Old Forte' IIs as LR, What center?

[liquidsquid793]

I got good and lucky recently and picked up some original Forte IIs, both for $500. They were in storage for a long time, so they are in great shape! Some finish has a stain on the top I need to try to get out, and a couple of small chips on a corner. Not certain if I will refresh the crossover yet, I've seen mixed reviews with the available crossover updates out there. Any recommendations for crossovers? Thinking that only the electrolytic caps needs to be refreshed.

 

I was using the RP-8000F L&R and they sounded great when grouped with a RP504C center.  I of course would prefer to use the Forte's for obvious reasons. I am still using this center, but not entirely sure that it is blending well with the Forte IIs. So, I have a few questions for the brain trust here:

 

What may be a better-matching center? The RC-64III or is the RP-540C not much different? I'm not going to spend a bunch of money on diminishing returns. 

 

When doing some A/B comparisons between the two speaker sets, a few things came out of comparing the Forte IIs with the RP8000Fs:

1. The Forte has MUCH stronger mids, notably around 2kHz. I think the RP8000s were weak here, and these are the other way. So the tonality difference is pretty stark with vocals.

2. The Forte has much lower distortion bass at comparable volume levels and fills the room much better. They kick some serious butt when turned up. Combined with a large musical sub and it gets a bit frightening and fun!

3. The Forte doesn't poke out into the room as far as the RP8000F, but this is of course dependent on where I place them in the corners for the PR in the back. Currently at 6" and still poke out 6" less than the RP8000F.

4. The Forte II seems more tiresome on the ears for extended listening, even at lower levels. I toed out the speakers more and that seemed to help, but still, I cannot put a finger on why. The term I see floating around is "shrill", but even playing with a parametric EQ to make the mids sound comparable to the RP8000Fs (calibrated mic), it still seems tiring. Why may that be? Doesn't seem like distortion, but perhaps? Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

Thanks for help!

-Mark

[John Chi-town]

The Klipsch Academy would be the best center choice for forte and forte II.  If you have the room another forte II would be even better.  No toe in will help reduce high frequency fatigue that you describe.  Also, the sweet spot for bass is usually 8-14 inches from the rear wall on fortes.  I owned forte II for 30 years, and now own forte IV. User @ Deang is an approved Klipsch Xover builder/refresher and is a member of this forum.

 

[MMurg]

I used original Forte as my mains for about 15 years.  I also became pretty familiar with the sound of the Forte II at the local dealer (where I used to hang out quite a bit).  I never found either of them fatiguing.  Perhaps the crossover caps or maybe some driver diaphragms need replacing.

 

As far as a center speaker goes, I wouldn't use a Reference or RP center.  They will not be a good sonic match.  A third Forte would be the ideal match.  After that, I'd recommend a smaller 3-way Klipsch speaker like a Quartet or Heresy (II or higher).  I used a Heresy II with my original Forte and found it to be a really good match.  If you must use a horizontal center speaker, the KLF-C7 was the closest matching center to the 3-way mains that I've owned.  It's not a perfect but it will work.  I imagine the very similar KV-4 would also work decently.  Finally, the Academy is OK.  I personally thought the Academy sounded more like the kg3/kg4 but some people like it with 3-way mains.

[Bubo]

1 or 2 heresys in the center.....

[liquidsquid793]

(Un)Fortunately it wouldn't fit to stuff another Forte in there under the projection screen. For one I would likely need to locate another single Forte II that is affordable. I have WAY too many competing hobbies that demand my attention and money to be dropping serious cash on a center. I will need to look into the KLF-C7 as an option. The RP-504C is serving modestly well for now, but it needs a little gain to keep up. Thanks.

Part of the fatigue may be I have very sensitive hearing (yeah, one of those people) and I simply am not used to a flat response speaker. My wife experienced fatigue also, so I'm not sure what to think as she has fairly poor hearing. It could be the diaphragms, maybe I have some dust in there after being in storage a long time? Maybe a cleaning is in order. Diaphragm replacement is easy enough, so that may be part of the refreshing.

 

Before I found these Forte IIs, I was already picking and choosing drivers to make and design my own speakers, in fact I was going to make a clone of these. Ironically when I was picking up a primer for building a subwoofer, these were on sale at the paint shop by the owner. Put a nix on my self-build project! But I am NOT a fan of centers with a tweeter in the middle between two mid-bass as the mid-bass have interference patterns that can really mess with presenting a good sound stage. I'll let the pros figure out how to compromise on those designs so I am looking for a finished solution.

 

I have no problems rebuilding electronics (high power and RF engineer among other skills) so a crossover rebuild is not a problem. I was even thinking of going down the road of characterizing the drivers in the box and designing my own for shits and grins as tools for this effort are so much better than they were in the late 80s. Thanks for the options though! 

[wuzzzer]

Go without a center first and see what you think.  Toe your mains in toward your main listening position.

The midrange on your fortes is vastly better than any two-way center that Klipsch has ever made.

[billybob]

Phantom center