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So, I love my forte's.....


Samac

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I've had them since '88. Bought them new from a local dealer. I had them sitting idle for the most part of the last 10 years while I played audiophile. Sad really and I hope you all can forgive me. I had them in service for a few years as background music and now they are back where they belong as the star of the system. I've always loved them and I'm really glad I didn't sell them when I was chasing some audiophile fantasy. I just knew something was suppose to be so much better. I mean everyone was telling me they were mid-fi at best and I needed some "good" speakers if I wanted to be taken seriously. Ok, enough fun. I've come to my senses and am enjoying music again with them and that's all good.

I've got a question or two. The forte's are original and stock. I had to replace a tweeter diaphram on one of them and I sourced that from Klipsch. I am not interested in updating or modding them but they do have 26 year old crossovers and I would like to know if there is anywhere recommedable that woud be able to check them. I believe Klipsch actually use to do this. Man, i wish they still did because I'd load them up and take them there.

So, any suggestions. Also, since I'm enjoying them so much and I'm not interested in modding/updating maybe I just shouldn't worrying if the crossovers are within spec? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

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I've had them since '88. Bought them new from a local dealer. I had them sitting idle for the most part of the last 10 years while I played audiophile. Sad really and I hope you all can forgive me. I had them in service for a few years as background music and now they are back where they belong as the star of the system. I've always loved them and I'm really glad I didn't sell them when I was chasing some audiophile fantasy. I just knew something was suppose to be so much better. I mean everyone was telling me they were mid-fi at best and I needed some "good" speakers if I wanted to be taken seriously. Ok, enough fun. I've come to my senses and am enjoying music again with them and that's all good.

I've got a question or two. The forte's are original and stock. I had to replace a tweeter diaphram on one of them and I sourced that from Klipsch. I am not interested in updating or modding them but they do have 26 year old crossovers and I would like to know if there is anywhere recommedable that woud be able to check them. I believe Klipsch actually use to do this. Man, i wish they still did because I'd load them up and take them there.

So, any suggestions. Also, since I'm enjoying them so much and I'm not interested in modding/updating maybe I just shouldn't worrying if the crossovers are within spec? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

I have just completed week one with my new Crites,, zero complaints, Lascallas sound as great as new.

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i'm no cap expert by any means & while i do understand caps can go "bad" after time, i feel strongly that if the speakers sound good & the tweets still produce nice crips high notes that the caps they are hooked too are most likely fine. likewise for the mids. but on the other hand, i have heard an older speaker that it was obvious the tweets werent working right, when pulling the tweeter & hooking it up to the other speaker it sounded fine... so that indicated the capacitor was indeed bad. ordered a cheap equal quality one from parts express & it fixed the problem. moral of the story, if it sounds good, it probably is.

as a forte 1 owner myself, these things sound awsome, even at 25+ years old. i bought mine from the original owner, an elderly gentleman that was selling his stuff to move to a retirement home, he said they were barely used in the last 10 years & he only listened to classical at what i assume was "lower" volume levels. he didnt even know the grilles came off untill i pulled one when i was looking at them, it was so tight i had to gently use a butter knife to pry it off. definantly had never been removed. long story short, they were in literally like new cosmetic condition & sound downright amazing. probably never had any rock & roll played through them untill now & i bet the woofers never actually moved. i have since cranked them up to pretty decent levels & am blown away at how good they sound. better than my kg 5.5's in every way. could only imagine what the ti tweets would do for them. might upgrade them soon.

if yours sound ok, i wouldnt worry about the caps for awhile.

Edited by klipschfancf4
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Congrats on pulling out the Fortes and enjoying it. I would suggest that good speaker placement is still the most important thing for good sound. Some of that audiofool stuff about placement and room treatments etc. do make sense so you probably know this already.

I just had my Forte IIs in a very large room probably 30 deep and 100 wide. The imaging was spectacular and there was no shortage of bottom end. Enjoy!

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Thanks for the replies, guys. Might have to get the crossover rebuild kit from Critesspeakers at some point. Would just have to find someone I could completely trust to do the work. Never soldered and I don't want to practice on my forte's. :lol: As klipschfancf4 said, if they sound good, enjoy. They do sound fantastic! So that's wha I'm going to do.

bracurrie, absolutely, good placement is crucial. Thanks. I'll say though if you don't care about soundstage and imaging you just need to put them in good corners at 45 degrees and enjoy. That's why I love them!

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Crites, Dean, ALK .. they all make brand new crossovers (some costing $800+) and ship them just fine. I'm currently listening to a pair of crossovers that are part of a "roadshow", meaning they spend nearly as much time in shipping transit as they do inside a speaker cabinet. I also just shipped my crossovers to Dean and they will be shipped back. Put your fears to rest. ;)

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I've had them since '88. Bought them new from a local dealer. I had them sitting idle for the most part of the last 10 years while I played audiophile. Sad really and I hope you all can forgive me. I had them in service for a few years as background music and now they are back where they belong as the star of the system. I've always loved them and I'm really glad I didn't sell them when I was chasing some audiophile fantasy. I just knew something was suppose to be so much better. I mean everyone was telling me they were mid-fi at best and I needed some "good" speakers if I wanted to be taken seriously. Ok, enough fun. I've come to my senses and am enjoying music again with them and that's all good.

I've got a question or two. The forte's are original and stock. I had to replace a tweeter diaphram on one of them and I sourced that from Klipsch. I am not interested in updating or modding them but they do have 26 year old crossovers and I would like to know if there is anywhere recommedable that woud be able to check them. I believe Klipsch actually use to do this. Man, i wish they still did because I'd load them up and take them there.

So, any suggestions. Also, since I'm enjoying them so much and I'm not interested in modding/updating maybe I just shouldn't worrying if the crossovers are within spec? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

What wayward path did you take?

You started with Fortes and ended with Fortes, what was in the middle? This will be a good lesson for the youngon's.

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I've had them since '88. Bought them new from a local dealer. I had them sitting idle for the most part of the last 10 years while I played audiophile. Sad really and I hope you all can forgive me. I had them in service for a few years as background music and now they are back where they belong as the star of the system. I've always loved them and I'm really glad I didn't sell them when I was chasing some audiophile fantasy. I just knew something was suppose to be so much better. I mean everyone was telling me they were mid-fi at best and I needed some "good" speakers if I wanted to be taken seriously. Ok, enough fun. I've come to my senses and am enjoying music again with them and that's all good.

I've got a question or two. The forte's are original and stock. I had to replace a tweeter diaphram on one of them and I sourced that from Klipsch. I am not interested in updating or modding them but they do have 26 year old crossovers and I would like to know if there is anywhere recommedable that woud be able to check them. I believe Klipsch actually use to do this. Man, i wish they still did because I'd load them up and take them there.

So, any suggestions. Also, since I'm enjoying them so much and I'm not interested in modding/updating maybe I just shouldn't worrying if the crossovers are within spec? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

What wayward path did you take?

You started with Fortes and ended with Fortes, what was in the middle? This will be a good lesson for the youngon's.

Multi-driver dynamic floorstanders to to sealed box stand mounts. I enjoyed other set-ups I've had here and there but nothing ever came together easily or last very long or even had the sound I like. They were high maintenance and expensive (for me). It was my fault, I made it too hard. I had great sound from the forte's ten years ago and I should have just enjoyed the music. They were used with a tube pre into the amp section of an NAD 320BEE, source was an NAD 541i cdp and it was sooo good. But I just knew it should get even better (yeah, right). That's when the ugly journey began.

What the forte' does so well for me is full range, dynamic, detailed, transparent music that just sounds right and you don't have to spend a fortune to get there, just choose equipment wisely. The set I have listed has just recently come together and I can now honestly say that I'm just about back to where I was a decade ago. I do still miss that octal tube pre I had. The music from it was outrageous.

That's my story in a nutshell. I hope it makes sense.

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