Klipsch Forte II with upgraded Citrix crossovers/titanium tweeters are overpowering low frequencies

[crazykiwi]

(Please be patient as I'm visually impaired. If you point to any information it would be helpful to provide clear links and description of what I'm looking at so I can follow. Thanks.)

 

I bought a pair of Forte II used and was told they have both the Citrix crossover and titanium tweeter according to the seller. That is the extent of my knowledge on them. I can hear they are probably working soundly during two states, blasting loudly or when I crank the treble down and max out the bass on my amps. This leads me to believe they are mechanically sound, but possibly misconfigured. I don't think they could intentionally be this bright, they loose all boogie and become treble cannons at regular volumes. They appear to be functioning soundly, but they don't seem to register much on the low end except in these two circumstances.

 

I've done lot of failed searches to try to understand these crossovers but that's tricky with my visual impairment. Can anyone tell me if there is a straight forward way of adjusting these crossovers with pins to redistribute some of the power to the low end? I know some replacement crossovers you can just change some terminals. I gathered the former owner had a high frequency hearing loss and I'm no longer in touch with him, but I wondered if he had them configured bright without knowing it, he also said he played them pretty loud which seems to masks the problem.

 

Note that I am getting the same results off a variety of amps with various power levels ranging from 20wpc tube monoblocks to 55wpc RMS NAD receivers.

 

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

 

(a few photos post wood restoration and new grills I made. In the end I manged to clean up the original very well too. So I have to sets now.)

[001]

Nice looking speakers, what did you use on the wood? 

 

Never heard of citrix x-overs & tweeters,  im guessing you mean crites.  If so they are decent quality parts & you should not need to replace the crossovers or their components.  What you are hearing is just the nature of klipsch & horn speakers, they are very efficient & some consider them "bright" or very strong high freq.  I doubt the prev owner had a high freq hearing loss that he changed the specs for & if he used the crites x-overs they are just factory spec'd parts, nothing changed in the sound signature of the speakers.  However, some people dont like the titanium tweeters & say they can sound kind of "harsh" or add to the brightness, yet some love them,  so its all personal preference.  Maybe you could try switching back to the original tweeters.  I'm sure someone on here would trade you, I have a set of original tweeters if you want to trade? 

 

Another option to tame the high freq is to just turn down the treble knob a notch or 2 or use a good EQ to adjust the sound to your liking.  & if you can, maybe test the woofers & mids for the right ohm reading to verify they are working as they should.  fortes are known for their good bass & being a very balanced sound, you should not be hearing an over powered high freq, aside from what i mentioned above as their trademark sound. 

 

Best of luck getting them to sound how you want, they are great speakers!      

[moray james]

On 4/2/2020 at 1:08 PM, crazykiwi said:

(Please be patient as I'm visually impaired. If you point to any information it would be helpful to provide clear links and description of what I'm looking at so I can follow. Thanks.)

 

I bought a pair of Forte II used and was told they have both the Citrix crossover and titanium tweeter according to the seller. That is the extent of my knowledge on them. I can hear they are probably working soundly during two states, blasting loudly or when I crank the treble down and max out the bass on my amps. This leads me to believe they are mechanically sound, but possibly misconfigured. I don't think they could intentionally be this bright, they loose all boogie and become treble cannons at regular volumes. They appear to be functioning soundly, but they don't seem to register much on the low end except in these two circumstances.

 

I've done lot of failed searches to try to understand these crossovers but that's tricky with my visual impairment. Can anyone tell me if there is a straight forward way of adjusting these crossovers with pins to redistribute some of the power to the low end? I know some replacement crossovers you can just change some terminals. I gathered the former owner had a high frequency hearing loss and I'm no longer in touch with him, but I wondered if he had them configured bright without knowing it, he also said he played them pretty loud which seems to masks the problem.

 

Note that I am getting the same results off a variety of amps with various power levels ranging from 20wpc tube monoblocks to 55wpc RMS NAD receivers.

 

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

 

(a few photos post wood restoration and new grills I made. In the end I manged to clean up the original very well too. So I have to sets now.)

The tweeters in your Forte operate only above 6KHz that means all they reproduce is harmonics and no fundamentals. What you describe is not a fault of the tweeter at all. You are describing excessive mid and that is likely because your woofers are not functioning properly. Best to start your investigation with the woofers and or xovers. It may be as simple as one of your woofers being wired out of phase. As to titanium tweeters it is true some (but not a lot) people are sensitive to their fundamental break up mode. If you have listened to any of the Klipsch Reference series and you liked them then for sure you are not one of the few who are sensitive to titanium diaphragms as almost all of the Reference series have ti diaphragms. Good luck.

  Remember that room placement has a great impact on how your speakers will sound. Your Forte were not designed to be out into the room they were designed to be close to the front wall and this will greatly enhance base output.

[Alexander]

 

Welcome to the board, I can relate to your eye sight problem. By your description there is something wrong with those forte II's. Makes one wonder of yet another possibility - that the prev owner installed the Ti mid driver diaphragms without the crossover mod. I have not heard this myself but there have been many people that have and did not like it with or without the crossover mod.