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Forte III


oldred

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I listened to the Forte III at CES, one pair in an enclosed demo room, the other pair out in the open convention center with thousands of people chattering in the background. They sounded great in both environments, with the two different amps. All my thoughts about the Forte III are positive.

As a bit of contrast, I also listened to dozens of other very nice loudspeakers that were set up in their individual luxury hotel suites with massive power amps and thousand dollar interconnect cables. Most sounded impressively fine, but many of those exotic speakers lost their finesse at moderately high sound pressure levels which led me to believe that they are short on dynamic range, and some of those speakers cost as much as a new car. So I think the Klipsch advantage is the great sound that gets better as you turn up the volume. The Forte III is a really good speaker at a good price.

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So it has been 5 days since I first learned about the Forte III.  I had no idea this speaker was even considered as a comeback.

 

I have been patient.  5 days is long enough.  Available yet?

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On January 8, 2017 at 4:14 PM, tube fanatic said:

Question for Roy- has anyone auditioned the Forte IIIs at fairly low listening levels (say 65-75 db) in a near-field situation such as the listener at 5 or 6 feet from the speakers?  I ask because La Scalas do well when arranged and used that way.

 

Maynard

I listen at various levels and distances. I think you might like how the fortes handle this. 

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1 hour ago, nitrofan said:

I find it amazing that a 70 year old design blows away 99 percent of what's available today. If you've never heard heritage Klipsch you're really missing out

You have a friendly audience here but Klipsch Heritage barely gets a blip of interest in the serious audiophile marketplace. Many associate Klipsch with cheap product sold at Best Buy. Whether or not Klipsch Heritage sounds better or not (debatable) the majority would rather have a Sonus Faber on display in their living room.  

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Ya know when I saw the the mid reference line at Bestbuy I really didn't think it was a good idea. But then again there are very few small stereo stores left.

The one thing I did not understand was when they came out with Palladium...I thought for sure I'd see and hear them at one of the shows like Axpona. I saw Sony/Elac speakers there.

But nothing from our good friends in Hope. I could never understand why they never had one of the big rooms with Pallidium and maybe a set of Khorns . Maybe this year

I think there are enough old school people to make the Forte III a hit...especially with the resurgence of vinyl and tubes.

 

 

George

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7 hours ago, jjptkd said:

 

Yes, I was waiting for someone to bring this up as I feel the same way. Where would we be today if all businesses acted this way, driving model T's out of fear of disrespecting Henry Ford? I did not know Paul Klipsch but I would have to imagine that if he were alive today and in the "Chiefs" shoes he would certainly be developing speakers of today and not yesteryear.

it seems to me that some of the discussion ("Model T") is contrary to the facts.

 

PWK did approve the Forte II and the tractrix mid.  Reportedly he had a pair in his office.  And he did approve of the new mid for the Jubilee.

 

It is interesting that Don Keele credited the K-5 as the first constant direct\vity mid.  Therefore, arguably, the tractrix was to some extent an adoption of his earliest design.

 

I've also pointed out that Klipsch had long used the K-77 from EV but then went on to his own exponential tweeter.

 

He also worked with Roy on the Jubilee which was an update to the K-Horn

 

Given these events, he was not living in the day of the Model T at all but rather continued to evolve his designs to his last days.

 

 

WMcD

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On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 11:48 AM, Chief bonehead said:

tell me, if you were mentored, taught, hanging out and were loved by a person that you would have considered a father figure in your life, would you insult him?

 

 paul's real heritage speakers are what paul built the company on. but paul is not alive anymore.....and we never discussed updating his speakers from a horn perspective.

 

 but it is my intention of honoring paul is why i will not update his speakers.  i will never say never....but right now, i would not do that to pauls speakers or his legacy.

These are the comments specifically that I was referring to in my post. I can understand maybe why the Klipschorn should possibly remain untouched in its design as it is the original Klipsch speaker but not sure about the rest of the line up, especially the Cornwall III that isn't even using it's original mid horn anyway?

 

15 minutes ago, WMcD said:

it seems to me that some of the discussion ("Model T") is contrary to the facts.

 

PWK did approve the Forte II and the tractrix mid.  Reportedly he had a pair in his office.  And he did approve of the new mid for the Jubilee.

 

It is interesting that Don Keele credited the K-5 as the first constant direct\vity mid.  Therefore, arguably, the tractrix was to some extent an adoption of his earliest design.

 

I've also pointed out that Klipsch had long used the K-77 from EV but then went on to his own exponential tweeter.

 

He also worked with Roy on the Jubilee which was an update to the K-Horn

 

Given these events, he was not living in the day of the Model T at all but rather continued to evolve his designs to his last days.

 

 

WMcD

 

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8 hours ago, jjptkd said:

 

Yes, I was waiting for someone to bring this up as I feel the same way. Where would we be today if all businesses acted this way, driving model T's out of fear of disrespecting Henry Ford? I did not know Paul Klipsch but I would have to imagine that if he were alive today and in the "Chiefs" shoes he would certainly be developing speakers of today and not yesteryear.

Dude. I give up. You don't get it. Later. 

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9 hours ago, DrWho said:

I'm confused by this - and not at all being judgmental either. Why would Paul being such an open-minded person have an emotional attachment to outdated design philosophies? Isn't every engineer (including Paul) elated at the thought of getting a second chance on an old design, and incorporating all of life's experiences into the next version? Wouldn't it be honoring of Paul and his engineering brilliance to incorporate as much experience as possible into every design?

 

I'm often told I'm still young and don't understand nostalgia yet, but isn't there a deeper nostalgia in understanding the process and philosophy behind an object, rather than the object itself? I get the impression that if PWK was building a speaker today, that it'd look a lot like the skunkworks Jubilee that Roy put together. Would PWK be building something else?

 

Btw, I'm super excited about the Forte III. I finally have a new speaker from Klipsch that I can recommend without apology. The Forte II is definitely in my top 3 favorites from Klipsch. I'm sure the Forte III is gonna move up into that list.

 

Where will they be on sale? And where can I send people to go demo them?

Grasshopper. I expect more from you as you have attended a few jubefest. Paul did not have an emotional attachment. I have an emotional attachment to paul.  I understand what you are saying but right now, I just won't.  I hope you find a mentor and friend like I did in paul and then maybe some day you will understand. 

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With this more "traditional" speaker configuration, Forte lll, what has marketing targeted as the proposed buyer for this speaker? And other than online direct from Klipsch which type of retailer will reach this proposed market? The Best Buy type retailer or what's left of the traditional brick/mortar hifi stores?

Chief, when you undertake a consumer product like the Flll are you developing at the request from marketing or do you design then approach marketing with "look what I have here". Or as I suspect a team collaboration from the very early stages of development?

Anxious to hear these in Hope ---

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