Vintage Fortes complete our newbie system

[WCWIII]

First, a thank you to those who share wisdom through this forum. As I was researching, this forum was invaluable.

 

My wife and I are rediscovering vinyl plus CD plus digital inputs now that kids are out of the house. We come home, make a cocktail, enjoy some music ... lot's of jazz, soul ... but Black Sabbath et al. occasionally might be heard. Our system is in a living room area in an open floor plan including a vaulted ceiling up to the 2nd floor loft. Fabric on many of the walls. While I can sometimes sit and try to critique every musical nuance, more often it works well just to ask Alexa to start streaming some music.

 

I didn't think I could go wrong with our recent acquisition of "Near Mint" 1986 Forte I speakers for just under $500 on ebay. The Forte's seemed just right for quality and budget to replace a just slightly older pair JVC SK-33s that I've had since college days to complete our modest ... but I think we hit some sweet spots ... upgraded audio system.

 

The system includes an Emotiva TA-100 amp and ERC-3 CD, a Rega RP-1 turntable (mod'ed w/Michael Lim parts obtained through craigslist - we really like this component), and our Fortes ... a pretty good system with a total cost about $1500.

 

The efficiency (this attracted me to Klipsch in general) of the Forte's seem well-matched with the smaller 50W/channel amplifier (it's supposed works well with tubes too). I like that the Forte's have very good bass response compared to other options like Heresy's. The first thing that I heard with the new speakers was the ability to make out each of the musical instruments. Very noticeable. The sound to me was remarkably well-balanced. You heard the lows and the drum beats but they fit perfectly and didn't dominate the sound. Then, I heard no degradation as I turned the volume up to the max - clarity all the way up. Music also sounds much better if I happen to be sitting up in that loft area rather than in the living room. To me the clarity was not harsh at all.

 

Hope this review gives some others ideas to consider. Maybe some of the experts can suggest what I might consider as next steps for my system.

 

I have the Fortes about 10 inches away from the wall, well-separated and slightly toed in. It's not much to replace speaker wire ... how important is that? Any other advice? I'd consider new crossovers but I like what I have and don't need to go that route now.

[USNRET]

Welcome!
Forte nice. had a pair just had too many so some had to be sent forward.
Didn't happen without pictures bro

[JBCODD]

Next steps? Chill and listen. Enjoy. And as de Navy sez "post pix".

[JBCODD]

1 hour ago, WCWIII said:

I have the Fortes about 10 inches away from the wall, well-separated and slightly toed in. It's not much to replace speaker wire ... how important is that? Any other advice? I'd consider new crossovers but I like what I have and don't need to go that route now.

 

There are many strong opinions on wires. I approach it from an economic vector.  When my kit is completed in its current form, I'll have about 100 -tops, 150 in interconnects, out of about 2k total. This includes a nice set of la Scala, which ate over half the budget.  If I had 5k, and was offered the option of a really nice set of speaker wires, or other, I would choose other. And get a set O' KHorns, a nice Bifrost multibit and a tall tuba sub. Prolly have some left to buy more music.

[USNRET]

EDIT EDIT
Speaker wire = use big box 16 ga lamp cord or your choice of many decent wires to help the wife get over the runs in front of the fireplace. I use http://www.knukonceptz.com/mobile-audio/speaker-wire/

[willland]

7 hours ago, WCWIII said:

Any other advice? I'd consider new crossovers but I like what I have and don't need to go that route now.

An inexpensive "enhancement" would be a pair of "Crites Tites" titanium tweeter diaphragms.  They really added a bit of sizzle to the top end to my forte' I's.

 

 

http://www.critesspeakers.com/klipsch_tweeters.html

 

As far as refreshing crossovers or new ones all together, listen and enjoy for a while and then consider it.  Capacitors do lose their effectiveness over time.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Bill

[JohnA]

11 hours ago, WCWIII said:

 

I have the Fortes about 10 inches away from the wall, well-separated and slightly toed in. It's not much to replace speaker wire ... how important is that? Any other advice? I'd consider new crossovers but I like what I have and don't need to go that route now.

 

Listen a while.  They may not need anything, new capacitors at worst. 

 

As to speaker wire, I'd use 4 ohms as the speaker impedance, based on the Forte II:

And use this table from THE old McIntosh guy to pick the wire size:

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

If you want overkill, go one size larger.  If your wires meet the table, you're good.  Odds are what you're using is excellent. 

 

Full disclosure; I made 11 ga equivalent braided, teflon CAT5e speaker cables for my front 3.  The boys and I went to considerable effort and had sore fingers for those efforts.  I could hear no difference between green monster cable and my pretty new wires through my La Scalas and a small difference through a KLF-C7 (that I liked).  The difference *may* have been due to the midrange impedance difference between the C7 and La Scalas.  Years later, I utterly failed a speaker wire listening test in Indy between Cat5 and nasty looking test lead wire.