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Why heritage over RF?


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People get their ears dialed in to a particular sound, and significant shifts in sonic signature are hard to adjust too.

I'd take RF-7s over anything except maybe the LaScala or the Klipschorn -- and depending on gear and music -- the RF-7 would give either a good run.

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On 7/15/2004 12:54:34 PM Fish wrote:

So,what am I? chopped liver
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Its not a matter of all you guys,just lots of guys/gals.The 7's with a few hundred good clean watts makes for a very good speaker.Sure they run with a few watts but power really makes em'shine.Add the rsw15 adjusted properly and they wow anyone thats ever heard mine.If I ever left 7's it would only be for Khorns.

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I am with Fish here on this one. Yes, the Heritage is certainly nice, but the Reference is no slouch either, especially the higher end of the line (RF-35 and up). These RF-7s can and will hang with the Heritage, execpt maybe the K-horns. I'll admit that is truly the ultimate when it comes to the Klipsch speakers, but they won't do you one damn bit of good if you have no place to put them. If I had not already had my RF-7s, then yes, I would certainly be scoping out for a pair of Cornwalls. The only way I'll trade up is to go K-horn, otherwise, I am sticking with what I currently got!

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On 7/16/2004 12:22:26 AM Seadog wrote:

When did Forte and KLF speakers get promoted to Heritage classification? I always thought Heritage were the K-horn, Heresy, Cornwall, LaScala and Belle.

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yes there were more heritage then just those. during the 80's and 90's it included the chorus (I & II), forte (I & II), and one i don't hear about much the quartet. and you forgot about the covenented (spelling?) cornwalls (I & II) that ran from the late 50's to the 90's. the academy center channel. and some speakers i never heard of before rebel, rebel 4, rebel 7 manufactured from 49 to 73 between the three. and some other speakers i never heard of the shorthorn 12 and 15 manufactured during 50's and 60's. it is all under the classic products tab under heritage. 9.gif10.gif if you just look it up. 9.gif3.gif

klf's are not promoted as heritage series. they are promoted as the legend series. look it up under classic products, classic classics, page 3. 9.gif9.gif

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On 7/15/2004 8:05:42 AM Strabo wrote:

Personally, I prefer the midrange clarity of the Forte over the KLF's. A friend of mine experimented with his KLF-20's by stacking Heresy II on top of them and was amazed at the added midrange clarity. I thought the added Heresy made the KLF sound more like the Forte.

Back to your original question, people rate the Heritage line better based on bang for the buck. $700 used Forte's versus $2,000 RF-7's? Or, $700 used Forte vs $1,200 used RF-7's? I'll take the Forte's in either case.

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personally i like my klf-20's better then my heresy II's with most music i listen to (hard rock). but with more vocal music i like the heresy II's. I have to agree about the midrange of the heresy II's being more forth coming and smooth then the KLF-20's, but the heresy II's are greatly lacking in something the klf-20 have an abundance of, and that is bass. I did the same thing stacked the heresy II's on top of my klf-20's. don't have enough of the same kind of speaker wire to A/B them. but i did unpluged the speaker wire (banana connectors) while playing and switched to compare. i'll stick with the klf-20's as my mains and the heresy II's as surrounds. 16.gif

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On 7/15/2004 8:45:21 AM artto wrote:

I don't think there is a single person in this world who would characterize my system as "bright and harsh", or that is produces a "coloration that is very similar to the sound produced at live (amplified) performances". The sound is simply "there". The system (which in my case includes "the room"), simply reproduces what is given to it. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra sounds like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (unamplified).

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First - I value artto's opinion with the best on this forum, so take my comments as a disagreement only. I absolutely agree with the comments on equipment and see some of the points regarding room acoustics (althought I am not so sure that PWK was explicitly building for a specific common room).

Clarification - I should have said on the orchestra bit that I am referring to the clasical listening to a concert - in a building and a stage setting that is 'designed' to amplify the sound.

Now as to coloring of the sound - the older heritage (I haven't spent as much time listening to the newer or looking at frequency response graphs) definitely do not approach a flat frequency response that is touted so loudly by many gear heads. There are consistent tendencies for spikes (and often reciprocal dips) in these three ways. I do not hear these spikes - I hear something akin to the live performance I heard. Only a select other group of speakers give me the same sound. Last week we went to a Jewel concert and got one of the instant live CD's after. The CD played with Heritage had a definite 'being there' feel. Played on my friend's Dynacos the next day - Ok, but not with the same live feel. Yes - electronics may play a big part in this, but this difference is something that has been consistent to my ear for decades. BTW - Jewel, a guitar and a microphone is one helluva show.

As to bright and harsh - I am right there with you artto - I can't imagine anyone being able to characterize my set up as harsh and bright. But is has happened a couple of times over the years - there is no good way to forcast an individual perception. Usually the opposite is true - folks that have a tendency to berate horns in general have walked away from listening with a changed opinion.

Now - back to regularly scheduled programming...

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On 7/15/2004 8:16:37 PM neo33 wrote:

The RF-7s are "bright" as hell.
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You must like it cool. I own Heresies and have heard Khorns and RF7s, and the Heritage are decidedly more assertive than the RFs.

Maybe you meant "sparkly." 2.gif

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Let's try it this way: My wife characterizes my K-horns as "brash", and the RF-7s (which she greatly preferred) as "clear". After I finish upgrading my AK-4s, I'll plop her down in the chair again and see what she says.

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I used to have a pair of Forte-IIs, which I traded for a pair of Chorus-IIs. I also have RF-7s. I like both for different reasons. I will assume that we're talking stock crossovers in both cases.

I find the RF-7 has a cleaner top end and images a little better. For instruments such as violin (I listen mostly to classical music) the RF-7 sounds closer to live. I also like pipe organ and full orchestra through the RF-7s because the clean high end keeps instruments distinct. I find the dynamic response of the Forte-II to be more uniform over the entire audio spectrum that it reproduces. When the music gets loud, all of it gets loud. Same for soft. The Forte is better for piano, because I find the dynamic response of the RF-7 to be a bit soft in the lower midrange where a piano has a lot of power. The Forte is also good for full orchestra because of the dynamic consistency .. so there's a tradeoff there with the RF-7.

Both speakers have weaknesses. I find the RF-7 has a coloration that I think goes with the dynamic weakness in the lower mid. The Forte midrange can take over a bit. But these weakness are not a big deal .. both speakers are excellent, especially when driven by a very good amp that has low distortion at low power.

Leo

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"I find the dynamic response of the Forte-II to be more uniform over the entire audio spectrum that it reproduces. When the music gets loud, all of it gets loud. Same for soft. The Forte is better for piano, because I find the dynamic response of the RF-7 to be a bit soft in the lower midrange where a piano has a lot of power. The Forte is also good for full orchestra because of the dynamic consistency"

Very accurate description, Leo. I found the same to be true with my Forte Is.

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I am aware of what the current Klipsch product pages say, I have read through them many times. I did not mention the Rebel or Shorthorn because these are generally not readily available for putting a system together (although certainly they are PWK Heritage). Not that I really care what Klipsch calls "Heritage", but it is good when everyone is on the same page. I would not want to mix the "old" Heritage with the "extended" Heritage in an HT set up.

OT, but here is an interesting question; if the Forte is Heritage, why not the KG4 which is from the same era? 6.gif

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On 7/16/2004 3:13:32 AM dantfmly wrote:

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On 7/16/2004 12:22:26 AM Seadog wrote:

When did Forte and KLF speakers get promoted to Heritage classification? I always thought Heritage were the K-horn, Heresy, Cornwall, LaScala and Belle.

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yes there were more heritage then just those. during the 80's and 90's it included the chorus (I & II), forte (I & II), and one i don't hear about much the quartet. and you forgot about the covenented (spelling?) cornwalls (I & II) that ran from the late 50's to the 90's. the academy center channel. and some speakers i never heard of before rebel, rebel 4, rebel 7 manufactured from 49 to 73 between the three. and some other speakers i never heard of the shorthorn 12 and 15 manufactured during 50's and 60's. it is all under the classic products tab under heritage.
9.gif10.gif
if you just look it up.
9.gif3.gif

klf's are not promoted as heritage series. they are promoted as the legend series. look it up under classic products, classic classics, page 3.
9.gif9.gif

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The Chorus I&II, Forte I&II, Quartet, and Academy aren't Heritage speakers, someone may want to think that they are but....

PWK had some input into the design of these models but not to the extent that he did on the Heritage Line.

This always seems to pop up, that the above mentioned speakers are Heritage or Extended Heritage, I believe HDBR settled this some time back.

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"The Chorus I&II, Forte I&II, Quartet, and Academy aren't Heritage speakers, someone may want to think that they are but...."

Then why are they being listed as "Classic Heritage" on the Klipsch product page? Perhaps some clarification from Trey?

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You all know sooo much more about the history and the various models of Klipsch, I a hesitant to post this.

In the spirit of generation I am 36 and a HT enhtusiast who fell in love with the Klipsch referance 7 systems the minute I heard it. I do own a sub so I fit both stereo types. I have never listned to anything that anyone would consider a heritage speaker unless someone wanted to call the rf's heratige. My point is, I have been around music and movies for the past 18 or 20 years, I sold Cerwin Vega, Boston, Scott, Advent, Sony ES and a few other brands. Parasound and Adcom were our high end electronics. The day we demoed the Klipsch I had every intention of shopping various speakers and while we did compare Boston and Moniter Audio, I knew the Klipsch was what I was going to be listening to for a very long time. Oddly, it was because of the music demo I had rather than the movie demo we used. Again, mabe it's age, lack of knowledge of the other Klipsch product or the fact that they blew away the competition, but the RF-7's were right for me. I do appreciate the point that everyone has made, that it is all subjective.

One day I hope to enjoy the calssics like the K-horn, Lascalas and Belle, but it is what it is.

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