Klipsch question

[Ski Bum]

Clarity and depth is what I'm looking for most of all.

 

Depth, as in bass extension?  Or do you mean depth as in depth-of-field of the soundstage?  If the first, then look for fortes, as they dig the deepest.  If the latter, it's more about mitigating the influence of local acoustics to let the source info dominate, via careful placement and orientation of the speakers, near-field listening, room treatments, etc.  

 

And from what has been said here it looks like the Forte is the winner, even beating the Heresy?!?!?

 

Fortes beat Heresies in bass extension.   I feel a pair of Heresies with subs would be right on par with fortes, perhaps even better because the subs can be placed optimally, where a pair of nearly full range speakers like fortes wouldn't allow that sort of placement flexibility.  The problem is that Heresies require better than average subs in order to keep up with them, so the cost would ramp up quickly going that route. 

[Lemon string]

I bought my son a stereo this year for his birthday which consists of a pair of forte I's with crites tweeters. I am powering them with a sansui AU-555A which produces 25w per channels at 8ohms. I've been really impressed with this set up. It comes very close to my set up, cornwall II's with upgrades. That said I haven't done a side by side with them both powered by the same amp, same room etc.... but they sound really good. The big difference I'd say is how they image, separation of instruments and overall clarity and accuracy. The Cornwall being superior to the Fortes to my ears. The Fortes may produce a bit more bass or a low end that is a bit more forward. The Fortes are in a smaller room set into the corners about a foot off of both walls. I only mention this because I seem to notice Fortes seems to show up on the used market pretty often at pretty good prices. In fact I bought a second pair after buying my sons. I got the second pair for $200 in walnut. With out the crites upgrade they do lack a bit of clarity in the highs and mids, they have a bit of smearing I think. 

 

Moray, could you explain how the chorus are more difficult to drive? I thought that both the kg5.5 and the chorus are 8ohm loads. I'd be interested in hearing your explanation. Seems you always have great info. 

[jjptkd]

Chorus ll are going to require more power than either a Cornwall or a KG 5.5. I think that you are under estimating the KG 5.5, when fitted with a set of Crites ti tweeter diaphragms it is a very good loudspeaker. You only have thirty watts a channel to work with I think the KG 5.5 will give you more quality sound than the Chorus ll will with that amount of power at hand. If you had double the power I think that things would swing toward the Chorus ll. I believe that the Chorus ll is a more difficult load to drive compared to the KG 5.5.

 

This is one time where I have to respectfully disagree with you Moray. The Chorus II has a higher sensitivity rating than the 5.5 so you will get more and higher quality output from the Chorus II with less power. I've joked around about being able to drive my Chorus II's with an alarm clock radio. When I was using Carver amps that had metered output my typically listening levels with the Chorus II's would only hit about 4-5 watts on the meters. Like I said in my previous post 20 watts of tube power would likely be loud enough for most people with the Chorus II's.

 

I like the KG 5.5's but really think the Chorus II's are just an all around better speaker. The Chorus was originally designed as the replacement for the Cornwall and I believe them to be superior to the Cornwall, of course that is just my opinion as to which one sounds best.

 

I agree though that the best option is try out both speakers, buy them both if you can and demo them in your own space and decide for yourself which one you prefer. If you get fair deals on both sets you should have no problem re-selling the set you decide not to keep and not lose any money doing so.

[MORE KLIPSCH PLEASE]

Chorus II hands down, don't even think twice about it. I've ran mine with a little Jolida 102 at 20 wpc and a Carver VTA 20 (also 20 wpc)  and they drove them to about 75% output with authority. Very loud and clear with good bass. Yes, they can handle a lot more power but they don't need it to sound good.

 

YUP.....

 

MKP :-)

[Dr Morbius]

Wow, thanks for the recommendations guys - even though it seems to be split pretty equally. Maybe Forte's are the way to go.