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Chorus II vs. Forte II (a small review)


shank2001

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I'm still dieing to know.

My experience with the forte's has been quite different from this review. My room is 12' X 30', full of soft funature (ie sofa, love seat), is set up length ways and my room reverberates from the bass when pushing 92dbs. Yeah, I need treatments soon. 101dbs is pointless for anything critical in my room.

I remember the Chorus's having more bass so no argument there, but not as deep.

On paper, the Forte's deeper response is from their cabinet size matching the spec's of the woofer. Where the Chorus does not, and actually needs a bigger cabinet than it has now to get as low as a Forte. In my experience and on paper the Forte's went almost as low as the ksw-150 sub, only a 1hz difference. Yes, it's rolled off some below 50hz but they do create a very noticable 35hz.

So I have to ask, how big is this room, and were their any room treatments, are you driving them with a HT receiver?

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Bob-

Great review, and welcome to the forum. Your's posted as I was drafting my reply, so I didn't see it until mine posted. We have virtually the same system and our path to upgrades is very similar. When I bought my Forte IIs, I stretched my budget to get those over the Quartet, a fine speaker in its own right. But I did prefer the overall sound package of the Chorus II; I just couldn't afford it.

Our thoughts were similar on box size and weight. It's almost easy to move the Fortes around alone while you could use help with the Chorus. Your thoughts about replacing either of these speakers is right on...find a good pair of either speaker and you'll do very well.

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  • 3 months later...

If i can remember back to when I had my forte II's i remember them having incredible low bass.. I have the chorus II's now and still awesome bass but not as low as i recall from the forte II's. I think the issue lies in the fact that the chorus definetly has more dynamic bass from 40hz up which makes it sound more bass-heavy. I simply remember the forte being one of the best speakers ive ever heard in my life, and its echoed by the chorus. In fact I probably like the chorus better but both are incredible.

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----------------

As for the upper ranges...The Chorus has more presence, and in general just sounded more effortless at the high listening volume of 101db.

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Years ago I had the opportunity to have all three, Chorus IIs, Forte IIs, and Quartets at my disposal for a couple of weeks. Although I wouldn't disagree with anything you stated (nice job!), what "I" discovered was rising the height of Forte IIs and Quartets such that the tweeters of all three existed in the same plane, did wonders to equalize their overall tonal quality (in a 12' x 25" room). As far as 'bigger' sound, the Chorus's won hands down, but really shined in very large rooms... where the other two could get kind of lost

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  • 7 years later...

Great review Sean.... When I first heard the Forte II at a co-workers house, I knew I had to have them. Then I made the mistake of walking into the Klipsch showroom to look at the Forte's. The Chorus IIs came home with me $1500 later. That was in 1991. I've had them since. Unfortunately, I don't utilize them to their potential very often anymore, so I am seriously contemplating a sale so that I can purchase an electric guitar and amp. It will be a hard decision, as these are the best normal home-sized speakers that I have ever heard. I'm not sure I really want to give them up, so the selling price will reflect that.

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jhawk,

You have the setup I always wanted.... Chorus IIs on the front and Forte IIs on the rear..... I have a set of Paradigm bookshelfs on the rear and they just get drowned out... and if I want to crank it up, I have to shut the rear off or lose the speakers.

PS. The Paradigms were my first set as your Forte's were yours.

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  • 9 months later...

A good review. I live in an apartment and I have the Forte II's, they sound great as long as they are placed right. I use a Quartet as a center channel. I have a pair of RF-3's in another room, they are two different animals, but both are good pets.

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Do not read this and think the Fortes have no bass, or bad bass... this is not true, it was shaking the house with bass... it just does not have as much or as deep as the Choruses.

I suspect that the Forte's gaskets are compressed and are leaking. If you gently push in on the woofer, the passive should move out and gradually move back. If the passive goes out then right back then your speaker gaskets are leaking. I used rope caulk to seal all my drivers including the passive radiator. I also have my Forte's about 16" from the rear wall.

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  • 6 months later...

As an owner of a set of Forte II's and a Quartet center, I do love the sound stage and balance of the Forte II's. There are very few speakers that can hold a candle to the FII's, By this time I have replaced woofers and diaphragms for both sqwaker and tweeter, in addition to new crossover networks. I have done the woofer and diaphragms in my Chorus center. It seems like whenever a new video game is previewed or friends want to just kick back and chill, they come to my house.

I have a mediocre receiver Yamaha, the RX-V361, it has a lot of power (100 watts/channel x 5). Rarely do I go above -40 db gain on my receiver. Jimi Hendrix with the "Band of Gypsies" , probably his best period. The Forte II's create a spacious sound stage with just the right amount of bass and wide open midrange and a brilliant but not brash high end. Music is done two channel, I use the center for movies and video games.

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I recently had the opportunity to purchase a pair of Chorus for little money ($400). I heard them and loved them, as much as I love my Forte II's. They are bigger and have a bit more punch @ the 40 -50Hz area. Was it worth getting another large pair of boxes for the marginal improvement, nope, not for me. By the time I'd be done with new crossovers, diaphragms, etc. it just ain't worth it. Either way you go, it's a great listening experience.

Back in the day, these guys were around $1000 a pair, I should've bought two pair and saved twice as much. I like both the Forte II and Chorus, they are part of the Heritage line, a line of great speakers, designed by a group of people that really knew how to design speakers. Of course I love the fact that these speakers were hand made in Hope and that it was easy to replace everything that I needed to update.

Okay, I'm convinced, I'll go out and get the Chorus, for $400 a pair I've got nothing to lose.

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  • 10 years later...

I have Chorus IIs. Previously had Forte 1s. Agree that CHIIs offer an overall bigger, fuller listening experience. I played them side by side before my bud picked up my Forte's. However, listening to my holy grail bottom end reference tune, "Declan" from Jeff Beck's You Had It Coming, surprisingly the Forte's went deeper...the Chorus just wasn't able to dig down and deliver the lowest notes like the Forte. Maybe something to do with my room? (16x28 w/cathedral ceiling, wood floors on a raised foundation)...but the listening experience with the volume turned up with the Forte's would make my wood floors vibrate with serious authority...in my sweet spot, I could feel the deep bass in my body...with my eyes closed, it was perhaps like the spiritual experience of a fallen Viking warrior entering the Halls of Asgard...always gave me goose bumps and a central nerve system high unlike anything else. By the old gods and the new, I swear this to be true.

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On 10/8/2022 at 6:58 PM, Buddy Shagmore said:

I have Chorus IIs. Previously had Forte 1s. 

the Chorus is a Civilized KP-301   ,  biamp the Chorus II , and you'll be floored .

 

 here's the KP-301  terminal cup ,  same overall speaker   or pretty close , with 2x the power rating , Biamped + 2 fuse holders 

 

Klipsch KP-301 Professional Loudspeaker Pair image 5

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On 10/10/2022 at 6:50 AM, OO1 said:

the Chorus is a Civilized KP-301   ,  biamp the Chorus II , and you'll be floored .

 

 here's the KP-301  terminal cup ,  same overall speaker   or pretty close , with 2x the power rating , Biamped + 2 fuse holders 

 

Klipsch KP-301 Professional Loudspeaker Pair image 5

Thats a big speaker👍 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I've owned a pair of original series Fortes since 1988, and a listening excursion a year ago confirmed for me that I had something incredible... nothing I heard that cost under 4K could come close to the accurate, live sound of my (modded with Crites crossovers and Ti tweeter diaphragm) Fortes.

I had been looking for a pair of (used, of course) Chorus IIs to replace them, and finally found a pair locally and put them into my system a couple of days ago.  I've not had time to dial them in as thoroughly as I will eventually, but have some observations:

Yes, they're BIG.  I can move the Fortes around myself, but needed help with the Ch-2s.

The soundstage is huge - with a little more detail and separation of instruments.  I "feel" the lower end a little more than with the Fortes.  Some instruments - notably piano and brass - sound more live with the Chorus.
I was struck, however, by the "warm" sound from them - it detracts from making the performances seem live, in that the speakers themselves have a definite "sound" - the Forte just seems cleaner and clearer, with a flatter response.  I've run ARC room adjustments, which helped a little, but I still find vocals to sound a bit warmer and less accurate than with the Forte.
I'm not getting rid of the Fortes just yet - I definitely like the sound from the Chorus, and plan to dive into a little more placement tweaks, and adjusted measurements with ARC - but I would hate to decide in a few weeks that I prefer the Forte, and wish for their return.  I also haven't ruled out a crossover change, but am not ready to do any mods until I'm comfortable with them.
(I was a little concerned, prior to listening, that the Chorus's would not blend well with my Academy center channel, but that concern was for naught - the sound is as seamless, and perhaps even better than, it is with the Forte; possibly because the Academy and Chorus were manufactured closer together in the timeline).

 

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I’ve had a couple pairs of Chorus 2s, and Cornwalls, and Forte 2s, and Heresys, and… over the years, and still own a pair of KP-301s(Professional Series Chorus 1). Listening to them “as we speak”.

 

I really think the Tractrix midhorn presents a less forward (more studio) sound than the exponential horns in a the “1” series Forte and Chorus and Cornwalls. Others on here have told me this is not true, but still…
 

I tried titanium midrange diaphragms(with the requisite bandpass filters) in the Chorus 2s, but after about 70db they lose their sparkle and push back. Real sweet up to that point, give or take a few dbs.

 

What has ALWAYS made an immediate, and not optional from where I sit, improvement was titanium tweeter diaphragms, or even better, an un-named machined aluminum horn lens with an un-named DE-120 driver.

 

Now, if I was a crafty fellow, and didn’t mind hacking an OEM pair of Chorus 2 crossovers, or possibly build a board from scratch, I would swap out the autoformer with one that has 1db increment taps, put a swamping resistor across 0 and 5 and see what a little goosing would do to the neutrality of the mids.

 

As it stands I would NEVER have sold my Chorus 2s had I not found a pair of KP-301s.

 

There is no replacement for displacement, and I don’t want to think of a world without K-48 woofers.

 

…gotta go, Ozzy is on stage, lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 8 months later...
On 10/20/2003 at 6:36 AM, Strabo said:

On paper, the Forte's deeper response is from their cabinet size matching the spec's of the woofer. Where the Chorus does not, and actually needs a bigger cabinet than it has now to get as low as a Forte. In my experience and on paper the Forte's went almost as low as the ksw-150 sub, only a 1hz difference. Yes, it's rolled off some below 50hz but they do create a very noticable 35hz.

 

One can make the box appear "bigger" to the driver by adding some stuffing in the speaker, preferably fiberglass.  Something like the R13 insulation.

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