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Questions About Forte I with Crites Upgrades


JP__

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Hello All,

I'm new to the forum and am considering buying my first Klipsch speakers - a set of Forte Is with Crites upgrades.  I have a couple of questions that I hope you can help with.

 

The seller says that the speakers have been upgraded with Crites tweeters and crossovers.  How can I verify these upgrades are installed?  Do I have to take off the rear panel to look for labels on the tweeter and crossover?

 

How would the performance of Forte Is with these upgrades compare to a new set of Forte IIIs?

 

Any recommendations for specific things to check before buying would be appreciated.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

John

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no, you dont have to remove the rear panel to confirm either.  you can see the shiny metal tweeter diaphram from the front vs a flat dull plastic type original.  the crossovers can be verified by removing the 6 screws on the speaker wire connection cup & pulling it out a bit,  there will be big white capacitors that say sonicap on them, or a complete board that says B&C sound if they replaced the full crossover board, but usually they just replace the caps on the original klipsch board.  or you can pull the rear passive to look inside at the crossover.  

 

as far as sound, the new ones are going to sound a lot different due to the newer technology horns & using all titanium mids & tweets.  but regardless, original forte & forte 2 sound very good

 

& please do some research on the price, used fortes have recently had their prices increase quite a bit from what the average market value is due to the price of the new forte3.  just know that even for mint condition fortes with factory shipping boxes, fortes should cost quite a bit less than $1000. id say 500-800 depending on condition & finish.  the tweets are like $60/pr & the xover kit is under $100 so they dont really add much value to the price.  just do your due diligence & check recent sold items on ebay & look on craigslist & facebook marketplace to get a good idea of current prices.   

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19 hours ago, JP__ said:

Shakey and EpicKF,

Thanks for the info. 

 

EpicKF,

You mentioned the effect of finish on price.  What would be the most/least desirable finishes?

 

Thanks!

 

John

 

 

finishes are like asking what the best amp is or what your favorite color is, its all subjective opinion, some like oak some like walnut some like painted black. 

 

personally i prefer the oiled walnut finish, its much darker than oak & has a more refined smoother grain pattern... also matches more modern decor with the darker color.  oak is kinda dated in my opinion & was popular in the 90's. also oak are more common because of the era these were made so the oiled walnut is a little more "rare" & can bring a higher price.  

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It will be worth verifying that the new crossover was installed with correct phasing for each driver.

 

Note that in the Forte I crossover the squawker is intentionally "backwards" with its negative terminal connected to the 2-tap on the autoformer, and its positive terminal connected to "ground" (the black input terminal.) Whereas the tweeter and woofer are connected the way you would expect -- negative to ground. That's true of the factory crossover, and of Bob Crites' replacement Forte I crossover which uses the same schematic as OEM.

 

EDIT: On my Forte Is, the squawker terminals aren't marked '+' and '-'. Instead one is marked with a yellow dot and the other unmarked. That yellow-dot terminal is connected to ground -- so it would be the positive squawker terminal -- assuming nobody messed with these in the ~30 years before I got them.

 

That's the convention, dot usually means positive. A red dot definitely would. A yellow dot probably does too, unless it doesn't. Ugh. Would it be so hard to write '+' and '-'? What if I gave you a car battery with no markings on either terminal except a yellow dot, would you like to install that in your car?

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As far as polarity goes of drivers on my forte IIs - the factory PCB crossover wires are reversed as needed at the board already. So you would still follow all black wires would always go to the negative (ground) terminals and the green (tweet), yellow (mid) & red (woof) would go to the positive terminals.

 

One would think Klipsch would have done it this way on all of the speakers to reduce possible confusion. I would also think Crites did the same thing but have never checked or asked.

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On 10/17/2020 at 10:23 AM, EpicKlipschFan said:

some like oak some like walnut some like painted black

Every black Klipsch speaker that enters my house always leaves a different color... unless it's vinyl wrapped.  But, that's just me. (Small sample below...they all were black upon purchase)

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Yes they can.  I just did these yesterday.  I used a palm sander.(Like this: https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DWE6411K-Sheet-Palm-Sander/dp/B00ZWJDN5S/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dewalt+palm+sander&qid=1603238001&s=instant-video&sr=1-1-catcorr

 

Started with 120 grit to take off the majority of the paint.  Then, I switch to 220 and do a gentle sanding to get the rest and smooth things out.  I use an air compressor to blow off the speaker and the sandpaper frequently and I switch the sandpaper out often as well.  (You could finish with a higher grit but sometimes I notice it doesn't take the stain as well.)

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f05.jpeg

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