midrange but other than that; they are very musical. It's nice to have bass punch without using a seperate sub as well.

Thanks to all.

Eric

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my Denon 3802 3805 AV receiver I was able to get solid flat kick drum bass response from the klfs 10's and 20's and most of the kg line

I've been down the Denon/Klipsch road before. Great for movies but for music.....my ears hurt just from reading the above sentence. However, the Denon in front of a serious power amp can work very well. Gotta have power dude. [Y]
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