Chorus I vs Forte II

[Wuchak]

Can anyone compare the Chorus I with the Forte II? There are lots of comparisons of the Chorus II with the Forte II's and Forte I vs Forte II but I don't see a Chorus vs Forte II. I'm asking because I got a pair of Chorus last week and they are really growing on me. Then a pair of Forte II's came on CL for a good price. I am tempted to grab them but wondering about placement. My room requires the speakers to be placed several feet out from the back wall because the wall is all book shelves and the entrance to the room is in the front right corner so placing a speaker there would be make it impossible to get into the room.The Forte II's are supposed to have much deeper bass than the Chorus, which is my main reason for wanting to try them, The Chorus being front ported works well placed out into the room. I'm concerned that placing the Forte II's out into the room with the passive radiators would result in a loss of bass and bring their level down to that of the Chorus. They also use different horns but there seems to be some disagreement as to which sounds better. Any thoughts and input into the merits of one of these speakers over the other is welcome. If these things were not so big and such a PITA to move around I would just grab the Fortes but if there is little to no improvement to be had it's probably not worth the effort.

[willland]

Wuchak,

For your situation, I would stick with the Chorus I's. Speakers with passive radiators(Forte I&II,Chorus II, Quartet's, etc.) are better placed in corners or at least near wall in rear of speaker(ex. 12 to 20 inches) to achieve the proper bass extension. The Chorus I's work well near rear wall or pulled out into room due to front porting.

In my opinion, the exponential horn sounds great but is more directional than the tractrix horn and is a little harder to dial in. The tractrix horn is more forgiving in that if your listening position is a little off-axis, you will still get pretty directional sound. I have both the Forte's(exp.horn) and Quartet's(trx. horn) and both sound equally fantastic to me.

Can you afford to get the Forte II's and place them in another room with corners or a better rear wall?

Bill

[John Chi-town]

As Bill stated, they will not integrate well together due to the different midrange horns. If you want to integrate, forte 1's would be a much better choice.

I have never owned the forte, but been lovin' my forte II's since '92. I have fiends that have the 1st version, and they are awesome as well. But if I could only have one which is the case, I prefer the forte II.

[Wuchak]

Thanks Guys. I would have bought them and tried them but it seems they are gone. Today I get to pickup my Aragon 4004 from the shop and try it with the Onkyo P-304 preamp into the Chorus. I'm hoping that it sounds amazing enough to make me forget tubes. As much as I like the sound I find them to be a major PITA. I just want something that sounds great that I can run all day and every decade take in for a checkup.

[jerryd]

Wuchak,

For your situation, I would stick with the Chorus I's. Speakers with passive radiators(Forte I&II,Chorus II, Quartet's, etc.) are better placed in corners or at least near wall in rear of speaker(ex. 12 to 20 inches) to achieve the proper bass extension. The Chorus I's work well near rear wall or pulled out into room due to front porting.

In my opinion, the exponential horn sounds great but is more directional than the tractrix horn and is a little harder to dial in. The tractrix horn is more forgiving in that if your listening position is a little off-axis, you will still get pretty directional sound. I have both the Forte's(exp.horn) and Quartet's(trx. horn) and both sound equally fantastic to me.

Can you afford to get the Forte II's and place them in another room with corners or a better rear wall?

Bill

I have forte II setup for stereo and music. I find that they need to be about 14 inches from wall to get the bass kickin. My room being really small this erks me. I really want a speaker than can give good bass but be closer to the wall like 6 inches. I was thinking about trying some choris to compare but the specs do scare me. the choris are go to 45hz where the forte ii goes to 32 hz. The only back to back with klipsch i have heard is when I bought the fortes. I comparred them to my heresy II. The heresays just had no bass (63hz) althogh I thought they were more dynamic than the fortes. ideally the heresy plus sub would have been a better overall combo but I dont want to use a sub, nor did I really like the size and shape of the heresy. I havent done any upgrades to my fortes. I prolly should as everone raves about it. I have just been itching to try to improve what i have. Was also considering trying some KLF 10 with upgrades. How are rear ported speakers for placement?

[cablebandit]

whatever you do get the Crites tweeters for your Chorus Is...I just did and love the difference.

[Wuchak]

I'm going to order the complete Crites works from Crites for the Chorus, the crossovers and tweeters for both mid and tweeters so I can do the upgrade on my Christmas vacation. I can't wait to hear them once the new components are installed. I really like them now but they are missing that magic on the top end that I'm hoping the new crossovers and tweeters will have. Then I can get off the "speaker quest" and just enjoy the music.

I see from your sig that you installed tubes in the ports. Can you please tell me about this mod? What it involved, what you used, and what the sound difference was? I might add that to the list of things to do while they are pulled apart.

Once the upgrades are done they will get either smoked glass or polished granite for the tops since someone foolishly used them as plant stands. The rest of the finish is excellent but the tops are a bit messed up. I think it will be easier to dress them up and hide it than to fix them. Putting on veneer is beyond my basic carpentry skills.