Pairing my Forte's with.....???? (Surround Sound Advice)

[owenleack]

Hey all, I am moving into my first apartment and building my first stereo. I originally wanted to have an awesome surround system in my living room, so the first thing I got was a Denon AVR-2310 (105W x 7). When deciding where to go from there, with money and longevity in mind, I decided to go with buying 2 nice mains and building from there. I'd rather have 2 really nice speakers and build later than 5 mediocore ones. Remembering how much my father loved his Heresy's I looked around Craigslist and ended up purchasing a pair of 86 Klipsch Forte's.

Now I am looking to build around them and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions about what kind of speakers go with these? They obviously sound fantastic in stereo with cds, but I'd like to open them up into a surround system. The room they will be in isn't too large, probably 20 x 12 ft or so and I would prefer not to pair them with larger speakers like Heresys or something. Are there any smaller bookshelf speakers that people have had good luck with? Thanks for the help

[Mikekid]

Hi.

I have been using this set-up for several years now and it works just fine. (KG 1.5, 2.5 )

I didn't have room for large surrounds either.[][Y]

Take care

Mike

[wuzzzer]

I've had RS-42s, KG 3.5s and my current Fortes as surrounds. The Fortes of course sound the best but I loved the KG 3.5s also. If you can pick up a KG 3 or higher number set you should be able to find them used for $150-400 depending on the exact model and condition.

Good decision on the 2 really nice speakers versus 5 mediocre ones. That's smart thinking!

[carbon summit]

I've used my KG 2.5s as surrounds and was very happy. If your receiver has 7 channel stereo then Forte's all the way around will sound the best.
But for just HT use, I think you'd be happy with 2.2s or 2.5s. From there bigger is always better! I've got some 1.2s but I've never used them as surrounds to know they'd sound. But the 2.2 and 2.5s both will surprise you for the sound you'll get from their size.

For a center of course you should buy one of the Academy center speakers I have to sell!!! []

Or maybe a 2.2v or a 2.5v or since you've probably got an LCD shielding isn't really an issue like it used to be so using a regular 2.2 or 2.5 would work well too. I'd avoid anything smaller for a center as I don't think they'd keep up and I don't think you'd be happy. I had a KV-2 and it was kind of a joke compared to my Academy. Kind of a joke compared to when I used a 2.5 as a center just to see how it would sound.

A Forte as a center channel is the best of course but I couldn't get that to work with my room so I went back to an Academy

[RichardP]

As others state, the Academy was designed as the timbre-matched center for the Quartet/Forte/Chorus line. Unfortunately, it was only made for 3 years, which makes it hard to find and relatively in demand and expensive, as many of the Q/F/C mains were sold and for much longer. You can occasionally find them on craigslist or Ebay for as little as $200 from sellers who don't know what they have, and $300-$500 from sellers who do.

Many, including myself, have for a while used a KG 2.2V or 2.5V as center, which works as well or better than any speaker besides the Academy, and is fairly easy to find. Others have liked the KF-C7, but it is large and also hard to find. Forum member Calblacksmith recently posted about three weeks ago that he found a center from the Synergy line to be a good match for Q/F/Cs, so look for that thread.

[Rivernuggets]

Forum member Calblacksmith recently posted about three weeks ago that he found a center from the Synergy line to be a good match for Q/F/Cs, so look for that thread

Here it is.

[wuzzzer]

I've been incredibly impressed with my SC-1 as a center channel with my Forte II fronts. I at one time tried an RC-3 and it was an ok center but the SC-1 just blends together so much better.

The fact that I picked it up for less than $30 is even better! []

[carbon summit]

I've been incredibly impressed with my SC-1 as a center channel with my Forte II fronts. I at one time tried an RC-3 and it was an ok center but the SC-1 just blends together so much better.

The fact that I picked it up for less than $30 is even better!

SC-1? I thought you just got an Academy?

[wuzzzer]

Nope, deal fell through. The 16 year old kid that samson was going to pick it up from jacked the price up from $75 to $200. He now has lowered it to $150 but there's no way I'd buy it from him unless he honored his original asking price.

[carbon summit]

That sucks. I thought you finally found your Academy.

[wuzzzer]

Me too. I couldn't believe it when samson told me what the kid did.

I'll be getting a pretty decent bonus from work next week so once I see how much it is maybe I'll spring for a little nicer Academy.

[owenleack]

Thanks for all the advice, I will certainly be putting some of these into effect! Perhaps someday the Academys would work for me but I am looking into saving some space for the time being. The SC-1 seems like something in the size/price range I was looking at for now, and other users seem to be quite happy with them. I saw this deal on craigslist, although I don't know much about repairing speakers and there is a dust cap issue with one of them (so the ad says). Does this seem like a good deal, and is this repair hard to do?

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/ele/1721629549.html

[Rivernuggets]

As long as the dust cap is the only issue, I think that's a decent deal. Here is some glue for the repair.

Lay the speaker so the woofer is pointed at the ceiling. There should be no debris behind a dust cap. Make sure it's immaculate in there, then glue the dust cap to the woofer cone. You'll probably see a dark ring where it was glued before. Glue it in the same spot. Use enough glue so it barely starts to squeeze out the sides with slight pressure. The weight equivalent to a CD case should work fine. Let it cure in this 'clamped' state for 24 hours. It dries clear and shiney, so a little glue peeking out around the dust cap is OK. Good luck!

[wuzzzer]

Thanks for all the advice, I will certainly be putting some of these into effect! Perhaps someday the Academys would work for me but I am looking into saving some space for the time being. The SC-1 seems like something in the size/price range I was looking at for now, and other users seem to be quite happy with them. I saw this deal on craigslist, although I don't know much about repairing speakers and there is a dust cap issue with one of them (so the ad says). Does this seem like a good deal, and is this repair hard to do?

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/ele/1721629549.html

Great addition to your setup as long as the one speaker isn't too costly to repair.