Buddy Shagmore Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Why does the Forte III only go down to 38hz, when the Forte 1/2 go all the way to 32hz? Seems like the new version got the short end of the stick. What did they do differently this time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fido Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 I don't know about the Forte 3s but my Forte 1s don't go very low either. I have a large HSU subwoofer and the combo makes the entire system sound so full and amazing. I wouldn't want a system that doesn't fill in the energy in that lower octave - it's more feel than sound actually- feeling the extremely low bass notes adds so much that most speakers can never capture by themselves. Forte 1s at 32 hz compared to HSU sub down to 18 hz! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddy Shagmore Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 18hz! How low can you go? At any rate, I am not complaining about the performance of any Heritage product. I had Forte 1's (32hz) for about 30 years. At that time, I scored a mint pair of Chorus II's (38hz), and played them side by side for comparison, before I sold the Forte's to my good friend. While the Chorus has a bigger, fuller overall sound, the Forte did go deeper. Comparison was done listening to "Declan" by Jeff Beck, which has some filling-rattling deep bass. The Chorus just did not hit the lowest note like the Forte did. I haven't done any comparison with the F-III, but I would like to suggest that the 38hz rating on the III is BS. Perhaps to sway a buyer into going Cornwall IV (34hz) or Khorn (33hz). Because why should a mid level Heritage product go lower than the big guns? YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted June 30, 2020 Moderators Share Posted June 30, 2020 I would bet it is how they are tested now compared to 30+ years ago. I would guess all the new numbers are closer to what they really do. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddy Shagmore Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 4 minutes ago, dtel said: I would bet it is how they are tested now compared to 30+ years ago. I would guess all the new numbers are closer to what they really do. . That is another possibility, but questionable. PWK was not always right...but he was never wrong! 😉 Then perhaps my Chorus II's likely only go down to 44hz, if Klipsch was fudging or wrong on the numbers (by 6hz or so) back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 I would use a good subwoofer, with the Forte III probably crossed over at 40 Hz, where, according to the Stereophile, July 16, 2019 review, the Forte III has a peak of about 3.5 or 4 dB, according to my eyeballs, and has a pretty smooth peak, averaging 5 dB from about 41 Hz to 150Hz, which might make a nice, but not extreme, punch. By matching a good sub's level to the Forte III's at 40-ish Hz (+4 or +5 dB), you might produce a bass rise similar (but more subtle) to the Harmon Curve that many people prefer. "Fig.4 Klipsch Forte III, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the complex sum of the nearfield woofer and port responses plotted below 300Hz." -- John Atkinson, Stereophile Of course the "port" he refers to is a 15" passive radiator that works kind of like a port. I'm not suggesting relying on Stereophile. I'm still grumbling about them measuring the Klipschorn outside, in a driveway, perched up on a furniture dolly. Clearly, while the new one has closed backs that make it O.K. to toe in, or out, a bit, it would still benefit from, and probably require, both room gain and boundary gain. It's hard to say what was going on in their minds. But, the last comment in the measurement section is worth quoting: " I keep coming back to the Forte III's astonishingly high sensitivity, one of the highest I have encountered. At typical listening levels, the drive-unit diaphragms will hardly be moving, which implies low distortion."—John Atkinson [italics and bolding mine] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 On 6/29/2020 at 4:00 PM, Buddy Shagmore said: Why does the Forte III only go down to 38hz, when the Forte 1/2 go all the way to 32hz? This was brought up when they were released some time ago the Chief chimed in and brought up measuring techniques it appears to me that the woofer could also play a role as they use an accordion style surround with what appears to be a much smaller Xmax. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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