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Klipsch Forte IV and Cornwall IV Owners: What is Your Optimum placement of this speaker from the wall?


Mark in PA

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Hello and Happy Holidays fellow Klipschians 

This is primarily for Forte owners, but I will also like to hear from Cornwall owners.

I am finally in a position to get the Klipsch Forte IV. I demoed them back to back w/ the new KLH Model 5. I like both, but those horns have my soul.

My problem is the placement of that rear radiator on the Forte from the wall.

I am curious what results you all are getting and please include the decor of your room (hardwood, carpet, wall type, dimensions if you can, etc).

 

Here are the dimensions of my basement: 25'Lx14.5'Wx68"tall (drop ceiling).

Listening distance, about 10' to 13' (depending how far I have the speakers from the wall of course).

Room is carpeted, paneling, and furnished. 

Potential Problem/Concern? I have a baseboard radiator made of some sort of metal. I am concerned if I don't get the speakers far enough away from the wall I may get some sound oscillation thereby causing the baseboard to vibrate and make a clanging sound. Maybe I am wrong, and I don't know much about the physics of sound waves, but it seems logical to think such a problem has the probability to occur.

The Forte's have a depth of 13" and I am willing to pull them out a whole speaker depth from the wall, in other words 13" to 15" from the wall, any further would put the speakers in the walking path in the room.

So enter the KLH Model 5: These guys are a sealed cabinet design with a possible more friendly placement arrangement than the Forte. If I have to go that route then I'll just have to save up for the Cornwall IV with its front ported design.

I know this will be all trial and error and I expect that is going to be the majority of advice I get from everyone but I am hoping to get someone that can reply with a mathematical mindset giving me a statistical probability approach that will either yield: "yes I will have a problem" or "no you should be fine" answer.

Thanks to you all. Happy Listening.

Mark

Edited by Mark in PA
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I think you will be fine. Your room is very similar to mine and when I had the Forte III, I had them about 10-12” off the wall and around 9 ft apart (center to center). I got very good results with that placement.

 

I had the Cornwall IVs 24” into the room and about 10 ft apart. 
 

Shakey

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A foot or so should be fine for the passive radiator, you just don't want it to close. Too far and you minimize the benefit the design provides. I would recommend start about 10" out and adjust in one inch increments. When it locks you will hear it.

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5 hours ago, CoryGillmore said:

My Cornwall IVs are 2 inches from the wall and toed in. Spaced apart about 10-11 feet I believe. I played around a lot with placement and I found them to be totally inadequate in regards to bass unless placed that close to the wall. At least in my room. 

they need to be placed close to the wall for a good bass performance , they aren´t designed for a " free in the room" placement. And if they are new ...don´t forget the drivers and chassis needs a " burn In " periode approx. 200 hours

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13 hours ago, MicroMara said:

they need to be placed close to the wall for a good bass performance , they aren´t designed for a " free in the room" placement. And if they are new ...don´t forget the drivers and chassis needs a " burn In " periode approx. 200 hours

I'm usually a burn-in skeptic but it definitely took some time for me to start really enjoying my CWIVs. 

 

Now rather than was burn-in, brain burn-in or figuring out optimal placement and toe-in angle, I'm not sure.

 

Maybe it was all of the above. 

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1 hour ago, CoryGillmore said:

I'm usually a burn-in skeptic but it definitely took some time for me to start really enjoying my CWIVs. 

 

Now rather than was burn-in, brain burn-in or figuring out optimal placement and toe-in angle, I'm not sure.

 

Maybe it was all of the above. 

I´m sure it was all together . It just takes time until everything comes together

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I had been struggling with my Forte IV placement in a 13x13’ carpeted room.  They’re in the corners (about 18” from front wall and 12” from side wall) and generating too much bass energy and drowning the mids and they sound too laid back and out of balance, IMO.  After removing the grills, toeing in, and changing interconnects (to Kimber PBJ), they still sound laid back and with excessive bass energy.  So I moved them to a different room (13x18’ carpeted) and placed about 7’ from front wall and 2’ from side wall.  The excessive bass energy want away and the mids were now more present and they sound like a more balanced loudspeaker and with a little more of the signature sound I was looking for.  But here’s the neat part… when I play jazz and blues at normal volume, they still sound laid back and engaging.   When I play rock at the same volume, they still sound laid back, but when I turned up the volume (like we should with rock), the tone shifted from forward considerably and the bass stayed in check.  At about 95dB, they really became the speaker I expected since I needed something for rock.  In this room, I have it set up using the rule of thirds and I’d describe it more as near-field listening.  I find this setup ideal for these speakers and the rock tracks I played sounded much, much better compared to the other setup where imbalance was killing the song. 
 

I still plan to put them back in the smaller room (where they’re corner-loaded) and play more with placement the wall to manage the bass a bit more to improve balance. This is just my goal and preference.  Others may desire the bass energy. 

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3 hours ago, seasterl said:

I had been struggling with my Forte IV placement in a 13x13’ carpeted room.  They’re in the corners (about 18” from front wall and 12” from side wall) and generating too much bass energy and drowning the mids and they sound too laid back and out of balance, IMO.  After removing the grills, toeing in, and changing interconnects (to Kimber PBJ), they still sound laid back and with excessive bass energy.  So I moved them to a different room (13x18’ carpeted) and placed about 7’ from front wall and 2’ from side wall.  The excessive bass energy want away and the mids were now more present and they sound like a more balanced loudspeaker and with a little more of the signature sound I was looking for.  But here’s the neat part… when I play jazz and blues at normal volume, they still sound laid back and engaging.   When I play rock at the same volume, they still sound laid back, but when I turned up the volume (like we should with rock), the tone shifted from forward considerably and the bass stayed in check.  At about 95dB, they really became the speaker I expected since I needed something for rock.  In this room, I have it set up using the rule of thirds and I’d describe it more as near-field listening.  I find this setup ideal for these speakers and the rock tracks I played sounded much, much better compared to the other setup where imbalance was killing the song. 
 

I still plan to put them back in the smaller room (where they’re corner-loaded) and play more with placement the wall to manage the bass a bit more to improve balance. This is just my goal and preference.  Others may desire the bass energy. 

Your problem is your square room, not your speaker placement. Concentrate on adding acoustic room treatments to your space. While you are working on that, I provided you a link that you can use. Just toss in your room dimensions, and place your seats and speakers accordingly to reduce the quadratic cancellations you are experiencing.

 

https://realtraps.com/modecalc.htm

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I was able to play with positioning a bit more (pulled off front wall more) and minimized the 50Hz peak and excess bass energy and achieve better balance between mids and lows and improve midrange presence.  Since this is a loft area with sliding glass doors, I can only do so much.  But I’ve never had to work so hard with any speaker before to achieve good sound. I’m now very happy!  A little playing with position really went a long way, and I can’t believe how much of a difference it made.  I smoothed out the lows with a Bag End 18” and room correction processor without shifting balance away from midrange presence. Now, rock sounds the way it should with tight, chest-ponding bass that doesn’t upsets the vocals or guitar.  I can’t believe I was actually considering a different amp to brighten them to fix my problem!  Thanks for the help. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi,

I have recently traded in my cornwall iii for the 4's and I have them 11ft apart close to the wall and toe'd in so the speaker faces me directly. I  sit 11ft away and find in this position I get the most detailed soundstage. 

 

Cheers Ady 

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On 1/31/2022 at 4:24 PM, Ady said:

Hi,

I have recently traded in my cornwall iii for the 4's and I have them 11ft apart close to the wall and toe'd in so the speaker faces me directly. I  sit 11ft away and find in this position I get the most detailed soundstage. 

 

Cheers Ady 

This is precisely how mine are set up. 11' apart and I sit 11' from each speaker. The inside corner of each speaker is only 2" from the back wall. The outside corner is 17.5" from the back wall. So, a fairly aggressive toe-in. 

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On 2/3/2022 at 4:20 AM, CoryGillmore said:

This is precisely how mine are set up. 11' apart and I sit 11' from each speaker. The inside corner of each speaker is only 2" from the back wall. The outside corner is 17.5" from the back wall. So, a fairly aggressive toe-in. 

Glad that this positioning works for you as well 👍 I think it works well having them face you directly because you get less reflected sound than if they were flat against the back wall. 

Out of interest what amplification do you use with yours? 

 

Cheers Ady 

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13 hours ago, Ady said:

Glad that this positioning works for you as well 👍 I think it works well having them face you directly because you get less reflected sound than if they were flat against the back wall. 

Out of interest what amplification do you use with yours? 

 

Cheers Ady 

I use an audiolab 6000a Play integrated amp and a Schiit Modius DAC

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12 hours ago, CoryGillmore said:

I use an audiolab 6000a Play integrated amp and a Schiit Modius DAC

I've no personal experience of those but they look like good components 👍  Apologies for going off topic.

Cheers Ady 

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34 minutes ago, Joecoulson said:

I have the CW’s about 12’ apart and we sit about 10’ away. I have experimented with toeing in, but prefer them flat. They are about 10” off the back wall.  

My forte IVs are setup almost exactly as your CWs and that’s where they sound best to me from my listening position in my living room.

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  • 4 months later...
On 2/6/2022 at 6:48 AM, Fido said:

My forte IVs are setup almost exactly as your CWs and that’s where they sound best to me from my listening position in my living room.

You have added a subwoofer to your system since then, correct? Did you need to move your Forte IVs into different positions?

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