Cal Blacksmith Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Well yet again, I am impressed with how low the Fortes can dig! The amp on my sub started acting up last night when I was playing my Hell Freezes Over DVD so I turned the sub off, re-set the front speakers to Large and sent all the LFE to the front speakers, I gotta say that the sub was hardly missed at all! Yes, there is more of the chest thumping with the sub but you could still feel it with the Forte only, not as hard as with the sub but you still could feel it! I switched to a movie (Cat Woman) and I hardly missed the sub but I did kind of fear for the Fortes with some of the effects though the drivers were nowhere near bottoming out. The sub is under warrantee and will be fixed but in the mean time do you think I could damage the Fortes running them hard (about 90 db + peaks) with the LFE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Not a chance! I ran my Forte's for 12 years with a 300W per channel amplifier, Cerwin Vega D-8's and Polk Audio RTA-12C's couldn't take it. The most I ever did was blow a pair of tweeter diaphrams and that was probably due to my DBX 3BX-III Dynamic Range Expander. 90db+ is child's play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olorin Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Cal, we use our Fortes in the living room. They run music, TV, and movies from DVD and VHS. I've engaged the volume knob first and my brain second a few times, and I have yet to hurt them.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted July 21, 2005 Author Share Posted July 21, 2005 It is mainly the LFE I am concerned about. I have had them cranked to 110 db in 2 ch but the power in LFE shakes the walls! They are truly an under-rated AWESOME speaker! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feersum dreadnot Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Fortes have been moving pictures around on my walls since 1986. Had them in a 2-ch rig with the Adcom GFA-1A @ 200 w/ch amp - and still remember the time (living in base housing, over xmas break with everyone else on leave) when I did "Houses of the Holy" with both amp LEDs flashing (indicating peaks ~ 200 watts)- clean, powerful, amazing sound Maybe I'm screwing up on HT though. I've got my RXV-995 set to "large" for all 4 Fortes and my Academy, and have set the subwoofer setting to "sub+mains" seems to rock my house - I can't see setting Fortes as "small" but maybe I should set the sub to output to the SVS only? suggestions welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 I've answered this in the General forum (tricky dual-posting, Cal)... I would hesitate to drive my Fortes with near-reference level action-adventure type DVD material, but full-range music or more laid-back DVDs, no problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olorin Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Will your yammie let you explicitly set crossover points, or is large/small all you get? FWIW my setup is really close to yours -- Chorus II/Academy/Quartet -- but I run the Academy "small." I find I get better intelligibility and less fear of hurting those two little 8s that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feersum dreadnot Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 nope, just "large" or "small" - but I'll give the "small" setting a try tonight. funny, since getting the academy and the fortes for L+R rears, my wife and daughter are watching movies every day, and most nights. Wife actually let me crank up "The Fifth Element" the other night - and grapped the remote to turn the singing by the "diva" up louder. All she used to do was say "does it need to be that loud?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted July 21, 2005 Author Share Posted July 21, 2005 Sorry about the double post, but some in either of these fourms never get to the other. My feeling was that those into HT would have a different take on things than someone who was not into Ht. Yes, I can set the Xover point on the output to the sub. I have the Fortes running wide open freq wise right now, I could set the xover to 40,60,80,90,100,110,120,160 and 200 hz. Normaly I have it set to 80 and let the sub take the rest but with the sub out of action, I just let it all go to the Fortes. As I said, I have run MUSIC through them many times at 110 db but in the HT setup, I have the volume set to 90 db at the seating position, which is about 14 feet back. I am concered about the LFE power at that volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 21, 2005 Moderators Share Posted July 21, 2005 I asked the same question a while back and still not sure. I have the forte ll and my reciever only has a crosover at 100, the lfe is set to both mains and sub but i haven,t played a movie with low bass yet. With music with multi ch recordings< dvd >sounds better than just set to sub only so movies should also sound better. But like you what if a movie has lfe well below what the forte can handle what will happen, i don,t want to find out the hard way. Will very low bass or lfe well below what a speaker can handle do, will it just not try to reproduce it or will it bottom out the driver and or hurt it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 21, 2005 Moderators Share Posted July 21, 2005 Sorry forgot to add i also very much like the forte, i don,t feel like i miss ANYTHING with movies or music, can,t wait to have them all match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popbumper Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 You guys have NOT heard what the Forte will do until you have heard it with rebuilt crossovers. I put K-stacks in mine and these things ROCK - I mean, it was HARD to believe that you could improve the Forte (like the Academy) but you CAN. Want BETTER bass than before? I kid you not. Want crisper highs? Want orchestral strings to sing? It's amazing stuff...write me if you want to talk about upgrades. It is WELL worth the cost and elevates a very good speaker to a GREAT one... Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Go for it. I run my LFE through my sub and Cornwalls ALL THE TIME. They LOVE it! I think it really help hearing the LFE program all across the front instead of the 'box in the corner' (which is right by my center in my case). At your volume level, you'll be fine for now. Just watch the bottoming. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 He's not kidding either, the difference with the K-Stack in the Academy brought it to the level of my La Scala! If you think the Forte' is something out of the box you have no idea what it is really capable of. Feersum/Cal save your money and do your Forte's and Academy (if you have one) and be prepared to be floored. You could spend $3K - $5K on gear and source changes and not yield the same gains. It is really remarkable. I know, I know it just never ends! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted July 21, 2005 Author Share Posted July 21, 2005 LOL, Ok, NOW WHAT IS THIS GOING TO COST ME???? The blend across the front with the two Forte 1s and a Heresy 1 as a center is VERY nice, just a wall of sound. Better bass and sweeter highs............ my wife is gonna kill me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerohm Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 ---------------- On 7/21/2005 8:05:06 AM Cal Blacksmith wrote: ... do you think I could damage the Fortes running them hard (about 90 db + peaks) with the LFE? ---------------- Fortes should be okay, but Forte IIs with the vented woofer (K-25-K)can rattle the glue off that little screen. I have seen (heard?) this happen more than once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.