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Got to A/B the Forte IV and the Cornwall IV tonight


salbake

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Both great, can’t go wrong with either. The Fortes definitely had me smiling, they were great. Then they switched to the Cornwalls and they were greater, as they should be for the cost. The fortes were awesome but you could kind of separate the base, the mid, and the tweeter if you wanted to (I think this has a lot to do with the room being gigantic and I was at the back and slightly off center. I do NOT think this would be an issue in a home setting). The Cornwalls were everything that was great about the Fortes but more of it. Fuller? More present? Just a wall of music? I don’t know how to explain it. Seemed like the Cornwalls were doing their thing effortlessly. Most noticeably in the bass. They played the same song and the bass on the Forte couldn’t do what the Cornwall bass did. I never, ever listen that loud at home...but in that setting it was like listening to a punchy sub in a car for the Forte...but then with the Cornwall it sounded like an actual instrument (bass guitar) but was fuller, louder, and hit just as hard. Biggest difference was bass. Room was pretty crowded and huge, -my guess is, if I were to sit in the sweet spot of the fortes in smaller room it would have been closer. Like I said, BOTH great. *also not fair bc the Cornwalls had better placement in room that size, IMO.  Sonus Fabers and the $17K B&Ws were pretty amazing too, and hooked to some better gear. Tonight was the soft opening of the bigger DTX in Lincoln, NE, and pics are from just one room of many. Great place if you’re ever near. They have all klipsch heritage except the Klipschorns - which I want to hear! Happy listening and like I said, cannot go wrong with either the Forte or the Cornwall.

 

*sorry pic of Klipsch stuff isn’t better! Was taken during the B&W demo...people to the left of me, same room, didn’t want to jump in the middle of demo for pics to the left haha

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Edited by salbake
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8 hours ago, salbake said:

Tonight was the soft opening of the bigger DTX in Lincoln, NE,

I was going to go there just to audition.  

 

8 hours ago, salbake said:

The Cornwalls were everything that was great about the Fortes but more of it. Fuller? More present? Just a wall of music? I don’t know how to explain it.

When I watched Trey's video demoing the difference, there's some explanation of more output availability and efficiency, I'm guessing this is what you are hearing.   Because of that, it came down to one thing for me, price.  For someone else it may be real estate, since I am replace Cornwall Is, this is of no concern to me. 

 

8 hours ago, salbake said:

then they switched to the Cornwalls and they were greater

Good to hear. 

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8 hours ago, salbake said:

 Seemed like the Cornwalls were doing their thing effortlessly. Most noticeably in the bass.

too bad you could'nt demo the khorns -----with the CW4  , it would have been fun to hear your impressions -

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51 minutes ago, RandyH000 said:

too bad you could'nt demo the khorns -----with the CW4  , it would have been fun to hear your impressions -

I would love that haha! Heresys on stands in the room next door, and LaScalas and “the Fives” (on stands, straddling an 85” LG) in the main open lobby/room. In the theater they had Star Wars going and it was rocking the place (they said they were going to have to figure out the drywall rattle - the joys of moving locations!). I poked my head in and saw a Tri-meter McIntosh amp but was very dark so no idea on speakers/subs.

 

The Fortes really were impressive, vocals as good as any in the room. Pic makes the room look smaller than it is. Definitely wasn’t fair to the Fortes for me to be 25-30’ away and 4’ off center.

 

I wish I could have A/Bd the SF and the BW. My experience went SF-Forte-CW-BW, so by the time we got to the BW my impression of the SF was gone. The BW 803 D3s had best bass and tweeter in the room...but they just don’t do it for me. Not sure how to explain it but almost too perfect and dry. My “favorite” would have come down to the CW or the SF, but with the Forte demo between them, I couldn’t A/B them either. This was my first time hearing Sonus Faber, I was very impressed with the sound and they were gorgeous.

 

Each rack had a B&W Formation Audio streamer on it being used as the source. ($700, lil silver box top right in main rack). It sounded great and I fully acknowledge that I fan boy’d/overpaid for my McIntosh MB50 streamer. This one sounds just as good for 1/3 the price. I have some powered wireless Mac speakers in other rooms that MB50 plays nicely with so no regrets, whatever 🤷‍♂️.

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On 4/6/2021 at 7:50 AM, Schu said:

larger is almost always better... who would have figured.

I don’t know if larger is always better. Sometimes just right is better than BIGGEST unless you want speakers to totally dominate a room. Doesn’t mean the bigger speaker doesn’t SOUND better than a smaller one  but scale is important

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6 hours ago, Steve. said:

Don’t get me wrong, would have loved to get CW IV...   could easily justify the $1500 difference but I am absolutely loving my Forte IV . They are the perfect size and sound pretty good in their own right. 

I feel the same way. The IVs present a very wide soundstage and fit my living room where we live perfectly. 

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