Amplifier Selection Forte III

[onzedge]

I know the Forte III is rated for 100 W.  I am looking at buying these speakers but am concerned that my 150 W power amp will kill them.  Any suggestions or comments?

[wvu80]

Welcome to the Klipsch forums, Post #1!  Your question is a good one, something others have wondered as well.

 

You will be fine with an amp that has more power than your speakers are rated for.  The simple answer which is also the best, is just don't turn your volume up to 10/10.

 

 

[willland]

@onzedge,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Most 150w/ch amps would be just fine with the Forte III's.  Unless this amp is cheap(inferior parts, build quality) and the stated specs are exaggerated or plain dishonest, no problems should arise unless you twist the knob to max.  Forte III's are so efficient that you will never need anywhere near what a 150w/ch amp can provide.

 

What particular amp are you speaking of?

 

Bill

[onzedge]

12 minutes ago, willland said:

@onzedge,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Most 150w/ch amps would be just fine with the Forte III's.  Unless this amp is cheap(inferior parts, build quality) and the stated specs are exaggerated or plain dishonest, no problems should arise unless you twist the knob to max.  Forte III's are so efficient that you will never need anywhere near what a 150w/ch amp can provide.

 

What particular amp are you speaking of?

 

Bill

 

Thank you for the kind welcome.  It is a McIntosh MC152 paired with a Parasound Halo P5 Preamp.

[onzedge]

2 hours ago, wvu80 said:

Welcome to the Klipsch forums, Post #1!  Your question is a good one, something others have wondered as well.

 

You will be fine with an amp that has more power than your speakers are rated for.  The simple answer which is also the best, is just don't turn your volume up to 10/10.

 

 

 

Thank you for the good reply.

[twk123]

6 minutes ago, onzedge said:

 

Thank you for the kind welcome.  It is a McIntosh MC152 paired with a Parasound Halo P5 Preamp.

Lol I dont think you need to worry about the 'cheap amp with inferior parts' issue with that thing. Those speakers will sound great with that amp. You may have to post some pictures when they come in as well. A cool thing about the Forte III is Roy Delgado personally designed them. He was Paul Klipsch's protege back in the day and they worked very closely together.  He is also a member on the form as @Chief bonehead and pokes in from time to time give advice and answer questions etc. Much of the horn design on the Forte III came from his work on the professional side and is truly state of the art.

[onzedge]

10 minutes ago, twk123 said:

Lol I dont think you need to worry about the 'cheap amp with inferior parts' issue with that thing. Those speakers will sound great with that amp. You may have to post some pictures when they come in as well. A cool thing about the Forte III is Roy Delgado personally designed them. He was Paul Klipsch's protege back in the day and they worked very closely together.  He is also a member on the form as @Chief bonehead and pokes in from time to time give advice and answer questions etc. Much of the horn design on the Forte III came from his work on the professional side and is truly state of the art.

 

Thanks kindly.  I am piecing together my system and should be done within a month or so.  My work travel keeps me away from home a great deal lately.

[willland]

14 minutes ago, twk123 said:

Lol I dont think you need to worry about the 'cheap amp with inferior parts' issue with that thing.

You got that right.

 

Bill

[Shakeydeal]

I think you will really like those speakers, surely digging mine.

 

Shakey

[derrickdj1]

I take it you are using a SS amp.  Many of us on the forum also use tube amps.  Most of the tube amps do not have nearly the power rating of the SS amp.  In other words, even an amp rated less than 150 watts is OK in many cases.  Has someone said, the amp is not as much a problem as the hand on the volume knob, lol.  

 

I use a 40 watt tube amp for stereo listening and rarely exceed 1 watt.

 

 

[ODS123]

I have Cornwall III's which are just a bit more efficient.  Still, I have the benefit of a wattage meter on my integrated (McIntosh MA6600).  I have yet to get the volume cranked to where the peaks are even 20 watts.  ..Cruising along at 5 watts is freakin' LOUD!!!  My hunch is your ears will start to clip before your speakers do. 

[Paducah Home Theater]

I use a Parasound Halo A23, rated at 125 watts but it's underrated, real world test show closer to 150 watts, it works fine.  People ask this all the time but realistically speaking you should be able to tell when you're ripping your speakers to shreds with too much power.  I wouldn't be afraid to put a 400 watt amp on them because I know I'm not going to use all that power.  I'm typically just going to use the first few watts.  

[onzedge]

4 minutes ago, MetropolisLakeOutfitters said:

I use a Parasound Halo A23, rated at 125 watts but it's underrated, real world test show closer to 150 watts, it works fine.  People ask this all the time but realistically speaking you should be able to tell when you're ripping your speakers to shreds with too much power.  I wouldn't be afraid to put a 400 watt amp on them because I know I'm not going to use all that power.  I'm typically just going to use the first few watts.  

 

You all are very helpful and quite kind to me -- a neophyte.

[garyrc]

The Forte III has a sensitivity of 99 dB at 2.83 volts at 1 Meter (39.37 inches away), "In an average listening room"  (the footnote on the spec sheet).  If you play music very loudly. and you have "an average listening room" (not huge, i.e. 4,000 cu. ft., or less), neither too live nor too dead, and you sit about 10 to 15 feet away, and the speakers are near a wall (see instructions that came with the speaker) or other source of boundary gain, you should be fine.  Out in such a room, at such a listening position, 100 watts would produce about 110 dB, which is louder than a sane person would ever want to go for more than an instant.  I've gone there for a very occasional peak for just an instant (just a touch of a needle swing) with the loudest Mahler or Beethoven climax.  As far as "instantaneous peaks" (well named), a matter of milliseconds, Klipsch says the Forte is good to 400 watts.  Don't push it, though. 

 

Most speaker "blow outs" occur because somebody plugs or unplugs a cable between a preamp and amp, or source (phono, tape, CDplayer, etc.) and preamp or receiver, with the power on.  I always unplug everything concerned before messing with those RCA style plugs.  Other sources of trouble are test tones that are pumped in at too high a level (primarily into a tweeter or midrange), electronic music, parties in which the wrong person grabs the volume control, especially when in Altered State, etc., or loaning your equipment out for a "Dance at the Gym."

 

You have an incredibly high quality system there!

[pzannucci]

Large amps are not a problem unless you are in a huge room listening very loud.  As pointed out, you should hear signs of distress which means "turn it down" but again, you would likely need to be in a very large room to get to that point unless you have (or will have) hearing problems.

[Islander]

Many speaker manufacturers these days recommend using an amplifier with double the rated power of the speakers.  This reduces the chances that the amp will ever be pushed to the point of causing distortions like clipping, which can harm or even destroy a speaker.  However, Klipsch speakers are so efficient that when in home use they are generally running on just a few watts most of the time.  The "surplus" amplifier power is not wasted.  It's useful as headroom, the extra power needed momentarily to realistically reproduce loud transient sounds, like drumbeats or handclaps.

 

Those short bursts of higher power don't do the speakers any harm, generally speaking, partly because they don't last long enough to cause the drivers to overheat.  If an amp has inadequate power, the sharp frontal edge of the sound (the "attack") won't be sharp, and the sound won't sound real.  For example, applause from a large audience will sound more like surf, which takes away from the illusion of listening to real people clapping.

 

To put it another way, imagine the impact of a bass drum skin being hit.  To reproduce that sound accurately, the amp must be able to hit the speaker driver just about as hard.  Because of their very high efficiency, horn-loaded speakers have the advantage of not needing so much power, nor so much driver cone movement, to produce realistic sound.  As well, the less the cones or diaphragms move, the less distortion is produced.  As Paul Klipsch himself said, "If it moves, it distorts.", which is why he sought to minimize cone and diaphragm movement.  His success in this is shown by the accurate sounds Klipsch speakers produce.

 

Finally, I speak from experience about using amplifiers that have more power than the speaker ratings.  The JubScala and Jubilee speakers are bi-amped, with an electronic processor ahead of the amplifiers.  The signal goes from the processor to the two amps (one for bass and one for treble), then directly to the drivers, with only the speaker cable between the amps and the drivers.  That means no protection devices of any kind.

 

My system uses 402 JubScala IIs for the main speakers.  Each woofer is rated for 100 watts and each tweeter is rated for 50 watts.  However, the 2-channel Yamaha MX-D1 amps put out 500 watts per channel, so that's 500 watts to each driver.  Those amps powered the older La Scala-based speakers for 5 years with no problems, and have been driving the second-generation La Scala II-based speakers for 5 years, producing great sound with zero issues.

 

The rule for protecting your speakers, and your system, is this:  Keep the drunk away from the volume control!  This applies equally to anyone who wants to see "how loud she goes".  Let your ears be your guide.

[Shakeydeal]

Quote

The rule for protecting your speakers, and your system, is this:  Keep the drunk away from the volume control! 

 

 

Which begs the question of "who is going to save me from me"?...........

 

Shakey

[Darren8]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting here although I have been visiting from time to time.

So my question is this I’m thinking about buying Klipsch Forte III speakers I listen to them and they blew me away and I’m getting a really good deal. my amplifier is the Yamaha a-s1000. Not sure if it’s a good match. It’s 90 watts into 8omh and 150 into 4omh.

I heard these speakers when I went into an audio store. And they were actually being driven by that very same amplifier. I trust the owner of the store but I sure would like a second opinion So any opinions would be very welcome 

thanks in advance for any and all advice 

Edited February 1, 2019 by Darren8

[willland]

@Darren8,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

13 hours ago, Darren8 said:

So my question is this I’m thinking about buying Klipsch Forte III speakers I listen to them and they blew me away and I’m getting a really good deal. my amplifier is the Yamaha a-s1000. Not sure if it’s a good match. It’s 90 watts into 8omh and 150 into 4omh.

I own the A-S1000 and have driven my Heresys, Heresy IIs, RF-63s, and currently RB-75s and the Yamaha has been up to the task with all of them.  Very neutral and natural sound.

I almost forgot, I took the A-S1000 over to forum member @Youthman's home for a listening session with his RF-7Is, RF-7IIs, RF-7IIIs and the Yamaha breezed through with no issues. 

 

Bill

[ODS123]

One option to consider is maybe selling the separates and getting an integrated amplifier.  There are plenty of choices (used or new) w/ more than enough power, including some McIntosh and Parasound options since you seem to like those brands.

 

One problem with horn speakers, including the F3's, is their very high efficiency will allow ANY electrical noise or hum in your system to be much more audible.  With separates you have the power amplifier, pre-amp, DAC, phono pre-amp, etc.. all having their own set of interconnects, their own power cord and often plugged into different outlets.  This paves the way for hum/ buzz issues that are far less likely when all of these components are properly integrated into one chassis, using one power supply, one power outlet and one ground.    You'll loose nothing in terms of fidelity with an integrated amplifier but may gain quite a bit in terms of fewer buzz/ hum headaches which can be more common w/ high-efficiency speakers.  ...Just a thought.