Forte VS Heresy

[Daddy Dee]

Having looked at a few pics of Forte's on Ebay, I have the following observation of the visuals.

Forte looks like a Heresy II in a taller cab that has been optimized for the 12 inch woofer. The limited volume of the cab seems to be the crucial limiting factor for Heresy.

I've often heard forum members observe that Forte sounds like Heresy, but the bass is right.

Is this a fair observation? Also, any other remarkable differences between Forte and Heresy?

Your take on this is appreciated.

edit: P.S. Is Forte one of PWK's direct designs? I've thought if it is, or who ever designed it, was kind enough to give the Heresy the cab it deserves to sound really full range.

[hwatkins]

Really can't answer your question directly Dee, but the T/S measurements on the the K22 used in older Heresy makes me think they really wouldn't benefit bunches from a different box, porting or a passive cone. To me the Cornwall is the answer to a better Heresy, although the Forte looks like it may be a bit better in some respects. Regardless, the Cornwall takes it a really good step forward.

My 2 cents

[BEC]

Dee,

I own a pair of Heresy II and a pair of Forte I. I would probably say that to me the sound of the Heresy II is a bit more to my liking than the Forte I. Now, take the Forte's bigger brother (or sister), the Chorus, and you have moved into a whole different category in my opinion. I also have a set of Chorus I. I don't know if PWK had anything to do with design of the Chorus, but I expect they made him proud.

Bob

[dgb]

Personally I think the Forte I blows away the Heresy II. Frankly I thought the KG4s were superior to the Heresey II.

[j-malotky]

I currently own several Heresy1 and 2 and a pair of Forte1. I have owned CornW and Chorus1 in the past too.

The Heresy 1and 2 smaller cabinet gives a tighter upper bass that blends better with the squawker. But its well known weakness is that it does not go very low.

The Forte1 has a much more pleasing full range of sound. Personally I would pick a Forte over a Heresy as a general rule.

If your room is big, I would suggest the Chorus or CornW as posted above.

Where I find the Forte shines the best is in smaller rooms. Say something 13 x 13 and smaller. In a small room the Forte is King, even over the CornW and Chorus IMO.

JM

[Olorin]

That's an interesting comment about room size, J. Just out of curiosity, at about what room size would you say the Choruses begin to shine?

[BEC]

I guess I could elaborate on what I said before and agree with what JM said above. In my rather large 24 X 30 room where I most often listen to music, the Forte just doesn't do it. They were moved to another much smaller room where they do good duty. Curiously though, I can get a sound level I like in the large room with the Heresy II. Just setting the two side by side and switching between them, the Heresy II just sounds like a bigger speaker to me than the Forte. I think I really like the Heritage sound also. The Heresy has it, the Chorus has it, the Forte does not. All that is my opinion and I am sure others will have other opinions. By the way, I usually listen to Lascalas. A step above all the previously mentioned in my opinion.

Bob

[Strabo]

Wow, I get just the opposite results.

My forte's are in a 12 X 24 room and the room starts to overload with bass at about 92dbs. I couldn't imagine using them in a smaller room.

[gerbache]

If you aren't opposed to using a subwoofer, you can fix the big problem with the Heresies pretty easily. I'm running a Hsu VTF-2 with mine, and it blends well enough that it really sounds like the Heresies just suddenly reach down to the 25 Hz region. What's really amazing is when I turn the mains off and just listen to the subwoofer's output. The thing is barely on most of the time, but the speakers sure sound a lot bigger! Granted, I could probably have gotten the bass I wanted by just getting the Forte's in the first place, but with the subwoofer, I do get bass down a bit lower than Forte's can manage, so it's all a tradeoff.

[j-malotky]

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On 4/2/2004 6:11:33 PM heretic wrote:

That's an interesting comment about room size, J. Just out of curiosity, at about what room size would you say the Choruses begin to shine?

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I love the Chorus. It is one of my favorite Klipsch speakers. It has the big Heritage sound, and a very smooth overall frequency response.

As for room size, as you can see we all get a bit of different results based on our listening styles and our amp / preamp preferences. In my case, For reference, I am a big McIntosh fan and use a lower wattage, very low dampening factor amps. With my equipment, I have found the Forte to have a smoother responce curve and image beautifully in smaller rooms.

I can see why Bob C prefers the Heresy. PWK purposely built the Heresy box undersized to have the woofer keep up with the midrage. The trasition between the K700 and woofer is seamless. That, and its small size, are the reasons I use Heresys for my sides and rears in my Heritage HT. Bob must listen to music with a lot more midrange, and does not dwell with many bottom feeding low frequency notes, that is Heresys main weekness as we all know.

As for Strabo's results of being boomy, I wonder if he has his fortes on the 12' wall, making the length twice as deep as the width. That would make for a very boomey bass sounding room.

JM